Elkandu

Elkandu is a physically small nation located within the Ethereal Plane of the region of Torn Elkandu, to which it lends its name. The capital city of Elkandu is also named Torn Elkandu. It does not possess a sun or moons, and exists in a state of perpetual twilight underneath purple skies.

Government

Elkandu is not so much a dictatorship as is the fact that the idea of democracy never exactly occurred to them, and many would find the idea fairly laughable. As the entire population of Elkandu is made up of mages, the government is arranged in a strict hierarchy of innate magical power. If someone wishes to rise into a higher position in this country, they need to put in the time and effort into improving their magical skills.

The current leader of Elkandu is Silver Renneck, also known as Silver the Great, an elf Chronomancer originally from Lezaria. He acquired this position somewhat unwillingly and unexpected when the former leader, Sedder, decided to skip out on his duties and head off to Tijuana Colony with his new wife.

Geography

Much of the nation of Elkandu is made up of the city of Torn Elkandu, which is centered around the Nexus, a powerful magical construct capable of providing instantaneous transport all across the region. Elkandu's natural features include the Grove of Earth, a vast forest to the west of Torn Elkandu, the Caves of Fire to the south, the Mountains of Frost to the north, and Water's Lake to the northeast.

People

Elkandu is an extremely cosmopolitan nation, made up of a variety of species from all over the region. It's a melting pot of mages from many races, although while racism is nearly unheard of, people tend to discriminate freely about magical powers. People with elemental powers such as Fire or Earth are considered of lesser worth than those with "better" talents such as Mind or Soul.

Although the people of Elkandu tend to see little use for the currencies of most worlds, they have a healthy trading and bartering system, as well as having made use of magical gemstones of various sorts as a makeshift currency. Even so, the "Elkandu Discount" runs strong in the nation, that is to say, if the customer in question is more powerful than the storekeeper, they tend to let them just take thing for free rather than risk being incinerated by a powerful mage.

Religion

Currently, the nation of Elkandu is strictly atheistic. Formerly, they had nominally worshipped a deity whom they called Shazmar, who was really more of an annoying, omnipotent child than much of a god and nobody in their right mind actually prayed to him, as he had the tendancy of making a situation worse as frequently as of making it better. After a complicated series of events involving Sedder telling him to go away and Silver angering him, however, Shazmar has since left Torn Elkandu.