Covenant

The Covenant was an alliance of mages whose aim was the promotion of peace between the northern kingdoms of Faerûn and to prepare them for future conflicts with the orcs.

Four Founders
The School of Wizardry in Neverwinter was founded in 457 DR by four mages, Aganazzar, Ilyykur, Presper and Grimwald. They began taking on apprentices from all over the continent. Over 200 years later in the Year of the Covenant (673 DR) the powerful mages formed the organization named after the year. They gathered powerful mages to their side and based themselves in the School.

The Uthgardt Alliance
In 705 DR they began to manipulate the various Uthgardt tribes. By the end of the season, all the tribes stood united and ready to battle the goblinoids of the Savage Frontier. These Uthgardt were tasked, in 715 DR, to hunt down and kill as many orc chieftains as possible. 20 were eliminated over the next five years, preventing the formation of a horde. Another 80 years passed and the Alliance went from victory to victory over orc and goblinoid forces but heavy losses, including the almost complete annihilation of the Elk Tribe caused the dissolution of the Alliance in 802 DR.

Orcgates Affair
The Covenant lost a great amount of prestige in 955 DR when, after a huge army from all the settlements of the North gathered to combat an orc horde from the Spine of the World on the say-so of the Covenant, the horde failed to appear.

Against the Red Wizards
In 976 DR the Covenant discovered the involvement of the Red Wizards of Thay in the Orcgates Affair that was so disasterous to their reputation and started to subtly work against them. Their plans were set back when a senior member of the Covenant, Ruelve, went insane and slew Ilyykur, one of the Four Founders in 1063 DR. The Red Wizards also discovered the Covenant's hand in some of the problems they had been experiencing over the last century and, enraged, they attacked the Neverwinter School of Wizardry in 1081 DR. During the assault, Aganazzar was killed, sparking a wizardwar of epic proportions. After 20 years of open conflict, in 1101 DR Presper and Grimwald left Faerûn through portals, trying to take as many Red Wizards as they could with them. They lead them into magical traps and ambushes but didn't come back themselves, leading the Thayans to believe the Covenant destroyed. The remaining Covenant members went underground.

Resurgence
The Wizard Savengriff, a former member of the Company of Crazed Venturers, travelled the planes for a while after he had been killed by a beholder and subsequently raised from the dead. While travelling, he met Presper and Grimwald and the three of them agreed to reform The Covenant. Savengriff returned to Faerûn in 1372 DR to lay the foundations for such a task, but this time the group would be based in Waterdeep instead of Neverwinter. Though the group had forged alliances with the Harpers, the Moonstars and the Guardians of the Weave, they were not noted as having made any impact on the orcs of the North since returning there.