Seven communities shared wells and roads. Then the Hydra Coalition sold each a closed answer: lock the grain, seal the wells, rank cargo over people. They consented. That is in the record.
Repair cost more than the bargains. They reopened gates, carried water, kept storm watches. Together they fought the War of Closed Roads. One wartime Vow: open what was sealed, and do not become the thing you fought.
Hydra is gone from the settled lands. Peace needed more than one Vow. Communities became Orders. No single ruler — a Stewardship Compact. Contests claim who leads the rebuild, not who wipes whom out.
Anointed come from the same people as the field companies. The Vow is freely taken and publicly witnessed. How an Order names one is doctrine.
Every Order keeps an account of the Garden Lock — sealed, rumored, never proven opened. Each wants it first. None trusts another to make one virtue the whole law.
