The Great Pact of Silence

Civil action

By 1308 DR, the Radiant Citadel had solidified itself as a beacon of trade, diplomacy, and shared governance among the fifteen founding civilizations. However, it remained unknown to the wider world—a precarious status that many believed could not last forever. As interplanar trade flourished and expeditions ventured further into the Ethereal Plane, word of the Citadel’s existence inevitably began to leak beyond its borders. The tipping point came when an imperial envoy from Netheril, a rising power in the northern territories of Faerûn, became aware of the Citadel’s presence through a lost trade vessel that had inadvertently crossed into the Ethereal Plane. The realization sent waves of panic through the Speakers for the Ancestors, many of whom feared that discovery by the great empires of the Material Plane could invite conquest or exploitation.

A heated debate ensued among the Speakers, with powerful factions arguing both for and against revealing the Citadel’s existence to their home nations. The Sensa Empire and Siabsungkoh, both deeply embedded in Material Plane trade, pushed for controlled openness, believing that secrecy would only invite curiosity and inevitable exposure. Yeonido and Yongjing, however, adamantly opposed the idea, fearing that even the noblest of intentions would lead to unchecked expansion and corruption of the Citadel’s purpose. Akharin Sangar’s Speaker reminded the council that the Citadel had fallen once before, and history had a way of repeating itself. After weeks of deliberation, the Speakers reached an uneasy consensus—knowledge of the Citadel’s existence was to be suppressed at all costs. Any material power that learned of it was to be dissuaded, redirected, or deceived, while all trade interactions would be kept discreet through select intermediaries.   The decision led to varied responses among the founding civilizations. Some, like the Sensa Empire, took great pains to rewrite historical records and eliminate references to the Citadel’s existence in their archives, while others, such as San Citlán, simply left the matter unspoken, trusting that the city’s natural inaccessibility would keep it hidden. However, secrecy was not perfect, and over time, rumors of the Radiant Citadel began to spread among planar travelers and wandering scholars. Attempts were made by several Material Plane factions to locate the Citadel, but all failed, either due to the sheer impossibility of navigation or, some suspect, subtle manipulations by the Dawn Incarnates themselves. The long-term effects of the Great Silence Pact remain debated, with some believing it protected the Citadel from destruction, while others argue it cut them off from allies who may have secured their future against greater threats.