First Contract, Tazhqorthir (taʒ.qor.θir)

The First Contract binds its signatories to the protection of the world from further incursion by the Elder Gods.
  It is the focal point of the network of Tithe Binding controlled by the Lords of Fire. This collects the devotions from across the sunside lands as Divine magic stored in foundations and structures of The Gleaming City itself.
  None know how active the Holy Caldera are in their guardianship, nor how many incursions have been prevented over the centuries, but the First Contract's bindings are clear, and the Lords of Fire follow their duty.

The First Contract was not published in any traditional sense of the word - it just IS. It's writing was the construction of the city, and its words are the obsidian blocks, glass windows and crystal latice network that winds throughout the structure. Only the Lords of Fire, the Holy Caldera and most senior officials within the Illuminators and Merchantry of the Torrent know its true nature. for the general populace, it is used as a nameless threat to keep people in line.

The First Contract binds the Holy Caldera and every one of the Lords of Fire. To break the First Contract is the most heinous of crimes, and the one thing that would unite the ever-feuding Lords against any perpetrator so foolish. No Lord has ever broken their tythe to the First Contract, and even a small weakening of devotion gathered by the Lords is seen at best a failure of duty, at worst a treason worthy of death.
  This is why the Caldera and their Illuminators keep close account of the devotion of the populace along the Godswollen River and the deserts of Ardi-Kokufa and why each Lord works so hard in their machinations against each other as they compete for followers.

The Elder Gods and their avatars were banished from the world at the end of the Wars of Emancipation by the Eldarkin and the New Divnity in an event known as The Cosmic Defiance. For many thousands of years, through the ages of the Schism, the Bloodstone Wars and the Age of Excultancy, this banishment held fast.
  The events of the Age of Ascendacy and The Godling Wars saw an erosion of the magics that held the Elder Gods at bay, and The Destruction itself allowed many of the Avatars to escape into the world in the event now known as The Mortugurra Incursion.
  The faitful of the Protectorates beileve it was the sacrifices of the The Cabal that prevented the return of Ghul Drazul. However, among the higher eschelons of The Gleaming City it is known that it is the efforts of the escaped avatars - The Holy Caldera and the Lords of Fire - that keep their former master caged and the world safe from his influence.

The First Contract was bound to very foundations of The Gleaming City when the Lords of Fire first agreed to combine their powers to protect themselves from the greatests of their former masters, The Elder God Ghul Drazul.
  Among the many avatars of Ghul Drazul who managed to escape during the Mortugurran Incursion. The Lords of Fire were the greatest, and survived by bonding with and subjugating the depsarate mortal survivors of the Destruction.
  Some time later, the strongest of the avatatars: Khonto, Golkan, and Kwazith discovered the Rift within The Desolation of Ghul Drazul, and realised the danger this represented. They became what was later known as the Holy Caldera, and proceeded to bring the other Lords of Fire into their control.
  The First Contract, Tazhqorthir, was the formalisation of these alliances, and it's power was fused into the foundations of the The Gleaming City as both symbol and as the magical focus of the Lord's greatest commitment - to keep the rift at the heart of the Desolation closed, and prevent Ghul Drazul from escaping his imprisonment.