Throughout the world there exist a great many Mana Crystals, often offering different benefits to the land, the most prevalent of which are the ones scattered throughout the Westerlash Desert that provide small oases around which villages formed and thrive in spite of the terrible conditions of the world outside. Mages possess the ability to tap into the Mana of each crystal from varying distances based on their skills in the craft. The downside to this is that great range from a crystal provides a reduced magickal effect. Additionally, the Mana Crystals produce run-off in the form of wispy mana that floats through the air as a visible sort of luminescent gas. This gas is potent and quite magickal in it's own right, but often fills up the skies around crystal habitats with a unique Aurora Borealis Effect, lighting and coloring the sky. If you can see this coloration, chances are you have an active line to Mana. As a mage taps into the mana of a crystal, it depletes the supply. However, natural mana sources are tied into the earth itself and regenerate their mana in this way. That is why it is prohibited to remove a Mana Crystal that is tied into the earth. Once a crystal has been removed, the removed portion holds only a limited tappable supply that can not be refreshed in any way, and once it is gone, the crystal is not unlike a decorative rock, both in value and appearance.

Truly skilled mages can resupply limited storage mana crystals that have been severed from the earth by funneling energy from one crystal to another, usually by tapping into a live crystal source, much like filling a canteen with water. Any seeking services of this nature, however, tend to pay a pretty hefty some to those skilled enough for mana transference, and for those who can perform it, the action can take quite a toll on a person's stamina. The larger, natural Mana Crystals are forbidden from exclusive access, and trying to keep the mana source for one's self is a well-regulated crime. The exception to this is Diomundus, the Star of the North, where the mages call home. They have access to some of the largest, living, floating mana crystals in all of Tempestia, and worked the citadel's design heavily around the gorgeous stones to maximize power and it's availability within the structure. Because of this, the capital city of mages is often aglow with life and power, quite literally. With a nearly limitless, massive supply of mana in the city, most mages call it home simply out of convenience.

As final notes regarding the Magickal class of Tempestia, it is to be noted that there exist those outside the constraints of natural magickal ability. Those who do not need a mana source, be it living or personal, in order to tap into rather impressive energies. The avatars, living creatures made by the will of the gods themselves, can forge magick out of nothingness. They wield a power that is un-matched by mortal hands, and are made up solely of their own magickal energies that no mage has, to date, successfully tapped into (Though this shall likely be exploited in one of my stories down the way). They exist at the whim of the gods and goddesses, and their life forces may be extinguished EXCLUSIVELY by the hands of their creator-gods, and no others. They are an ageless, undying species who can take on any form they want upon birth, often favoring anthromorphic forms, such as the well-known Cerula, wolfess (Avatar) of storms and rain. If un-wanted, the avatars simply cease to be. However, an avatar can, under the busy eye of their god, go forgotten and live solely how they choose. In the event, of course, that they are, indeed, forgotten. Avatars can destroy other avatars in cataclysmic battle, but never in recorded history has an avatar been slain by mortal hands, regardless of their number of challengers. Unfortunately, the avatar Durra has been known to take advantage of this fact from time to time and has yet to be punished by his creator-god, Exhelm.

Magick stones seem to be more readily located in the north and west, the corroded and de-forested regions of the southeast having lost their mana presences long ago, either sold for profit, or destroyed in calamity. However, those of the steam nation (Name to be decided later) have no need for such crystals, favoring their technologies instead, a society housed around the power of machine, man, and steam. They know not of electricity, but have still harnessed the power of steam to craft their own airships and steam-weapons. More and more advances into steam-tech are being developed all the time.

The steam nation has taken up residence on a large island in the southeast portion of Tempestia that is almost entirely the mass of an old, forcibly-dormant, volcano. The residents took to a huge project centuries ago and cleared the volcano entirely, leaving nothing but a ten foot thick shell of rock around what soon became a sprawling volcanic city. The lava was removed and repressed, and a tunnel was dug out to the mainland for underground access, a port city on the mainland being an extension of the city within the volcano. The only access outside of the underwater route is to fly via airship into a cut-out of one of the rock walls facing the port city outside. The airships may enter through a wide docking bay in the volcanic wall, or through the top of the volcano to land on the upper airstrips depending on where one's business happens to be taking them through the city. The underwater route leads to the lower levels, or the steam-works, where much of the steam is harvested from what remains of the volcanic energies. The wall entrance leads to the main city section, and the peak entrance is for the sky-city portion, a very beautiful overlook on the city sectors below with a view out to the ocean and the other towering structures nearby.

The two major cities, Diomundus, and the steam city, are often at odds with one another, but try to maintain an uneasy peace when it can be managed. Individuals from each nation also do some business with the tribal nations in the west that have their own unique supplies for things such as alchemy or herbology, or other medicines, but most people of each nation see the tribal villages as little more than savages that live off the land in their own crude ways. The tribal nations see it differently, and hence make no official ties, instead allying themselves with trusted individuals passing through or visiting.

Each nation it's own powers and benefits, and other sub-nations to note as well, but these three are the ones to be particularly aware of and understand. Each has sky power of their own, steam with airships, magick with their own uniquely-powered vessels, and the tribal nations with their flying beasts. And, of course, each nation has their own ground versions of transportation as well. No one sect has a greater advantage in life than the others, so they all work to co-exist, though this is not always the case. Weapon-wise, tribals favor spears and bows, whereas in steam society, steam-powered pistols and guns are the norm, and the mages do not trifle with weapons for the most part, favoring their spells and such.

Economic details to be sorted out later...