Just to clarify, Athsar itself is off the map.
On Foreigners
To your south, the continental mainland is occupied with what seems to be unending waves of barbarian invasions, cultic uprisings, and civil unrest. On the Isles, the Continent at large is often called The Republic that Burns, this name often accompanied by some sign of warding to thank the true gods that the same fate has not befallen you.
The Sublime Republic as such has fallen, the Scholastia disbanded in fire and blood during the Second Sack of the city which has now endured seven. Many parties claim to act in Athsar's name, managing simultaneously to act against each other and the foreign enemies which beset them from all sides. The most important of these (who you may interact with) are the Daughter Cities and the Peregrin Brotherhood.
The farthest borderlands of one of the vassals of the distant Xardavate of Kalimakas also stretch into the corner of the visible map.
The Daughter Cities:
The Daughter Cities were the eleven great colonies founded by Athsar, meant to be miniature copies of the Supreme City and its institutions to spread the perfect light and culture of Athsar to each new subject province added to the republic. Of the eleven, six survive under independent Athsarin rule. The smallest and northernmost of the Daughter Cities was once called Eredinium, which is now Yyredin, the seat of the Elming kings.
Five of the survivors to the distant south are of little concern to you. The sixth, the dowager city of Mernaix [ancient Athsarin Marinex], on the northern coast of the continent, is a source of exotics like glass, porcelain, books, potions, and luxuries from the south, and is a voracious consumer of northern grain, iron, and timber. The surviving Daughter Cities have formed a loose alliance that protects each others trading interests and are bound to come to one another's defense in times of emergency. Mernaix, while a tempting target due to its fabulous wealth and not incredibly strong on its own, would be a force to be reckoned with if it summoned its sisters.
They generally do not participate in the adventures of the Peregrins, preferring to protect flickering light of ancient Athsarin urban life in isolation from the outside world as best they can, idolizing and emulating the early Republic.
The Peregrin Brotherhood:
Alternatively lauded as the Republic's greatest champions or vilified as usurpers of its rightful authority, the Peregrin Brotherhood is the most powerful military force on the northern half of the continent, but it is beset from foes within and without. Named after the swift falcon that is one of the favored forms taken by Calia in her appearances to mortal heroes, the Peregrin Brotherhood originally started as a cult within the legions of the late Republic.
Following the growth of serious corruption and factional infighting within the Scholastia, the legions of the Republic were surprised and overwhelmed by the first wave of barbarians that emerged simultaneously from north and south. The loss of the Isles and the southern borderlands was a shock, but not as much as the trial and execution of several beloved army commanders in the Republic's search for a scapegoat.
The legionaries revolted under the cult's leaders, demanding the right to elect their own commanders and tax their own lands to ensure adequate funding. The Scholastics and the Peregrins waged a twenty year civil war, ending with the success of the Brotherhood in starving out the Supreme City. But in the course of the civil war, the first of the great cultic empires rose in the jungles of the southern continent, and a million of their fanatics overwhelmed the Empire's overstretched southern defenses and sacked Athsar itself.
The Brotherhood retrenched, assuming control of the governing apparatus of the Republic. From then until the present day, what remained of the Republic became a decentralized elective military dictatorship under Peregrin control, the Council of Brothers and their Father-Commander the only real authority that remained in Athsar.
Following the sack, Xardic cults spread across the Continent, and the old faith of Calia was hard-pressed to root out the cultists, even as the Daughter Cities began to break free of Athsar, claiming that it had been replaced with Peregrin domination. A short-lived attempt to re-assert Scholastic authority resulted in an overzealous Peregrin commander sacking the city of Athsar itself, this episode being notable for both an appearance of an otherworldly evil and Calia herself descending to the world to fight it. (It is unclear how much of this is Peregrin hyperbole and legend, however.) Regardless, the damage from the fires, arcane or natural, to the city was immense from the Second Sack.
Five sacks have followed from various causes, and an Eighth seems imminent, as Kalimakas and the God-King of Meltra have supposedly signed an unholy alliance, to which the exhausted Peregrins are unprepared to confront. In the past hundred years, many individual Peregrinates have fallen under the control of powerful families, with the elections first becoming a formality and then disappearing entirely. This is frowned upon by some Brothers but encouraged by others.
In the region adjacent to the isles, you are party to the Peregrin of Iverre, a man of little repute who is content to do his duty, and the Peregrin of Castrenavis, one of the more powerful Peregrins of the north, a noted commander with an iron sense of discipline and an impressive level of humility. He is said to be one of the more hawkish members of the Council of Brothers.
The Dux-Peregrin of Lieve is something of a rogue general who has defied his distant brothers. His house, a long line of noble warriors serving the interests of the Republic for centuries, has begun to assert hereditary rights resembling those of the northern Graylings, and the local gentry has supported him in this. He is a serious rival to Castrenavis, but neither one has had the leisure to challenge the other as of yet.
The Xardavate of Kalimakas:
This is a barbarian empire vast in splendor and power, to whom a thousand nations and tribes kneel, whose most distant frontier is but fifty leagues from Lieve. The palaces of Kalimakas himself are thousands of leagues to the south, and the regions that touch the northern coast of the continent are a backwater, held by a vassal of a vassal of a vassal, a tribal chieftain called the Stepan Dar. Kalimakas himself makes war on Athsar far to the south, hoping to seize it as a base to claim the much wealthier lands. He wars the Peregrins, but this region is at peace due to its relative unimportance. The Gray Isles themselves have been far too rude and poor to attract the notice of the higher echelons of the Xardavate's leadership, their eyes set on richer prizes.
An arrangement has been established whereby the Dux-Peregrin of Lieve pays a protection fee to the Stepan Dar, who is perfectly happy to take his cut and then pass the remainder up to his superiors. This has kept the frontier quiet for decades, and everyone is satisfied with the arrangement. The Xardavate is vast and incomprehensible in its customs and desires. Kalimakas is said to be part man and part snake, but this could either be Peregrin propaganda or simply a barbaric legend that has passed to your ears. Naturally, most believe it.