Okoi City-States

The Okoi city-states are not a nation in the conventional sense. They hold no contiguous territory, share no border, and govern nothing collectively except the terms under which they deal with the world. What they share is the Hammer Accord, a confederacy of city-state leaders that coordinates Okoi leverage across the continent, and the shared understanding that each city-state’s independence is worth more than any alliance that would compromise it.

There are six city-states on the Remnant Continent: Kolvrath, Duvrak, Ashveth, Halvrak, Kethvar, and Thirkoth. Each is independent. Each governs itself, maintains its own military, and negotiates its own local relationships. The Accord convenes when matters require collective decision: trade terms that affect all city-states, threats too large for one city to handle, or disputes between city-states that cannot be resolved locally. Outside of those matters, each city-state is its own authority.

For daily life, law, and civic culture within any Okoi city-state, see Okoi Culture.

Geography

The six city-states are positioned across four of the continent’s five nations. No city-state sits in Kyr’Elian territory — the archipelago’s geography offers no mountain foundations of the kind the Okoi build on. Every other nation has at least one Okoi city-state within or near its borders, which is not coincidence. The spread gives the Accord continental reach without requiring territorial control.

Three of the six city-states are in Gankoran territory. This concentration reflects a longer history than the post-Migration settlement patterns of the Janim and Nyl. The Anamor and Okoi are both peoples native to the continent, and the absence of organized hostility between them in the early post-Migration period allowed the Okoi to hold positions in Gankoran terrain that would have been contested elsewhere. The relationship has deepened over centuries. Gankora treats the city-states within its territory as neighbors with standing, not anomalies to be managed.

Relations

Gankora: The most functional relationship any nation maintains with the Accord. The United Anamor Nation does not claim sovereignty over the three city-states in its territory and has never formally pressed the question. The Okoi do not participate in UAN governance and do not ask to. What exists instead is a working relationship built on mutual recognition: Okoi forge output moves through Gankoran trade routes, and the city-states’ defensibility adds to the security of the regions they occupy.

Dosharen: Transactional and carefully managed. Thirkoth’s position between Ahjis, Narimis, and Jashirith gives it access to three distinct house economies simultaneously, which means three houses with independent reasons to keep the relationship functional. The Dosharen council cannot deal with the Accord as a unit — the Accord does not negotiate internal Dosharen politics — so each house negotiates with Thirkoth directly. This suits Thirkoth.

Lithywae: Formal and stable. The Empire respects demonstrated strength, and Kolvrath has demonstrated it consistently. The city-state’s position in the northern range carries strategic value the Empire has found easier to acknowledge than to challenge. Relations are not warm. They are reliably functional, which in Lithywae’s political climate is its own form of respect.

Shejara: Indirect and commercially active. Kethvar’s river access to Nashira makes it the primary conduit for Okoi metalwork entering Shejaran trade networks. House Dajimir has never attempted to assert authority over Kethvar and has never been given a reason to. The Accord and Shejara maintain no formal diplomatic relationship. They maintain a trade relationship, which is more durable.