[quote=@Shorticus]
A few more questions, this time focused on lore.

1. What sort of time period are we looking at? I notice there are black powder weapons and pirates abound. Can you name a real-world time period (1800's? 1600's?)
2. Magic is no longer rare, but it remains very powerful. Are there types of magic which are seen as evil in this setting?
3. Is magic something you are born with the talent to use, something you have to learn, or both?
4. What lies beyond the borders of the map?
5. How long has the mercenary age been at hand?
[/quote]

1. Simply put, dwarves figured out black powder for mining purposes, retooled it into weaponry to fight the hordes from Malaph Kar. I assume you want a time period for tech purposes-but there really is no analogous time period in the real world. Pirates can mean anything. They had pirates in Roman Times. It's just a word to describe thieves at sea. I don't want to open a can of worms by saying this is like the 1700s or 1800s or whatever. 
2. Powerful magic does exist sure, but the common, everyday magic is akin to Elder Scrolls-everyone knows a little bit but it's not earth-shaking. What do you mean by evil magic? 
3. A little of both. Think of it like painting or writing. You read a little. Try out a few different techniques. 
4.  Nothing. 
5. After the Great Old Wars (The Raxas-Karnoras Civil War is lumped in with the G.O.W) there was a period of relative quiet. Everyone was too beat up to really do anything. Small Kingdoms emerged briefly-then were united under stronger warlords. Eventually becoming the modern Kingdoms. About 500 years have passed since the end of the Old Wars. The current 'mercenary' age as you put it falls somewhere in there.

[quote=@Shorticus]
A couple more questions of relevance, this time concerning battles...

6. After at-start-of-battle effects go off (like the Ranger's First Shot ability), do the two forces immediately clash in melee or do ranged fighters attack in a round before the melee fighters clash?
7. How much range do Rangers and Sorcerers have? Two tiles? Three tiles? Ten?
8. Is there an order in which attacks are executed, or does everyone attack at once?
[/quote]

First, let me say battles are not as tactical as you seem to think. There simply is no way for combat to be synthesized like that outside of doing a D&D style play-which I totally am not up for. There are still a lot of things to work out in combat, so I'm holding off on these questions for now. As it stands, both sides attack each other, check defenses and ability scores and deal damage simultaneously . Certain feats like First Shot can give a side the edge it needs to win in battle. I'll get back to you.