Here's an interesting topic that should provoke some good discussion -

What rules and regulations did you think the Death eaters have in their gang?

OOooh! I really like this discussion topic!

Perhaps they would have a rule about their Dark Mark tattoos? They must wear long enough sleeves to cover the mark at all times and cannot reveal their tattoo to anyone who is not a Death Eater, except under specific situations as a fear tactic when they plan on killing the person who they show it to anyway? LoL!

I like that about the covering of the tattoos and then showing it at the end to the person they are about to kill, it sounds good! I wonder if they had a rule where you couldn't blatantly announce that you were a member of the DEs, as well. After all, for most of the time, it was forbidden to show support to Voldemort, so they may have had to undergo some kind of pledge to keep the whole DE thing a secret.

Anyone think they had any rules of conduct, ethics, anything like that? I'm trying to give that some thought right now.

Ha, this is a good topic. And I definitely like the idea about tattoos.

I wonder, though, if the Death Eaters had an actual spoken/written code of conduct or if they just kind of followed Voldemort's lead as far as being secretive and sly. It definitely seems like they had no ethics or code of conduct - if their only goal is to accomplish whatever task Voldie had them do, then it seems to me like the Death Eaters would resort to any tactic to achieve that goal. If any of them did have a moral code, it would be a personal thing, like whether or not to torture children for information, etc.

As far as rules and regulations go, there's definitely a sort of a class system amongst the death eaters. Lucius, Severus, and Bellatrix are at the top of the pyramid, I think, with less important/trustworthy characters like Wormtail, Crabbe, and the Carrows at the bottom. And perhaps the other Death Eaters follow-the-leader and take get a warped code of conduct from them. Something like that.

I think were a lot of unspoken or unwritten rules. First and foremost secrecy. The secrecy is what kepy people scared of Voldemort. They didn't know what he was truly capable or what he was planning, he kept things close to himself and so his DEs took their cues from him and kept their mouths shut. And then Voldie was not one to suffer fools or strike a bargain with one. So you don't announce who you work for and no showing the Dark Mark. If some of them had declared their loyalties with Voldie they wouldn't have been able to influtrate the Ministry like they did before Voldie came out in the open. So zip your lips.

Then I think there was a hierarchy within the the ranks. I think this may have been according to their families community standing. The Blacks, the LeStrangs and the Malfoys were very old and powerful families amoung the wizards and Voldie was able to use their money and influence to his own designs.

Good topic and lots of good points brought up so far!

As for the keeping the Dark Mark hidden rule, I'm not so sure that I buy this rule as one for reasons that I will get into shortly. At the same time as I address the hierarchy of death eaters, similar to what Roro brought up.

A year or so ago, I was talking about Harry Potter and the Death Eaters and stuff with a friend (in RL - shocking, right?). So she brought up how Death Eaters equate to the Nazis and stuff, which is an interesting parallel but kind of true when you think about. You have one leader, Voldemort or Adolf Hitler, choose your poison... who has a mission to kill a set group of people, rid the world of them. Each has their followers; a small group of people who believed in said leader and followed their every word, like it was the Bible.

That brings me to their marks; swastikas for Nazis or Dark Marks for death eaters... The Nazis wore their mark on their arm, visible for everyone to see. They did not hide it; some might even have had moral and ethical concerns that were violated, but did Hitler's bidding anyway. Don't you think that Death Eaters might also have been the same way? Sure there were personal feelings, but as evidenced by Pettigrew, they put them aside because the fear of failure and death was worse. Isn't that why Regulus also died? And Karkaroff? For reverting to their personal morals and ethics?

I think the hierachy thing really applies. You can treat those under you however you like, but be respectful (and suck up) to the people above you.
Your probably not allowed to do anything fatal or londlasting to another death eater though, unless you have a really good reason. That wouldn't be because it's a rule, it'd just be because you'd earn the Dark Lords disaproval, and that wouldn't be good.

I hope this discussion re-opens, I like it.