A place on Golarion most like this real world locale?

[Major_Blackhart]

My group is working on a game based around a mercenary army of Gorumites. Specifically it's low magic and the classes are all martial based save for the one rogue. The group is a squad in what is essentially a regiment in the mercenary company.

I'm wondering if there's a place similar to the warfare and chaos of medieval and renaissance Italy, where armies regularly fight one another in battles of all sizes, from skirmishes on up.

[Arachnofiend]

The River Kingdoms might be a decent analog. It's less of a unified nation and more of a collection of city-states that rarely exist for very long because they keep conquering each other.

[Mahler]

Unless you are very hooked on Golarion, Kobold Press has Midgard Campaign setting were the area called The Seven Cities are directly inspired by the Italian time periode you are looking for. The Seven Cities has a formal campaign season were the different cities hire mercenaries to fight each other.

But otherwise I agree the River Kingdoms are the best place in Golarion.

[Major_Blackhart]

Hmm. We are set on a Golarion setting unfortunately. For the most part we'd hoped to avoid the River Kingdoms but you guys are right that it's the only place that's been touched upon fractured and warring. I'd just hoped that there had been something touched upon somewhere else.

[Generic Villain]

The conflict between Isger and Molthune. Unfortunately there's little info on either country. Lots of room for a GM to flesh things out on their own terms.

The perpetual upheaval of Galt's Red Revolution. Also a lack of info.

The Land of Linnorm Kings vs. the White Witches of Irrisen - though that's a very not-Renaissance place.

An orc/human conflict occurring between Belkzen and either Lastwall or Ustalav.

[Mudfoot]

You could do worse than Taldor. It's full of squabbling noble houses whose courtly arguments can turn violent, especially in border areas beyond the reach of imperial rule. An apparent Qadiran incursion, gang of Galt-inspired revolutionaries or bandit raid could easily be a cover for a mercenary attack on a rival baron.

It'll mostly be skirmishes rather than outright battles, but things can easily escalate. And it has more of that Renaissance feel.

[Dhenn]

There's not a whole lot of areas with heavy warfare going on in Golarion, partly because they don't want to invalidate a good chunk of what they previously wrote by having one side win, partly and to leave resolving those events as an option for players. That said, there are a number of areas where you could probably escalate more open conflict if you wanted to.

For the example you mentioned, I might look at getting the city states of Varisia all fighting over something. Thuvia also has the city state sort of setup, but is definitely more Middle Eastern in flavor. A number of countries (such as Taldor and Brevoy) have disputes over who their next leader will be. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to turn one of those into outright civil war.