Challenges to the Accord

The confederation's authority is perpetually contested. Wealthy settlements with large water reserves occasionally threaten secession, believing they subsidize less productive communities. Cave settlements resent surface-dwellers' dominance in Assembly proceedings, arguing that geothermal resources are undervalued in resource calculations. Frontier outposts on the Dayward or Nightward edges feel neglected, their survival struggles ignored by more comfortable central cities.

Succession crises in major settlements can destabilize the entire system. If a city-state's Council of Windkeepers fragments into competing factions, their Assembly delegation may split votes or refuse to attend, paralyzing decision-making. The Accord survived its greatest test in 2847 CE, when three major cities simultaneously withheld water exports, triggering the Thirst Wars—a series of skirmishes that nearly dissolved the confederation before Wayseers brokered the Auran Compact, establishing emergency arbitration protocols still in use today.