We have meteors, but now that people have seen how lackluster level 9 is and gotten a few pieces of gear with meteor gildings on them, it doesn't seem to be driving people out to battle anymore.
The mine shit seems important but I feel like level 9 could use a lot more interesting shit, as well as other levels, but that's another story.
How about some more world events that are worth fighting over?
Earthquakes could be a thing. Maybe they cause random boulders to appear that can contain minerals, or maybe it spawns something like a cliffside that can contain new minerals or fossils that need to be mined out. Like the earths mantle shifts and pushes up a big shelf of rock with it you know?
Volcanos could be a thing. Maybe these could even spawn in caves. Obviously lots of interesting resources associated with magma, as well as the magma itself.
Packs of animals that are rabid? Maybe like a big alpha male bear? Even something as cliche as a werewolf? An Ogre? A Kraken or any other sea monster? Even a group of non-animal foes? Like a bunch of Elven Thieves or some shit. So many possibilities. These can spawn and roam the world without despawning and give any number of interesting drops worth fighting over.
Also, I know it's been mentioned before in stream but if we do something like earthquakes, this could be a great precursor to the movement of a lot of local resource nodes along with seasons. Having salt basins, trees, crystals, icicles and all that fun stuff spawn and despawn would definitely give more reason for factions to actively battle over areas.