Perhaps a once-thriving port that used to serve the empire, with caravans that would travel from the port through a mountain pass to reach the capital - until the empire conquered a kingdom with a closer port. Shipments have dried up, merchants abandoned their estates in the port for better climates, this is now the seedy end of the empire, with a governor some bloated baron who spends a lot of his time complaining how he wishes he was somewhere else.

Well, just a thought.