Sefton

Sefton was founded as a Taorminite colony on the south-western end of the Lake Gyon in the shadow of Mount Magth, founded to create a route to the dwarven and elven settlements of the south that did travel through Proponthryntis, which was a hostile and rebellious territory at the time.  The Taorminites forcibly resettled the native inhabitants of several smaller towns when building the new city.  Sefton also aimed to control a territory rich in gold and timber, close to the spice-rich, dinosaur-inhabited territory of Gyarhame.  Since the Breaking of the Pact and the dissolution of the Taorminite empire, Sefton is ruled by a town council and a group of ten annually elected officials.  It has become markedly less prosperous since its heyday.   Being a Taorminite settlement, the inner city of Sefton was founded on the standard rectangular grid with wide streets meeting at right angles and three main open areas (the markets, public square, and sporting precinct).  The major harbour opens to both sea and river, and canals carry water to areas of farmland to the East of the city.  The outer suburbs spread more naturally, especially the ones that sprang up along the edge of the river.  There are two walls (an inner wall around the inner city, and a smaller rampart around the larger settlement area), but both of these have fallen into disrepair, and the outer wall no longer encompasses the whole settlement.  The governor's palace in the public square is a magnificent structure of the local greenstone.   The climate of Sefton is hot though temperate, with a cool wet winter and spring and a hot dry summer and autumn, when the snowmelt from Mount Magth floods the local River Sefth.   The population is mostly humans and halflings from the Sundur Coast, with significant populations of elves, barbarous humans from Gyarhame, and other itinerant travellers from southern Casiphon or the Emel Sea.  The area is protected by its out-of-the-way location from most piracy.