The Covenant Questioned¶
Pamphlets matching this text have been confiscated in Blackmoor, Ironridge, and the lower wards of Valtharion since 5A 848. The author has not been identified. The Justiciar Order has classified the document as Category Three heresy (possession: two years forced labor; distribution: death). Despite this, new copies continue to appear.
To whoever finds this and reads it instead of burning it:
Ask yourself one question. Not the question the temples want you to ask. Not “how do we save the Covenant” or “how do we honor the gods.” Ask the question that comes before those.
Who told you the Covenant was good?
The priests say Solphirion sacrificed himself to save reality. That is what the temples teach. That is what the schools teach. That is what the Senate uses to justify every law, every tax, every Justiciar who kicks in a door at midnight. The Covenant is sacred. The Covenant is necessary. The Covenant must be preserved.
But think about what the Covenant actually does.
It keeps the gods from acting. That is the part everyone agrees on. The Covenant binds divine power. It prevents the Covenari from intervening in the Mortal Plane. The temples say this is protection. The gods stepped back so mortals could flourish.
Look around. Is this flourishing?
The Auriels cannot reproduce. The Leylines are destabilizing. Veil-Sickness is killing people in numbers the Senate refuses to publish. The northern provinces are starving. The southern coasts are dying. And the Covenant — the thing that is supposed to be holding reality together — is cracking.
Here is what they will not say in the Sanctum of Solphirion:
The Covenant was not a gift. It was a cage.
Not for us. For the gods. Solphirion did not save reality. He locked the gods out of it. And the question nobody is asking — the question that will get this pamphlet burned and me killed if they find me — is this:
What if the gods need to come back?
What if the only thing that can fix what is breaking is the thing the Covenant was designed to prevent?
I am not saying destroy it. I am saying think about it. Think about who benefits from a world where divine power is sealed away and mortal power fills the gap. Think about who sits on that throne.
The Covenant is failing. The question is not how to save it.
The question is whether it should be saved at all.
Justiciar’s note: Seventh confiscation this quarter. Text identical to previous copies. No fingermarks, no ink sourcing match. Recommend escalation to Priority surveillance. Whoever is writing these is either very careful or very protected. Possibly both.