A desire to make the law/chaos axis important led me down an interesting world-building path. The "law" aspect of Ptolus is exemplified by the Empire that rules over the city and the vast majority of the known world. Ptolus lies not at the heart of this Empire, but on its fringes. The Tarsisan Empire (based out of a distant city called Tarsis) was established long ago by a union of militaristic humans and forward-thinking dwarves. The dwarves created all manner of interesting machines. Some of these were driven by steam, some were firearms, and others were just advancements over preexisting methods and technologies.
Except that chaos is ascendant now, and the Empire is falling apart. This is interesting in Ptolus because it means that -- out on the fringes -- anything could happen politically. Ptolus could even cede from the crumbling Empire and return to the aristocracy still in place that once held supreme power, or it could form a whole new type of government. The fact that the Empire crumbles (and order crumbles) is seen clearly in the demise of the technology that was once so important. Smokestacks in the industrial part of the city stand cold and empty now. Machines are silent. Guns are few and far between, with few who remember how to manufacture them or even repair them when they break down. It would seem as if the world is on the brink of a dark age.
To make things even worse (and hammer this theme home), the forces of chaos have their own types of devices, called chaositech. These strange "machines" are powered by chaos and violate all the laws of reality to accomplish incredible things. At the same time, however, they corrupt and mutate all they come in contact with. As the technology of the Empire fades, more and more chaositech is discovered - and it comes not as a new innovation, but the remnants of an unimaginably distant past.
