THE GRAYWOOD COMPACT
The First Covenant Between the Crown of Valenor and the Peoples of the Graywood
Entered into covenant beneath the Elder Tree at the founding of the Realm, in the Year 0 AU.
Preamble
Let it be remembered that before there was a Crown of Valenor, there was the Graywood.
Before the roads of kings crossed the rivers, before walls were raised around Highcrest, before the banners of men were carried from mountain to sea, the children of the Graywood lived beneath its boughs and kept its paths.
Therefore let no king, heir, lord, magistrate, soldier, or servant of the Crown claim that which was never conquered, surrendered, purchased, or given.
King Aldren I, called the Unifier, entered the Graywood without army or drawn sword and spoke beneath the Elder Tree with those chosen to speak for its people.
For three days they disputed.
On the fourth, they swore.
Not that one people should kneel before another, but that both might stand beneath a common peace.
Thus was the Graywood joined to Valenor.
Not by conquest.
By oath.
Article I — Recognition of the Graywood
The Crown of Valenor recognizes the Graywood as the ancestral homeland of the elven peoples who dwell within it.
The Graywood shall not be considered Crown land, royal demesne, conquered territory, or property of any human lord.
No king may grant ownership of its forests, rivers, settlements, groves, roads, or ruins to another.
No title issued by the Crown shall supersede the rights recognized herein.
The Crown does not grant the Graywood to its people.
The Crown recognizes that it was already theirs.
Article II — Recognition of Valenor
The elders and settlements of the Graywood recognize the Kingdom of Valenor and the authority of its Crown in those matters agreed upon by this Compact.
The Graywood shall not make war upon Valenor, shelter armies raised against the Realm, or knowingly permit its lands to be used for the invasion of territories protected beneath the Crown.
The peoples of the Graywood shall be counted among the peoples of Valenor without surrendering the customs, laws, or inheritance of their homeland.
Thus shall they belong to the Realm without becoming possessions of the Crown.
Article III — The Law Beneath the Boughs
Within the recognized boundaries of the Graywood, elven law shall govern elven settlements and their inhabitants.
The Crown shall appoint no governor over the Graywood.
No royal magistrate may overturn the judgment of a recognized Graywood elder concerning matters wholly within elven jurisdiction.
No tax collector, sheriff, magistrate, or officer of the Crown shall exercise authority within an elven settlement except according to the terms of this Compact or by invitation of those entrusted with its governance.
Where disputes arise between inhabitants of the Graywood and citizens from beyond its borders, judgment shall be made jointly by representatives of both peoples.
Neither Crown law nor Graywood law shall be used as a shield against justice.
Article IV — The Sacred Groves
No sacred grove shall be cut, burned, mined, settled, harvested, or disturbed by order of the Crown.
No road shall be driven through such places.
No fortification shall be raised upon them.
No tree marked sacred according to the laws of the Graywood shall be felled for ship, siege engine, palace, road, or profit.
The identification and protection of sacred ground shall remain the responsibility of the Graywood.
Violation of a sacred grove by servants of the Crown shall be considered a violation of this Compact.
Article V — Soldiers of the Crown
No permanent royal garrison shall be stationed within the Graywood.
No fortress, barracks, watchtower, or military encampment shall be constructed within its boundaries without the consent of the Graywood elders.
Soldiers of Valenor may enter the forest in force only under one of the following conditions:
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At the request of a recognized Graywood settlement.
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In pursuit of an enemy threatening both the Graywood and the Realm.
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By agreement between the Crown and the elders during declared war.
Even under such circumstances, commanders of the Crown shall respect elven settlements, sacred ground, and the authority of local guides.
When the danger has passed, the soldiers shall depart.
Article VI — Defense of the Graywood
An attack upon a recognized settlement of the Graywood shall be considered an attack upon Valenor.
When called, the Crown shall send soldiers, supplies, healers, or other aid according to its ability.
Distance shall not annul obligation.
Lack of roads shall not annul obligation.
The poverty, size, race, or strategic importance of a settlement shall not annul obligation.
Protection promised is protection owed.
In return, the Graywood shall warn the Crown of armies, monsters, raiders, or other threats passing through its lands toward the wider Realm.
When Valenor itself faces invasion, the Graywood shall provide aid according to its own laws and judgment.
No elven settlement shall be compelled to provide soldiers beyond what its people willingly swear.
Article VII — The Roads
The northern roads passing through the Graywood shall remain open to peaceful travelers, merchants, messengers, healers, and servants of the Realm.
Travel upon these roads grants no right to the lands surrounding them.
No traveler may hunt, harvest timber, establish settlement, or leave the recognized road without permission where local law forbids it.
The Crown may maintain roads already accepted beneath this Compact but shall not widen, redirect, or fortify them without consultation.
The Graywood shall keep these passages safe according to its ability.
The Crown shall likewise maintain the roads beyond the forest so that isolation shall never be used as an excuse to abandon those living within it.
Article VIII — Timber, Stone, and Wealth Beneath the Earth
No Crown charter shall authorize commercial harvesting within the Graywood without agreement from those whose lands would be affected.
Timber, ore, herbs, stone, game, and other resources found within the Graywood are not the property of the Crown merely because the Graywood stands within the borders of Valenor.
Trade may be conducted freely where both peoples agree.
Extraction without consent shall be considered theft.
The needs of war do not erase this provision.
The needs of kings do not erase this provision.
Article IX — Taxes and Tribute
The Graywood shall owe no tribute as conquered territory.
Individual settlements may enter agreements with the Crown concerning trade, coinage, roads, defense, or common works.
Such agreements shall bind only those who enter them unless accepted by the wider council of the Graywood.
No tax shall be imposed upon sacred ground.
No levy shall be taken from the Graywood without consultation.
No failure to pay a disputed tax shall permit the Crown to seize elven land.
Article X — Refuge and Pursuit
The Graywood shall not knowingly shelter murderers, raiders, traitors, or enemies of the Realm solely to place them beyond Crown justice.
Likewise, the Crown shall not use accusation of crime as pretext to enter the Graywood in force.
Those pursued from Crown lands into the Graywood shall be surrendered, judged, or investigated according to agreement between Crown authorities and local elders.
No armed company shall cross the boundary in pursuit without announcing its purpose.
Justice shall cross the border.
Authority shall not cross it uninvited.
Article XI — Ancient Places
Ruins, stones, shrines, burial grounds, ward-sites, and other places recognized by the Graywood as belonging to ages before the memory of either people shall not be disturbed without consent.
The Crown shall not remove relics from such places merely by claim of royal authority.
Where discoveries may threaten the wider Realm, knowledge shall be shared between the Crown and those entrusted with the keeping of the Graywood.
Neither party shall knowingly conceal a danger capable of bringing ruin upon the other.
Some things beneath the earth are older than either Crown or Compact.
What is forgotten shall not therefore be treated as harmless.
Article XII — The Elder Council
The settlements of the Graywood may appoint elders, wardens, speakers, or other representatives according to their own traditions.
The Crown shall recognize those representatives without dictating how they are selected.
When disputes concerning this Compact arise, representatives of the Crown and Graywood shall meet before force is considered.
No army shall answer a question that has not first been offered words.
This was the manner of Aldren.
Those who inherit his Crown shall remember it.
Article XIII — The Crown's Oath
Every sovereign who inherits the Crown of Valenor shall inherit this Compact.
Its obligations shall not die with Aldren.
A new monarch shall acknowledge the Compact before representatives of the Graywood during the first year of their reign.
The Graywood shall in turn acknowledge the new sovereign as ruler of Valenor according to the terms first sworn beneath the Elder Tree.
Should a monarch refuse acknowledgment, the Compact shall remain binding upon the Crown regardless.
An oath cannot be escaped merely by refusing to speak it again.
Article XIV — Breach of Compact
No single crime committed by an individual shall dissolve the peace between peoples.
Should servants of the Crown violate the Compact, the Graywood shall first demand remedy from the Crown.
Should inhabitants of the Graywood violate the Compact, the Crown shall first demand remedy from their recognized elders.
Reparation shall be sought before retaliation.
Judgment before punishment.
Words before swords.
Only deliberate and sustained violation by one party against the other shall constitute breach of the Compact itself.
And even then, those who seek war must first answer before both peoples for why peace was allowed to fail.
Article XV — The Covenant Without End
This Compact shall remain binding for as long as the Graywood stands and Valenor endures.
It may be amended only with the willing consent of both the Crown and the recognized representatives of the Graywood.
No monarch may alter it alone.
No council may erase it by decree.
No war elsewhere in the Realm shall suspend it.
No generation may claim exemption merely because those who first swore it have become dust.
For kingdoms are brief things beside forests.
Let those who inherit either remember what those before them understood:
Unity does not require sameness.
Loyalty does not require submission.
Peace does not require ownership.
And no realm can remain whole if its promises mean only what is convenient to those who rule it.
The Oath Beneath the Elder Tree
According to the oldest surviving copies, Aldren laid his sword upon the roots of the Elder Tree and spoke:
“I do not ask this forest to kneel. I ask those beneath its boughs to stand beside us. What is yours shall remain yours. What threatens you shall concern us. What threatens us, I pray, shall concern you. Let neither blood nor crown make master of the other. Let us be bound only by what we willingly swear.”
The Speaker of the Graywood answered:
“Then let your kingdom enter by the road you have chosen, Aldren of Highcrest. Not as owner. Not as conqueror. As neighbor.”
And beneath the Elder Tree, both parties placed their marks upon the Compact.
Thus entered the Graywood into the Realm of Valenor.
