Katmandu is much like our world. There are still the mountains and deserts, green fields and lush forests. There is, however, one major difference: humans, canids and ungulates do not exist. Katmandu has two intelligent species, felines and rodents. These are the only sentient species. Reptiles fill most of the ecological niches for ungulates and canids. In the sentient races, animal instincts are fairly close to the surface.
The time period of Leathrah and Thorin's story is set around what we have known as the 1940's to 1950's. Transport is still a mix of lizard, lizard-drawn wagons, auto and truck (limited) and plane (extremely limited). Most of Katmandu's people will live their lives in an area no more than 150 to 200 miles on a side. The major exceptions to this are military personnel and their families, traders, wealthy businessmen, and Mages.
Magic does work on Katmandu, but it must be trained to be most effective. There are no "wild" magic users, and those who do not train are very limited in power. Mages do not usually live long if they use their magic for everything. An old Mage is a very wise Mage.
In Thorin and Leathrah's age, the Velite nation and the Hoplite nation exist in an uneasy alliance suffering from political and religious differences. In Liska's age, 200 years earlier, the two nations have not yet made contact. These times provide the stage upon which Katmandu's tale unfolds.
