Pact of the Iron Ring

The Pact of the Iron Ring was an hour-long ritual designed to strengthen the bond between members of the Warlock Knights of Vaasa. The ritual required each Knight to display their ironfell ring and to swear an oath to all other Knights present. This oath could range from a pledge of loyalty to a promise to accomplish some task.

Effects
A Knight who swore an oath as part of the Pact of the Iron Ring was bound by their words for all time. A Knight who broke or otherwise failed to uphold their oath would be labeled "pactbroken" by their peers, and was stricken by the pactbroken curse. This curse was a magical disease which manifested as a parasite that lodged in the pactbroken's brain, and could not be removed by any natural means. The curse was fatal, and upon death the pactbroken's body would disintegrate into purple-tinged iron dust.

Both the compulsion of the pact and the effects of the curse could be reversed with the remove affliction ritual. It was also possible to secretly exclude an oath-taker from the pact, or to withhold one's own oath, during the ritual itself. Knights who did so were not bound by the pact even though they appeared to be.

Components
Enacting the ritual required each participants to be a wearer of an ironfell ring, the distinctive calling-card of the Warlock Knights. The rings of participating Knights had to be presented for all to see, and would glow a dark purple as the oath was sworn.

History
The Pact of the Iron Ring was introduced sometime after the Spellplague when the Warlock Knights were founded after discovering the body of the primordial called Telos. The pact was the most famous of the many rituals that the Warlocks were able to perform using ironfell.