The Concord is an old alliance of four sun worshipping theocracies that initially banded together against invaders seeking to overthrow and destroy the practice of sun worship. After repelling the attacks the alliance then set out to extend its influence over its neighbours.

Currently the Concord controls a large region so far to the south that not even the Southern Kingdoms have heard rumours of its existence, though this may be caused by the fact that these kingdoms run into the area known as the Great Blight or the Great Desert, and travel further south is almost non-existent because of the dangers of both heat and unnatural life that are rampant in the Blight.

The four faiths of The Concord have never fully integrated, though over the centuries their differences have somewhat diminished. Each faith holds dominion over part of the lands the Concord collectively governs and it is understood that the other faiths do not interfere in each other’s domains and will not proselytize among each other.

To symbolise their unity a temple city was built-in an arid region that, with some tweaking, bordered on all four dominions of the Concord. This temple is the seat of the representatives of the Sun Lord of all four faiths, and the duty and privilege of organising the religious ceremonies of dawn, noon and dusk falls to each of the faiths in turn on an annual basis.

The four high priests of the Concord are rarely seen, and confer in private in a secret location only they know. Their continuous presence in the temple is in part to prevent each of them from plotting against the other three faiths, as happened frequently in the early years of the Concord after the immediate threat of the invaders was fended off. It also serves to present a façade of unity to the powerful countries and empires that surround the Concord, who have not forgotten even after more than six centuries how the Concord waged an aggressive campaign of expansion with armies of fanatical zealots. Like its neighbours the Concord is too big and powerful to attack, and too dangerous to ignore.

The legions of the Sun Lord remain today, and each man and woman is required to serve in it for three years, albeit in different capacity. Men as soldiers and women in serving roles. However, the most famous and terrifying symbol of the Concord’s military might are the Paladins or Hands of the Sun Lord. Each of these men is trained to superhuman standards of speed and skill and all of them have their face scarred by terrible burns that have left them blinded, though the lack of eyes does not diminish their ability to observe the smallest detail around them. They deal with domestic problems and on the battle field they are the banners around which the legions rally, able to cut down swathes of common enemy soldiers. Often in large battles they shine a blinding light of their absolute faith. The neighbouring countries have several greater mages deployed with their own army units to counter these Hands, should the occasional skirmish devolve into a real war.

The countries that have a border in common with the Concord would consider a force of seven of these holy warriors crossing into their lands to be an invasion. They are not, of course, invulnerable, but they are hard to defeat and have protections that mages find difficult or even impossible to counter.