Pania Rora

With its northern slopes touching the equator and situated between the soaking storms of the XXXX Sea to the southwest and the prevailing winds converging from the east, Pania Rora is one of the greenest places on Aestrona. The narrow continent is dominated by towering mountain ranges on which grow the XXXX trees, some of the tallest in the world. Capable of thriving at soaring elevations, the XXXX trees dominate the horizon for hundreds of miles, serving as a waypoint for sailors for thousands of years. It is only in the past few centuries that the dreadful Amalgam Ladder has replaced the trees of Pania Rora as the most prominent visual marker in the eastern hemisphere.

Government

Pania Rora is a monarchy ruled by the Chosen of the Mana Font, usually a woman. Sorcerous bloodlines abound on the island and among them is always a single individual with a mystical link to the strange reservoir of magic that exists far beneath the surface. When the current Chosen dies, a new one is gifted immediately, who by the laws of Pania Rora is the new reigning monarch.
The process by which the Mana Font chooses its guardian is mysterious; though it seems to prefer hereditary passage, there have been cases of the gift skipping generations or even abandoning a bloodline altogether in favor of another. Consequently, succession struggles in Pania Rora never truly end. While the Mana Font seems to prioritize bloodlines with great power or potential, there are at least a dozen such families in close competition at any time, and dozens more who might be eligible based on historical precedent. A saying in Pania Rora illustrates the sometimes nihilistic pursuit of power that characterizes many of its noble families: "Authority is but a breath away".

Industry & Trade

Pania Rora's greatest export is magic. The Mana Font floods the island with raw power, waiting to be captured by talented mystics. Most of the world's commercial arcane items originate here. Simple wands and staves, enchanted tools and other items attract gold from every kingdom and keep Pania Rora's coffers full to bursting. The country has an especially robust trade with the dwarves to the north, who send raw metals and finished weapons and armor to Pania Roran maginariums for enchanting.
The value of all these wonders pale next to Pania Rora's true money maker however: enchanted building materials. Lumber that cannot burn; metal that does not corrode; bricks that insulate better than dozens of layers of oilskin. Though enchanting such items is a mundane and time-consuming task, the demand is too great to ever be met, no matter how many mystics toil away at it. Many apprentices cut their teeth learning sorcery in a brick factory and leave wealthy enough to pursue a lifetime of research.

Infrastructure

One of Pania Rora's most amazing national structures is one available only to users of primal magic: the Wyrtway, a vast network of connected roots that stretches over much of the continent. Druids use these roots as a means of magical travel, stepping into a tree in one location and traveling along the root system nearly instantaneously to another. This is easier and costs less magic energy than teleportation, making it accessible to even journeyman primal magic users.
Druidic arbortechs built this system into the soil itself in secret as they constructed Pania Rora's cities and outposts. Though it was a major scandal when first discovered and remains a subject of much controversy, sorcerers have been unable to remove the system by legitimate means or otherwise for centuries; in the modern era fights over the Wyrtway are mostly political theater.

Architecture

Despite exporting the vast bulk of the world's enchanted building materials, Pania Rora uses very little of such things in their own construction. Instead, they prefer a type of architecture uniquely suited to their island: arbortecture. Though used decoratively in many other places, the presence of the Mana Font beneath Pania Rora allows rapid and precisely controlled magical growth that can create extremely elaborate living structures. Because of this, Pania Rora hosts a large population of druids who wield considerable economic influence. This sometimes creates tension with the noble class of sorcerers, many of whom view druids as simply the most talented segment of the "working class".
Enchanted to be fire and rot resistant, self-healing, and capable of sustaining vast agricultural ecosystems contiguous with urban society, the arbortecture of Pania Rora is both wondrously beautiful and functionally efficient.

Type

National Territory

Owner/Ruler

Magical Princess Leile

Characters in Location

• Magical Princess Leile