Otticia

Realm of the Archon known as The Stonemason, Otticia is a province of art and culture, its citizens managing to stay mostly affluent, which is one of the reasons they've been so closely allied with the Archons. The peasants and the nobility both view the ruling Archon as the source for their province's wealth and prosperity, and essentialy see it as a noble benefactor.

Of course The Stonemason does nothing to dissuade the people from this view, despite any evidence to the contrary. The Archon furiously controls the sources for information people receive. Merchants and messengers who arrive in the province are interrogated about what news and events they have heard from the outside, and are told to keep their mouths shut while visiting and not to distract the common people with "unnescesary information" like how much workers get paid in other provinces, or tails surrounding revolutions or wars. They don't need to hear of any of that, and anyone that stats spouting out things like that will quickly find themselves arrested for "public nuisance".

Ottica's wealth is derived mainly from two sources; mining and farming. The province's tall mountains are rich with ores and gems of all sorts. There are around a dozen large mines in the mountains, each controlled by a noble family, known as a House. Each House employs peasant workers to work the mines, extracting the ore or gemstones and shipping it back to each House's own smelters and jewelers. Opposite the Elder forest is a river network, where there lies some incredibly ferile farmland that the farmers mostly use for wheat, barley and grapes, which go into the province's numerous breweries, each of them also controlled by one of the Houses. The workers in the fields and the mines are kept complacent and happy by occasional "presents" from the House they work for, like clothing or new tools, plus the knowledge that supposedly they're getting paid more than any other province would pay them. This is a lie however, as most of the workers are paid incredibly sub-standard wages, they just aren't aware of it.

Each of the 12 Houses controls a subsection of the Province, as dictated to by The Stonemason, who makes sure they know their places with respect to him. Each of the Houses jockeys for position amongst themselvfes to become the representative to The Stonemason. The representative is rarely ever actually listened to, but the House the representative belongs to always seems to receive boons and favors from The Stonemason more than the other Houses, so most of the Houses are desperate to achieve the rank. Of course, The Stonemason still has final say on eveything that goes on in Otticia.

There are two main centers of learning in Otticia. The one on the island is smaller than the other and highly specialized, serving as a way for aspiring artists to to learn ways of integrating spirits into artistic displays. The Center for Spritual Artistics, as its known, believes that spirits can provide avenues of artistic exploration never before seen. The Center has the largest collection of spritually created artworks in the Dominion, and several spirits serve as teachers in the Center.

The other center of learning the Ottician Tactical Academy, a military academy and center of learning that both trains Otticia's troops and makes sure the various Ottician military officers are properly educated in battle tactics and strategy, depending on where they wish to serve. This includes how to deal with supply lines, food shortages, troop placements, effective tactical positions for various battlefields, and how to best utilize the army's assets, both spiritual and mundane, to the best advantage, against all the Dominion's know and potential foes.

The only mysterious place in Otticia is the Elder Forest outside the town of Helmsford. While the Ottcian houses and The Stonemason both have attempted to cut the forest down, it's never succeeded for long, but not because of spiritual or mundane rebellion. Any attempts just...seem to fail. Troops sent to cut it down never find the forest or just disappearr. Spirits sent to scout the forest forget what they saw whenever they leave. Golems The Stonemason sends immediately stop functioning when they approach it and cannon fire on the forest always misses for one seemingly mundane reason or another. It is a truly strange area.