Gentle, fragrant breezes, and a mild, subtropical climate make Solvos possibly the most attractive nation in all of Crown’s Reach. Solvos’ origins tie to its four city-states, each founded less than three hundred years ago. Originally four simple fortresses made for harboring runaway slaves, Solvos quickly grew in might and reputation, with Freeport being the de-facto capital based on its size and wealth, though that has changed through the years. Rival nation Burgun-Dach routinely protests Crown’s Reach emissaries being sent to treat with “the pirates and thieves permeating Solvos’s mockery of ruling nobility”, but from a business sense it would be foolish to ignore Solvos’ mercantile might. Solvos is also known by some as the Solvan Principality, as well as Nosceana, its traditional name. Every four years, four “Merchant Princes” are elected to rule each of the four main cities—Alegria, Daciana, Freeport, and Libertá—though most believe the guild master of Guildhouse DuTuris, Solvos’ residential mercenary guild, actually controls the voting.
Locale: The southeastern portion of the Thormir Strait and the Silver Sea; borders Ubothor (north) and faces Burgun-Dach (west) across the strait
Banner: Four towers on a quartered field of black and white (2 lavender towers on the black squares, and 2 red towers on the white squares) bordered in lavender silk (amethyst for brooches)
Role: A collective of wealthy, freedom-loving cities beholden to no one; merchants, mercenaries, and mariners welcome! Barely tepid interest in joining Crown’s Reach in any official capacity.
Theme: Turn-of-the-century style collective of coastal city-states bound together through mutual benefit; Victorian fashion meets Venetian luxury. Piracy secretly welcomed (so long as it benefits the bourgeois)!
Ruler: His Undaunted and Indomitable Resolve, Guild-Sovereign Prince Henric Felmor-Mercian DuTuris I
Duchies: None, though the area as a whole is commonly referred to as Nosceana
Capital: Currently Freeport, though Solvos’s capital changes every four years, switching between Freeport and three other cities (Libertá, Daciana, and Alegria)
Cities & Strongholds: Alegria, Castelo Salgado, Castelo Trova, Daciana, Greystone Mount, Horton’s Holdfast, Libertá, Portisa Lisa, Turó Novar
Notable Towns: Black Adder Cove, Broadside, Cirin, Giubiolo, Hambone, Hope, Kenloss, Lagu Cidaje, Nero Alber, Nero Morto, Névoa Escondida, Plins, Poder, Sol Praia, Tres Arvores, Viccia
Landmarks: Amethyst Range, the Black Archipelago, the Blasted Vale, Cloud Valley, Cutter’s Quay, Dead Man’s Reef, Egret’s Aerie, Howlwind Crest, Hurling Bay, Greystone Mountain, the Knucklebones, the Misted Marches, the Noscean Highlands, the Noscean Lowlands, Purple Peak, Red Ridge, Skull Island, Sussuri River, Umbral Island
Exports: You name it, they export it.
Internal Factions: The Bootstrap Brigand Pantomime Coster, the Free Reavers, Guildhouse DuTuris, the Lords of the Dissident Coast (the Slavelords), Moneypenny’s Bawdy Burlesquory, the Proficionate, the Sons of the Scarlet Sword
Old Tongue: Vitala, seemingly borrowed from 19th century Italian, and Portuga, a bastardized derivative of 18th century Portuguese, are prominent
Nobiliary: di (example: Lord Marius di Pardal)
Noble Houses: Almeida, Altamonte, Balsignor, Bellamonte, Blackstock, Brisby, Boulash, Cirin, Covegny, DuTuris (nominally ruling), Encarnacion, Endevor, Evenhand, Feira (Fair), Fulkenglas, Jenkins, Marbrand, Martini, Mattock, Moneypenny, Mondt, Mundt, Pardal (Sparrow), Pearlhouse, Proctor, Ruby, Valentino, Venificio, Vesticci
Faiths: Illumination Reformation (53%), Olympos Athanatoi (21%), Vindici Deorum (12%), Wakhan Shakoi (3%), Apapo Orisha (3%), Deith Diadh (3%), Society for Social and Societal Scientific Advancement (2%), Zvystni Bohova (2%), Other (1%)
This city’s name means “Joy” in its native old tongue of Portuga, and is Solvos’ northernmost city, existing in the Meio Solvos region, just off the Solvan Sea on the shores of the inlet Evida. Dubbed the “Swan City”, Alegria is in fact home to many rare and beautiful swan breeds, and is famed for its art, literature, and aristocratic society. Alegria is considered (at least in its own view) the most cultured, charming city in Solvos, balancing old-fashioned sensibilities with new world opulence. Her wealth is perhaps only second to Freeport’s, though Alegria also maintains a reputation as one of the most pious city in Solvos, with tithes to numerous Illumination Reformation cathedrals given in great amounts (and often quite publicly). It is sometimes joked that even tax collectors stop to tithe before counting their due sums.
Courtship in Alegria is likened to an extended dance in which both partners are expected to tire themselves to exhaustion before any progress can be made, and wooing a young Alegrian lady of good breeding can take many years, especially if her family draws out the process in hopes of a more advantageous match. This has led to some very intricate courting strategies, though has also given rise to what has become an almost shocking number of elopements in the Swan City.
A purple-hued mountain range in northeast Solvos, known for its deceptive beauty. Winds that whistle through the many Amethyst vales reach deadly speeds, especially in autumn, and have been known to destroy entire armies who push too far in. They’re pretty to look at though!
Solvos’s longstanding opposition to slavery takes a knee here in this pirate’s dark dream of an anything-goes trade stop. Can’t find it in Freeport? It’s probably here in Black Adder Cove—the merest nautical trek from Freeport. (Both ports are actually connected via an underground saltwater passage large enough for small galleys to pass.)
Hopefully you find what you need before the slavers and press gangs find you.
This coastal city is actually more inland than most people realize, sitting as it does at the mouth of the Ria Verdi. Daciana is known to be a haven for adventurers, explorers, and other such misanthropes (including most people who have been banned from Alegria’s Lista de Visitantes. 
Even Guildhouse DuTuris has a lessened presence here, and more than a few ex-guildmembers come to Daciana to try and escape DuTuris’ wrath. Though, it is said, nothing escapes the White Tower’s fury.
A bustling, busy city that openly boasts having anything and everything for sale. The fact that it has a tax-and-duty free market endears it to some and angers others—usually its more lawful, taxpaying neighbors of Crown’s Reach. Freeport was Solvos’ first city—a fort made from the wooden bones of a shipwrecked slaver cog, created for mutual defense and survival. Freeport has over the past two centuries ballooned into one of the largest, most sprawling ports in the entire world.
The oldest Solvan city, Libertá is not the coastal power that Freeport is, or even Portisa Lisa, yet is still held in high regard as one of Solvos’ four great cities. It was founded by runaway slaves that had taken over the ship they were being transported in; the ship was grounded ashore, and Libertá was thus born from the skeleton of its hull. These days, Libertá is known as a quiet city with numerous canals and picturesque views of Dócil Baia (Docile Bay).
Perched on the southeasternmost portion of Solvos’s far-reaching territory is a unique little vale called Cloud Valley, and inside the vale is a unique little hamlet: the kite-town of Plins. Though the valley is placed high in the hills beneath Misty Mount (on the clearest days one can see the far off distant haze made by the smokestacks and steam forges of mighty Dhoma), the town is low, tucked into a crevasse that protects it from Cloud Valley’s primary (and most ferocious) element: the wind. Plins has over the years learned to harness the element, and the valley floor is dotted with hundreds of windmills, while the air is filled with kites, balloons, and other wind-powered vehicles. What might seem truly magical to some is simply convention to the people of Plins, but visitors have been known to be so taken by the windborne culture that they soon became residents. 
(Is this sort of like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind? Yes, this is sort of like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.)
Originally called Portimsia Limsia, then Portimsa Limsa, its name has been shortened over the years, leading one ambassador to quip, “One day we’ll dock in the beautiful port of Po Li.” Though second only to Freeport in both size and population, Portisa Lisa has removed itself from the annual politics that determine which Solvan city is to be made the nation’s capital. This is due in large part to the presence of Guildhouse DuTuris, one of the most wide-reaching and ruthless mercenary guilds in the world, which uses the port as a strategic base for controlling access to Solvan waters. And true enough, the white tower of DuTuris is seen nearly as often as Portisa’s black ship, flying boldly upon Portisa Lisa’s crimson banner; even Portisa’s ruler, High Admiral Ygvelda Blevesfyn, is said to defer to DuTuris’ command in times of conflict.
Portisa Lisa is unique in that is it carved from pale seastone, a unique ore that appears like coral and hardens in salt water, but whitens in the sun and takes on a softer, more malleable mien when in the open air for an extended period of time, making it sturdy yet easily shaped for habitation topside.
Less known, Portisa Lisa is the ancestral home of a number of half-orc clans that migrated south; the strong presence of half-orcs in Portisa Lisa and in Guildhouse DuTuris’ ranks proves this, and comes as quite a shock to newcomers accustomed to seeing only humankind in Crown’s Reach cities. Portisa Lisa is also known in some circles as a wayport to those of a wizardly bent (see: Malavan’s gate, below).
A known arcane enclave within the lower city of Portisa Lisa, Malavan’s Gate is known to have an active waygate to more than a few locations, most notably the Academy for Advanced Evocational Excellence on the Isle of Mát. The mages at Malavan’s Gate tirelessly collect magical compilations of all sorts, and are usually left to their own devices. Recently, however, they were infiltrated by members of the secretive Proficionate, and a great deal of arcane and mystical information was stolen.
This secretive organization is an offshoot of the Illumini formed in 1,246 SVC by a rogue gentleman named Baron Philo, a human separatist.
This body of water is said to be so pristine it is akin to polished glass, and the bounties it yields (in fish and in trade) are said to be without limit. Access to and from the Storming Sea, to the north, can only be made through the Silver (via the Thormir Strait), and the nations that call the Silver Sea its sea port inhabit three three of the four greater regions, including Caelarn (Emperyon, Melanois, and Solvos), Ishum-Shen (the free city of Dhoma), and Thalisse (Costa Meridona, Braviosa, and Aragonis). The Silver Sea connects to the Setting Sea via the Shining Strait south of Avalonia, and the Sundered Sound north of Eiris.
Ancestral home of Guildhouse DuTuris, Turó Novar is a tall, stone-walled bastion set before a pass in the Merciless Mounts, a mere day’s ride from Portisa Lisa. In its infancy, Turó Novar was a reliable trading partner with the dwarvish nation of Ubothor, but the dwarves have not been heard from in nearly 200 years, and certain sources blame Turó Novar, claiming a betrayal.
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