The Campaign area is a typical northeastern (USA) climate, save that each season is a neat 3 months and they don’t overlap. Or, at least they didn’t when the gods regulated such things. Now things get more confusing and there is a blending between seasons, but purists - and those who make local calendars - studiously ignore this. The game begins in mid-fall, early winter. It’s windy half of the time, often rainy, getting colder and there are snow flurries in Estavia, since it’s quite close to the mountains.

Estavia is one of the more prosperous cities in this part of the world, owing to its approval of alchemy that allowed it to function remarkably well without wizard magia and the blessings of gods. It’s second only to Bremen in the local area for recovery time, though it isn’t an empire but more a city state with strong alliances with Callard and Esta Falls and a perpetual trade war with Mellin that has yet to actually be officially at war in most other senses.

The city is quite old and has been the centre and outpost of many empires over the millennia, as have most other places. Currently, the ruling body of the Five Lords have no plans to expand the city’s reach or power, the lessons of Esta Falls and its destruction still fresh enough. They are looking for allies, but given their location, and the fast that the city has sometimes charged ruinous prices for the ores they send to other places, they have had little luck in that regard.

City

Estavia is comprised of three main sections. The inner city houses most of the financial aspects, the nobility and the wealthier merchants, the museum (run by the Archivists of course, though it is a pale shadow of the one in Callard and both are nothing to the museum of Dorior, now lost under the waves). It’s very well regulated and the watch patrols it often and keeps miscreants in line.

The secondary wall is the rest of the city proper, but was laid out much later on and in a fashion best described as haphazard. Due to various wars and zoning laws and construction, the secondary circle is almost impossible to traverse without a guide - or two or three. Someday it was laid out in a warren just to stop invaders in their tracks, and one ruler 1000 years ago actually ordered his men to set fire to the homes so that he could reach the palace quicker. It tends to be rebuilt more chaotic every time it gets rebuilt, and many buildings are built on the rubble of others or out of the foundations of other buildings.

The second circle of the city is noted for the temple district, which has fallen into ruin and is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the gods. Channellers venture in their to “feel comfortable” when they’re close to dying; everyone else avoids it like a plague. As such, the eastern ate to the city is seldom used.

The outer wall of the city is the outer city, which is spread out and not quite as cluttered as the second wall. The guard don’t patrol these areas as well as the rest of the city, since it is technically not part of the city. The outer wall is a moveable stone wall that gets expanded every decade to take into account new growth, so the outer area gets more prosperous the closer you get to the city proper.

For reasons of hygiene, security and asceticism reasons, the harbours and dock yards and merchant warehouses are located on the other side of the Esta River, connected both by the bridge above ground and an under river tunnel to the rest of the city. The harbour tends to patrol itself and is pretty much autonomous from the city proper, the harbourmaster being, in effect, a Sixth Lord of Estavia in principle, if not fact.

The southern end of the city, near the battleground against the unfathomable stonemen, is where all alchemical factories (and most other factories) are located, an area generally within the outer wall, though it tends to expand outside the wall often, necessitating a wall of it’s own.

The Inn of the Lost Rainbow is located within the city proper.

The Lords

The five lords are selected leaders who rule the city, being drawn from the Army, Mining, Smithing, Banking and Nobility. They are almost always men, though the banking industry tends to run counter to that in the belief that a female influence will balance out debates and such. The city Guuard is funded by the Five an annual stipend and is not beholden to any of them, being as autonomous as possible for the city. (Indeed, the guards have historically arrested some of the Five for treason and such.) Eac of the Five have a wizard for advice and most have an alchemist as well, though the banking lords tend to be leery of them and the smiths see them as competition to “honest labour”.

For all intents and purposes, the Five can do whatever they want. They sometimes in-fight, but if one sentences you to die, another using influence to rescue you is seldom likely. They are, for all practical purposes, the only higher authority people can appeal to, and few of them listen to such appeals. If you anger one, your life span is generally measured in days, if not hours.

Elections for the Five are held every five years, and tend to be extremely tense times. Fortunately, the PCs have arrived the year before the next election, in the end of fall and the start of winter.