Estagund is an old and exceptionally wealthy mercantile nation, separated from its sister nations Durpar and Var the Golden by the Curna Mountains. Together, the three countries form the region collectively known as the Shining Lands.

Though the tenets of Adama and the belief that wealth equals power are deeply ingrained in Estagund's culture, as in Durpar, the measure of coin to political worth is not quite such a one-to-one ratio, and there is a noble warrior tradition that eschews the usual Durpari distaste for any conflict not held to be unavoidable. The realm's hereditary monarch, called the Rajah, is indeed the wealthiest individual in all of Estagund—but he is also its warleader, and supreme commander of the Maquar. The Nawabs who rule in Durpar instead function as an advisory council to the Rajah, in Estagund.

Thanks to the flexibility inherent in Durpari mercantile culture, the nobility of Estagund is a mishmash of old landholding families and nouveau riche young chakas who wrangle constantly amongst themselves, jockeying for position and power as they struggle to steal profitable trade routes away from one another or to cement alliances, both within their borders and without. The aristocracy is still bound by the Adama and its ethics of good business, however, and willingly work to ensure not only the safety, prosperity, and stability of their own districts, but of all Estagund, as well. The country's citizenry possesses an unusual amount of agency in seeing that this remains the case, since any chaka that fails to deliver on its contracts of defense and plenty will soon see an exodus of people to another chaka that does.

Technically, Estagund claims a large swathe of territory along the Liontongue River as its own, from the edge of Luiren to the tip of the Curna Mountains. However, due to the presence of the many bestial tribes entrenched in Veldorn, the nation opts not to police the area, tacitly ceding it to the monsters inhabiting the region.