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Factions the powers of the continent
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The territories, seen on the world map From the Adventurer's Guide, Pearl Abyss
States	Two republics, two kingdoms and two elven realms
Central quarrel	Calpheon against Valencia
Fought over	Black stones
Player allegiance	None; adventurers belong to no side

Factions in Black Desert are the states and peoples of the continent, and an adventurer belongs to none of them. There is no allegiance to pick at the start and no side the game assigns, so the politics are something a player moves through rather than joins.

Almost all of it comes back to one quarrel. Calpheon and Valencia fought for thirty years over the black stones buried in the desert, and the resentment left over from that shapes nearly every other relationship on the map.

The Republic of Calpheon is the strongest power in the world and governs Balenos and Serendia as well as its own ground. It has been a republic only recently, since a council replaced the monarchy after Guy Seric's death, and it holds its subject territories in law rather than by occupation.

Serendia still exists as a country, but not as a kingdom. It was the Kingdom of Heidel under the House of Domongatt until Calpheon took it, and its former king now styles himself a Lord in defeat.

Balenos was the Kingdom of Cron long ago and surrendered to Calpheon without fighting, which is why it kept its towns and its people intact where Serendia did not.

The Kingdom of Valencia is the only major state still ruled by a crown, under the House of Nesser. It won the war it fought against Calpheon and keeps the stone fields, though its current succession rests on a key nobody can produce.

The Republic of Mediah is run by its merchant guilds. The House of Bareeds died with its castle in the Three Days of Darkness, and the guilds that had been managing the economy simply carried on managing the country.

Kamasylvia is the forest kingdom of the Ganelle and the Vedir, closed to outsiders for generations by the Acher Guard and reopened only lately by Queen Brolina Ornette.

O'dyllita is what became of the Ahib, the radical Vedir exiled for burning the sacred tree. They built a second elven kingdom in the ruins of an older one, and the two realms remain the same people split by a single act.

Several groups hold ground without governing it. The Sausans and the Helms settled in Mediah generations ago and live alongside it rather than under it. The Fogans and the Nagas were driven west by disaster into the swamps of Serendia. The Sherekhan of Drieghan are a people rather than a state, ruled by a chief instead of a king.

Two older groups matter more than their numbers suggest. The Aakman guard the relics of a civilization that predates every country here, and the Edana are remembered for ending an age when the world turned on itself.

The Elionian church is the one institution that crosses borders. Its priests supplied the accusation that sent Calpheon to war, teaching that Valencian alchemy on black crystal had caused the plague, and it holds its position still.

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• History of Calpheon — Adventurer's Guide
• History of Kamasylvia — Adventurer's Guide
• Factions — Black Desert Wiki (Fandom)