Azarcania

Azarcania: a realm defined by its one unique resource - a magical glowing blue mineral called Azarus. Mined from the rock deep under the Azacan mountains, Azarus has an energy of its own, an energy that gives life to the entire realm. A ruling class of robber barons have established a monopoly on the mining, transportation, processing and trade of Azarus. Before the robber barons reached their peak, The Capital served as the moral compass of Azarcania, with its senate buildings, universities and libraries serving as a gathering place for the great philosophers and sages of yore. These days it is more of a feckless figurehead, propped up by the barons to serve as The Capital in name only, although a handful of intellectuals persist in their quest of morality and teaching. The working class is comprised of miners, bargemen, teamsters, fishermen, farmers and factory workers, who labor to put bread on the table as they break their backs to make others wealthy. Those who do not labor waste away in the slums that scourge every city. Needless to say, there is another enterprising class, those that operate outside the so-called law. Several large syndicates operate much of this activity, while unaffiliated individuals scrape out a living in the shadows. The history of Azarcania is shrouded in mystery, like the Forbidden Mountains that rise over the Southern shores of the Great Lake. An island sits in the lake near the Southern shores, but the southern half of the island is permanently covered in a dense white fog. It is rumored that a monastery sits on the island, and the sages in the university whisper of a magical order of monks. But no one who has ventured into the dense fog has ever re-emerged.