Borderlands

The hills and forests surrounding The Land of Still Waters are peppered with small fiefdoms, keeps, and ancient manors. The lords of these regions are tolerated by the other kingdoms because they act as a buffer to the perceived threats of other nations and the wilderness. Some are nobles or dissidents serving terms of banishment in "the wilds"; others are entrepreneurs or freedom-lovers. Many consider their realms to be separate nations, but they are not widely recognized.

The official intent of the Treaty of Still Waters was to stabilize the nascent nations and create a pact of non-aggression. Freed from concerns about war with their most powerful neighbors, they were able to prosper. Some of the architects of the treaty, though, saw what would happen to these nations in a couple hundred years, and set a hidden safety valve into it, in the form of the Borderland Clauses. These "non-interference" clauses state no one nation may have too much influence on any one Borderland. In effect, the treaty slyly attempts to force political pressure out into the Borderlands, where conflicts are carried out in shadow wars and by proxies. It keeps the nations from warring with each other directly, as they're spending most of their hostile and suspicious energy trying to keep and eye on or curtail everyone else's activities out there.