Setting Specifics
The Battle of Mishaka is a scar on the City
In RY 754, the Confederation of Rivers had to make a stand against the last Autocrat of Thorns' attempts to dominate the Region by military force. Great Forks sent 3000 soldiers to the decisive battle at Mishaka, and while the Confederacy won, a mere 100 soldiers survived.
The consequences of having its army decimated has had an enormous impact on Great Forks.
First of all, the City is uncomfortably reliant upon both the Confederacy and Lookshy to properly enforce its borders. Now, 14 years after the fated battle General Blood Linnet, one of the few survivors of Mishaka, has managed to bolster Great Forks army up to 2000 soldiers strong. The standing army's weaknesses are greater than its lacking numbers though. Almost none of the soldiers are veterans, and 14 years of avoiding military conflict has left them untested and with insecure leaders.
The City itself is still safe due to its unconventionally high population of supernaturals, including Elementals, Fair Folk, and Gods and even Demons. There is even a presence of both Elementals and Fair Folk included in Captain Sword-Betrothed's City Enforcers.
Thorns is wants to rule Great Forks as a puppet state
Thorns invasion into the Marukan Range Towns has created a difficult situation for Great Forks. The Confederacy and Lookshy, the City's regular allies, are hard pressed to keep Thorns at bay as it is, which leaves Great Forks wide open for Thorns. The Mask of Winters is a canny foe though, and has held back from military seizure of the City. Instead his agents and spies are flooding the City. The Three have been curiously passive through all of this, the only exception being an edict imposing a curfew at first bell after sundown.
Nobody feels good about the Ministry though. They were dirty to begin with and Thorns coffers run deep. The Ministry of Worship's scheduling of Divine Festivities is as crowded as can be, and the taxation of recreational drugs is at an all time low, but the thin veneer of revelry fools nobody.
Everyone in the know is expecting Thorns' soldiers to start patrolling the streets at any day now. The Enforcers can't be trusted, since they are Ministry of Worship's cronies.
The Ministry is ineffectual. They claim to be ruling with a slow, steady hand, but the current influx of refugees is turning the City into a pressure cooker. Everyone wants documentation to leave down the Yellow River and avoid the war with Thorns, but the Minister of Diplomacy is glacial in its delivery. The gargantuan steamboats are being held back, and only the rich are getting out of Great Forks.
