The Decision to Refuse
Surrounded by Solarian influence to the west, the Aurum Corridor's economic pressure from the north-south axis, and the Verdant Scar's territorial disputes on all sides, three communities simply declined to participate in any of it. They built walls — literal and legal — and maintained their refusal for two hundred years.
The Thornwall Compact is a mutual defense treaty rather than a unified government. Each city-state is self-governing. What they share is the principle that no external authority has the right to govern them — and the military capacity to make that principle expensive to challenge.
The Integrated Law
The largest free city — Thornwall proper — has the only fully integrated supernatural legal system in Argos. Every species has equal standing and the same courts. Fae from the Verdant Scar occasionally appear in Thornwall markets. Nobody asks questions. Commerce happens.
Fracture ideological sympathizers exist in the Free Cities. The foundational anti-authority philosophy resonates with parts of Fracture doctrine, though the Fracture's methods have no support. The distinction matters to the cities' governance and is sometimes difficult to maintain in practice. Stein has research contacts here. The species-neutral legal environment made certain experiments possible that would have been blocked elsewhere.