Military

Whirlpool has no national land forces (though many nobles have their own private armies). Technically speaking, royalty could force a united front by activating the bindings placed on all governmental figures and assuming direct control, but it has never come to this.
Overall, the nation has made a massive effort to not need a military: while they have the theoretical capacity to utterly dominate the seas, they instead choose to form good relations with other cultures when possible and maximize the spread of Contractors. This is deemed a lot more cost-effective: Whirlpool itself is utterly unassailable due to its eponymous geographical defenses, and Northport has the ancient curse on it which sabotages any annexation attempts. Several small settlements along the western edge of the continent are also nominally Whirlpool. So they've got rest stops and control over both ends of the most important sea-based trade route in all the continent. What else could they ask for? Contractors work best in foreign cultures, and their information (and Will) gathering is far more useful to the royalty than not paying some import taxes.