Halwa

A Free City on the north coast of the Circle Sea — smuggler’s boomtown, church frontier, and the party’s current location (S4).

Overview

Originally founded as an Imperial naval outpost, for a species of tall, straight shipbuilding trees. The old imperial docks remain; the trees are long gone. (S4)
Population has roughly tripled since direct east–west trade was cut off — pirates, smuggling, and a wave of refugees from The Troubles. (S4)
Deeply fractious: real power sits with the five criminal Clans of Halwa, the harbormaster, and a rotating cast of wealthy merchants. Both the Eastern Church and Western Church operate here. (S4)
The unfinished castle Kraus’s Folly looms on a bluff above the city — the locals poisoned its builder ~200 years ago in one of Halwa’s rare moments of unity. (S4)

Fajan the Younger succeeded his father violently atop one of the clans
Father Ignacio, a western priest, arrived recently and has angered the Uru clan
The harbormaster took three new apprentices (he goes through many)
Refugee squatters reported at Kraus’s Folly — which turned out to be very wrong; see The Lord of Kraus’s Folly

Gang violence is escalating, widely blamed on the recent leadership changes among the Clans of Halwa — including an attack on “some newcomers” the other day, which was the party.
Someone is killing gang leaders — half a dozen during the party’s desert trip, across multiple clans, the worst-reputation ones first; rumoured to be unusual in some way, and the clans are frightened. It is Madeline Foussard. The rate was dropping by the time the party sailed.
The Eagle Knights have drawn down. There used to be a larger presence; after the Owl incident they cut it back and adopted a more observational approach.
Father Ignacio is not landing. Expats are skeptical: they understood Sister Alasia’s Maker Protect!, and his Maker Smite! sermons are going over badly.
The harbormaster is inspecting ships from the west for the plague, which is still running through the western kingdoms.
Friction between older and newer expats is the dominant social complaint.
Two days north into the high desert lies the Sanctum of Sethariel — the Monastery of the Dawn site, and sanctum #1.

Haroun was stationed here as Uncle’s agent before joining the party; an unnamed agent replaced him, and Achmed serves as Uncle’s Factor from an estate near the docks. (S4)
Sister Alasia of the western church is an old contact of Haroun’s — currently unreachable. See The Halwa Ambushes.
An Owl/Eagle confrontation here ~4 years ago burned a city block and ended with Owl knights captured; an earlier, quieter Owl visit came 5–10 years ago. (S4)

One of the three sanctums in The Recovered Documents is “north of Circle Sea near free city of Halwah” — see The Sanctum Investigation.
The Monastery of the Dawn lies nearby. (S3)
The Free Cities carry the Circle Sea trade the Mercantilists want to reopen.