Council of Stones

The Council of Stones is the Accord's inner chamber of high delegates — the formal body where policy, memory law, and public order are dressed up to look ancient, inevitable, and immovable. It rose from the gutted remains of the Concordium's old council, rebuilt by Siroth into a theatre of deliberation whose conclusions are settled long before its members convene. Its delegates debate in carved silence beneath the weight of stone, lending the Accord's decrees the borrowed authority of permanence. A vote here is not a question but a liturgy: the appearance of consent performed over a decision already made. To sit among the Stones is to trade conscience for continuance — and a few, quietly, have begun to count the cost.