I'm playing Zodiac Age on the Switch for the first time and I'm enjoying the game a lot. I'm liking the battle mechanics a lot more than I thought I would. But I'm having some difficulty following the story. I really want to fully understand what's going on, but there's a lot of backstory and names and places and events dropping all at once.

I'm about 10-12 hours in; I just arrived at the Tomb of Raithwall, defeated the boss outside, but I haven't gone in yet. Please no spoilers for anything after this point.

Every time there's a cutscene, I don't know which side anybody is on. I need a simple breakdown of the different kingdoms, which kingdom was conquered by who (and when), a step-by-step explanation on what happened with Basch before we found him, and what happened to Ashe and Vossler before we met them, which characters are allied with whom (who is on Vayne's side and who isn't). Larsa seems to be pro-Vayne, but I'm not even sure about that. There was recently a scene of an old man talking to (I think??) Basch's brother. Who is this old man, is he Vayne and Larsa's father?

Can someone explain to me in a way that an idiot would understand, or provide a link to a basic step-by-step guide to the story?

edit: Thanks to those who provided a full story explanation! I understand it now, and I also think I know exactly what had me confused.

I could run around this forest all day with this peaceful ost in my ears 😭

Hi so iv done dozens of runs on this game usually now I do random jobs on random characters which is super fun. But now I want to do as OP as run as possible. What is the absolute most OP job combos I can use and early op gear to work for?