"We will be bound, god to queen. We will be bound, divine to mortal. I will hold your order, each in their place. You will protect my domain, keeping it free and wild. I give you sovereignty of the lands under the Bawn of the Queen. My power is yours, you shall be blessed and uplifted. By pact and bond and covenant and hand, we wil stand together.
"Will you take my hand?"
The Pact Royal is the sovereign pact which binds the
Rightful Queen of
Moray to
The Antlered King, and so creates the sovereignty of the Queendom. It is sealed by each Queen at her coronation at the Crown Heart, the great oak at the heart of the King's sacred grove, and governed by the Covenant of Moray, a sort of divine constitution which lays out in greater detail the terms which govern the
Queen's Peace and the
Bawn of the Queen.
The Covenant of Moray
Also known within the Queendom as the Covenant of the Pact, this document, written into the bark of the Crown Heart, governs the terms of the Pact. Among its provisions are:
- The Sovereignty of Moray - This clause binds the King to the sovereignty of Moray, the ancient arrangement by which a god grants the right of rule to their mortal consort, and by which the land is bound to the worship of the god.
- Ubiquity and Monopoly - This clause enforces worship of the King, and forbids the state approved worship of any other god whose domains intersect with his, as well as the proliferation of 'divers churches, in numbers which would dilute the sincerity of true worship.' It is quoted to support the restriction to six additional cults, although a specific number is not mentioned, and the suppression of the Fallen and Forbidden.
- Regnal Divinity - The Rightful Queen is invested with divinity. The degree of divinity is small, but while they hold the throne and the crown and the pact, the Queen is a minor lunar deity and can draw divine power from worship. She is usually worshipped alongside her consort. Despite their divinity, the royal line average the same life expectancy as any half-elf, although they tend to be resistant to illness, and some have presented as aasimar.
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