The Elden Concordat

The Elden Concordat
Memory, Oath, and the Burden of the Past

The Elden Concordat is the other great power of Masada, born not of conquest but of necessity. Where Antioch forged a nation of scripture and service, the Concordat bound its people together by oath and shared survival in the years after the Fall. It is not a single kingdom but a web of freeholds, provinces, and city states bound to one another through ancient pacts. Its heart lies in Caer Haleth, a neutral stronghold where law is debated, memory preserved, and consensus forged.

The Concordat does not believe power comes from faith alone or bloodline alone. To shape its direction, one must honor oaths, respect history, and defend the agreements that bind neighbor to neighbor. Every citizen is freeborn, but freedom carries weight, for betrayal of trust is remembered for generations.

Key Institutions

The High Council of Haleth
The ruling assembly of the Concordat, convened within the citadel of Caer Haleth. Delegates from every province gather here to speak, argue, and decide. No single voice carries authority over the rest, but decisions reached by consensus are binding on all. The process is slow, sometimes maddeningly so, yet it is deliberate by design. Concordant law is meant to last lifetimes, not moments.

The Concordant Oathkeepers
An order of magistrates, historians, and wandering arbiters tasked with ensuring the terms of pacts are upheld. They travel between provinces, carrying records of treaties, oaths, and blood debts, settling disputes where memory fails. Their word is trusted more than coin, for to speak falsely as an Oathkeeper is to be exiled forever from Concordant lands.

The Memory-Houses
Part archive, part temple, part court. Every major holding maintains a Memory-House, where scribes preserve the words of the dead, the chronicles of the living, and the laws of the land. Within these halls every oath is copied and sealed, every agreement recorded. To burn or alter such a record is among the gravest crimes a citizen can commit.

The Shieldbands
Ancestral militias of sworn families and kin-groups, charged with the defense of their home province. Each Shieldband preserves its lineage of oaths, some stretching back to the first years after the Fall. They are not merely soldiers but stewards of tradition, guarding the principles of their ancestors as fiercely as their borders.

The Wardens of Haleth
Custodians of Caer Haleth itself, sworn to neutrality. Drawn from every province, they are forbidden to hold allegiance beyond the defense of the Council grounds. They are few in number but fiercely disciplined, ensuring the debates of the Council are never silenced by steel.

Civic Life

The Concordat grants full rights of land, voice, and defense to all who swear themselves to its founding principles. Local customs vary, but every freehold is expected to uphold mutual aid and preserve memory. Children are taught the old pacts before they are taught letters, for to forget is to invite ruin.

Foreigners may travel freely and trade within Concordant lands, but influence requires oath and witness. To take a place on a council, to buy property, or to command others, one must swear to the Concordat before Oathkeepers or the Council of Haleth. Betrayal of such vows is not punished with exile alone, but with the slow erasure of memory. Names of the faithless are struck from records, and in time it is as if they never lived at all.

The Concordat sees itself not as a state but as a promise. It endures because its people endure, remembering the bonds that carried them through the Fall. To some it is a cumbersome system of endless debate. To those within, it is proof that freedom and duty can coexist. It is a hard trust to keep, but one that binds them still.