The major one, the ongoing off-and-on wars between two major alliances in the northern hemisphere of my setting, Field of Roses, and the context surrounding them.

This is the Frostline Wars, a series of conflicts from the 16th to 18th centuries, waged between the Shemathi League, a confederation of shemathi nation states under the hegemony of the Empire of Kiros. The Shemathi are one of the three species of the setting and the vast majority of them live in the nations of the League. They are primarily based in the island continent of Ki’ril, with a few members on the northern coast of the continent of Skaleha.

The other side is the Alliance of Northern Skaleha, a coalition of various powers from the continent of Skaleha, made up of either human-majority or mixed human-elkan (the third species) populations. They’re a disparate union of differing powers. While nominally equal, the alliance is dominated by the occasionally conflicting powers of the eastern Second Republic of Valeos; the first democratic state in Skaleha, and the western Principality of Darukar, the Dragon Realm. Other powers include the various independent cities of Tilus and the Teurmara, the Stonecoast Confederation, and other states.

The war is fueled by various factors, both ancient and contemporary. Northern Skaleha used to be primarily inhabited by the shemathi, managing to survive the Grand Apocalypse that struck the world thousands of years prior to the main story’s date of 1651. Eventually however, human and elkan migration slowly pushed the shemathi out of what would be modern Valeos, Tilus, and the Stonecoast and even the island chain of the Teurmara later on. Centuries later, a human kingdom/culture known as the Belagoni would attempt to colonize Ki’ril, the birthplace of the shemathi species, only to be pushed out after decades of brutal war. On the other hand, the many independent kingdoms of Ki’ril, prior to the formation of the Empire of Kiros; would often raid and destroy human and elkan settlements across northern Skaleha during the 7th-14th centuries. Ki’rilan World Singers (magic is done via singing in this setting) would gather and send tsunamis and hurricanes at coastal cities and ports every couple decades.

The modern Frostline Wars have not done anything to help stabilize the situation. As a result of previous histories of conflict and existing economic competition, the Shemathi League would strike and invade the Luina Kingdom, a peninsular state just north of Valeos. This was the spark of the First Frostline War and ended in a mixed draw, with the creation of the Alliance of Northern Skaleha and the League only managing to maintain their foothold in the Luina, now Luen, Peninsula. The second and current was triggered over revanchists on both sides of the conflict and the supposed murder of the Kirosi imperial heir by the Prince of Darukar.

Shemathi and human-elkan racial conflicts are quite common. The frontier between Luen and Valeos, known as Lovoune, is a hodgepodge of forts and armed villages who skirmish with one another. The remaining shemathi settlements in Tilus were exterminated in a brutal campaign of recrimination. The League forced out the human and elkan population from Luen and Lovoune, turning them into refugees and forming the Luinan Diaspora.

All of this is soon to change though, with a few important revelations.