Third Council of Romaz

The Third Council of Romaz was a political meeting of Hulti shamans held in 757 in the southern city of Romaz, often seen as the site for political brokering in Malfan. The Council brought together shamans from Malfan (and their chiefs) but for the first time since the Great Purge of 534, also involved Hulti shamans from other Omban successor states. Many of the attendees were masked lest they be found out by their home governments, although it is generally believed that there was, among the inner circle of those organizing the council, a full reckoning of the attendees' identities, or else it would have been far too dangerous to meet at all.

The first Council in 271 had been to establish the limits of Malfander (and Hulti) political and religious freedom in the wake of the partial conquest of Malfan under the Empire. The second Council, held sometime around 540, was an exceptionally secretive meeting in the wake of the Great Purge, aimed at housing and protecting refugees from the various Omban successor states and reaffirming the commitment of the Malfander chiefs to defend religious freedom. The third Council aimed at a different goal - the reestablishment of a modicum of religious freedom in the Omban heartlands themselves, and establishing a set of principles that shamans could endorse for coexistence with the Corps, including allowing saints, bubun, and revenants to exist. Needless to say, this was a highly contentious meeting, with many radical shamans rejecting the possibility that Hulti themselves could enact such a decision without compromising their beliefs. While various agreements were reached, in particular, enshrining religious freedom in Ashnabis and aiming to expand it in Daligash, the Council revealed serious fissures among the most powerful shamans.