The Accords

The Accords' Hall

**The Accords** are peace negotiations signed between the Downworlders and the Clave. The Accords act as amendments to the Law agreed to be taken as the law of the land by all of the Shadow World.

The Accords are revised and signed every fifteen years by representatives of the Nephilim and all Downworlder groups, in the Accords Hall in Alicante.

## Description

The Accords is a treaty that ordains how Shadowhunters and Downworlders interact with mundanes and one another, as well as each group's rights, responsibilities, and restrictions, stating that as long as the rules are not broken, they can live in peace without bother and may even provide each other help when the need ever rises. Although the Accords keep the two parties in good enough terms to avoid slaughter between them, hostility is quite unavoidable.

The detailed legal language, rights, punishments, and penalties of Downworlders in criminal trials are also detailed and specified to prevent different interpretations and punishments out of proportion to the crime. Previously part of the Accords, the criminal law section is now treated as a separate document as it is now significantly longer than the rest of the Accords put together. It is framed by a group of representative—ones with legal expertise—different from those who write the rest of the Accords.

Mundanes are neither signers of the Accords nor are they subject to Law. This is said to be one of the most controversial parts of the Law. Every Accords proceeding has featured strident demands from both Shadowhunters and Downworlders that mundanes be held accountable for their behavior. These demands are always declined, for the simple reason that the Nephilim's charge to keep the Shadow World hidden from mundanes must be paramount.

## History

The whole business never had the unanimous support of the Clave. Some reforms were even heavily opposed by some Shadowhunters, mostly by those who stood to lose significant income as a result of the proposed Reforms. Almost every Accords negotiation has drawn protests, objections, internal squabbles from among the Nephilim. Eventually, their interests and common desire to achieve peace aligned the two parties enough to finally agree upon the terms of the Accords.

The first Accords were signed in 1872.

## Terms

The Accords dictates several resolutions and social reforms meant to ease the relationship between Shadowhunters and Downworlders, Idris and the Downworld.

* The Nephilim is recognized as the official law-keeping force of the Downworld, and the Downworlders agreed to abide by Covenant Law. The Angels, through their representative Raziel, are acknowledged as the ultimate authority over the world.
* Downworlders are acknowledged as beings with souls, and thus entitled to the protections due to humans.
* Downworlders are allowed to adopt mundane children.
* Downworlders are granted the right to a court trial when accused of breaking the Law; no longer could Shadowhunters adjudge them guilty of crimes and punish them immediately.
* Spoils were made illegal through the Accords, unless executed as part of an official sentence at a trial performed by the Clave.
* The barbaric use of the Mortal Cup on Downworlders as a form of capital punishment—of inquisitional torture and murder—was made fully illegal during the Second Accords of 1887, over a hundred years after it was eliminated as an official punishment.
* Exposure, the practice of binding vampires outside to be burned alive by the rising sun, was banned in the Third Accords of 1902 after the popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula led to an enthusiasm for hunting and brutally killing innocent, Law-abiding vampires.
* Downworlders' are granted the right to their own internal organizational schemes vampire clans, wolf packs, faerie courts, et cetera—without interference from the Clave.
	+ The Accords made membership in one of these internal organizations a requirement for Downworlders; "unaffiliated" vampires or werewolves were considered rogue and were not afforded the same protections under the Law.
* While subjected to the Law of the Covenant through the Accords, the Downworlders are still meant to police themselves, with Shadowhunters interfering only in cases where problems are too severe, or where issues affect other parts of Downworld or the mundane world. Downworlders still have the right to conduct their internal business privately, without the interference or oversight of the Nephilim.
* Downworlders are obliged to swear never to reveal the nature of the Shadow World to mundanes, unless such a revelation cannot be avoided, just as Nephilim sworn to the Covenant do.
* By the Accords, vampires must abide by the same mundane laws against murder as any other Downworlders, requiring them to turn away from their natures as hunters and predators, just as humans must choose to turn away from our own abilities to kill and harm.
* Warlock persecution was officially made illegal in the First Accords. The Accords guarantees rights of warlocks and legal permission to perform demonic magic, particularly when acting to assist a Nephilim investigation. The laws against Shadowhunter-warlock collaboration and the use of whatever magic was deemed necessary was fully revoked by the Fourth Accords.
* Portalling to Idris without approval is not allowed