This is raw campaign notes right now:

Intro

As for setting, I have in mind a shadow Earth, someplace reminiscent of our world, but names and details are all different. It is the dawning of the nineteenth century, a time of muskets and pistols and sabres, and exploration of dark corners of the world.

The city of Phongsavon is a riverport, one of the greatest for a thousand miles in any direction. It is a muddy, steamy, tropical place, surrounded by fertile rice paddies, build of gold-domed temples and humid gardens, swarming markets filled with silk and lacquer and lotus flower, decadent brothels and despairing opium dens. It is ruled by the Thierais from the distant west with their guns and cavalry, who live a life of luxury on grand plantations, tended by small armies of servants. As lords go, they're no crueler than they have to be, and maybe more naive than they might be. Below them are the puppet Princes of Bokor in their rich walled compounds, still nominally sovereign and jealous of their dignity. Below them, the flow of Bokorian society continues essentially as it has for centuries.

Leave the river valley and cross the hills, and you find yourself in uncharted jungle. The black lotus comes from out there somewhere, as do stories of a lost empire.

Characters -- Bokor

Suggestions for names: [1], [2]

Abilities

Mahout (I) - Tending and guiding elephants. A mahout is typically partnered with a single elephant throughout the elephant's life (~60 years).

Muay Boran (V) - Trained infantry fighting techniques using daab (machete-like chopping short sword), plong (staff), ngao (glaive), and khen (buckler). (* Historical note: I'm abusing terminology a bit here, as the more accurate term for this discipline, krabi krabong, is a case of reality sounding too fake to be believed.) [3]

Pradal Serey (V) - Unarmed fighting style emphasizing kicks and strikes with the fists and elbows; kickboxing. Prize tournaments are often held at temples and draw large crowds -- champions are famed.

Secrets

Secret of the Black Lotus

Secret of Eight Limbs - You have trained your fists, elbows, knees and feet as deadly weapons. When fighting hand-to-hand with Pradal Serey, treat your body as both a +1 weapon and +1 armour.

Secret of the Garuda

Secret of the Golden Boy - [4]

Secret of Hanuman

Secret of Queen Ginseng

Characters -- Thiery

Suggestions for: given names, surnames

Abilities

Voltigeur (V) - Training as light infantry, in use of the musket and bayonet, officers additionally with pistols; running, climbing and agility; scouting, foraging and awareness of terrain.

Grenadier (V) - Training as heavy infantry, in use of the musket and bayonet, officers additionally with pistols; strength and intimidation; use of field guns.

Hussar (V) - Training as light cavalry; use of sabre, lance and pistol; agility; scouting, foraging and awareness of terrain. Hussars should also take Riding.

Cuirassier (V) - Training as heavy cavalry; use of sabre, lance and pistol; strength and intimidation; use of steel breastplate. Cuirassiers should also take Riding.

Gunner (V) - Use and maintenance of field artillery; tending of gun-carriage and horses; musket and bayonet.

Secrets

Secret of Alchemy

Secret of the Grande Loge - [5]

Secret of Holy Orders - You have a position of great authority as minister to the eternal well-being of your flock. Gain a bonus die in any social conflict with any person under your spiritual authority.

Secret of the Musketeer - If your cause is just, gain a bonus die when your opponents outnumber you.

Secret of Natural Philosophy - Nothing energizes you like the thrill of discovery. Gain a bonus die whenever you are facing an unknown phenomenon or unheard-of circumstance.

Secret of the Revolutionary - The ancien regime is corrupt and wrong, and you have seen a better way. Gain a bonus die whenever you are fighting to overthrow the old order.

Secret of the Tarot

Religions

Bokor is mostly Theravada Buddhist, and Thiery is Catholic Christian. I'm filing the serial numbers off everything else in this world, but I'm just going to go ahead and use the real religions. For some reason, fake places can seem very real and alive to me, but fake religions always seem hollow.

Yes, this means there is a Pope in a city called Rome, but Rome is the capital of a country called Medania. It is very far away from Bokor. We're not likely to go there.

Characters

Captain Gaillard Brenet de Salvagnac, Imperial Navy
Worthless son Fiebras Brenet

Brenet de Salvagnac has been in Bokor (the protectorate whose capital is Phongsavon) for nearly thirty years. He came to make money, and has done quite well -- he owns several large agricultural plantations outside the city, including a tea plantation in the highlands upriver, near Tonlé Bati.

His worthless son is a well-known carouser, rake, and serial failed businessman.

Locations

Phongsavon, City of Twelve Blooms

Canals? Of course. Phongsavon is on an island at the confluence of two rivers -- it's muddy bottomland devoted to rice paddies, with innumerable drainage ditches and canals crisscrossing it. The town core is on a low hill to keep it dry, but the poorer areas are on seasonally-flooded flats. Because of that, many houses are built on stilts anyway, and in places the town just continues out over the river with lashed boards for sidewalks.