Ustalav is split into twelve distinct counties, and while each county is still subservient to the monarch of Ustalav, Prince Aduard Ordranti III, the rulers of the individual counties are allowed a lot of independence. The counties can be split into two types, the Soivoda, which are still run by the noble families appointed millennia ago when Ustalav was first divided, and the Palatinates, which have thrown off the rule of their hereditary noble lords and are now governed by councils of prominent citizens. Finally, there is the county of Virlych. It is not technically a county as it has no government, or for that matter living citizens; it is the shattered remains of two former provinces: Virholt and Grodlych. These were ravaged during the reign of the Whispering Tyrant nearly a millennia