Commandment

A is a "cursed" Magical Power created by the Demon King over 3,000 years ago, and bestowed upon ten different elite warriors of the Demons. There are ten in total and each has a unique curse of absolute power bestowed upon anyone who breaks its rule, even upon the holder himself/herself.

After becoming the new Demon King of his own volition and sacrificing his godly power, Meliodas has destroyed all of the Commandments.

Overview
The Commandments are a set of ten decrees that were created by the Demon King when he took half of his power and split that into ten fragments to create the Ten Commandments, who derive their group name from their powers.

Each Commandment has a specific rule that, if broken, will place a specific curse on the victim(s) depending on what the Commandment itself is centered around. The power of the Commandments is absolute and affects anyone who breaks its rule, even the wielder itself. However, anyone who has a Commandment is immune to all others except their own, as a way of ensuring the wielder's loyalty to the Demon King. Those who were given a Grace or a divine blessing by the Supreme Deity are also immune to the Commandments’ effects as well.

The curse can only be broken if the victim defeats the wielder of that decree or at their own death. The Commandments can be removed from their wielder using a special spell, but only if they give their consent, otherwise they must be left powerless or simply dead where the Commandment can simply be removed from the wielder's corpse.

Absorbing a Commandment turns any member of another race into a demon, but should a goddess absorb a Commandment, it will rot away at their soul due to their nature oppossing that of the Demons. Mael, the only goddess to receive a Commandment, was bestowed one after his memories were altered by Gowther and his doll so it’s unknown if the same effect applies if he had his real memories intact.

Moreover, if anyone, demon or not, tries to take in more than one Commandment, it would destroy them. Monspeet himself said only the sons of the Demon King, Meliodas and Zeldris, could survive such a feat, but it is revealed that Mael, as Estarossa, is capable of doing so too, but at the cost of warping his broken soul even more and in the end losing his sanity and failed to fully take in four of them, meaning Meliodas and Zeldris, as the only true sons of the Demon King, are the only two beings who can successfully take in all ten of the Commandments and not die.

After Gowther’s memory spell wore off and Mael regained his memories, his body holding three Commandments took on a mixed appearance of a goddess and a demon where his left half is that of a demon and the right is that of a goddess. In this form, he’s able to use both his holy and demonic powers and even combine them together. After absorbing a fouth, Mael was able to materialize the Commandments in physical forms and use them for various means of attacking Gowther and the others.

When Gowther entered into Mael's mind it is revealed that the Commandments themselves have a certain degree of sentience, as they attempted to manipulate Mael into handing over his body to them and also attempted to banish Gowther from Mael's mind to prevent him from interferring. However despite their sentience and power, Gowther has stated that they cannot make use of their immense power on their own without a host to use it for them.

Meliodas states that by absorbing all ten of the Commandments, he can reach a level of power equal to that of the Demon King and Supreme Deity, as he is doing so to end the curse placed on Elizabeth Liones. However, it is later revealed that absorbing all the Commandments really means becoming the new vessel of the Demon King, this being the true reason why he created them.

After absorbing all the Commandments, the vessel can undergo changes, as Meliodas and Zeldris' appearance physically ages into an adult.

The Demon King stated that the Commandments can feed directly to him information of the holders, to keep an eye on them, as to prevent any rebellion attempt against the Demon King.

After the Demon King was defeated by the Sins, Meliodas went into his Demon King form and destroyed the Commandments to ensure that his father will never resurrect again, at the cost of giving up his god-like power.

The Ten Decrees

 * NOTE: Bold denotes original possessing member in the current Ten Commandments formation, if different from the previous known holder.

Other possessors
The Commandments have also been held on by several previous predecessors, but they have been relinquished of the Commandments.
 * Chimera Indura (unknown; turned into Indura)

Techniques

 * Mael takes the Love Commandment and uses it to create an incredibly destructive explosion. The effects of the Commandment turns any pain and suffering in the opponents into pleasure, lending them to grow sleepy and finally die.
 * Mael takes the Truth Commandment and uses it to create a bell capable of dispersing any illusion.
 * Mael takes the Reticence Commandment and uses it to craft a scythe that brands anyone hit with the cursed seal of the Commandment, sealing their magic.
 * Mael takes the Purity Commandment and uses it to create a big incense, the smoke of which causes people to be immobilised by a great pressure and suffer hallucinations of what their hearts truly desires.

Spells
Several spells have been used in relation to the Commandments, mainly in form of manipulating the possession of the Commandments.

Removing Commandments
A spell used to remove the decree from the possessors or their corpses. In case the possessor is alive, that one must either be rendered unable to fight, be unloyal to the Demon King, or willingly desire to surrender the decree, for this spell to be effective. After the decrees are removed this way, they are not automatically absorbed by the remover, instead being simply held by them.

Absorbing held Commandments
A spell used to absorb held commandments.

Trivia

 * Each Commandment is directly inspired by one of the 10 Commandments of the Bible :
 * "You shall have no other gods before Me" corresponds to the Commandments of Piety
 * "You shall not make idols" corresponds to the Commandments of Faith
 * "You shall not take the name of God in vain" corresponds to the Commandments of Reticence
 * "You shall remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" corresponds to the Commandments of Repose.
 * "You shall honor your father and your mother" corresponds to the Commandments of Love
 * "You shall not murder" corresponds to the Commandments of Pacifism.
 * "You shall not commit adultery" corresponds to the Commandments of Purity.
 * "You shall not steal" corresponds to the Commandments of Patience.
 * "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" corresponds to the Commandments of Truth.
 * "You shall not covet" corresponds to the Commandments of Selflessness.
 * Merlin is the only person confirmed to have resistance from all the Commandments effects - leading her to break free on her own after some time.
 * Escanor and Arthur are the only two people shown to have an outright immunity to the Love and Piety Commandment effects respectively. Arthur's immunity is implied to have been due to his inherent status as "King of Kings" and the true potential host of Chaos. Escanor's immunity is due to his morning persona mentality of feeling, not hate but, pity to anyone who he views as beneath himself.