Shadbolt is a frontier system, largely surrounded by other powers: the Rightly Guided Republics and Novaya Europa as well as other British settlements. It’s a fairly marginal world, low air pressure, and very high oxygen content, so human habitation is mostly on the highlands; low-lying areas are subject to continual forest fires. It was first settled about a hundred years ago by farmers getting away from it all; later on useful minerals showed up, and there have been at least two gold rushes. There’s a small independence movement, but most people recognise that with neighbours like these it wouldn’t last long. There’s a governor, but it’s becoming an advisory role, and the local parliament effectively has control.