They declined requests to join the Divine Empire and charted their own paths to prosperity. They are an eclectic mix of petty states from noble fiefs to mercantile guild towns and even a theocracy or two. Like a large family they squabble and fight only uniting when faced by an external threat. A large number are mercantile and conduct trade between the Divine and Old Empire who are still technically at war. Zilchus the commerce god is popular but each town may have its own patron deity too.
The only consistent thing about them is their inconsistency. They range from the oligarchy of the Republic of Zargoza to autocratic tyrannies like the Hierarchy of Ludoc; from the Theocracy of Ülm, where sinful commerce is carried out solely by gnomes, to the virtual pirate state of Spadoria.
Wealthy and confident they have to be wedged between the two Empires.
