Axis

Every road leads here; every step takes you closer to the Axis.

Located on a rare confluence of Gates, Axis is as much a city as you'll ever find in the Shadow. Maybe a hundred or so souls have made Axis their permanent home, while many others pass through every day. The residents grow Reagents here, exploiting the flow of arcane energies from the gates.

That's where the name came from, as the spokes of a wheel, centering on an axis.

Splattered across a good square mile or so, Axis consists of clumps of buildings here and there, collected by well-kept streets and pleasant roads. Street-stalls and vendors run by Mules offer residents and visitors with some creature comforts without even having to leave The Shadow. The mules here are well-stocked, able to use the gates to travel widely across the world.

by Unsplash (Jaroslav Devia)

There's not much of a government in Axis, but a disparate collection of factions, usually connected to whatever end the Gates connect to. They get along well enough by necessity more than anything else, as such a prized location attracts all kinds of scoundrals and lowlives. More than once, Axis has had to rally together to fight off some attempt of subjugation or another.
The central gate, the Axis around which the rest of the city revolves, leads right into the Beyond. Every now and then, something from there pops its head into Axis, causing trouble and mayhem until the locals can put it down or drive it off... Or it gets bored of playing with them.

by Pixabay

The Shadow

The Shadow lies atop the mortal world, like a veil of oil on water. It's where things that go bump in the night hide when the sun goes up, where magic dwells, and where wizards and witches live away from prying eyes.
It's a plane of existence that mirrors the world. From here, people in the Prime are like insubstantial shades. It isn't quite a 1-to-1 translation of the real world, but close. Axis's true-world location is approximately somewhere outside the dutch city of Alkmaar.