I will admit this is different from how I usually do things. The question it sounds like you're trying to answer though is, "what should my characters want?" and that's not really a question anyone but you is prepared to answer. If you really have no idea what you're characters might aspire to or how the landscape of your world is shifting to keep them from those goals then you can always start with more basic questions. These characters have certain talents and occupations obviously, how did they develop those? Why were they necessary? Why was it difficult? Who prospered because of it? None of these answers has to be very interesting, but get some idea of why the world is structured this way and who they are inside of it. Empires, cities, and conflicts are massive interconnected systems. If you keep probing at the unknowns enough and answering questions eventually you can build up to the streets of a kingdom from the pocket change of a farmer 200 miles away.

If that process sounds long and tedious, literally just steal a story, steal characters, steal a setting if you want. Steal directly from as many sources as you can and don't even hide it. Hell you can even just take the first chapter of a book you liked and make that the first chapter of your book for now. Write from that point onward in your own way. When you start to feel like you've found a story the delete all the writing you stole outright and fill in the gaps yourself, or just start over fresh. Nothing lubricates the mind into coming up with a great but unrelated story like being several days invested in writing something else.