The Concord

The Concord
Basic Information
Type	Diplomatic assembly
Date	December 22, IY 811 (first session)
End Date	Ongoing
Location	Held in rotation by Tragon, Tilrestan, and Krossen, each in a fixed city of its own (first session: a city in Tragon)
Parties
Parties	Krossen, Tilrestan, Tragon; later, the nations of the known world
Outcome
Result	Mutual non-aggression treaty; adoption of Anno Yalta; the status of Yalta settled

Overview

The Concord is a recurring assembly at which the nations of humanity settle the terms on which they live alongside one another. It began in December of IY 811, almost ninety years after the Mana Cataclysm, when representatives of Krossen, Tilrestan, and Tragon met in a city of Tragon.

The first three sessions were attended by those three powers alone. Later historians call them the Three Powers Summit, but the name was not used at the time: those who took part spoke simply of "the summit," and the title is a retrospective label. After the third session, participation widened step by step until it was open to nations across the known world, and it was in this period that the assembly began to call itself the Concord.

The Old Ones take no part. The Concord has no power to enforce its agreements, and attendance is not obligatory. It is best understood as a place where nations that seldom trust one another agree to hold a minimal line between them.

Background

When the Mana Cataclysm brought down the Yalta Empire in IY 722, human society passed through some eighty-nine years of war and reconstruction. Three states were founded in that time — Tilrestan in IY 738, Tragon in IY 740, and Krossen in IY 743 — but disputes over borders and territory remained unsettled.

In September of IY 811, the Elders formally conveyed the Permitted Land principle to human societies: the lands then settled were to remain so, and no further expansion was to be undertaken. The three powers convened a summit in response. The Old Ones took no part in the proceedings; accepting the principle and deciding every other question were left entirely to the humans.

Course of Events

The Three Powers Summit

The First Summit (IY 811)

The first summit opened on December 22, IY 811, and ran for ten days in a city of Tragon. Krossen's delegation was led by its fourth king, Arben Krossen III. It took the form of an emergency peace rather than a negotiated settlement, and it disposed of the four matters most urgent to preventing a return to war.

The calendar. Tilrestan argued for the continuation of the old imperial calendar or, failing that, for taking its own founding year as the first year of a new era. Krossen and Tragon wanted a new reckoning altogether, and the new calendar prevailed. It was named Anno Yalta, a compromise meant to begin a new age without forgetting Yalta, the common home of humanity.

The Permitted Land principle. The human nations accepted the principle conveyed by the Elders and formalized it.

The non-aggression treaty. The three powers concluded a mutual non-aggression treaty of effectively unlimited duration. Its text was symmetrical and neutral in form, and it provided for collective response and economic pressure in the event of a violation.

Yalta. The ruins of Yalta were declared unclaimed territory that no nation could ever permanently hold. Within this shared framework each of the three powers looked after its own side of the outer wall, and a further agreement barred the deployment of military forces within Yalta.

The summit closed on December 31, the last day of the old imperial calendar, and Anno Yalta took effect the following day.

The Second Summit (AY 10)

The second summit was held in Tilrestan in AY 10, with Arben Krossen III again leading Krossen's delegation. It took up matters of longer-term governance, beginning with the legacy of the fallen empire.

Imperial legacy. Tilrestan asserted a claim as the empire's successor, but the claim was not accepted. The summit agreed instead that the empire's legacy belonged to all. The empire's debts were extinguished in full; its gold, silver, and copper coinage was melted down and returned to circulation as metal, and so ceased to exist as currency; and most of its records had by then been lost.

Trade. The powers agreed on a principle of entirely duty-free trade.

Standards. The weights and measures of the Yalta Empire were recognized as the common standard.

The Third Summit (AY 20)

The third summit was held in Krossen in AY 20, with Arvolik Krossen, fifth king of Krossen, leading its delegation.

Displaced peoples. Agreement on the treatment of displaced peoples was reached in declaration only. In the years that followed, states if anything made citizenship harder to obtain.

Repatriation. The mutual repatriation of prisoners and refugees was formally adopted, but states carried it out half-heartedly, and only Tilrestan was comparatively accommodating.

Mana stones. Mana stones on the scale of a Mana Monolith were placed under the joint management of the Arcane Academy and the security ministries of the individual states.

Observers. Nations of other continents had for some time attended as non-voting observers; the summit made this standing a formal institution.

With the third summit the original three-power framework came to its conclusion, and the way was opened for what followed.

The Opening to All Nations

The observer standing established at the third summit widened gradually, until, within a few sessions, participation was open to nations across the known world. Nations of other continents had by then grown so strong, politically and economically, that the three powers could no longer define the order of the world on their own. It was in this period that the assembly began to call itself the Concord. Its sessions nevertheless remained with the three powers as hosts, as they do today.

Structure and Procedure

Venue. Every session is hosted by one of the three powers of the Central Continent — Tragon, Tilrestan, or Krossen — in turn, each in a fixed city of its own. It is never held on another continent. The practice continues the rotation followed at the first three summits; it also spares the assembly the expense of building a new hall for each session and is convenient in both administration and travel.

Attendance. Attendance is not obligatory. Some nations stay away, and some are not on friendly terms with others, but absent and unfriendly nations are not shunned: nations large and small need one another economically and politically, and deal with one another pragmatically.

Representation. Nations are usually represented by diplomats. Kings sometimes attend in person.

Standing. In form, every participating nation is equal. There is no presiding nation, and no seat carries special standing. In practice, differences in national strength are plain, and the smaller nations take care not to cross the larger.

Procedure. Agenda items are fixed in advance, each nation reviews them internally, and they are then coordinated and concluded at the session.

Authority and Limits

The Concord has no apparatus of its own for enforcing its agreements. Compliance depends on the will of each nation, and agreements are not always honoured in full. Yet it is not so weak that its agreements can be ignored at will; that it continues to meet regularly shows that it serves a real purpose. Many of its early agreements were largely declaratory when made and gained force only as later sessions refined them.

Only the Permitted Land principle carried real force from the beginning. That force came not from any power of enforcement held by the Concord, but from the Old Ones who had announced the principle.

Rivalries and Factions

Krossen and Tilrestan have never come into direct conflict, and each regards the other as a friendly rival. In the sessions after the Concord was opened to all nations, loose factions formed around the nations that drew closer to one or the other, and the two camps kept a watchful eye on each other.

Aftermath

Anno Yalta took effect on January 1, AY 1, the day after the first summit closed, and the non-aggression treaty remains in force today. In AY 23, three years after the third summit, the Central Mana Authority was founded, and the management of Monolith-class mana stones passed to it.

Legacy

The decisions of the Three Powers Summit — the calendar, the principle of duty-free trade, and the common standards of measure — became the framework of the order that followed. The principle of duty-free trade has been refined at later sessions but remains in place, and the common standards of measure have been kept without friction.

Trivia

• The first summit's final day, December 31, happened to be the last day of the old calendar. This was not planned: once the summit had ended at the turn of the year, it was natural to begin the new reckoning with the new year.
• The name Anno Yalta carries the compromise that produced it: a new era, but one that does not forget Yalta.