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== Literature ==
* In [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''[[Tortall Universe|Tortall]]'' books, breaking an oath signed in blood will result in one's blood boiling in one's veins.
* Used in ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (novel)|Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]]''. When the Goblet says Harry has to compete, well, Harry has to compete. Even though ''he didn't enter himself for consideration as a contestant'', he has to compete, rather than the forger who put his name in the Goblet (although it's explained earlier that they're technically nominating someone, it just so happened no one was expected to nominate someone other than themselves).
** Introduced in ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and Thethe Half-Blood Prince (novel)|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]'' is the "Unbreakable Vow", which kills you if you attempt to break it.
** In the fifth book, Hermione turns the "member's list" of the DA into one. The result being that when {{spoiler|one of the members rats them out, she ends up with the word "SNEAK" written across her face in pimples.}} [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether she [[Disproportionate Retribution|went too far]], although [[Word of God]] states that the effect wore off eventually (J.K. Rowling claims to hate traitors, so she presumably likes this trope).
* In ''The [[The Wheel of Time]]'', any oath taken by a mage while passing her magic through a tool called "the Oath Rod" is magically binding, though it can be removed by the same object. When created in [[Crystal Spires and Togas|the Age of Legends]] the rod was simply called a "binder", and was only used against intractably criminal mages (understandably, given the side effects - also now forgotten) to seal their powers.
** The modern [[The Magocracy|Aes Sedai]] use itone in their [[Initiation Ceremony]] by taking three oaths: to speak [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|no word that is not true]]; to make no magic weapons; and not to kill with magic except against [[The Usual Adversaries|Shadowspawn]], or when she, another Aes Sedai, or her [[Bond Creatures|Warder]] is in danger.
*** The second has been adhered to, but the third is typically circumvented by running directly onto a battlefield to put themselves in danger so they can [[Stuff Blowing Up|start blowing things up]], and as for the first... well, they've gotten so good at working around their "not lying" oath that they have a reputation as [[Literal Genie|literal genies]], able to twist words and use ambiguous phrasing that distorts meaning without technically being falsehood. Thus, an oath meant to ensure that Aes Sedai were always trustworthy has resulted in every sane person in Randland not believing a single word they say. And among themselves, they take pride in their skill with words. They tend to completely miss the point of taking magical oaths not to do this stuff.
* The ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series has the "Binding Oath", which if broken permanently strips you of all supernatural energy. This version of the Magically-Binding Contract is interestingly different in that:
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