You did - thanks a lot!
I seem to have missed out on a lot of background knowledge by not playing the earlier games in the series.
The society you describe is more or less as I thought it would be - little or no effective central government, and local order being kept (or not) by the one with the biggest sword/bow/staff. (I guess it's a good time to be a Dragon Knight - if it weren't for those pesky slayers.)
However, the Watch captain in the village in Broken Valley complained that he had been recruited with promises of "Join the Watch - see the world". This would suggest that the Watch is not kept and paid locally, but that it serves under a central authority. Which one would that be? For that matter, I don't recall having met either a land lord or any kind of elected official in Broken Valley...
