Clanpact, The

The Clanpact is the foundational legal document of the Anan people. It was codified into law 325 years ago, as the Clanpact included not just legal foundations for everything from nobility and land ownership to human rights and economic recognition of commoner's rights. It established habeas corpus, optional public trials, divorce rights, aggregate wealth and land distribution programs, and the full federalization of what was previously a stark confederacy of the clans.

History
in 134 OR (Old Reckoning), a massive civil war kicked off over border disputes between the Insect, Cat, and Tree clans, and the Herd, Bear, and Bird clans. Dog and Fish remained generally neutral though sold weapons and supplies to both sides. tens of thousands of Anan soldiers and civilians died, clan leadership fractured, and inter clan disputes were running rampant. Anan society was devolving into anarchy and chaos.

The magical leadership of the various clans came together at the Great Speaking Bowl and discussed what could be done to stem the tide of violence and solve the issues. They consulted the spirits and asked for their intercession and guidance, and so so it was that the spirits told the shamans that they must unite the clans into one brotherhood. They must forge an Anan nation. So the spirits accompanied the shamans back to their people, and as the real representatives of nature visited the lords, knights, magisters, captains, and other belligerents in the conflict, the people were moved. They shed their swords, made plowshares of their spears, and turned their bows on game.

The first step was to establish the new lines of nobility, who would actually run the clans, and their organizational structures. This, by itself took the better part of 100 years, as lines of succession, and other internal conflicts, had to resolve in marriages, contracts, duels, legal challenges, crime, and so on. During this time of squabble among the nobles, the business community began to consolidate wealth into increasingly politically powerful mercantile leagues, guilds, compacts, consortium, and corporations, and due to the communitarian sensibilities of Anan were smart to keep wealth inequality to a minimum. Eventually nobility began to cross pollinate with business and would eventually lead to a second huge meeting at the Great Speaking Bowl. This time with the interest of formalizing trade, of creating legal frameworks for guards, knights, and the financial infrastructure to build cities, and armies to defend the borders. What would the roll of magic be? What clans owned which lands? So it was that the clans were formalized into the currently political set up of lands. The Clanpact also enumerates cross clan trade rights, legal protections, property protections, and all of those same protections are assumed for any human being.