Do you think this excerpt is alright? What would you change to make it better?

The imagery is straight forward, easy to follow. There is a bit of action and some indepth information without it seeming like an information dump though that is exactly what it is. You could show it in present tense but that would expand the passage a great deal, so if you have something else you want to get the reader to then this is a perfect way to give history and get us caught up so next the story should begin in present tense with showing rather than telling us what's been going on.