Pillars of Society

The Pillars of Society are a metric for how well an area is doing. This manifests as a series of bonuses to rolls made to interact with the world.
Control - How rampant is crime? How in control are the authorities? How clear and universal are the laws and their enforcement? This manifests as a direct adjustment for random encounter tables.
Trust - How happy are the citizens? How trustful are they? This manifests as a direct adjustment to social rolls. Distrustful citizens will be more difficult to persuade (higher DCs) and trusting citizens will be easier, while intimidation may be easier or harder.
Economy - A measure of how prosperous an area is. This manifests directly as a bonus or penalty to Wealth Rolls.
The Wild - A measure of the strength of nature and ecological damage. More than others, this is best kept in balance, as one end of the scale is a lifeless waste and the other end of the scale is deadly, teeming wilderness. Legend holds that one way to tame the wild for a year and a day is to slay the Ferneth of a region.
These are usually effected by the people in control of an area, notable monsters, bandits, and recent events. Any conflict or paradox caused by the interplay of the various effects are resolved by applying bonuses to the first month of the season and penalties to the last month of the season.
Religion can also have an effect on these.
Example: Dragon's plunder causes an economic golden age, with the following effects: always roll max+3, Control +4 and Trust +10. This could easily cause a Social Tranquility, which has the following additional effects: +10 on all Social Rolls, +10 Economy, +2 Control. This results in a total boost of Control +6. If Control was at or around 4, the relaxed and trustful populace and the sudden wealth of law enforcement results in authoritarian control, which has the following effects: -10 to Economy, -5 to Trust, negating the dragon's plunder bonus to the economy entirely and hampering the social tranquility as people begin to become mistrustful of the law and politicians and begin agitating for a bigger share of the wealth, as well as becoming mistrustful of their neighbors. To resolve the cycle, the bonuses (max wealth rolls, Economy +20, Control+6, Trust +6, +10 on Social Rolls) are resolved as soon as the plunder enters the economy or at the beginning of the next season if the current one is in the third month. The penalties (-10 to economy, -5 to trust) occur at the ides of the final month of the season that the bonuses were accrued and last for a full season.
IE: Dragon plunder boosts the economy on the 3rd of Newspring, bringing the above scenario. The combined benefits last for the entire spring, until the 15th of Latespring at which time the economy lowers by 10 and Trust slips by 5, which last until the 15th of Latesummer.