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 from each 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.

## Alben

Alben is the largest of the islands making up the Torue Albes (which in a nearly forgotten tongue means “the Islands of Alben”). It stretches along to the west of the other islands, and was the first to be settled by explorers from Lorimor who dared to venture across the Narrows of Gracor many ages ago. The cities of Alben dominate much of the trade throughout the archipelago, and thus visitors to the Torue Albes are almost certain to arrive here at some point in their journeys.

### 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.

### Garnott

This coastal city borders the Burning Bay, far to the south of Dallak. Life in Garnott is martial and rigidly controlled, making it the perfect home for the premier military training school in the islands: the Torue Albes War Academy. Its graduates invariably become heroes in the Albesian or Lorimor Imperial Navy, having trained for years in every aspect of seamanship and deck fighting. Eschewing armor for the stark uniform of the officers’ corps, they are a striking sight in any sea battle, and more than a match for any upstart privateer.

Garnott is much more defensible than most locations in the Torue Albes. To the north of it lie the Azure Peaks, and would-be seagoing invaders need to get past the Narrows of Gracor, where many a ship ends up smashed against the rocks. Watching over the city are all manner of magical charms, said to be the last gift of a Lorimor emperor whose son perished when his ship was dashed upon the banks.

### Trelton

Trelton is a small coastal city to the north of Dallak and just south of Ulthik Isle, renowned even in Terrinoth for the greatness of its metalsmiths and artificers. The proximity to highgrade materials in Moonraven Heights, Stagwood Forest, and Mount Ulthik—in addition to the patronage of the queen— means that, while it is not a tremendous city in its own right, its place of honor is secured by the sheer number of its weapons that have hacked their way into legend.

Trelton also contains a monastery of sorts—the Fraternity of the Mountain. When smiths and metalworkers first approach the city seeking entrance to learn from its masters, the Fraternity examines them as to the truthfulness of their statements. If their hands are calloused, if they do not flinch in the face of a roaring furnace, if they find nothing wrong with soot and ash, then they are accepted into Trelton and given access to its forges. Food, bed, shelter, and companionship are made available to anyone who stokes fire and counts the moments of their life to the pounding rhythm of the hammer on the anvil, regardless of their origin. Many have journeyed countless leagues to gain entry, practice their craft, repair priceless relics, and create their own masterworks.

## Garnet Island

Resting to the west of Alben, this wide island is bounded by the Cerridor Sea to the south and the Bright Sea to the north. It offers a natural break for travel through the Torue Albes. Among its verdant forests are several small settlements— which mostly conduct illicit smuggling—and only one city. Most visitors, however, would consider Gafford more an explosive testing ground than a proper city.

### Gafford

From a distance, travelers might think there is a violent war underway within Gafford, due to the clouds of smoke and rising flames. Yet, upon entering it, they soon realize that these are simply the product of the locals going about their daily business. Gafford is a city of magical alchemists and base chemists; there is no potion or concoction that cannot be found here in abundance (indeed, many were first developed in one of its heavily fortified mixing dens). The Hollow Woods bordering the city to the north is one of the only places where certain ingredients can be procured, making it the principal destination for students of botany (and, unsurprisingly, poisons). What the residents cannot cultivate locally, they send their ships to procure, making Gafford one of the primary importers of rare minerals and other ingredients from the icy wastes of Isheim and elsewhere.

Gafford’s production, of course, is not limited solely to potions of strength or vigor, but also includes flash bombs, grenades, smoke bombs, shells, and all manner of bizarre reagents. The infamous concoction known in Terrinoth as "Lorimor Fire" is a major export, though the locals keep a much more highly refined and powerful version for special buyers. Explosions are the most common occurrence on the island, requiring a dedicated water brigade to handle the innumerable blazes. If not for the world’s unending desire for its munitions and other compounds, it’s almost certain that Gafford would now be little more than a smoking crater.

For those more inclined toward the pleasurable things in life, Gafford is also renowned for its taverns, masters of alchemy often being masters of the cask and keg as well. Many of its more legendary spirits are the result of accidental mixtures of alchemical and alcoholic brews, some never having been successfully replicated despite years of efforts. A magnum of the legendary Crimson Gaff, in particular, can fetch an ogre’s weight in gold, and there are frequent expeditions to locate the crate of Queen’s Kiss that went missing somewhere on the way to Tamalir.

## Tarianor

The fabled Floating City of Tarianor is the greatest shipyard in the whole of the Torue Albes, if not the world. It is more akin to an island than a city, however. This marvel of engineering was the fevered dream of Captain Eddy Bloodkelp, a Gnome pirate who never had much luck due to her greater interest in nautical engineering than combat and pillaging. After her prey escaped when her ship ran aground on a huge stretch of coral reef, she had a wild vision of a seaport built upon that very reef. It would be a floating island, one that could raise anchor and drift wherever it pleased, or to wherever the most ships happened to be going.

She gathered what was left of her desperate crew and managed to inflame them with her vision. With their combined skills at shipbuilding and engineering, and perhaps a little help from magic, they started work. It took five long years—and the coffers of dozens of equally fevered investors—but finally, the Floating City was open for business.

It was a runaway success. The Queen of Dallak made an offer to turn the Floating City into a proper city of the Torue Albes and declare it the royal shipyard. Eddy would become richer than any pirate and, after leaving much of the daily operations to her first mate, spent her days experimenting on new engineering projects.

Tarianor is now the most valuable shipyard in all the world. The war galleons of Lorimor and the Albesian Royal Navy are produced here, along with vessels for other commercial interests (the Gnome crew still retain a piratical bent, and are generally open to special contracts with no questions asked). It can even act as transportation, ferrying groups with only small riverboats across dangerous open waters to destinations along the western coasts of the continent.

## Tigh Higard

To the north of Garnet Island is rocky Tigh Higard, an irregularly shaped island anchored at the north and south by the Crystal Crags and the Nodan Mountains. A wide river splits these formations, flowing eastward through Shellport, Tigh Higard’s largest city, before emptying into the ocean. It is a rough island with rough climates. Ice and snow cover the tall peaks to the north and south, which are home to terrible creatures that all too often venture downward for food. The plains below are also dangerous, with tall grasses hiding silent reptilian predators and, worse, press-gangs on the coasts ready to kidnap anyone they find into their crews.

Some even whisper that on nights when the moon is blood red, the barriers between worlds begin to warp, and strange things emerge from the undergrowth. Long-dead sailors are said to rise from their graves in search of their lost treasure, and werewolf tribes prowl the beaches for sacrifices to their dark gods. Out beyond Tigh Higard to the west is the Sea of Smoke and deep waters; tales in the Shellport taverns speak of the gigantic aquatic creatures there, some so large as to be mistaken for islands themselves.

### Shellport

In contrast to the rest of Tigh Higard, Shellport is devoted to pleasure, a port city that gives hard-worn sailors and traveling adventurers rest and fun before going off to their next destination. Taverns abound, along with plentiful distractions to separate visitors from their coins. Shellport is a place to make merry, but also a place of opportunity.

The constant flux of sailors passing through means there is always word of new treasures to be found, and maps to them to be purchased. A few are accurate, while some may lead to even richer (though more perilous) rewards. New expeditions seem to form in the taverns each night, their members sailing off to unexplored lands or venturing to the north in the hope of finding new trade passages. Armed groups assemble regularly in here to march against the terrors in the mountains and tame their numbers, a never-ending quest that sometimes reaps benefits when they discover forgotten hoards of magical items or the frozen bodies of dragons and other valuable creatures.

## Ulthik Isle

The northernmost island of the Torue Albes, Ulthik Isle is an inhospitable marshland barely above sea level. A small volcanic mountain chain rises from the mire, but the rest of the terrain is thoroughly wet and unpleasant, as though the surrounding waters were winning the battle to reclaim the land. Were it not for the purity of the many ores to be found here, it is likely it would have remained uninhabited. Those ores, from rich iron deposits to thick veins of magical minerals, have transformed the island into a hotbed of industry. Furnaces and soot-stained workshops stud the face of Hardell, its primary city, which competes with the volcanoes and their constant fumes to see which can produce more noxious gases.

### Hardell

The city of Hardell saw its beginnings when a wizard tinkerer was banished from his home in Terrinoth for the excessive destruction caused by his inventions. The exiled mage made his lonely way here, expecting nothing but an uneventful life. That was, until he accidentally discovered the plentiful raw materials under his feet. Soon he was smelting and forging items of metal and magic never before imagined. Word spread of his creations, especially to nearby Trelton, and similarly eccentric and outcast inventors eagerly crossed the Winnowing Straits to join him.

Soon, a series of forges and smelters rose up, and the city of Hardell (named to honor the wizard) was born. It is a place of destructive wonders, where the wizard’s genius is now recognized in full. His masterpiece is perhaps the Rune Cannon, an arcane weapon that magnified the strength of runic bolts a hundredfold, capable of blasting apart rock and heavy fortifications with ease. In addition to the Rune Cannon, an endless number of devices and mechanical contraptions can be found here, many singular creations awaiting someone to fully appreciate their potential (or figure out how to use them). Adventurers seeking specific items or modifications to existing ones for their latest quest are always welcome in Hardell, for its inhabitants always appreciate a good challenge.