Torue Albes

The Torue Albes are a loose association of islands not dissimilar to the Free Cities on mainland Terrinoth, consisting of four major lands and countless lesser islands, many uninhabited or used as secretive smuggling ports. As former colonies of Lorimor freed of the empire’s rule, they form an ecosystem, helping one another in what ways they can and creating a system of reliance born more from necessity than family bonds or honor. While relatively independent fromeach other, they do recognize the authority of a single queen, whose court is held in the city of Dallak on the main island of Alben.

DALLAK
The capital of the Torue Albes (if such a thing could be claimed), this city lies between the Firecloud Range and the Mountains of Ash along the main inland trade route across Alben. Calling it a capital might be a stretch, though. The Queen of Dallak is ostensibly the supreme authority in the Torue Albes, her title passed down from when the islands broke from Lorimor during the empire’s great civil war. What this means in practice is essentially the authority to levy taxes and collect tolls at major trade crossings, including Dallak itself. The Bog of Vipers also flanks the city, making travel a perilous proposition for any who would avoid paying the Queen’s Toll on their way north to Trelton or south to Garnott.

While not the most dependable means of making money, these privileges have nonetheless made Dallak the wealthiest city in the area. The Queen’s Guard in particular is capable of levying special taxes to bludgeon opponents of the queen into submission with economic penalties. In the rough world of the Torue Albes, money is well worth killing over, and the members of the Queen’s Guard rank as some of the most elite infantry in the region.

The queen’s influence extends to every aspect of Dallak, so much so that it is as much an organ of royalty as the monarch herself. When the drums of war begin to beat, the queen may issue a decree of privateering and grant clemency to any pirate crew (or anyone else interested) willing to fight and plunder
under the flag of the Albesian Royal Navy.