(Currently WIP because even GMs will have to sleep sometime.)
The ruling power in the fading world, the Kingdom of Yulia is a monarchy that has risen to great power through its command of magic. It maintains the only remaining school of magic, and the only properly militarized magic users.
It has also conquered many other Kingdoms and imposed upon them its strict 'moral code'.
Only a man may lift a sword, even in defence.
Only a woman may learn to fight using magic.
Neither will disguise as the other.
No man may take another man as a lover, nor any woman take another woman.
No man nor woman may hold any worship for the gods. Clerics are committing cries against the people by encouraging them to have faith in nebulous forces and not in themselves.
Obey the Inquisition at all costs.
Within this framework, they remain a terrifying force. Both of their branches of fighter are conditioned for utter loyalty.
Yulian soldiers' armour and weapons are blessed with magic, often trailing fire or light behind them as they swing, much the same as their enchanted armour may allow them unholy speed or steadfastness. Often charms will alow them to feel no pain, and to continue laying into enemies until they fall lifeless, a horrifying spectacle to behold.
Yulian battle mages are all female, and have been trained practically from birth to channel magical forces. The intensity of the training and the imposition of the Yulian ideals means that most will live their lives as little more than puppets for the regime, whose bodies will eventually fail under the strain of constant casting.
Yulia is ruled by the King, up in his lofty castle, and The Inquisition, the doers of his will. The Inquisition are the arbiters of the law in Yulia and all the conquered nations. Killing and torture is daily business for them, and they gleefully track down breakers of the codes.
In recent years though, Yulia has struggled to hold onto power in its bloated empire. Unrest at the edges combined with its mages dying and few being born to replace them has made their power unstable...and they have countered this with even greater brutality.
A storm-beaten land rich in minerals and ores for mining, Pradus has long been known for both its hardy folk, and its greatly superiour crafts. The mines brought out ores to the forges who brought the strange metals of the earth to the master smiths. Some of the most legendary weapons were put together by Pradian smiths... and most have learned to use weapons, able to make deadly tools even from crude items of toil.
No shock then that Yulian hold on the small kingdom was often upset by popular uprisings, with miners facing more and more dangerous conditions with the demands for more weaaponry and armour for the mages to enchant. The Inquistion came down fast and hard upon the workers each time however, making an example of leaders that was, to say the least... frightening.
Sat within a large basin of low hills is Miriand, once the centre for the Great Church, and the clerics and paladins from within it. The kingdom was once a theocracy, dedicated to everything in the glory of the gods. In many ways t could make the folks within it haughty and intolerant, but it also meant they focused on acts of charity ad benevolence. Miriand produced some of the most talented doctors and medic, many of its clerics training as such in order to ease the suffering of the sick and injured.
The invasion put pay to that however. While Yulia desired the medical knowledge of Miriand, they despised the clerics, and such people were subject to brutal punishment for 'leading the people astray'.
In the forested river valleys along the edges of the wall stands Aressa, a people that if they lacked the hardiness of Pradians or the talents of Mirians, made up for it in bravery and unwillingness to bow. Raised on codes of chivalry and honour, the armies of the nation had no qualms in defending their land to the bitter end. The Aressans and their wolf knights, elite lines that dressed in helms resembling wolf heads, held of the Yulian advance for two years.
It was not until the Inquisition was able to steal into the Aressan capital, steal the only heir, and plunge a dagger into the back of the monarch, that the lines of defence began to breakdown. Rudderless, without a figurehead, the morale was broken, and it was only a matter of time until the nation fell, removing the last barrier between the Yulians and the wall.
The heir to the throne was spirited away to the Yulian capital, never to be seen again, and the wolf knights made an example of to those that might get ideas about showing insolence to their betters.