Once each season, the captains of the Thornwood Covenant gather in a hidden hollow to settle disputes, share intelligence, and vote on matters of common survival — the closest the Verge outlaws come to government.
counciloutlawsdemocracysurvival
The location of the Thornmoot changes with every meeting — never the same hollow twice — decided by runners who carry word through the Verge in the days before. No captain commands another, but the moot's decisions are binding on pain of exile. Guild informants pay handsomely for the moot's location, but betraying it is the Covenant's one unforgivable crime. The moot's symbol is a thorn-circle, scratched into bark or stone, and to follow it is to declare oneself outside imperial law.