The United Free Nations is a confederation of seven sovereign city-states occupying the open country between the Sharabha savanna to the north, the Jungles of Godahi to the east and south, the Foxborne valleys to the southwest, and the haunted remnants of Old Tolaria to the west. Each city-state retains its own laws, militia, and trade arrangements; the confederation holds authority only over collective defense, shared road maintenance, and inter-city disputes escalated to neutral arbitration.
The seven cities confederated from pragmatic necessity. Surrounded by the Sharabha, Da Trang, Innerrim, Qet Yemani, and the unpredictable Faesong bleed out of Old Tolaria, an uncoordinated collection of independent cities would have been absorbed or vassalized within a generation. The pact is old enough that most residents have no memory of its formation, though the city-states have never resolved the internal tensions that make Federal Council sessions contentious—chiefly the ongoing crisis over the Zodine river.
The Federal Council
The Council convenes quarterly in rotating host cities; permanent delegates from each city-state sit in session year-round. There is no standing confederation army and no unified treasury—defense draws on member militias under a mutual-aid treaty, and infrastructure costs are apportioned by city-state wealth. Erdel's delegates contest that formula more reliably than any other agenda item.
The Zodine Crisis
The Zodine river drains through the confederation's interior and once supplied water to several member settlements. Erdel's dye industry—which processes jungle plants into textile pigments—discharged unregulated effluent into the Zodine over several decades, completely poisoning it. The settlement of Donokasi, dependent on Zodine water, was abandoned after its population could no longer safely drink or farm. Donokasi's ruins remain the confederation's sharpest political wound: Alacayir and Kalemeydani have repeatedly demanded reparations, while Erdel's delegates argue the dye trade's revenue funds the shared road network that benefits every member city.
Member City-States
Alacayir is the confederation's principal river port, positioned to levy tolls on goods moving through the interior waterways. It has become the de facto advocate for Donokasi's displaced residents and holds the most aggressive posture toward Erdel in Council proceedings.
Ataç is the southernmost city-state, sitting at the confederation's border with the lands to the south. Its fortifications were built jointly by all seven city-states as one of the confederation's first collective projects, giving it an unusual pan-confederal character unique among the member cities.
Cirstin holds the western approaches against Old Tolaria. It maintains a small corps of warding practitioners who patrol the border to prevent Faesong bleed from Old Tolaria's shattered leylines from destabilizing the confederate interior.
Diskaya is the confederation's largest market city, astride the main road running east toward Da Trang. Its merchant guilds operate the most extensive trading network within the confederation and are the primary financiers of Council road projects.
Erdel produces the finest dye pigments in the region, harvesting jungle plants from the confederation's southern fringes and processing them along the Zodine's tributary branches. Its economic output funds a disproportionate share of confederation infrastructure, a leverage its delegates deploy freely in Council.
Gherdikhisar serves as the informal cultural capital—home to the confederation's oldest continuous records, its largest library, and the only neutral arbitration court recognized by all seven cities.
Kalemeydani is the northeastern city-state, positioned at the frontier nearest the eastern jungles. It maintains the largest standing militia of any member city and functions as the confederation's primary military buffer against the powers pressing from the east.
Geographic Notes
Micah Inlet cuts into the confederation's eastern edge, providing sheltered anchorage for coastal traders. It is nominally administered by the nearest city-state but treated in practice as shared confederation territory.
Donokasi once stood along the Zodine; its ruins are abandoned, the river still undrinkable. Periodic Council resolutions to fund remediation and resettlement have not passed.