I know this is a really late reply, but I just finished Stormrider and I have a few musings.
With regards to places in it, I think Shelding must be chesterfield. This is because it says the church there has a bent spire, just like in the real life chesterfield.
Also, I didn't get it at the end with Feargol in Uzamatte (America). He wanted to stop that native guy from giving the varlish the food, but when the native guy said he was going to give it to them, Feargols 'unease' about the varlish disappears. Why? I thought he was trying to stop them from doing to America what they did to europe.