Before the High Faith came, before even the Immoreans raised their temples in the east, there was the Compact of the Deep Woods. When the Vel first made landfall on the grey shores of the island they would name Veldmere, they did not conquer the land, they bargained with the spirits who drew them to it - the Haltija. These forest spirits exchanged protection and knowledge for sacrifices and care of the forests.

The faith that grew from that covenant was never a faith of gods or the ideologies of men. It was a faith of the balance between humankind and the wild. The negotiation between the sacred and the divine. As the Old Ways developed, it created a ruling priest class of the isle in the form of the Halthorl.

Later the High Faith would crowd out this religion. Two centuries of missionaries and kings, a church was established, and the Halthori recluded to the forest, becoming the Druidic Circle, a now-rare organization to maintain the balance. Tolerated at the margins, consulted when needed, but no longer invited to councils in "civilized" places.

Something of the covenant persists regardless. The Haltija do not forget a promise because the people who made it have forgotten them. Many villagers still provide offerings to the "kind ones" of the woods, even as they go to venerate Law.