The following is a summary of the information the players started with (the non-summary is eight or ten pages in its own right).
Kethem is organized around "holds," or parcels of land that range from five to twenty or so square miles. It is a representative democracy (representative of land owners only) organized as a hierarchy of holds. Thus five to fifteen holds (typically colocated) will select one of the holds to be a "Major Hold" for a year, and tithe half their income to it (the Major Hold is, of course, responsible for using the resulting funds in a fashion that benefits everyone). Five to fifteen Major Holds will select one Major Hold to be the "Great Hold," with half of the tithed income of each tithed in turn to the Great Hold. The Great Holds form the Council General for a Providence (there are just over half a dozen Providences in Kethem). One member of the Council General is selected as the representative to the High Council. Although some of the money tithed to the Great Holds is send directly into coffers for the High Council to pay for highly centralized services like the Kethem Navy, much of it is maintained at the Great Hold level, subject to the policies and direction of the High Council, but controlled and accounted for locally.
Holds have a internal hierarchy as well, represented by rings embossed with the Hold's seal. They are Gold, Silver or Copper. Each level includes particular priviledges, but Gold indicates someone who could, someday, actually be the lead Holder. Gold rings are usually passed on to sons of lead Holders (and sometimes, daughters), but there are minimum intelligence and weapons skill tests that must be passed. They are also held by those in the top offices of the Hold (typically Warden, External Affairs, Treasurer, Internal Affairs, Weaponsmaster). Selection of the Lead Holder is done by majority vote of all Gold Rings (but once selected, the lead holder can only be replaced by voluntary retirement or unanimous vote of all Gold Rings). Holds tax those living or doing business on the Hold's lands, the amount owed based on their expected earning level (measured in game terms as F/MU/C level). If you cannot pay, you are pressed into service for the hold, or may ask to become a Copper Ring (and thus gain full time employment by the hold).
There are a small number of people that have either through purchase, performing an outstanding service to a Hold, or some other means become landowners, outside the Hold heirarchy proper, and thus outside the taxation scheme that fund's Kethem's Government. Some of these landowners have amassed sufficient land to almost rival a Hold's size. These people are called "lesser holders," and a significant amount of animosity between holders and lesser holders exists.
Geographically, Kethem sits on the end of a penisula. A small island separates it from a second penisula, and the two form arms around an almost perfectly circular inner sea, the Lanotalis. Kethem is bordered by Kanday, a fuedal society that grew out of Stangri (read "oriental vikings") raids many hundreds of years before. North of Kanday is Pranan, a network of city states that buffer the humans from Urakou and Urakai (low and high Orcs) attacks from further north. Almost at the top of the circular sea, we find the Evael Forest, Home of the elves, a stand-offish, cold race that is the only source of high tech (and cheap low tech) magic items on the Lanotalis. On the other side of the Evael, and stretching down part of the other penisula, is Tawhiem, wide plains that are the home of nomdic, tribe based humans. A large mountain range divides them from the rest of the other penisula, which is in the control of the trolls and called "Kom". Great, lumbering, incredibly strong trolls have redefined the term "dense." There are rumors of Great Trolls, like their slower brethern but highly intelligent and more dexterous, but if they existed, they have not been seen since the fall five hundred years before.