Yoll has had two periods of independence.  The first began in 678 when the Erish Empire used it as a puppet state against Astmad.  This rather paltry existence ended with full amalgamation into the Empire by the 730's.  The second, seemingly permanent, emancipation came with the Great Rebellion against Astmad in 971.  On the surface Yoll, together with Hyath, is one of the few successful countries created by that upheaval.  Most of its years have been mostly peaceful.  Peripheral involvement in the larger regional follies – like the Flaugian Wars and the Great Northern Crusade – and some border skirmishes with Astmad and Warien, generally won, are the only exceptions.  The country is prosperous thanks to its fertile plains in the south and tin and silver mines in the north.  Though closer to Erenland culturally and geographically, it is a tight ally of Christoté.  And thanks partly to Christoté's influence, it has become a fairly liberal democracy.  This government has been overthrown occasionally, most recently in the 1270's, but is always quickly restored and seems durable enough.

Yoll, though, is a divided country – sometimes so much that it seems curious it bothers pretending to be a single entity.  It is split into two; Lespin in the north and east, Kalous in the south and west.  Lespin is based around the silver and tin mining and associated manufacturing.  The regional capital, Sarkesse, is large an rich but ridiculously rudimentary.  Low taxation has kept the wealth in private hands, leaving the town council with little for civil works.  The town is essentially a collection of forges and shack, dirty, cluttered and dangerous.  This frontier mentality exists across the whole of Lespin.  The other settlements are clustered around the mines in the Brokenback Hills and the plains of Maltiss.  State control barely exists; far more important are the private armies of the larger mines and forges.  Kalous, meanwhile, is more rural in character, being fed by the fields of Salpass Glen and the Five Rings.  Mechan, the national capital, is the only place of any size.  It is quite refined, though only in relation to Sarkesse.  Aside from the government buildings and a few follies, it is basically just a big market town.

The two regions worship different gods, Ferlan for Kalous and Garrath for Lespin.  They have different cultures and clothes and despise each other without relent.  The Lespans are derided as uncouth barbarians, the Kalousans as backward layabouts.  There isn't even much movement between the two regions.  Kalousans looking for new opportunities tend to travel to Erenland, Lespans migrate to Astmad or Craiglothe.  The pair only united for strategic reasons during the rebellion against Astmad and only kept together immediately afterwards to secure their independence.  Still, the alliance has held with surprisingly little difficulty.  Yoll became the world's smallest federation in 1204.  Each region was given considerable autonomy, with their own elected leaders and parliaments.  These two bodies hold the real power in the country the actual ruler of the whole of Yoll is just a figurehead.  This arrangement was basically just formalising what had already existed.  Kalous and Lespin have always gone their own separate ways, never needing to wrench apart officially, not even interested enough in each other to fight much.

Yoll's other chief division is on class lines.  It is only liberal in terms of its penal codes.  Huge economic and social divisions have always existed.  From the start the country has been dominated by the First Fifteen, vast and apparently eternal aristocratic clans.  They own most of the land, the mines, the forges, the factories and everything else.  They also run the place.  All the federal and state rulers have always been from the First Fifteen and only the occasional local lord can successfully challenge them even for regional posts.  A careful control of the franchise has successfully maintained their power.  Property restrictions, the exclusion of immigrants and denial of the franchise to women means fewer than 20% can actually vote; and most are either members of the First Fifteen or their middle-class clients.  Nine of the fifteen are nominally Kalousans and six Lespans but, united by greed, the clans inter-marry a great deal.  This is the only real level on which the two regions meet and is a key reason why they have stayed allied.

Class divisions caused Yoll's only major upheavals of recent years.  Working class protest began amongst the Kalous miners in the 1250's and spread across the country over the next decade.  They culminated in a rebellion led by a miner-cum-poet called Laurit Moyes.  It succeeded with surprising speed in the 1270's, exiling or imprisoning most of the First Fifteen.  Moyes' reign wasn't successful, however.  He suspended democratic rule indefinitely, quickly centralised power on himself, half-ruined the economy with over-ambitious reforms and dragged the country close to war with Erenland.  Crucially, he also fell out with Christoté.  The latter harboured the First Fifteen exiles and supported them in counter-strike in 1274.  Moyes' government fell as rapidly as it had arrived. (Moves like this give ammunition to those who claim Christoté has always preferred maintaining useful economic links to encouraging social justice.)  Moyes was killed in hand-to-hand fighting as he fled north.  Some remnants of his followers are still hiding out in the Brokenback Hills but are nothing more than bandits now.

A more recent disruptive element has come from refugees driven into Yoll by fighting in Erenland and Astmad.  They are being treated especially shabbily.  Yoll citizenship and its rather limited benefits is only granted after twenty years' residence, and the usual bigots are stirring up the usual feelings against the new arrivals.  The Erish coming north are thrown into a squalid Mechan ghetto, while the Astic travelling south are treated as cheap fodder for the mines.  Trouble is growing as the refugees start reacting against this denigration.  There are signs that they are becoming more organised and their own radical leaders are emerging.  Meanwhile Yoll's economy is being hit badly by international upheavals, first in Christoté and now in Astmad and Erenland.  As more workers are pushed into poverty, the complacent rule of the First Fifteen may be challenged again.