Following Common Unification, the Council of Commonlight ratified a legal doctrine known as the Prohibition of Arcanic Proliferation. This law did not criminalize the possession of dangerous magical items outright, as many nobles and old dominion houses had such artifacts in their treasuries; instead, it targeted the movement and weaponization of such power. The commercial sale, transfer, or illicit trade of any magical item was made illegal, and public use of any object capable of destruction or city-scale influence was strictly forbidden.
The law’s intent was to prevent the rise of private warlords, factional arms races, and dynastic retribution in an age where a single Epochal Artifact could overturn nations. However, in practice, such a law was extremely difficult to enforce across the vast Commona republic, and members of the League were made to enforce this law without explicit backing from Emblem.
Organizations like the Starlit Hand emerged as a point of strain within this framework. The Hand was the most open of Somnum’s so-called “secret” societies, with local chapters in nearly every major city. Though nominally criminal, they held a quasi-legal posture across the continent by virtue of wealth and political leverage. Their brokers fenced, sourced, and quietly moved magical objects through their network, quietly acquiring more dangerous items for those able to pay their steep fees. The Prohibition forced them to operate behind layers of mediation, code, and shell intermediaries, and over decades they became one of the natural pressure valves that allowed the law to function at all.