O-gon-cho wrote:
OK, I definitely missed something here. There's an oath that can be said to gain power?
He referred to the time when Simjen met the AllFather in the mists beyond Eiran, and the AllFather offered to fulfill a wish from the whole Pantheon, as long as no god was opposed to it; the Pantheon, in turn, agreed to wish for a temporary increase in power under the condition that no god would use this additional power to harm any other god, his/her lands, and his/her followers and interests.
As for the Law - Menolly is right that - as you all know - there are rules and limitations in place for things you can and cannot do, and it has been so since the beginning; my PM box is proof of that

Nevertheless, Hedra Iren's ascension has given those laws a "face" and a "voice" in the Pantheon. Truth be told, I could remove the domain of Law from the game, but then I would have to remove the opposite domain of Chaos, or things would be definitely unbalanced. However, I do feel that the law about attacking others is relatively fair: if nothing else, it ensures (or should ensure) that a god deciding to attack another knows he might face consequences for doing so. In other words, it ensures a kind of balance in the situation - otherwise, things could get out of hand. For instance, in a situation where the "evil" gods are much less than the "good" gods, it would otherwise be tempting for the "good" gods to mount an attack on the evil ones in order to wipe them out and ensure safety to their people, under the leadership of a god of justice or a benevolent god of war. While I agree that it is not the kind of law deities would give themselves, I believe it is important to ensure game balance; otherwise, if most of the deities are good, evil deities can be wiped out easily and quickly enough, and new players will never make up new evil deities, for fear of being squished as soon as newbie immunity wears off. For example, if a god of poisons and disease came into being and began discussing his view for a better world, and there were no laws preventing an attack, wouldn't gods such as Maeror or Adomorn ensure that as soon as his newbie immunity wears off, he'd be wiped away from the map? They'd certainly have the power now. And if Nor were alone, or even just with Melirelle, and no law stayed the hand of Adomorn and the others, wouldn't almost all the gods willingly give their power to Adomorn in order to destroy Nor? Lore might not object, but other players in the same situation could complain that "ganging up" would simply make it impossible to play a fine "evil" god.
Keep in mind, too, that not all evil gods are unconstrained by law; there might be evil gods who have a lawful mindset, and who might try to twist the laws to their advantage, but wouldn't break them. At the same time, there are good gods who couldn't care less about law, even if they broke it. And the fact that the law is endorsed by other gods means that if you break it, and no other god wants to go against you in retaliation, that's fine; Adomorn is, however, a more extreme example because Justice is based upon Law, and he would go against his nature if he acted against Law. But other gods have realized, for example, that there are other ways to harm a foe than to send their armies against him, circumventing the Law. It isn't nearly the obstacle you believe it to be.
The other possibility would be for players to restrain themselves so as not to crush one side utterly: but this would go against the roleplaying aspect itself.