World Problems and Conflicts

The following is a list of problems and conflicts of which the populace of Aurelia is generally aware. This serves as a compendium of issues, adventure seeds, points of stress, etc. with which the players may concern themselves.

Political

The Aegium vs. The Guilds. The great Tree of Light that looms above the horizon over Highmantle was once the most sacred site of a circle of druids called the Aegium, who ruled over a series of tribes in the north-east of Aurelia. When the first settlers from Henos landed in Aurelia, they followed the light provided by the tree's bioluminescence to their final destination, which would one day become Highmantle.
Though first contact with the Aegium went smoothly and they are now a state of the Republic, there is contention between the Aegium and certain commercial guilds, particularly the Lanterners and their backers. Because the tree's luminescence comes from its fruit, whose sole use is for the lumenoil it excretes, the Aegium is desperately afraid of over-harvesting and damage to the tree. The various guilds that profit off the production and applications of lumenoil have put up staunch resistant to regulation in turn. There are rumors of foul play against the Aegium despite endorsement for their cause by the Radiant Church.
Meddlings of the Remnant. Since the Liberty War ended in stalemate, the Vanyal Imperial Remnant settled in the northern-most end of the east coast where they had first established their beachhead. While they were reluctantly accepted as an auxiliary state, a high degree of tension still exists. The Vanyal long-ago mastered the application of magic and subterfuge in engaging in proxy wars, and it is often over-assumed that every bandit raid, pirate attack, and assassination is part of their vast web of machinations. Plausible deniability is the word of the day, and it hasn't yet been conclusively proven that the Remnant has been doing anything untoward. That hasn't changed public perception one whit.
Entry of the Refuge. During the earliest days of Aurelian settlement, a great nation of people known as the Araashi was discovered in the southern-most lands of known Aurelia. While trade with the city-states of Aurelia flourished, the Araashi refused any sort of assistance during the Liberty War, which ended five years ago. Two years ago, the Araashi Sultanate was obliterated by a sweeping horde of centaurs from beyond the Rhakis World-Spine.
Despite the protestations of many, the Republic saw fit to fully integrate the Araashi into the Republic, granting them unused lands along the southern coast and establishing quarters for refugees in the larger cities. While the Araashi have already proven themselves as valuable members of the Republic, their staunch neutrality during the Liberty War has left a bitter taste in the mouths of many now that help and resources have been given to them so freely.
Halfling Servitude. Since the dawn of recorded history, halflings have existed as a servile race under the auspices of the dwarves and the gnomes. Since their immigration to the Mitian Reality, they have been held accountable for the demise of their realm, though what were their exact crimes no one now remembers. Their servitude to others and enslavement is headed under a philosophy and series of laws called the Great Debt, which is enforced primarily by the dwarves. With the Vanyal Empire in ruins, halflings have had their first taste of true freedom in thousands of years. Regardless, the Great Debt has not been officially dissolved, and there is a significant rift between free halflings and their former overseers.
Here There Be Dragons. When Pharanazor was shattered and sunk during the Reignition, dragons collectively went mad with grief and became creatures of bitterness, ambition, and greed. Dragons are powerful polymorphs and are known to hide their forms upon reaching adulthood. Since the Vanyal hunted the Henosi dragons to near extinction, their transformative powers were thought to be a myth...until an ancient gold dragon named Chrusoklepsis revealed himself as a leader among the lancing guilds, obliterated a substantial Vanyal fleet during the Liberty War, and demanded 15 of the largest islands from the Shards to call his own kingdom.
The shocked, fledgling Republic was powerless to deny the mythic creatures' demands, and his appearance immediately heralded the exodus of many dragonbred from the Empire and Aurelia's continental shores to his realm in the Shards. Since then, he has overseen a burgeoning trade empire and has accumulated much wealth for himself, as is his wont as a gold dragon. The people of Aurelia proper fear the creature's ambitions and aims, as he has become little more than an exceptionally powerful crime lord with a vaguely legitimate enterprise. Additionally, a level of racial distrust has arisen because of dragonbred's newfound loyalty beyond the Republic.

Not One More Bushel. The lands west of Highmantle were settled first in earnest by a large number of halfling farmers and ranchers. They were called the Hearthlands for the innumerable halfling hearths that sprung up in the plains and valleys of area.
In short order, dwarves began to meddle in the affairs of the free halflings and established their greatest city, Deepsong, in the small mountain range north of the Hearthlands. In what amounted to the most controversial decision that the Republic had yet made, the Republic voted to yield control of the Hearthlands to Deepsong. Needless to say, the free halflings were furious. Legislation and politicking has thus far failed to correct the Republic's previous decision. A civil war is quietly brewing in the Hearthlands as desperate halflings farmers have formed a militia blockade outside Deepsong. Their movement was given voice and iconography by the political satirist and cartoonist Greely Garwick-Granulcraft, who depicted the farmers as an army of tiny halflings holding the road to a vast, towering forest of wheat against the advance of a single, enormous dwarf. In many voices, the halflings declared, "not one more bushel!"
Many readers thought (correctly) that the work was intended to be from a futile perspective; that the many disparate halfling farming families could not hope to stand against the collective might of dwarven agriculturalists. For the halfling farmers, this indignity was the last straw. Publications containing the cartoon circulated rapidly, and "not one more bushel" became the rallying cry of the now-organized movement. Gangs of ranch-hands worked to conveniently block the roads to Deepsong, making sure that no turncoats sell to the starving dwarven city. The situation is getting out of control, and instances of violent banditry have sullied the movements image as a peaceful protest. A bustling black market sustains stubborn dwarven nobles, who staunchly refuse to acquiesce to the halfling's demands. Escalation upon escalation has made the region a powder-keg. If some kind of agreement cannot be reached and the Republic does not intervene, there will be war.

Martial

Coming of the Storm-Throng. No one is sure what has riled the centaurs, but they came in a vast, thundering horde around the southern horn of the Rhakis World-Spine, annihilating every hint of civilization in their wake. They took no gold, only slaves to butcher and eat. Hundreds of thousands died. They were stopped with the help of the Republic at the city of Antakiaton, where the river was flooded by druids of the Aegium and their crossing was slowed. For days, the river was choked with the corpses of arrow and bullet-pierced centaurs as they attempted to ford it in a vain attempt to assault the defenders on the opposite side. In the wake of the battle, there is a deep fear that another attack is imminent, and Antakiaton has been made into a bastion as a result of that fear.
Garion's Red Reavers. As part of the remnant's entry into the Republic, the Republican government demanded the extradition and summary execution of one of the Vanyal imperial family, Garion iet Vanyal, second eldest son of the Empress. Garion was responsible for the deaths of many non-combatants in a war of terror against the rebellion, and the Republic wanted their pound of flesh. To their surprise, the Remnant was compliant.
Such was the Remnant's desperation that they were willing to give up a scion of their fallen empire in spite of every cultural tenant shaped towards the preservation of their collective identity. They turned him over, he was judged, found guilty, and finally hung from the seaward wall of Highmantle. Somehow, he survived...or perhaps he didn't. Regardless, he escaped his noose. For those that encounter Garian and his cadre of Red Reavers in the wilds, the survivors (what few there occasionally are) attest that he is now a revenant; a being sustained by raw magic via sheer force of absolute hatred. He is unyielding in his hatred against servants of the Republic and the Remnant, and both sides want him dead...properly dead, this time.
Yohm-Kai Raiders. To state that Yohm-Kai is an inhospitable stretch of Mitia would be an enormous understatement. Yohm-Kai is a connective, polar landmass creating vast northern land-bridges between the continents. However, it is so dangerous that no living thing in recorded history has successfully traversed it, not even the dragons. Only the dead walk there. Vampiric Hordes lost during the Sun Slaying call Yohm-Kai home, and a ravening swarm of them came down in Henos during the One Week War to shatter the empire. Their incursion en masse into Aurelia is a terrifying possibility, and the Vanyal Remnant in turn has taken to fortifying their northern territories to the very mixed response of the rest of the Republic.

Environmental

The Great Gloomvale.
The Scintillscar. During the Sun Slaying, a massive amount of sunhusk ore shed from the sun's demise accumulated amidst an enormous, globe-splitting undersea trench. The mutated monstrosities it emits and the manastorms on the surface that it causes are the primary reason for delay in the exploration of the Cleaving Sea. With Bigby's successful creation of a strait of safe passage 150 years ago, colonization became possible. After the Liberty War and the Imperial Collapse in Henos, there is no hope of trade through the strait. Indeed, nothing much comes out of the strait but sanguinist pirates and refugees. There has been much debate that the strait serves no further purpose other than acting as a gateway for Aurelia's enemies, and that an endeavor should be made to undo Bigby's work, thus closing off the new world from the old.