ong, long ago, the kingdoms of the Land warred against each
other, and the plains and valleys of the Land grew sodden with the blood
of the sons and daughters of both peasants and kings. Shagras, the Red
Lady of Slaughter, held sway over all, and it was said that the King in
Tzalmir might choose Her as greatest of all and end the world. That year, on Midsummer, when the White Lady's power runs highest (Nirian's day is Midsummer, Shagras' Midwinter, Anz claims the equinoxes, and Geskekelud's days are all Thursdays the 12th. Imas's are at the beginning of the year and the Unnamed's at the end), Cirenas of Asaen called down a miracle. Her voice was heard all through the Land.
``This has gone far enough. Your children are dying for your ambition, and there will be no one left to live in the kingdom of bones you will win. I tell you this now. For each of your enemies you murder, two of your own people shall desert you. For each acre of land you conquer, two of your own shall go fallow as those who live there turn elsewhere. You may continue to war and despoil as you will, but I tell you this, you shall have nothing left to call your own.''What Cirenas and her followers sacrificed is no longer known, but Nirian answered what they asked, and the result was the Accord. Though some still tried to fight, they soon learned their folly, and came to have other ways of resolving disputes that arose. Three of the kings who were most respected and feared became overlords: Logas, the Red Duke of Ithyra , King Bertram the Munificent of Aris, and the Rider of Pavane (Ithyra oversaw those lands near and east of the Siodari Mountains, Aris took the lands to the north of Tzalin, and Pavane the lands about the Gosseg River and further south). And when disagreements ocurred between the three Lords of the Accord, they brought them to the King in Tzalmir, the gods's chosen and vassal to no other king.
Both prideful and cautious, the Lords of the Accord gave the Tzalin Kings little reason to exercise their authority, but the Kings took their responsibility seriously (as, indeed, they did all their responsibilities save their greatest). They sent heralds throughout the Land, whose passage could be hindered by none, to see that all was done by the laws agreed upon, and any peasant or noble of the Land could petition to speak to the King.
The Accord lasted through three centuries, and the Land flourished. But as everything is created, so must everything come to an end.
The death of a daughter of the Red Duke began it, then the only son of the seventh Rider, and then the entire family of the House of Aris. Mad with grief, the overlords struck out at each other, each thinking another responsible for his loss. And the retributive effects that Cirenas had put in place so long ago failed to happen. The Accord was broken, and the Three Years' War was the most vicious seen in the history of the Land.
Bloody as it was, the war did not last as long as had the earlier wars. The kingdoms had been too long at peace, and were out of the habit of fighting. The careful balance necessary to both invade one's neighbor and get one's own crops in had been lost, and two winters later, famines put an end to the war. However, the war no doubt would have lasted longer, famine or no, without the efforts of the King in Tzalmir and his heralds. Tzalin had stayed out of the war, and even the grief-stricken ex-Lords respected the King.
Even after the death of the Accord, Tzalmir still played the High King, resolving disputes and weaving peace, until the overthrow of the Tzalin Kings centuries later.
But that is another story...
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