A great way to give your setting (or someone else's setting you're using) life is by giving it characters out of the character's sphere of knowledge a mention or two, and let those people continue doing their own things and maybe let the party hear about it once in a while.
For example, let's say that the party is on a mission by a local duke, who asks the party to retrieve his daughter. He may mention he hopes it isn't Harkall, the Bandit Warlord who is rumored to be able to seduce any woman, and explains that said man has been on a rampage in the Southern Wastes and is rumored to be approaching the Northern territories.
What's neat is that because this is all hearsay, none of it ever needs to matter much besides a neat aside. But you can make it matter if you wish, or make it a part of your setting's lore and history. Maybe they find the duke's daughter with him, or maybe he isn't heading North at all. Perhaps weeks later they hear of Harkall breaking into a council room at the Gryth Arcanarium, demanding for revenge or else he will destroy them and their precious magic.
In this example, Harkall is acting much like a player does. He is a major character in his own story, and acts out of (usually) self-interest. But to the players, he is a sidenote ideally, which can evolve and eventually lead into a dramatic conflict, considering the war-mages of the Gryth Arcanarium are not to be taken lightly.
It gets even better when you sprinkle these around, and let the players take interest in others from afar. They may grow to care, hate, or even love these figures (although it's tough) because of their deeds.
An issue with this way of storytelling (within your storytelling) is that players usually want to follow every obvious lead presented, so when a duke mentions a bandit warlord, often times they will run to defeat him even if he should be able to wreck them one-handed. I tend to make the people talked of far away, or of high position and prestige to keep the players away for a time, but it is a tricky path to follow.
This is also a great way to give players ideas on who might be able to help them on their journeys, as they shouldn't be able to do everything on their own. So you can mention a nearby mage who collects trinkets right before they find a powerful artifact that they will need to decipher, and ideally the players will be able to connect the dots on their own, making them feel smart and quite clever.
But in the end, these ideas are all for making your background come to life, and allowing players to learn of the world around them without actually needing to be everywhere. It can really flesh out the important players of any world, and help understand the politics of who the party may need assistance from when you get to epic-levels.
May your background noise be as exciting as your party's antics,
Taylor Shuss
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