The Circle States

Capital: None

Ruler: None

Government: Various

Primary Races: Human, Wood Elf, Halfling

Primary Language: Imperial Common

Regional Bonus: Gilded Tongue - Living by their cut-throat ways and valuing gold before gods, the Circle States are devoted to the religion of profit, giving you a +2 racial bonus to Appraise and Bluff.

Regional Feat:Scion of the Circle

Description

A loose federation of fifteen independent city-states that lies along the circumference of the Stormcradle, they are known for infighting, intrigue, and wealth.  Without any one ruler, they lack the ability to marshal their combined power for anything short of halting an invasion, but the one time their hand was forced, they humbled the greatest fleet of Pirate Lords in living memory.

Every race has a presence amongst the "cirks" and their ships reach every open port in the world.  Individual cities choose their rulers in a fashion most suited to their history and culture, but it almost always ends up being a matter of who has the most money.  All growth amongst the cities is fueled by the ingrained desire to be better than the other member states.  ThoughWhisthavenis technically one of the States, most consider it an independent entity due to its power, resources, and the radically different culture it espouses.

History

Following the fall of the Orodravian, there was a century of hardship before the races of Faengleis were prepared to truly master their world.  During these diamond times, settlers from all races and lands spread out to the frontiers.  New nations were founded and many lost their lives pushing back the wilderness, but around the circumference of the warm, shallow, tempest-wracked body of the Stormcradle a certain type of settler came.  These were men and women who braved the gnashing fangs of wave and lightning to carve out new homes free of the restrictions of their motherlands.

Driven by a need to innovate and a lust for profit, these settlers began at Hornpoint in AG 166 and--over the next two centuries--ringed the inner ocean with a network of powerful mercantile city-states that could move anything anywhere for a price.  Since that time, the so-called Circle States have existed almost as a polity to themselves, with a labyrinthine web of alliances, hostilities, and economic ties between hundreds of noble houses and thousands of merchants across the fifteen cities.

Foreign Relations

The cities of the Circle States live and die on foreign trade, unable to sustain their disproportionate populations on local resources even if they converted their merchant fleets into fishing vessels.  They compete ferociously with one-another as well as with the halflings of theConfederacy and the shipping fleets ofAmantara andSthalafar.  Though each has primary exports based on their location, the lions share of their merchant traffic is as middle-men, buying goods where they're common and transporting them to where they're rare for a profit.

City Statistics