A'olona is an island sub-group within the Corvidan Archipelgo. It consists of 18 small islets in close proximity to each other, which share a culture, government, and economy. Generally, across the Archipelago, each island is governed independently and exhibits a distinct cultural identity. However, the islands of A'olona are unusually close together; furthermore, the ocean between them is shallow and easily-navigable, so it is possible to travel between islands using simple watercraft in a matter of hours or even minutes. For this reason, the residents of A'olona were not isolated from each other like residents of other islands typically were, allowing them to evolve alongside each other as a unified society. A'olona is also the region of the Archipelago that was populated latest by the original settlers, remaining uninhabited until the late 300s. Its population remains low, with an informal government system relying largely on communal collectives.
Communal social structures are an integral part of A'olona life on an individual level as well as a governmental level. Most residents of A'olona live in large extended family units, with "family" broadly defined as an interconnected web of biological relatives, romantic/sexual partners, and close platonic relationships. This is in contrast to Iryna, which defines family more narrowly as parents and children living together, and to the Oxana nobility, whose definition of family is closely tied to marriage and inheritance. Residents of A'olona refer to each other more frequently using familial terms of affection like "sibling" and "parent", even for people who are not part of their family unit. The vast majority of school-age children are sent to boarding schools, the largest and most prestigious of which is located on Scallop Isle. Boarding school is seen as an opportunity for children to gain independence and make new social connections outside of their family.