The Fourth Era - The Last War and the Unity Accord

Era beginning/end

"Peace negotiations had happened countless times before. They rarely ended in any agreement, and even agreements reached had never lasted more than a few years before one side or the other betrayed them. But never before had either Empire shown the good will of sending their King to a negotiation."

The circumstances surrounding the Last War were hardly different than any of the wars before it. Perhaps it was a stroke of luck, or an intervention of the gods, that caused this war, out of all the wars before it, to be the last.   Most historians give primary credit for the Unity Accord to Damien Lionwood, the King of the Adrian Empire at the time of the Last War. The Lionwoods had sat on the throne of the Adrian Empire for generations. Damien Lionwood was a young king, only twenty-two years old at the time of the Unity Accord. His father had died three years earlier, assassinated by a Thelandryn spy, which ignited the Last War -- the bloodiest war either empire had seen in a generation.   It was Damien Lionwood himself, son of the murdered Adrian King, who insisted not only on peace negotiations with Thelandyr, but that he would personally participate in the negotiations himself. His advisors unanimously and fervently argued against it; he was the last male Lionwood, and would leave no heir to the throne if he died -- a circumstance that would surely plunge the Empire into a state of chaos that they could ill afford at a time of such heated war. But against all advice and his own better judgment, Damien Lionwood sailed across the Sea of Blood to parlay with the the Thelandryn Prince Ruvyn Omaris on the Bloodstone Isles.   Peace negotiations had happened countless times before. They rarely ended in any agreement, and even agreements reached had never lasted more than a few years before one side or the other betrayed them. But never before had either Empire shown the good will of sending their King to a negotiation.   Negotiations took months, but an agreement was reached, dubbed the Unity Accord, and signed by King Damien Lionwood and Prince Ruvyn Omaris. The capital city Unity would be built on the Bloodstone Isles (which would later be given their new name, symbolic of the peace that they came to represent). An Emissary from each Empire would be sent to Unity, to reside and govern with equal power over both empires. Emissaries from each of the Kingdoms of Adria and Thelandyr, both the old and the new, would be invited to join the Accord and rule in Unity with equal power. The Adrian and Thelandryn Empires would lay down their arms, never again to take military action against one another. No Adrian soldier’s boot would ever touch Thelandryn soil again, or vice versa. Each empire would be responsible for its own affairs on its continent, and they would not interfere with one another. Travel, diplomacy, and trade would be opened between the continents of Adria and Thelandyr, and a peace that hadn’t been known for millennia would at last exist between the two great Empires of Noveska.   To ensure compliance with the Unity Accord, the Peacemakers were formed -- a military and law enforcement regiment that gave teeth to an otherwise idealist document. Each Emissary member of the Unity Accord would provide soldiers and funds to the Peacemakers, whose duty it would be to uphold the Unity Accord, enforce its statutes, and protect the capital city and its Emissaries.