On the note of character ideas, I've had a few ideas and I figure I should probably check on two things for one I've been considering using before I invest too much time into developing it further.

The first, a fairly minor element, being related to his skills. Part of the concept I had involved my character's skills being altered/corrupted by a cursed item he found in prior travels and, due to the aforementioned curse, cannot rid himself of. If that's not something that can happen in the rules of this world, I can adjust that.

The second, more deeply a part of the actual concept itself, is that he's a black knight. Not in the sense of an evil knight suited in black armor - though the armor he wears is black (and his clothes beneath a dark green) - but in that he is unaffiliated with any particular nation, because the kingdom he once called home no longer exists. Though, perhaps less a kingdom and more a city-state, consisting of mountain castles built around unusually plentiful mines and the surrounding forges, workshops, farmlands, etc that made it capable of sustaining itself deep within otherwise hostile wilderness.

Regardless, after returning from a mission he undertook to complete his training as a knight, he found that everyone in the kingdom - aside from some other knights-in-training who had been on similar missions and a handful of other individuals who had been gone for their own reasons - vanished while he was away, leaving only pristine ruins.

Not sure if that conflicts with the whole six nation thing, or if it's just six major powers and other, smaller, independent territories do exist and are scattered around. Could even be that his home nation is unknown to the outside world, either because it was so small or as part of the same circumstances that caused its populace to vanish. Mysterious magical incidents and whatnot.