Laws and Customs

Consorting with Supernatural Evil
Any magic that is used to enable you to create, summon or control fiends or undead, is generally illegal. The usual justification is that doing so requires "consorting with supernatural evil," a widely-used term that originally appears in The Jasmine Book, the second of the known pre-Imperial law codes that shaped Imperial Law during the First Zerithian Empire.

Charm
In most jurisdictions, subverting a person’s will is illegal, often with penalties as harsh (or harsher!) than those for creating undead or summoning demons. It reflects the deep-rooted fear that many people have about the potential of magic to control a person, bringing into doubt the reasonableness of power and suggesting a need for oversight. (After all, how can we trust a Baron to rule his Barony un-checked if someone could be pulling his strings from the shadows?)

Any spell that causes a person to unknowingly act in a manner other than they would otherwise is illegal almost anywhere. So, Hold Person is not illegal, nor is Zone of Truth, because while they control a person, neither do so without the knowledge of the victim. Calm Emotions and Charm Person are sort of the prototypical “subversion of will” spells, but there are many others.

Divination
Divination spells are often viewed suspiciously by authorities, both because of the criminal potential (“just where is that guard standing on the other side of the door?”) and probably because of the creep-factor. Law makers and judges are no less subject to the fear of being watched when they don’t know that it’s going on.