Interspeciel Council of Civilised Life-forms

Background
Until about 400 years before the writing of this book, the gnomic scholars of Amertod established that a civilised species was one that had discovered the use of and fully understood magic. But four centuries ago the gnomish central city was simultaneously visited by ‘ambassadors’ from the dwarven Havenpleck, the elven civilisations of Vrenitë and the twin Varae, and several dozen Human city-states. They argued that they had built cities, empires and had sophisticated modes of transport, but according to the gnomic system, they were not civilised.

The elder gnomic scholars agreed that, yes, the other species of the Abar-Nerodic peninsula did seem moderately tame, and that, yes, they would look into a new system. They were quite embarrassed at their misunderstanding, as the gnomic definition of civilisation was severely outdated, and the vast majority of the gnomic race had never given a thought to this system that had been put in place so long ago.

So was formed the Interspeciel Council of Civilised Life-forms (I2CLF), which at the time of its creation included the gnomes, the elves, the humans, and the dwarves. All species belonging to the Interspeciel Council are taught the use and understanding of magic, in order to promote equality and fairness between species. However, certain species are innately more skilled at the arcane manipulation of the six magical essences, and so most supremely skilled mages are gnomes or elves. But every species is more or less capable of magic. Over the years many invitations to join the Interspeciel Council have been sent out, more notably to most orco-goblinoid species, subterranean elves (who are wholly different to surface elves and were not originally on the council), yuan-ti, and giants, and most were accepted.

Criteria
There are five criteria that a species has to fulfil before being sent an invitation to join the Interspeciel Council of Civilised Life-forms:


 * The species in question has to have more than 20 members


 * The species in question has to be able to communicate in a way that is distinguished by at least half of the present members of the Interspeciel Council as speech
 * The species has to have invented a form of written communication independently of other species.
 * The species in question has to be capable of learning and speaking at least one of the official languages of the Interspeciel Council (to render translation and communication between species possible)
 * The species in question has to be bipedal (this rule is under serious dispute, and there is no evidence that bipedality would influence capacity to think)

Emblem
The modern-looking icon of the I2CLF was made by a gnome, and therefore is biased towards gnomeship. It depicts four coloured rings, signifying the ffour original species on the council, joined by black lines, meaning that the gnomes are supposedly ‘pulling’ the other member species out of the darkness of primordiality. The colours and their significances are inscribed in the table below.