The city of Emba is situated on a bluff overlooking the Bay of Emba and the ocean south of Karanath. The city is on two levels, one on top of the bluffs, and one down at the coastline.

"Uptown" is where the majority of the rich citizens live. It is where the governmental offices are located, where the military outpost is housed, and where people go if they want high-quality, obscure, or fancy goods. Uptown slopes gently downhill towards the north, into the Emba River Valley, where there is a smaller dock complex. Streets are generally more orderly than they are elsewhere in the city. This is where the barracks are in which the game starts.

"Downtown" is at the base of the bluffs, and that is where the vast seaport is built, partly on the beach, partly floating out on the water. Downtown is also home to one of the largest Nathi navy bases in the world. The navy base takes up the eastern portion of the harbor, and is clean and ordered, while the rest of the port area is like unto a sprawling rat's nest.

Travel between Uptown and Downtown is accomplished in two major ways. The first is known as "Carter's Road," and zigzags up the face of the bluffs, wide enough to allow two carts to pass abreast. At the points where the road changes direction, there is a marketplace, part hollowed out of the bluff itself, and part on whatever flat surface they can find. Most of these areas connect to Undertown, which is described in a moment.

The other way between Uptown and Downtown is a series of passages and chambers called, imaginatively enough, "Undertown." This is a fairly straightforward warren of wide climbing roads, vaulted chambers, and the occasional subterranean marketplace, all carved out of the rock below the city proper. This provides the quickest and most direct route between upper and lower, with exits all over both uptown and downtown. Undertown was originally an expansion of a pre-existing cave system, but in the major areas, it has been expanded and built up beyond recognition.

Many carters avoid Undertown due to superstition or claustrophobia. Though the major avenues are safe, smaller passages and chambers are sometimes subject to cave-ins. There are at least three reports per year of people getting lost and dying of hunger in the less-travelled tunnels. Some also swear they've seen strange and unedifying creatures in there as well, but then some people will say anything.