The Faerie Mothers seem to disagree that magic can destroy things and remove them from the universal equation; one of them mentioned Einstein to support this!

This is one of the Laws where even the grey areas are pretty bad. If you summon up a gust of wind to knock someone off a building, and even if it's the fall that killed them, you definitely broke the First Law.

This is also one of the easiest laws to break by accident, and that's why the White Council is vigilant about keeping an eye out for any dangerous magical talents in the making. They may be an elitist, stodgy, Old World artifact of an organization, but in the end, it's often the intervention of the White Council that, say, prevents someone's burgeoning pyrokinetic ability from burning down his house (and his family with it). Accidental or no, such an incident could plant the seeds that could grow into another supernatural threat pointed right at the heart of mankind.

Luckily for the Wardens, this is also one of the easiest Laws when it comes to rooting out its offenders. Bodies are hard to hide, and when magic is involved, murder can be even messier than usual. Even if the mortal authorities don't know what to make of a mangled body, the Council does, and their ear is to the ground whenever an unusual case shows up down at the morgue.

Before the Vampire War hit, it was pretty much a standard practice for the Wardens to come poking around whenever someone died strangely or suddenly in the general vicinity of a spellcaster. These days, with the Wardens stretched thin, that can be a lot rarer.

All the same, it's important to realize here that fighting is not the same as killing. Magic can be used carefully, indirectly, or subtly to affect a fight. So while accidents can happen and do count, intent does matter—at least in the case of carefully making sure you don't kill with magic. It's also important to remember the "with magic" part of the Law. This may seem like splitting hairs—and some people believe that it is—but the First Law doesn't apply if you, say, pull out a gun and shoot someone in the back of the head. There's a reason in the end why the Wardens carry swords. Killing is part of their job description—but as defenders of the Laws, the Wardens must never use magic as the means to that end.

In your game...

The GM and players should have a discussion about how important they want the First Law to be in play. Many role-playing games have a fairly casual attitude towards characters using their special abilities to kill others—but usually that should not be the case in this game. This might be unpalatable for some players, and there's a way to side-step the issue. Since the Laws apply primarily to people, not monsters, First Law issues can be bypassed by focusing on bad-guys who aren't people. Bathe a Black Court vampire in disintegrating flame and you'll get a pat on the back, not a sword to the neck. To come at it another way, if you're playing the sort of game where you don't have any spellcasters, you're also liable to be free and clear of the Laws.

If you're looking to make the First Law a part of your game, you could spend some time playing around in the grey areas here, kicking off a kind of supernatural legal thriller. For example, consider the Knights of the Courts of Faerie. They're mortal, but bound to the Courts; are they people, or has their office taken them out of that particular equation? And what about magical murders committed by them—do the Accords protect them from, at least, the enforcement of the Laws?

Ultimately the GM needs to be careful and conscious about putting life-and-death human adversaries in front of the players. We certainly think a better game is had when this is the case, but that's because we like giving the First Law a strong and palpable presence in the game. A number of players might enjoy this as well, and would welcome compels directed at, say, their Wizard of the White Council aspects to remind them that the First Law is an obstacle to their actions when a life is on the line.

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