Omrune
A realm with barren land and minimal natural resources, where slavery was not only prevalent, but crucial to the economy. That is, until a scrappy group of rebels, with the help of a dragon, started a coup and overthrew the tyrant king. The leader of the rebels, a former slave boy the the name of Sakar, instated himself as the new sovereign, appointing his friends and fellow rebels as members of his court. Meanwhile, all slavers and slave owners were duly executed, along with sympathizers of the previous monarch.
A brief summary of events that followed are as such:
Even after the coup, Omrune's troubles were far from over. Facing a lack of resources, Sakar sought out trade alliances with neighbouring kingdoms, offering military support in exchange. Yet, he was scorned time and time again for one simple reason: the rampant practice of dark magic in Omrune, the magic that Sakar himself favored. The only country that declared their allegiance was Drurir, a tiny kingdom that had once been annexed by Omrune, known for their worship of a dark god and the practice of live sacrifice. Needless to say, that did nothing to improve Omrune's image.
Without any other choice, Sakar turned to the Black Market once more. Omrune started to produce and export banned potions and poisons in bulk, the most notable of which was a love potion that gave its users an intense feeling of euphoria. The potions proved popular enough to be traded across the entire continent of Solvea.
This earned the ire of the Queen of Zennia, the largest kingdom on the continent. The Queen, Fioleia, abhorred the use of dark magic, and actively used Zennia's power to pressure other kingdoms into prohibiting dark magic as well. The burgeoning trade of banned potions in Zennia was the last straw. Fioleia sought to eliminate Omrune and Sakar once and for all. However, she could not actually find an excuse to start a war, for that meant publicly admitting the existence of black market trade in Zennia, an act detrimental to the kingdom's golden image.
Instead, she labelled Omrune as Public Enemy No. 1, denouncing it as a corrupt country ruled by a Dark Lord, the incarnate of all evil. She would even go on to hire a mercenary to kill Sakar, calling him the "Hero of Light" chosen to "vanquish the Dark Lord".
Sakar, unperturbed but annoyed by Fioleia's actions, decided to come up with his own scheme to get back at her.