Rules of War

1. Jus ad bellum.
a. The conflict in question must have a justifiable reason behind it including but not limited to:

• Self defense of a territory that can be recognizable by other members of the lords alliance and is equitable in retaliation to the instigating act.
  
• Humanitarian intervention in a territory where the local power is abusing their people in a cruel and unusual way. This includes but is not limited to mutilation of large portions of the populace, conversion of the population into a cursed being such as undead or lycanthrope, mass humanoid sacrifice to a dark or otherworldly power, unfair tax codes for the nobles of the land.
  
• Intervening in a civil conflict, on the condition that it instills the rightful leader of the domain as by blood, deed or Divine right.
  
• Protection of lands from a dark or otherworldly power including but not limited to: a fiend of great power, a mad lich or other greater spellcaster that threatens the weave, a infection of doppelgangers, a mind flayer colony, or a greater vampire.
  
• Divine Right to a land as given by a faerunian deity; this shall open the divinely granted up to possible warfare from chosen of other gods as well in which case it is considered a Holy war.
  

2. Jus in bello

a. The conflict in question must be humane in actions and reason while not infringing on the rights of the mortal or the divine. Such rules include but are not limited to:

• Do not commit indiscriminate attacks against civilians of the human, dwarvish, elven, dragonborn, gnomish or halfling races.
  
• The use of long term magical destructions is strictly forbidden such as necrotizing the land or destabilizing the weave.
  
• Curse warfare is strictly forbidden. No domain may unleash any magical plagues, vampirism, lycanthropy, oozes on any land or face swift and immediate destruction by the Lords Alliance.
  
• Prisoners of war must be given food and water on a regular time schedule and treated with some humanoid rights. For more information on this see article 3.
  
• Certain civilians can be found in war and must not be harmed by any party as long as they cause no physical harm to others or property that would disturb the war effort. These individuals include but are not limited to: priests of ilmatar, priests of Eldath, priests of kelemvor, chroniclers of history such as bards or skalds of candlekeep. These civilians must be properly identified by either a holy symbol of said god or a book shaped badge of neutrality.
  
• Magic in warfare must be used to kill or incapacitate and preferably have no long lasting crippling or psychological damage. Spells that permanently remove ones senses or wits may never be used in warfare or face the swift and immediate destruction by the Lords alliance.
  
• Do not attack or order an attack on a surrendering force. The surrendering faction must first enact a lords alliance form of surrender such as waving a white flag, raising their hands behind their heads, or surrendering their blade to a member of the opposing force.
  
• Article 2. Section 7 does not apply to individuals who have used the mark of surrender for a surprise attack before.
  
• Respect the temples and domains of the Gods of Faerun. This does not apply to false gods such as the abyssal beasts of the yuan-ti or the drow of the underdark.
  

3. Jus in Captivus

a. The outlines of rights of prisoners of honorable warfare.

• Prisoners of war may be bound to service unless too ill to comply with the exact task. An example of this would be a crippled prisoner may not be forced to try and carry something long distances without the use of their legs but they may be made to sort materials or break stone with their arms.
  
• Prisoners of war must be fed regularly so that they do not suffer long term damage of starvation. This may only be forgiven in the unforeseen instance of a widespread lack of food for the officers of the encampment and only then after a meeting of a third party investigative committee of the lords alliance.
  
• Prisoners of war may not be enthralled by magic that may be dangerous to their long term longevity, mind, or senses.
  
• Capturing forces may not use magical or alchemical coercion techniques on any prisoners of war to extract information to aid in their war effort. Other advanced interrogation techniques such as torture are allowed as long as they do not cause long term physical or mental damage to the individual.
  
• Using prisoners of war as test subjects for magical experimentation is strictly forbidden and any domain that does such an act will face the swift and immediate destruction by the Lords Alliance.
  

Type

Decree, Religious