Hero Calling and the Accord of Intervention

Canon note: Accord of Intervention is the accepted universe-level name for the divine compact behind Hero Callings. The name and the compact's existence are committed here; only the explicitly deferred detail questions in the fact list below remain unsettled.

Scope

This file owns the universe-scope mechanism, history, and divine contract behind the Hero Calling and the Accord of Intervention by which gods of this setting are permitted to summon, mark, or empower mortal heroes to resist demon waves. It also owns the cross-game classification split between cleanly marked Called heroes, Corebound anchor-drawn arrivals, common-language hero speech, and merely descriptive no-mark wording. Specific Game 1 instances remain game-local; this file documents the cross-game structure those instances inherit from.

Facts

Fact: The Accord of Intervention is a divine compact permitting summoning and marking of heroes to resist demon waves

The Accord is the cross-game contract under which gods of this setting may reach across the divine layer into the mortal world to call, summon, mark, or empower mortal heroes against demon-origin pressure. It is the structural reason a Hero Calling is possible at all; without the Accord, divine intervention against demons would either be barred or unrestrained.

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-divine-layer.md, ul-shroud.md, ul-demon-cycle.md

Fact: A Calling is not automatic; it requires a god or divine agent acting under the Accord's terms

A Calling does not happen as a natural consequence of demon pressure. Some divine actor — a god, a vessel acting on a god's behalf, or a divine agent — must invoke the Accord and pay its cost. This is why Callings are rare events keyed to specific historical crises rather than constant features of the setting.

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-divine-layer.md, ul-shroud.md

Fact: A clean Calling produces a Called hero carrying a recognizable divine signature that the Shroud partially blocks from demon sight

A mortal who has received a clean Calling is Called: the strict cosmology class for a hero successfully marked under the Accord's terms. Called heroes carry a divine mark perceptible to other divinely-attuned senses. The Shroud partially shields this mark from demon-origin perception, which is one of the structural reasons Called heroes are effective: demons cannot cleanly identify them at a distance the way they identify ordinary mortals.

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-shroud.md, ul-divine-layer.md, ul-demon-cosmology.md

Fact: Corebound is the hard-canon label for the delayed or anchor-pulled pattern without a clean divine mark

Corebound names the shared-canon pattern in which a mortal is drawn toward a Wardheart or Nexus without having received a clean, fully-paid Calling. The anchor exerts pull, but the normal Called mark never resolves. Corebound and Called are therefore distinct classifications: Called names the clean marked class; Corebound names the anomalous anchor-bound pattern without a completed mark. The pattern itself is universe scope. Any specific game's instance of that pattern remains game-local.

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md, ul-divine-layer.md, ul-shroud.md, ud-soul-capacity-growth.md

Fact: Hero is common language, not a strict cosmology class

Hero is the common, player-facing, and mortal-public word for figures who stand against demon-crisis pressure. It is useful surface language, but it is not the formal classification word inside the cosmology. Structural documents distinguish Called and Corebound where that distinction matters; surface memory, chronicles, and rumor often collapse those differences into "hero."

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-divine-layer.md, ul-demon-cycle.md

Fact: Unmarked is descriptive, not a formal class

Unmarked describes the absence of a clean Called mark. It is not a cosmology class, not a replacement label for Corebound, and not a separate hero type. A mortal may be described as unmarked because they were never Called, because a mark failed to attach, or because observers cannot perceive what happened. Structural classification uses Called and Corebound; unmarked remains descriptive speech.

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-divine-layer.md, ul-shroud.md

Fact: The Calling has been invoked multiple times across the setting's history

The Accord has been invoked across multiple eras and on multiple continents. The history of Callings is older than any single game's timeline; ruins, oral histories, and old inscriptions across the setting attest to prior Callings that resolved or failed to resolve their respective crises.

Canonicity: hard canon Cross-refs: ul-demon-cycle.md, ul-cosmology.md

Fact: The Accord has constraints; the god invoking it pays a cost

A god who invokes the Accord pays a cost — most commonly Shroud-thickening or vessel cost. The act of reaching across the divine boundary to mark a hero spends divine resource, which is one reason gods do not invoke Callings casually or for ordinary threats.

Canonicity: soft canon Cross-refs: ul-shroud.md, ul-divine-layer.md

Fact: The Accord's terms are not known to mortal scholars, only its effects

Mortals can observe that Callings happen and can read the marks on Called heroes after the fact, but the structural terms of the Accord — what gods are bound to and what they exchange to invoke it — are not legible to mortal scholarship. Mortal accounts of the Accord are necessarily partial and reconstructive.

Canonicity: soft canon Cross-refs: ul-divine-layer.md, ul-shroud.md

Fact: The mechanism by which a Calling marks a hero is not yet committed

The exact metaphysical change inside a Called hero — what physically or spiritually changes in the marked individual at the moment of Calling — is left as a deferred question. Authoring of game content must not depend on a specific mechanism until this is resolved.

Canonicity: proposed

Fact: Whether a hero can refuse a Calling is bible-only

Whether a mortal can decline an invocation of the Accord is reserved as bible-only material. It is not surfaced in any player-facing content and is not used to drive game mechanics until promoted out of bible-only tier.

Canonicity: bible-only

Fact: Whether multiple heroes can be Called simultaneously is bible-only

Whether the Accord permits more than one mortal to be Called for the same crisis, and what the consequences of simultaneous Callings would be, is reserved as bible-only material.

Canonicity: bible-only

Fact: An organized order of Called heroes predated the current era

There was, in a prior era, an organized order of Called heroes that operated across the setting and is attested in ruins, inscriptions, and oral history. The name of this order is deferred per Wave 0 and must not be invented; this file refers to it only as "the old order of Called heroes" or "the heroes of the previous Calling" until the canonical name is committed.

Canonicity: soft canon Cross-refs: ul-demon-cycle.md, ul-cosmology.md

Cross-references

• ul-divine-layer.md
• ul-shroud.md
• ul-demon-cycle.md
• ul-demon-cosmology.md
• ul-cosmology.md
• ul-wardhearts-and-nexuses.md
• ud-soul-capacity-growth.md