The Cold Game

  The Cold Game is the colloquial nickname for the seemingly endless Cold War being waged between the 8 Nations of the Southlands: Homunan, Dis, Shini-O, Galumaer, Calumser, Charyb, Tmness, and Meriano.  For the last 3 centuries, the borders between these nations have shifted and pulsed with the changing tides, with anything resembling "peace" being little more than a temporary pause in hostilities.
  Typically, the Cold Game's big events are small scale events, followed by large scale posturing from the involved governments.  Some recorded classes have been contested border skirmishes; public debates over legal ownership of lands; espionage, from document theft all the way up to assassinations; and rarely, full scale battles between armies. 
  In most people's day-to-day lives, the Cold Game changes little more than who they pay their tax to in a given year.  But for people whose lives involve mobility, such as merchants, Nomads, or Blades, the reality of unending hostilities can be obnoxious as best and deadly at worst.  It is ever present for those who live on, near, or through the borders, as real a threat as monsters or thieves.
  Blades are often hired to do some kind of dangerous work in service of the Cold Game.  Some jobs have included harrying tax collectors in disputed land; escorting nobles to negotiations; assaulting enemy forts or camps; and other assignments.  Any government asked about such activities - hiring mercenaries to participate in clandestine operations against a foreign power - will likely deny such until it is impossible to ignore.
  But, if a Blade or a group of Blades is in need of work and does not mind destabilizing local governments, then it is likely that the Cold Game can provide some guaranteed profits.

Conflict Type

War