San Francisco lay in northwestern California, midway along the United States' west coast. It was the second-largest port city on the American Pacific coast after Los Angeles, and the Chinese commonly called it Old Gold Mountain. It stood at the northern end of a peninsula jutting into the Pacific Ocean, between the ocean and San Francisco Bay, with the Golden Gate Strait to its north. Hills rose and fell within the city, including Twin Peaks Mountain and Mount Davidson, with Nob Hill the most famous; the coastal areas were relatively flat. The south-flowing Sacramento River and north-flowing San Joaquin River joined near the city before emptying westward into San Francisco Bay. Long known as the "gateway to the west coast," it could also be called the bridgehead of the United States Region.
Although the world of Forging the Sacred Court differed greatly from Earth World, the major cities in each national region had changed little. Those places were also where Otherworlders gathered most densely, and prosperity naturally followed a large population.
San Francisco now lay within the territory of the Tomb God Empire, governed by the zombie lord Orson, the Gold-Swallowing Corpse King. His Golden Corpse Legion, composed of golden-armored zombies, and his Dread Legion, composed of Dread Knights, were infamous, striking fear throughout California. Many other powers had attached themselves to Orson as well. With hills rolling throughout his territory, numerous forces of the Nature Faction and Order Faction had submitted to him, including the Silver Tribe and Savage Tribe of Twin Peaks Mountain; the Ogre Tribe and Wild Ox Tribe of Mount Davidson; and the Wyvern Tribe, Thunderbird Tribe, Hungry Wolf Tribe, and Wild Tribe of Nob Hill.
The Canada-U.S. Allied Forces had suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of the Marshall Islands, as had the allied