The Pact of Nörn

The Pact of Nörn, colloquially known as "the Pact," is what one might call a set of laws, though no other worldwide treaties exist of this sort. There are, of course, many treaties between kingdoms, but very few apply to the whole of Ultor. The Pact is a product of its environment. With the rise of powerful global enclaves, equally powerful laws were needed to control them -- and to draw the legal line.   The Pact was created, as the astute reader may have supposed, in Nörn. The catalyst for its creation was, of course, the creatively named Nörn crisis. I will briefly review the crisis here for my less informed readers:   946 was the year this all happened -- likely before many of you walked this world. Any aspiring druids studying my work must know that the Nurnen yeti is one of the most intriguing types of yeti due to its rapid reproductive capabilities. In the land of Nörn, however, they are considered a pest since they are especially damaging to livestock herds -- often making off with enough food to feed an entire human family. At this time, the Druidic Enclave was at the height of its power, working across the entire world with absolutely no oversight and with no checks on their power. The king of Nörn requested wrote to the Arch-Druid, asking him to send druidic Preservers to the region in order to cull the yeti, seeing as the yeti had recently undergone a population explosion and were completely out of control (the Nurnen army was in winter quarters at this time, and considerable effort would have been needed to mobilize them. Additionally, the druids could undoubtedly do the job better and more cleanly -- and they were likely to stick their nose into the yeti problem anyhow). The Arch-Druid obliged, and sent a relatively small force of Preservers to handle the situation.   From there, the situation began to deteriorate rapidly. The Preservers sent to cull the yetis' numbers soon discovered a unique genetic trait in the Nurnen yeti strain that had allowed these yeti to multiply so quickly. As soon as this was reported to the Arch-Druid, he began pressing the Nurnen to stop killing off the yeti, so that they could be further studied by the enclave. The Nurnen king was furious that the enclave seemed to now be reneging on their oath to cull the yeti, and so he sent his royal guard to push the druids into continuing the slaughter. In response, the Arch-Druid ordered the region to be flooded with Preservers to keep the Nurnen off of the yeti territory, which did nothing to ease tensions. It is unclear who ordered the first attack, but after a few days of tense standoff, the two sides finally clashed, leaving several hundred dead on both sides. The battle occurred at Krakis Gorge -- the main passage between the northern and southern portions of the Kingdom of Nörn -- and home to the largest nest of yeti. The druids were forced to surrender in this battle, and several high ranking members of the Druidic Enclave were held hostage and used to force the Arch-Druid to the negotiating table. The resulting political fallout saw nearly all ranking members of the Druidic Enclave replaced after being forced to sign the Pact of Nörn.   The Pact contains many technicalities and nuances that an old man like myself would not understand -- I've never been one for treatises and the fancy words of the legal world -- but I can summarize the most important parts of the Pact. The Pact states that no enclave may intervene in the affairs of a foreign state without either the consent of the king (or appropriate ruling body), or solid proof of some threat, atrocity, etc. which would be presented to, and judged by the Grandmasters of the major enclaves. These Grandmasters would be vetted and approved by the Kingdom of Nörn, and would be forced to spend at least one season in the capital (essentially as a hostage).   Over the years, the Pact has evolved to fit into the modern framework of the world. There are several recognized "major enclaves" that have specific rules pertaining to them added on to the Pact. Nörn has also taken a less direct role in the management of each enclave, and most enclaves can do essentially as they please, though they often ask for the blessing of the Frozen Throne anyway. The Grandmasters still must stay in Nörn for at least one season, but since most of the major enclaves have their base of operations in the kingdom anyway, the Grandmasters tend to stay permanently. With the shift of all the enclave resources into the Kingdom, Nörn grew in wealth and prestige, and is now one of the most luxurious kingdoms to visit (if you're in a city, that is).