First Pact

DM Only — Contains Spoilers
This article contains both the official public account and documented truths not available to the public. The First Pact’s suppressed terms — the Primordem sealing and the erasure of He Who Was Forgotten — are known only to the ruling council of Aru’Mas. The official history of the Pact’s origins has been substantially sanitized. Handle accordingly.
The First Pact — formally the treaty that ended the Landing War — is the foundational agreement between the settler leadership and the spirit coalition of the Ahvantir Archipelago. Signed at Year 0 of the Marducian Calendar, it established the legal existence of Aru’Mas, set the terms of mortal-spirit coexistence for the centuries that followed, and created the Spiritsway Passage as the sole sanctioned crossing through the Mountain Wall.

The spirits who negotiated this pact are ancient beyond the reckoning of any mortal calendar — the same primordial forces of land, sky, and sea that once resisted the gods themselves in the Divine War, long before the city existed. Their willingness to negotiate with Marduk Sunspear at all was historically unusual; that they negotiated as equals with a people carrying divine faith reflects the depth of their claim to this land. Imwei, the Green Mother, whose act of sacrifice ended the Divine War, is sometimes acknowledged in theological discussions of the Pact’s deeper origins.

True History: How the Pact Was Made

DM Canon The official history presents the First Pact as a generous and honorable diplomatic achievement, earned through Marduk’s vision and courage. The documented truth is more complicated. The Pact was not a founding vision. It was a negotiated surrender following thirteen years of war.

The Landing War began when the native spirits of the archipelago — already bound by ancient pacts to the Drorn’Duur — responded to the desecration of Drorn’Duur spirit-temples by Marduk’s forces. The conflict lasted from -13 to 0 MC. The settler coalition was held together through Adobban Demoranza’s divine magic and the widespread use of resurrection magic; the spirit coalition was led by He Who Was Forgotten, a master tactician who inspired loyalty rather than fear.

Near the war’s end, Marduk challenged He Who Was Forgotten to single combat. The spirit accepted, diminished himself to physical form to make the terms equal, and won. Rather than press his advantage, he honored the terms he had agreed to: the mortal army was permitted to retreat. That act of mercy opened the path to negotiation.

The Pact that emerged established Aru’Mas’s legal existence, mandated the construction of the Spiritsway Passage as a joint spirit-mortal project, and set the city’s obligations to the spirits going forward. The city of Aru’Mas grew around the Passage as both a strategic and treaty obligation — concentrating the Crown’s forces at the point it was most bound to defend.

The Suppressed Terms

Two of the Pact’s terms are not publicly known:

The Primordem Sealing. Simultaneous with the signing of the Pact, eleven spirits — the Primordem, formed from the emotional residue of the Landing War — were sealed beneath Ahvantir. Whether this was a prerequisite to the treaty or part of its terms is unclear. The Primordem’s existence is known only to the ruling council of Aru’Mas.

The Erasure of He Who Was Forgotten. The removal of the spirit general’s name from all records was written into the Pact as a condition. Whether this was demanded by Marduk’s side, agreed to by the spirit delegation, or some combination of both has never been documented. He Who Was Forgotten was not directly involved in the negotiations. The extent of what he knew before stepping willingly into the seal is unclear. The result: the man who won the war, chose mercy, and opened the path to peace has no name in any surviving record.

What the Pact Did Not Do

The Drorn’Duur were not party to the negotiations. The peace made at Year 0 did not acknowledge them, restore their land, or recognize what had been done to them. The spirits agreed to terms that did not include the people whose mistreatment had started the conflict.

The Pact’s Public Terms

The following terms are publicly known and form the cultural and legal foundation of Aru’Mas:

City Boundaries. The Pact established the boundaries within which Aru’Mas may exist and expand. These are enforced spiritually as well as physically; attempts to expand beyond sanctioned limits without spirit consent carry documented consequences. The Shattered Strand is the most visible historical example of such consequences.

Controlled Access to the Interior. Access to the interior of the archipelago — beyond the Mountain Wall — must be granted but also restricted and protected. The Spiritsway Passage was built as the physical expression of this mandate: a portal erected at the northern edge of Stonegate, controlled jointly by the Crown and the spirit compact.

Respect for the Spirits. Only those who honor the spirits and the magic of the archipelago are permitted to venture into the wilds of Ahvantir. The city is obligated to enforce this.

Annual Renewal. The Pact must be renewed annually through a ritual of harmony conducted by The Church of the Threefold Path and the ruling council. This ritual reaffirms the city’s commitment to the Pact’s terms.

Consequences for Breach. Violation of the Pact’s terms carries consequences that range from misfortune to individuals to catastrophic spirit response at the city-wide level. The city’s governance structure was built substantially around the need to prevent such breaches.

The Pact and the People

The First Pact is not only a set of laws but a cultural ethos that permeates life in Aru’Mas. Citizens are taught from a young age about its history, importance, and the consequences of breaking it. Many maintain personal rituals to honor the spirits — small offerings at shrines, cleansing ceremonies on the full moon, particularly during the Triple Full Moon when spiritual influence is strongest.

The official history frames the Pact as an act of Marduk’s diplomatic genius and spiritual humility. In practice, this framing has served the city’s leadership well: it makes the Pact feel like a gift rather than the outcome of a war the settlers caused.

Legends of the Founding

The following are popular stories about the Pact’s origins. They are myths — not historically accurate — but they reflect what the city believes about itself.

Marduk Sunspear and the Spirit King

The most famous founding legend holds that Marduk was challenged by the Spirit King — the supreme ruler of Ahvantir’s spirits — to a contest of will and magic, with the fate of his people at stake. Marduk endured, guided by his understanding of the Threefold Path, and the Spirit King was so impressed that he agreed to the Pact.

DM Note This legend is fabricated. The documented duel was between Marduk and He Who Was Forgotten — a general, not necessarily the Spirit King — and Marduk lost. The spirit’s subsequent mercy is what opened negotiations. The legend inverts the actual outcome, transforming a military defeat into a diplomatic triumph. It also obscures He Who Was Forgotten’s role, which may be intentional given the Pact’s erasure clause.

The Shattered Strand

A somber tale tied to the Pact involves the Shattered Strand, once a narrow peninsula north of the harbor. During a period of expansionist ambition in early Aru’Mas history, the city’s leaders attempted to claim it in defiance of the Pact’s boundary terms. The spirits responded catastrophically: the peninsula broke apart in a single night, survivors were pulled into the Faded Veil rather than killed, and the jagged reef that now bears its name is all that remains. The one intact remnant became the island on which the Gilded Bastion was later built.

The Moon’s Bargain

A mythological account of the founding holds that the three moons — Miras, Toris, and Keltas — descended to bless the Pact’s negotiation, each offering a unique gift: protection against dark spirits, wisdom to the city’s first scholars, and a promise to aid pure-hearted explorers.

Connections

Source Source: world-anvil (original import) + DM canon sessions 2026-05-12 and 2026-05-13. Original article substantially revised; fabricated “thousand years ago” date corrected (true date: Year 0 MC, 439 years before the present day). True history of the Pact’s negotiation added from DM session canon.