Where in Golarion would you be most likely to find a conventional war?

[Cleanthes]

I'm thinking of working up my own series of adventures, which I'd like to set in Golarion, and I'd like it to involve playing a group of mercenaries who have been hired to fight on one side of a relatively conventional (medieval/renaissance era) war. Where in Golarion is such a war most likely to be found?

[Splode]

Molthune and Nirmathas have some ongoing tensions at their border. There's a very nice Wiki that has this kind of stuff.

[darkwarriorkarg]

In a world full of magic, i think you'd be hard pressed to find a real earth style war. Please define what you mean by conventional b

[Raltus]

Last Wall and Hold of Belkzen. I have a great idea for that and a side adventure into the Mana Wastes.

[sunbeam]

I've seen this kind of question before.

I think the biggest conflict point (as far as scale) is a possible Quadira/Taldor war. Though if Quadira was really vested in it, they have way too much power for that one to last a long time.

A lesser one, but still would be very big, would be Andoran/Cheliax.

Another possible lesser one is either Irrisen and one or both of the Mammoth Lords and Linnorm Kings going at it.

You could get a "hot" guerrilla war in Sargava throwing off colonialism.

Geb and Nex, well Nex at least, seem too... absorbed to get into a conflict.

As others have mentioned Nirmathas and Molthune cold easily have a conflict. As written like they have a multi-generational low scale conflict going up, that get more intense at times.

Then there is Galt. I just know there is a short dude somewhere in Galt. He's just a corporal now, but just you wait.

[sunbeam]

I just wanted to add, that I like looking at maps and saying what if.

Just thinking about things as presented, with the information they have put out, I actually think Quadira and Taldor going to war would be kind of a world war kind of thing.

Quadira, or more properly the Kelesh empire if the empire proper got involved, could send LOTS against Taldor. It would take them more than one year to move all that stuff into Quadira, the Kelesh empire is huge.

But if that happened, I can easily imagine a weird coalition of Taldor, Andoran, Cheliax, even Absalom and Osirion stepping in. I don't think anyone wants that particular genie to come out of the bottle in the Inner Sea area.

Be a very interesting campaign if someone did it.

[Charlie Bell]

Nirmathas/Molthune is more of a guerilla conflict.

The usual suspect is Mendev/the Worldwound, which has an ongoing medium- to high-intensity conflict.

Lastwall/Belkzen also have an ongoing war.

Elves vs. drow and demons in Celwynvian is another ongoing high-intensity conflict.

Korvosa and the Shoanti have a history of conflict that could easily erupt into war.

Andoran wages a perpetual sea war against Cheliax and other slavers via their Grey Corsairs, but that hasn't translated into open conflict due to the plausible deniability afforded by using privateers. They also have an ongoing Cold War-esque clandestine war.

You could easily have a small-scale bush war almost anywhere in the River Kingdoms.

[Cleanthes]

There are some great ideas in here, thanks!

What I'm imagining is a set-up where the party would be working as mercenaries for a country at war with a neighbor, where both countries are predominantly human and there's not one side that's clearly morally superior. (If you're familiar with the anime Berserk, I'm imagining something kind of like that, although without the darker demonic elements of that story.) My intention would be to send the party on various missions, some of them involving traditional battles, some of them more covert, where they'd get put in some ticklish moral situations, end up sucked into difficult political maneuvering, and have to make hard choices. And ultimately, they'd uncover puppetmasters manipulating both sides as part of larger schemes. I'm thinking the River Kingdoms might be a good spot for this sort of thing, although it might be possible to cook up something interesting with Galt too.

[tonyz]

Brevoy has had a lot of low-level fighting going on -- my impression is that while the country is technically not at war with anyone else, there are a LOT of low-level feuds going on between various nobles and knights that won't look very much different from a war to the people on the ground. There's a lot of room for intrigue/skullduggery too.

Avoid Andor (yay! liberty!) vs. Cheliax (boo! devil-worshippers!) if you want sides with no clear moral superiority.

Taldor/Quadiran border would work very nicely. Or you could move to a slightly lesser-used area and see if the Rahadoum/Thuvia border might give you what you want -- you can always have local notables on each side of the border feuding even if the countries aren't officially at war.

[Seannoss]

From the Cities book it sounds like Andoran and Taldor are pretty hostile against each other as well. Could be a good place for that grey morality and stealth missions.

[Jeven]

The River Kingdoms is full of minor, often warring kingdoms. And some of the River Kingdoms, like Tymon, war with the country of Razmiran.

The small kingdoms of Iobaria (the land just east of Brevoy) each vie to unify the country under their rule, which could lead to all-out war. There is a good Iobaria gazetteer in AP Kingmaker 3.

A war in Brevoy (between its two halves Issia and Rostland) is outlined in the Beyond Kingmaker windup section of the last volume of that AP.

Of for two large nations with regular armies, what about a war between the military dictatorship of Molthune versus the mercenary armies of the merchant-princes of Druma.

[Charlie Bell]

I would second Brevoy or the River Kingdoms. Brevoy in particular is set up for Game of Thrones-style noble feuding.

A Korvosa-Shoanti war could also be pretty morally gray. Say Korvosan homesteaders settle Shoanti lands, the Shoanti attack and kill them to defend their territory, Korvosa retaliates, things spiral out of control, Hellknights get involved.... Think Old West cowboys and Indians, except with magic instead of rifles and barbarians instead of bows and arrows.

[TheWarriorPoet519]

Dunno if anyone has mentioned it yet, but Isger seems tailor made for this.

[LazarX]

Keep in mind that wars were conducted very differently in pre-modern times. One example during the Hundred Years war, England and France even continued trading with each other! You don't really have what we would define as conventional wars by the modern definitions.