The World at Large

The geography of our setting is only roughly sketched out at present, but here's what we know:

The city lies at the western edge of a large, romanesque empire. This empire, which endured unchallenged for centuries, is in the process of collapsing. Pagan barbarians from the north and east have become more and more bold over the past decade, sacking towns and pushing the empire's army back in several great battles. They now threaten the capitol city on a regular basis.

The empire's influence over outlying cities like ours is now pretty weak, as they spend most of their time protecting lands closer to the capitol. Fortunately our city is able to take care of itself, unlike smaller towns on the frontier which were overrun by pagans and barbarians.

Our city is in a temperate climate, and it sees regular snowfall in the winter months. To the north are highlands which eventually turn into a large mountain range. To the south and west is an ocean. Across the ocean to the south is a much warmer continent, inhabited by strong nations with strange customs. They are sophisticated and learned, but they worship strange gods and practice magic. Mercenaries from these lands occasionally come to the city for work.

A short distance to the west is a rival naval state, not part of the empire. They have fought many battles for control of the city, though they have been defeated soundly by the devices of the inventor's guild.

Builder countries, like the empire and the western naval state, have the same kind of steamworks as our city (though not inventor's guild inventions like steambeasts). In fact, it was the adoption of steam technology that started the downfall of the empire, ultimately casing the great slave revolts that drew the empire's legions back from the frontier.