The northerners refer to the entire landmass south of The Plain of Fear as Orestead. The land is however occupied by two ideologically opposed groups: the Kaelians versus the Gasp or Qiensa. The Gasp cultivate the dry eastern lands.
The Gasp began as a small, outcast tribe of Kaelia. But they’ve grown and expanded to occupy half of what is now called Orestead.
The Gasp finds conflict with Kaelia on the matters of magic and balance. The Gasp believe that magic is weak. There is no balance or strength in speaking some magic words you don’t understand to cast a spell you can’t really explain or control. The way to true balance is through learning to stand on your own two feet, developing your martial skills. To them, magic is like “hitting below the knees”, but they play in a league where that’s allowed, so they learn combat techniques to counter it and use the counter-magic pink-silver steel, but they do not learn magic for themselves.
A cold war persists between the two peoples that were once one. The two sides of the Qiensan conflict are considered the two strongest martial forces in Argentus. It is unknown who would win, as though the two are ideologically opposed, they have yet not gone to violent war. Kaelians keep to themselves and have no interest in expansion. And The Gasp have had their hands full for years reclaiming land in Fellwater.
But, everyone knows that the two groups are going to fight to the death. It’s only a matter of when. The people in Virdea especially have a vested interest in this. Some merchants want to prolong the peace as long as possible, since their welfare depends on trade with one of the nations. Other merchants want to get the war started, so they can benefit from selling weapons and other resources.