Seasfar was once one of the most important ports along the coast of Seriathior. Seasfar is one of the oldest human settlement on the southern land. Originally a small village on the north coast, Seasfar grew as men began to settle more and more upon Seriathior. Its strategic location forced merchant coasters to pass time in its harbor. As it grew, the citizens embarked on one of the great engineering feats of human kind - The Great Sea Wall of Seasfar. The sea wall made the port a haven from all kinds of bad weather and most seaborn predators. Seasfar was ruled equally by its quildmasters and the temple of Sestonar, God of the Sea. The alliance between the two groups was always shakey, but neither could gain the upper hand.
About two hundred years ago, the guild masters managed to drive the temple out of the city over a dispute about the temple resources (the guildmasters had the people rise up against paying taxes that would go into the temples coffers, which had long been the custom in the city, the temple recieving one part in a hundred of the taxes in return for invoking fair weather and fortune for the town). About this time a slightly deranged child left the temple to seek a career at sea. The child was to become the Archpaladin Nistar Biblade. After many years of adventuring, culminating with his slaying of a White Elder Wyrm, Nistar returned to his home and proceeded to conquer it. Nistar promptly killed off the guildmasters and reinstated the temple of Sestonar. Then Nistar proceeded to wage a war of conquest down the coasts of Erathior and Seriathior. Declaring the Holy Empire of Seasfar, Nistar crowned himself king. The "Empire" was somewhat rocky, and almost fell apart when Nistar's ship was lost at sea. The High Priest of the Temple managed to keep about half of the Empire in one piece when Nistar suddenly returned about a year later. Nistar immediately lauched a campaign to regain his lost lands. Unfortunately for him, they had united and found several allies. The wars cost Nistar his life, and the victorious armies sacked Seasfar and destroyed most of the sea wall.
Since then, Seasfar has steadily gone downhill. It has gone through a succession of rulers (and rulership types). The current ruler is "King" Johnst Seamaster, who rules by controlling the various major factions of the city. His law extends only as far as he and his cronies will enforce it (and sometimes not even that far). The people are growing restless of his rule (which seems to them to be a form of structered bribery), and probably will revolt soon (rioting is the traditional way of changing governments, with whoever manages to restore order taking over). To add fuel to the fire, a consortium of captains from Tarantis have been blockading the harbor and enforcing tolls on all who would enter or leave it. This has caused prices in the city to rise greatly, and the King has seized food and raised taxes to maintain his lifestyle. Those who can are fleeing south along the overland route, despite bandits and the orclands. Those fleeing are seeking a new life in Sweet Spring (or PollsLand). All that is needed to ignite the riots is some minor event or push against the King...