In my previous blog post, Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator: A World In Seconds, I talked about the many different features of Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator, and how they work together to randomly generate a world. Today I’ll be taking the world it created for me and utilizing the random information it has provided me to create a believable conflict.

Now obviously, there are many different types of conflict, but the most exciting one for me has always involved warfare! There is bloodshed in abundance in the world Azgaar has generated for me, but it hasn’t really given me a reason why these conflicts have started. Thankfully I, like every other world builder out there, can create stories out of nothing. To start, I picked one of the many wars currently being fought across the entire world: The Alestia-Urupenanian War.

This war sees the Kingdom of Alestia and its allies trying to subjugate the Kingdom of Urupenana. Much to the relief of Urupenana, Alestia’s allies are way too far away to involve themselves directly. It would appear the only reason they have declared war at all is to maintain their friendly stance with Alestia! It will be a head-on fight between these two regional powers, but why are they fighting at all?

I first checked to see which cultures make up their kingdoms to see if there might be any tension there, and I found that they were both mostly Astellian - a culture based off of the real world Castillians. Though there was also a encroaching presence of the Vengrian (Hungarian) culture along both of the kingdom’s southern border, it was not enough for me to pin the conflict on it. I did note this information…just in case.

The next most likely point of tension between these kingdoms would be religion, but that was also not the case. In fact they follow the same “Astellian Forefathers” faith. An idea was starting to form in my head, and my excitement about this conflict grew! These nations were essentially brothers turned enemies, and for what reason - I did not know.  Then, like the flick of a switch, I figured it out!

Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator generates a great many things, including things called “zones.” These are specific areas of interest with unique, and rather insightful, names. One of these zones involved the border provinces of the wars two belligerents Alestia and Urupenana. This zone was called “Alestian Subjugation.” Some might see the objective of conquest a rather simple reason to go to war, but in all honesty, this was an intricate and calculated move by Alestia to completely destroy the Kingdom of Urupenana!

By subjugating the border province of Arruma, the Kingdom of Alestia would show the unfriendly Vengrian neighbours of Urupenana that it was ready to fall. Alestia would gain land for itself, and divert the Vengrian’s attention away from their borders with Alestia’s allies. In essence, this one tiny province would create a power vacuum swallowing half of the world!

It all came down to the siege of Alluma, the capital city of the province. It was a bloody fight, and ended with the utter defeat of the Urupenanian garrison, and the subjugation of the region by the Kingdom of Alestia. What happens next is not entirely clear. Will the power vacuum send the rest of the region into conflict, or will it be spared the suffering it will bring?

Only time will tell…

Lucas McBride

Lucas is a student at Algonquin College. His favorite past times include playing tabletop RPGs, writing, and hosting virtual collaborative world building projects.