Pact of Ice and Fire

## Affiliation

Hyperion

The **Pact of Ice and Fire** was a treaty of friendship that established an alliance between Tox and Zerg.

It was signed during Dragonhollow's Third Era and was renewed in the eras to follow.

Their official slogan—*HULLLPP!*—became a long running in-joke between the two often at the expense of the rest of the community.

# History

### Third Era

   The two men first met on 3E:56 when Tox discovered The Hive, the gigantic labyrinthine home of Zerg, during his extensive travels of the Northlands for the Northlands Mapping Project.

They entered into a lucrative trading relationship, with Tox providing mass quantities of fish and nether items in return for agricultural goods.

After putting the matter to a vote with his fellow residents, Tox opened Golden Glen's fish and gold farms to Zerg on 3E:70.

When Zerg came under attack from MTL and Elite, he reached out to Tox in order to form a partnership. They quickly drew up terms for the alliance and met at The Hive to sign *HULP*, a written agreement that made their new **Pact of Ice and Fire** official.

The treaty called for:

* Full trust over all property
* Open trade below market price
* Military support when needed

   Tox was fully trusted to The Hive and Zerg was fully trusted to Tox's Cabin and Underhang below it. Though Zerg was not granted completed full trust to Golden Glen because Tox was only part-owner, he was one of the few non-residents to be granted access to the walled community.

Their cooperation was especially interesting considering they were technically on opposite sides of the Northham Wars. Tox was a member of the Justice League and Zerg was an ally and supplier for the Dragonslayers.

The Hive fell into the hands of Sharkberries and Boo after a Zerg took a prolonged absence. Tox helped negotiate its return to Zerg, but he chose to start over in the wilderness. In the last weeks of the Third Era, Tox worked with Zerg on the SuperSpawner Project.

### Fourth Era

   When the Northlands were abandoned and a dystopian Dark Age was ushered in, Tox took an extended leave from Dragonhollow, but Zerg finally convinced him to return on 4E:98.

Zerg showed him Bearcote Key, a flower forest island eight kilometers west of Summergate with abandoned manufactories and farms. Together they created the seaside community of Westwater and developed it into an industrial center.

Westwater and the pact's history was humorously referenced in the satirical book *Everfroze: Or How the Heck Tox Found Snowcrest*, portraying Tox as a complete fool kept alive thanks to and barely tolerated by Zerg.

### Badlands

    When Eris opened travel to the Badlands in the final days of the Fourth Era, Zerg and Tox built a small bunker in The Rim. Following several days of mining, they stumbled into the tunnels of the Archpriest HyperSilence and established peaceful relations with him. The man extended them an invitation to join his new faction Hyperion and they accepted, breaking ground on the new fortress of Stony Sands.

### Fifth Era

    As the Fifth Era began, the duo remained members of Hyperion, moving from place to place in Pandora while being constantly pursued by their old Badlands nemesis, the Merry Men.

In recognition of their years of friendship, Zerg crafted Toxic Death on 5E:6 and gifted it to Tox.

On 5E:8 they settled with HyperSilence in what would become known as Murica. After being infiltrated by the Merry Men, HyperSilence and Tox traveled many kilometers away to construct Clay Canyon, leaving Zerg to make Murica his personal home.

After a prolonged absence and the destruction of both Murica and Clay Canyon by split fragments of the comet Eschaton, Zerg joined Tox and HyperSilence as they led him on an eighty kilometer elytra flight to Hyperion's new base of operations, Hyperion Heights. There, the two men worked side by side to rebuild and restore what he'd lost and increase the material wealth of Hyperion.

### Eighth Era

    Many years later during the Eighth Era, Tox and Zerg reunited on the planet Halfast, renewing their old treaty and cooperating once more.

In doing so, they both fell victim to their former Merry Men foe Jrod. At Tox's request Zerg joined a tour of Iolanthe at the conclusion of which he was murdered. Later, Zerg lost his elytra and other valuable gear in The End and Tox mounted an expedition to retrieve it, but died to an ambush from Jrod before he could do so.

When Zerg had to step away from day-to-day activities on Halfast, Tox looked after his plains metropolis MFZ.

*HULP*, the Pact's treaty book, was later indexed in Retro's library at the Silo.

# Full Text of Treaty

**Treaty of Tox & Zerg**

June 25, 2014

We live and fight enemies in harmony,

for this night and all the nights to come.

We are the pickaxes in the darkness,

the miners in the mine.

What is dead may never HULP!!!

—Moxicology

—zerg007x

# Behind the Scenes

*The following is out-of-universe information about the real world Dragonhollow.*

The pact's name is a reference to George R. R. Martin's *A Song of Ice and Fire* series of epic fantasy novels, of which the *Game of Thrones* television series is based. Both zerg and Tox are avid readers of the books and discuss them regularly.

The treaty text itself is based on the vows of the Night's Watch and the anointment rituals of the Drowned God priests.