Varia

Allied coastal nation of five recently united shirelands, where the Orathi refugees
fled in the 1360s–70s and were welcomed. United in 1381 under Queen Amelia
Bloodworth (four shires willing, one by force). Known for spycraft (House
Bloodworth's networks) and questionable naval activity (House Mayfore's corsairs —
"little more than approved pirates"). Varia has something to prove to the world.

• Port Quaybay — the port where the campaign began (1396); staging ground for
  the reclamation
• Taxes: 1% of wealth per quarter (4%/year), strictly enforced — audits use Zone of
  Truth; the Firebrand Church voluntarily pays the higher "noble" rate;
  Taximus Maximus collects
• Religious texts survived the Final Empire's book-burnings here better than almost
  anywhere (see World History)
• 1393: Varia sent an exploratory mission to Orathos. It did not return.
• Signatory of The Coalition reclamation pact (1395)

Session 5

• Footed the expedition's final free-gear bills (weapons, armor, supplies — "once
  you're at the island, the freebies stop"), down to a single Alchemist's Fire worth
  10–15 soldiers' equipment.
• Per the Firebrand officer Pam: the Queen of Varia among the war planners on
  The Expedition Ship is a decoy — "I don't think anyone knows where our
  queen is, so she's safe. If she survived the old empire, she'll survive anything."

Session 8

• Queen Amelia Bloodworth is personally paying every traveler's road tax on
  Orathos — file a form at a Varian embassy, get a receipt. Silithane's
  professional appraisal: Firebrand-tier gratitude bought at "a silver a person,"
  plus archival data on everyone who files. The embassies are orderly naval-officer
  fronts for the spy network ("Remember, Varia loves you").
• Sent her own bodyguard, Uva Blackheart, to guard Ysolde — Varia being
  judged safer for a queen than a war zone.
• House Mayfore's corsairs (heard "Maythor") run a proud pirates' bar at
  Fort Foothold, where an official foreign piracy complaint is passed around
  for laughs.

Session 39

• Deep-cover spycraft on display. The Varian agent Timothy Leisten has spent weeks impersonating the dead Snatcher to scout Laewendas's cave from within — and the GM frames the table's unease as the recurring Varian problem: "everything he says is logically airtight, but you don't quite trust a foreign superpower built on spycraft." His wish to seal (not destroy) the cave's life-trade shrine under Varian control keeps that suspicion alive.
• The spy network's reach. Timothy hands Thalia coded mail (7 numbers on a Post-it) to drop with any spy in Gwyndinas — including the public, deliberately-obvious spies in any tavern — and the Varian network is shown taking credit for spreading the story of Garruk the Red's death.