The League of Free Peoples and Nations encompass a large range of nations and kingdoms. Though most maintain soft borders in accord with the ties that bind the League together, some maintain firm and competing territorial claims, and grudges as old or older than the League itself can cause conflict between different peoples. Border skirmishes and outright war are common, and the balance of power can shift quickly.

Though the League of Free Peoples has no single, centralized capital, the city of Great Terkissa is considered by many to be the de facto seat of power, as an important trade hub and the place where the tenets and rules of the League were laid down and written into law. Placed on Terkissa Bay off the Sea of Ink, ships from the Endless Isles and even from the Empire itself enter its ports to trade for exotic goods.

For the time being, the Empire and the League exist in a state of fragile peace that some might more accurately call a stalemate. Over the past thousand years, both sides have incurred into the other’s borders to annex territory and settle accounts of blood and honour. However, as the Wargrounds goes through ebbs and flows of power and chaos, bottlenecks have formed to the north and south, making mobilizing armies increasingly difficult. Instead, the great powers have turned their attentions to the Wargrounds itself and the opportunities to seize power it offers in the form of ancient magics and technology. To this end, small bands of warriors are commissioned to sally forth into the Wargrounds on expeditions to recover these treasures and prevent their enemies from doing the same.

The nations of the Free Peoples are free to enforce whatever border law they desire under the terms of the Pact, and travel from one place to another is common. However, unlike the Empire, the Free Peoples lack a single, unified currency. Barter is common, as is using Imperial coinage as a de-facto currency, but a merchant in the League will often carry a wide variety of coins and know their value in gold down to the hundredweight.

The League of Free Peoples is unified under the rules of an ancient Pact, sworn by its members millennia ago. The tenets of this pact are carved onto menhirs across the landscape in an ancient and nearly forgotten runic script. When a member nation of the League breaks faith with the Pact, the runes upon menhirs throughout its land glow ominously, and ill fortune begins to afflict its people with disease and famine. When a fellow member of the League is threatened, the menhirs light up like beacons, guiding the League’s armies to where they are needed. These standing stones are maintained by orders of stonemasons and historians who keep preserve the secrets of the League’s founding days.

The western side of Arebnak consists of vast, untouched hinterlands and wilderness. Few roads link the many nations and countries of the League of Free Peoples, and many isolated areas are the homes of communities small and large that know little of organised rule. Brigand troupes, nomadic clans, esoteric religious orders, and many more make their homes here, acknowledging no rulers. As dwellers of the League, however, they too are bound by the Pact, and may emerge from the wilderness to plunder the Wargrounds when they have the need.

Officially, there is no peace across Arebnak. The Empire and the League have never formally declared an end to their ongoing war, with the Empire continuing to assert the Empress’ claim to the western portion of the continent and the League acknowledging no right of conquest. However, for nearly a century, the two powers have been in a state of stalemate with limited open military action. Trade, at first cautious, is now conducted openly between member states of both factions. Each side commits greater and greater resources to plundering the Wargrounds in search of some kind of military edge that will finally tip the scales and allow the war to resume in their favour.

Many races inhabit the lands of Arebnak. Besides the most numerous humans, elves, dwarves, and Wee Folk (Halflings and gnomes) can be found almost everywhere. Less widespread but still common are orcs and goblin-folk, and part-animal Beastkin. The Empire secures equal rights for all races of being, and mono-cultural enclaves are rare in the League. Other, stranger beings, that only appear rarely, are becoming a more and more common sight in the depths of the Wargrounds; trolls, ogres, and more twisted, mutant things that defy conventional description.