The Merrivale Islands are ruled by a council of powerful women known as the Good Ladies of Mariana Bay. They are elected democratically by the citizens of Mariana Bay and the inhabitants of all the isles of the archipelago, to serve for a lifetime appointment as defenders of their realm.
Some of the Good Ladies share a lineage with Queen Theodesta, a legendary warrior queen who is believed by historians to have ruled a landmass that once occupied the whole of the White Sea. Legend has it that this landmass broke apart in a great cataclysm attributed to the god Tephratigo, which lead to a sundering of the Queen's people across the archipelago. The goal of the Good Ladies is to unify the Merrivale Islands under one central democracy, but ending the conflict within the Outer Rim among its warring factions has been a multi-generational project.
The Good Ladies command a supernautical airforce known as the Prim Rose buccaneers. The Good Ladies keep an iron grip over Mariana Bay, ruling from their fortress at Goodwind Sands.