Treaty

The Treaty was forged five hundred years ago to end the War between humans and faeries. For millennia before it, humans had served High Fae overlords as slaves, building them civilizations and temples to their feral gods, until they rebelled across every land. The War was so bloody and destructive that it took the Treaty to stop the slaughter on both sides. Under it the wall was raised, the North of the world going to the faeries and High Fae with their magic, and the South to the mortals.

The wall is invisible, and Prythian lies beyond it. The Treaty forbids faeries from taking humans as slaves, and it sets a payment owed for killing a faerie. Ordinary villagers near the wall have only the Treaty's strength to rely on, since their territory is too small and poor to keep a standing army on watch. Wealthier landowners hire mercenaries to guard lands that border the immortal realm.