Notes

Elves:Have many huge cities across the continent, with transportation between them. Magical crystals power lights, transport, and military structures. Most powerful when united, but each city has its own govenor, who is very independent from the Chancellor, despite being technically underneath him. Gain power from controlling trade routes, and magical defense shields make attacking a city without inside support nearly suicidal.

Dwarves:Live in giant floating airships, cannot shape magic in the way elves do, but are very adept at using crystals that are stolen or bought on the black market to power their airships. Hostile relationship with elves, but in a war the attacker would suffer the most, and trade helps both of them, so they have an uneasy peace. Dwarves have been pushed out of the central areas for the most part, but have gathered a large part of their forces in the one remaining area they hold. Because of their mobility, some floating cities have been sent into the mountains to mine, although the elves fire on any that they see, since they claim the mountains.

Humans:Landed on the continent when exploring for their own government. They have the support of another continent behind them, and are trying to expand their domain. They have taken the coasts, which were not heavily defended, by bombarding the barriers, and using that as cover to land soldiers who could sneak up to them and disable them. However, as they marched inwards they met increased resistance. The civilian government is becoming disillusioned with the mainland, since they are expected to pay more taxes to fund the rising costs of war. However, the front lines are constantly stocked with fresh, well trained soldiers from the mainland. Using steam and gunpowder where other races use enchanted armor and magic, they have a distinct advantage when attacking an unprepared enemy, yet have no solution to entrenched magical defenses, other than sieges. Almost no contact between the human cities and elvish ones was happening for the past 6 years, but as it became increasingly apparent to the humans that no amount of artillery would break the barriers surrounding Stormgate, and to the elves that charging artillery was madness, they began to look for peace.

Political Situation:Humans want to figure out how magic works before restarting the war, while elves need to know what powers the human's guns. The dwarves have just approached the human gov't with a proposal for an alliance against the elves, but at the same time are proposing an alliance with the elves against the humans.