All the more reason to keep them under the guidance of accords as opposed to being free agents.
I think we differ in how much the Accords actually mean on a day to day.
Look at the examples of what signatories have done:
- tried to use the Shroud of Turin to create a huge plague
- targeted a wizard's girlfriend to be turned to score a point on the wizards.
- one side tried to encourage more True Love in the world to screw with the Court.
- Killed a member of a rival nation while she was n the hospital after having a baby (i.e. Harry's mother);
- Cursed the head of one faction in a way that will forever weaken (i.e. Harry's mother's death curse).
- walking into Marcone's office - breaking doors and hurting people along the way - to demand the return of his lost property.
- targeted another signatory for major thief (bank accounts and security code).
- One Freehold lord has set up a wizard killing trap and occasionally asks himself "Is now the time to kill Harry - or do I keep waiting for him to choose the time of our fight?".
Speaking of Freeholders - did anyone notice Harry treating Marcone any differently since White Night? Because I haven't seen any extra respect flowing that way.
Really, I think it comes down to story telling. Would it be better for your story to have a vampire that is so nasty that he ignore the Accords at will? Or is it better to have the ramifications of having the PC's try to bring the blampire up on Accord violations?
Bring them where? The Accords are a bit like international law. If one faction ignores the rules they open themselves up to sanctions but in the default setting no "accords police" showed up when Harry broke them.
If people want to expand the setting to have Accord police and Accord peacekeepers - that's great. If that's what you're interested in then would strongly recommend that you look into the Day Watch series of books.
(spoilers for that series - mostly for Book 3)
With every sort of supernatural being either a Dark One or a Light One - and anyone shifting between those two extremes is the stuff of legends - there exists a group called the Inquisitors. They are made up of beings who have decided that a war between the Light and Dark is global suicide so work to keep the two sides balanced. It's basically a cold war among the supernaturals - as long as both sides are balanced neither will start the war anymore that NATO and Warsaw went to war.
Under this system Vampires, werewolves, and other things that feed on humans are involved in a lottery system that picks their victims - and if they want to kill they have to save up points for it. In one of the books the local Light One Wizards had more magic on their side - so a Dark One Witch revealed that she had been saving up long enough to have the points to sacrifice a child for power. The Light Ones couldn't legally stop her from doing that so walked away from the fight - ending the battle being the only way they could prevent the child from dying.
It's an interesting series and the tit for tat "you cursed someone so I get to heal someone" system that works both ways ("You healed someone so I get to curse someone") makes it stand out in the field.
Richard
