Treaty of the Stronghold

The initial spread of the Dominion was peaceful, but it did not remain that way. After some fifty years, the nascent super-state was large enough to begin co-opting new territory by force if the local drift showed no interest in an alliance. The first phase of collaborative incorporation became known as the Gathering Cloud, while the later expansion was the Thunder and Lightning. The Thunderhead would send a delegation of mathom to offer a place in the Dominion, followed by overwhelming force if the offer was refused. The offer was the 'thunder' and the direct attack the 'lightning'.
With four circles sending representatives to the Thunder head, the Dominion could muster enough force to overwhelm any single mob and yet not prejudice their own defence. With eight circles, no individual drift could hope to resist them. With twenty-five, the Thunderhead began to consider themselves unstoppable. The Dominion stood poised to unleash the Thunder and Lightning across the entire continent. Only three things stood in their way: the Free Mobs that had not yet joined, the rising power of the Elysian Federation south of the Moblands, and the Dominion itself.
The Alliance of Free Mobs was not like. the Dominion. It was a loose association, formed purely as an attempt to resist the advance of the Dominion. As such, it lacked the strategic agility to counter the Dominion's manoeuvres in open battle, and so its lead­ers developed a different response; when the Dominion attacked a drift, the locals would retreat, and a force of warriors would strike at the Dominion's territory behind the attack. They could not push hard into the Dominion, their aim was simply to deny the attackers any strategic gain, and give them a bruise in return.
The Dominion would have adapted to this quickly enough - although they were hampered by sympathizers in recently- conquered territories - if not for the intervention of the Federation. Seeing the threat that the Dominion represented to them, the Federation provided arms, supplies and troops to support the Alliance, as well as labourers to construct walled camps for the border drifts, and even laying down plans for an Alliance citadel in the natural fortification called the Stronghold. As the advance of the Dominion slowed, blame began to be thrown around, first within the Thunderhead, then at the Thunderhead as an institution. A number of the most powerful Thunder Kings chose this moment to assert their own power over that of their peers. The result was a civil war; initially rather a free for all, but quickly coming down to four factions:

• Loyalists - held to the authority of the Thunderhead. At first limited to Mt Asteria and its immediate surroundings, messengers gathered support from those who did not wish to bend the knee to any of the self-appointed Storm Sovereigns.
• Coast Wardens - supporters of the northern Thunder King Alevis Blackwater. In addition to holding several harbours, King Alevis boasted many elemental allies, and the Warders were the faction of choice for arcanists.
• Storm's Eye - an alliance of border domains under the Kings of Highwatch, Elysianbridge and Twinfords. Commanding many armies, this faction had the hindrance of its unstable tri­umvirate and collapsed three years into the five year war, with such vicious infighting that the Elysianbridge and Twinfords Circles were destroyed, the sites later reoccupied by the Strongbridge and Tworiver Standings.
• Grey Hunters - traditionalist faction led by King Isreth Bronzehorn. Controlling much of the herd and farmland, they held out for a long time, before reaching an accord with the Loyalists to bring an end to the civil war.

The years of conflict took a heavy toll on the Dominion, and especially its border forces. In the fourth year of fighting, the Loyalist faction negotiated the Treaty of the Stronghold, agreeing to forever cease their advances into the Moblands, in exchange for a cessation of retributive attacks and support in reconstruction. This treaty still binds the Dominion, who may only advance if a drift freely approaches them.