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Hollowdell, 28 Years On: How the Basin Accord Began
In the year 98 of the New Era, an explosion at the Hollowdell drove the three nations to the Basin Accord. Guild Master Hald Berg, looks back.
Northeast of Crossroads, beyond a line of crumbling stone walls, a rusted winch still stands. This is Hollowdell. Twenty-eight years ago, this old mana-stone mine was the most dangerous place in the basin, and a single explosion here changed the course of the basin's history.
A Mine on the Brink
In the year 98 of the New Era, the basin's magic, which had kept people out for so long, finally became a source of wealth. The price of mana stones soared overnight. The three nations, which had spent nearly half a century skirmishing along the basin's rim, rushed to claim the mining grounds.
Soon after exploration of the basin began, miners from the United Kingdom of Eisen dug the first shafts at Hollowdell. The Kingdom of Ordelia, which claims the entire basin as heir to the old empire, refused to accept this and sent in its troops. The two armies faced each other across the settlement, and neither would give an inch.
That was when the explosion came. Light and force spread out from the center of the settlement, swallowed both camps, and left dead on both sides. The round, blackened scar that still marks the center of Hollowdell was left by that day's blast.
"It Wasn't Either Side's Weapon"
Hald Berg, now master of the Adventurers' Guild, was then a member of the Scavengers' Fellowship. When word reached him, he and his companions hurried to Hollowdell.
"When we got there, the ground was still hot."
Each nation quickly accused the other of using a new weapon. Hald still isn't convinced.
"That day, everything in sight was burned. What kind of fool fires a weapon like that into his own lines?"
The Birth of the Basin Accord
The Hollowdell disaster shook all three nations. If armies clashed in the basin, there was no telling how far the damage would spread. If two nations wore each other down, only the third would gain. Fearing mutual ruin, the three nations signed the Basin Accord before the year was out.
The Accord rests on three pillars. No nation may claim the basin as its territory. Regular armies may not be stationed there, and nations may not take up arms against one another. Any nation that breaks these terms faces joint economic sanctions from the other two.
Each nation's interests show through the text. Eisen, which would be the first to starve under sanctions, pressed hard for a clause exempting food and medicine. Verden Federation and Ordelia, eager to contain Eisen's military strength, demanded the ban on regular armies. The clause opening the basin's roads to all three nations is counted as Eisen's win, and the clause adopting the old imperial gold coin standard as the common currency as Ordelia's.
The Accord did not make any nation give up its territorial claims, however. Those claims were frozen as they stood, and nothing done while the Accord remains in force can serve as grounds for them. Even so, the three nations continue to expand their outposts in the basin to this day.
The Birth of the Guild
The Accord brought something else into being: the Adventurers' Guild.
At the same time the Accord was signed, the Scavengers' Fellowship received a charter from the three nations and was recognized as a neutral professional body. Registered adventurers are treated as "Accord neutrals" while they are in the basin, set apart from their nationality in any of the three nations, and can take on work across borders. The three nations accepted the Guild partly because its members' activity records can serve as evidence of Accord violations.
Hollowdell, Twenty-Eight Years On
"Twenty-eight years since the Accord already. The young ones who grew up in the basin can't even imagine soldiers staring each other down here. And that's how it should be."
Hald laughed, then paused before going on.
"But when a quiet age lasts long enough, people start taking the quiet for granted. Even that day, the night before the explosion was a quiet one."
Hollowdell, long abandoned, is now a dange