So, Burning Wheel. When I first read through, this was the setting I came up with immediately. (It’s seriously sketchy still; hopefully a bit more will be done to make a one-sheet & perhaps a map.)
The setting: a long occupied province. A human empire went to war with the elves next door long ago. They lost & their westernmost province was occupied. That was 200 years ago.
This province is unusual– it’s one of the few places a human will ever encounter an elf in a human-style town. The elves are somewhat inflexible– the same people are still running the province.
Here are some setting sparks that worked for me:
a) Snobby elvish “royalty” (like 3rd son to the throne rules the province; he’s distracted & bored, because it’s not elvish culture).
b) Human resistance fighters! After 200 years it’s more a revolutionary war thing– citing current complaints and less so historical freedom, etc.
c) Some humans do very well; for simplicity of administration, the elves concentrated authority for large chunks of trade, etc., in specific humans (and later their families). So there’s a human oligopolgy; lots of human families with a monopoly on specific trade goods and the like. They might like the current set up (with its generous profit margins and high status) too much to join a revolution.
d) Elves have “completely unreasonable” restrictions on town growth, forest clearing, and the like. [They’re very reasonable, perhaps even permissive, from an elvish point of view.]
e) Revolution’s not a requirement at all; that’ll follow from player BITs. Other interesting settings could be Prince’s guard, negotiators from the (human) empire seeking allies, etc.
f) Geopolitics still up in the air. Perhaps the nation that lost to the elves is gone; one province now elvish occupied, the rest swallowed by a rival empire.
g) Common Enemy– perhaps the Orcs are spreading south, nastily… but their agents promise to spare the humans if they don’t fight for the elves. Can they be trusted.
Anyway, lots of seeds of ideas for discussion.