From the introduction: Just a short stretch of sea parts the mills and meadows of industrious Anglia from the craggy cliffs of the continent, which give way immediately the deep forests of the Great Weald, where the elves, pech and stranger creatures live in the twilight beneath the boughs, all under the watchful eye of the trees themselves. To the southeast the forest gives way to sparse scrubland and finally arid desert, where columns of red rock rise precariously and, further south, join together to form a warren of treacherous canyons surmounted by endless storms and howling tornadoes, the tumult above sending crazed winds racing up and down the canyons like wild horses. This inhospitable place is known as the Skein. Beyond it, sprawling atop the highest of a series of low shale hills, lies Gallimaufry, the Goblin City.