Seven Cities of Krom

The Seven Cities of Krom are a collection of coastal citadels and towns that are inhabited by settled Hobgoblin Clans. They make war upon each other though over the centuries none has been able to gain dominance. Their distance from other settled lands makes the threat of their advancement minimal, though raiding parties are seen occasionally in the neighboring regions where the Minotaur Clans and the Azure Federation have holdings.
In recent years their warring has turned less overt, instead turning into economic battles and struggles to get the most lucrative mercenary contracts, contracts that each city creates hardened companies to go out and fill in the various battles on the continent.
They do not have much in the way of naval forces on their own, instead relying on the Shellspine for shipping, trading and troop movements. The Shellspine are the only ships that are allowed to dock at any of the cities, the suspicion of outsiders being far too strong.
There are non hobgoblins living in their cities, aside from the sizable slave populations. They tend to be traders or military advisors, in some cases actual Mercenary Company Auxiliaries.
They tend to make the most money by selling raw ore and weapons. Weapons of Hobgoblin are widely regarded on the continent.

History

Three hundred years ago the seven cities area was a strong Maritime kingdom called Kromgard that was primarily human. It had strong trading ties with the various kingdoms that would go on to make up the Azure Federation.
At this time the hobgoblins were a scattering of nearly 17 clans fighting themselves and the kingdom as well as raiding the minotaur tribes. During this time, Kromgard was had a strong navy and a small but elite army. Their distance and the mountainous nature of their country made land assault by any large nation incredibly unlikely. The Hobgoblins would fight themselves more then anyone else and were not a threat and their strong navy held off any threat of pirates or enemy navies.
Rising among the hobgoblin tribes however was a Warchief known as Grockrog of the clan Jugran. Over the course of fifteen years he had been building up his forces, destroying and absorbing other smaller tribes with brute force.
Whenever he had amassed a large enough force he threw down a challenge, the leaders of the 17 clans would meet with him and they would hear what he had to say or he would conquer them. They would be destroyed utterly and left out of whatever he had planned.
13 clans came to the gathering and heard his words. He declared that they would fall under his banner and he would lead them to conquer. Ten clans pledged to him that day, the leaders of the other three clans would not make it home.
In four years Grockkrog with the strength of eleven clans at his back crushed every single other clan, killing every male and taking the women as slaves before burning their settlements to the ground and salting the earth.
Ten years after the last settlement burned, the clans were forged into a mighty host. To keep the infighting down he let the clans keep their own forces but kept them under his iron fisted command. He raised his banner for war upon Kromgard, promising the wealth of the cities and their fertile lands as well as slaves for every warrior.

It was a brutal campaign, the army of Kromgard fought back as hard as it could. It even went so far as to hire a mercenary company of survivors from destroyed hobgoblin clans. In the end however, they were not equipped to deal with an invasion of this magnitude and one by one their cities fell.
They gave as good as they got, the clans paid in blood for every step they took. Entire cities were razed to the ground before the clans could get to them, fields and livestock slaughtered. In the end, through attrition, disease and starvation there where only seven whole clans left standing but Kromgard was no more.
The navy was able to escape, they evacuated a huge amount of civilians and the remnants of the army to the kingdom of Glernor. That fleet proved to be the base for the mighty fleet for the Azure Federation in years to come. A federation that came to be soon after directly due to the fall of Kromgard. Also lost was the Wayward shipyards, a large navy shipyard and base in the wayward isles that was overrun and taken over by a group of goblins that would become the Shellspines.
With the goal achieved and the nation in ruins around them, the clans stood on the brink of yet another war as Grockrogs control wavered in the face of starvation and disease. Grockrog called the remaining generals of their clans together, now called legions and directed them to the settle far from each other and live off the remnants. He allowed them all the slaves they had taken as well as some from his own spoils to make them as even as they could be, to work the land and the mines for their new masters and rebuild their homes for them.
He also broke up the remnants of the destroyed clans that had marched with them, distributing them evenly among the cities that slowly rose up. Each city taking on the name and the feel of the Legion inhabiting it.
Over time they made contact with the Shellspines, trade and other deals arising from that. The Shellspines would end up doing the bulk of the work when it came to defending the shores of the Hobgoblins new home with the Legions having little desire to field a navy for themselves.
After the first few winters the cities stabilized, the slave population slowly becoming self replacing (though the slave markets in the cities thrived regardless) and with that stabilizing slave population came newfound power for the city states.
Which immediately led to war.
Over the course of the last three centuries the city states have fought enumerable amount of times, never able to fully conquer each other with their strength being far too evenly matched. Even with what alliances were briefly formed, the same natural defenses that had kept the nation protected for so long kept the city states protected against anything less than a like invasion.

Currency Steel Based: Half inch thick steel pinched squares. (Literally cut from ingots of steel) 100 bits make up an Ing. Each city stamps its own sigil on their bits but all cities accept the others currency.


Acceptance of outside currency: They generally accept outside currency but the exchange rate is hardly a set thing, depending on the buyer and the ability for the seller to use that currency. An example would be the difference between a store owner that has little outside trade, they would have no need for the gold sigils of the Azure Federation. While a slave trader or a Shellspine trader would see that as equal currency for most situations.

Shellspine
The Shellspine is a giant heap of stone, wood and detritus that rises high into the air on one of the far western islands in the Solags Folly archipelago. Winding streets crawl up the heap at steep angles with sharp switchbacks, curving around large triangular buildings that thrust out of the rock. Huge dock complexes spiderweb out from the base of the city, a base that is almost entirely surrounded by water aside from a small strip of rock attaching the city to the island. These docks are almost always full of ships flying the flags of every nation on Keskad. The winding streets meet at the top of the cities walls, the walls that then drop straight down 100 meters into the water.

Type

Geopolitical, Country