The Bond

The Bonding Pact is an agreement that unifies a group of races together in a supernatural way. The races under the pact are known as the Bonded Races, and are considered equal in their place in the world. While there were actually, two iterations of the Bonding Pact, the last one signed is the one that is in force. The following races are members of the Pact:

• Dragonborn
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Gnome
• Half-Elf
• Halfling
• Half-Orc
• Human
• Leonin
• Tiefling

A member of a pact race has no choice in being part of the pact. The strength of the pact is such that, when a settlement of sufficient permanence, unity and size develops, it creates an aura about the settlement that any member of a pact race can sense. 
Other than the innate recognition of Bonded Territory, the other main property of the Bonding Pact is to give the Bonded Races the ability to enter into verbal agreements that are mystically binding. When a member of a Bonded Race makes and agreement with or swears an Oath to another member of a Bonded Race while in Bonded Territory, the affect of the Bonding Pact is to enforce that sworn oath or agreement in one of three ways:
1. If the person fails to live up to their oath or agreement before their death, their spirit is forced to remain in the world until they see it resolved in some way. The oath or agreement must be resolved in a way that those involved, including the dead person, feel that it is resolved. 2. If the person renounces their oath or agreement, they become cursed: one random ability score becomes cursed and the person has disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws made with that ability score. The only way to remove the curse is to take the agreement back up or seek absolution from the God Judge .
3. If the person delays too long on a time-sensitive agreement or oath, they will feel a constant compulsion to complete the quest - sometimes to the point that they are unable to concentrate on routine tasks. The only way to eliminate this sensation is to complete the agreement or oath.
Outside of Bonded Territory these affects fade - but come back into force once the person returns to Bonded Territory.
Creatures that are not part of the Bonding Pact cannot feel it and suffer no consequences from breaking an oath with a Bonded Race member.

Manifestation

Bonded race members can always tell when they are near a Bonded Race settlement, an area referred to as "Bonded Territory".

Localization

Because of the tradition of using the skulls of defeated foes or past leaders to denote the center or seat of power of a Bonded Territory, leaving the Bonded Territory is often referred to as going 'Beyond the Skulls". When traveling out of Bonded Territory, it is possible to take a token that represents the

Type

Metaphysical, Supernatural