Te'ran
“When shrewd business dealings were married with endeavors into arcane magic, the seeds of Te’ran were planted. When Vishnari collapsed, it blossomed into a nexus of innovation and unfettered capitalism the likes of which the continent has never seen.” ~ Jothan Blackkard, Gazetteer

Geography
Te’ran lies in the vast valley between the Rame and Delgus mountains and the floodplain of the Emaru river. The land consists mostly of fertile wetland and warm hills leading up into the mountains. The Western border consists of the To’Rizen range and the Blackmire; a stretch of swampland that separates Te’ran from Calderia.

History
The Academy of Arcane Arts was founded in the early in the formation of the Vishnari empire to study the phenomenon of divinity sparks and new ways to combat their products. While the Academy had many breakthroughs, they were largely under-funded and understaffed in their outposts in a region called Middleton Valley, famous for its higher than average concentration of divinity sparks.

All this changed when the hailene made war with the Empire and the Academy was suddenly inundated with literal tons of coin and rare materials to develop weapons against the new threat to the empire. With this new infusion of funds, the Academy developed a number of new spells, including the now famous improvements on old the standby spells of darkness and fly; blackout and winged flight.

When the war ended and the Empire began to collapse, the Academy was in an enviable position; they still had exorbitant amounts of gold from the Vishnari coffers, their infrastructure had barely been touched by hailene assault, and the mountains and rivers surrounding Middleton Valley made it far too hard to invade for the armies of the day. Soon, Middleton Valley and its small, outlying farming enclaves were fully under the protection of the Academy. The then Academy Master, Maytem LeSarn named the new nation at her organization’s control Te’ran, which in the technical jargon of Draconic Arcanus means ‘the core’.

Culture
Te’ranians are an artistic and philosophical people. Proximity to the Academy means that the people always have a wizard or sorcerer around to defend them, even with the large population of spirit beasts in the valley. All this means that they are free to engage in what many other citizens would feel are frivolous pursuits such as art, music and writing.

The architecture of the towns and cities reflect this nature in its variety and beauty. Geometric shapes share skylines with organic ones, all supported with the help of magical structure enhancements.

Spellcasters, obviously, command a great deal of respect, but the citizens of Te’ran have lost much of their awe at magic, as most have been educated in basic magical laws. Oddly, Te’ranians are less educated than the citizens of other nations as the mages generally discourage the practice of using bards and story-spinners as teachers in place of wizardly instructors.

Industry
The valley and surrounding mountains provide Te’ran with enough ores, gems and fertile ground to support itself, but not for trade and most fishable bodies of water are too far from the academy to be provided steady protection. Combined, these mean that Te’ran has little need, but even less to offer outsiders in the way of natural resources.

What Te’ran has in abundance, however, is arcane power and people who both wield it and craft it into magical items for others to wield. The number and variety of spellcrafters in Te’ran far outstrips any nation on Ere, even among Trestrolm Norry’s enterprises in Chordin.

Te’ranian mages are known far and wide for their skill and their unique ‘homebrew’ spells. This standing makes the Academy the obvious choice of mage’s school for the wealthy of all nations to send their children or personal guard for training. Te’ranian commoners make their money off of these students, providing food, lodging and entertainment above the meager dormitories within the Academy.

Government
Over the next few centuries, the Academy formed a separate government to deal with the social aspects of the nation and avoid the pitfalls that Minde Forme had fallen into. Matters not concerning the Academy directly are handled by an elected parliament and a Prime Minister selected by the Academy’s Board of Deans.

The current Prime Minister is Yu’dara Angledown (Female miare wizard 8), who is the first non-human elected to the position since the Academy’s founding. Her primary platforms include the construction of new farming enclaves and fisheries on the shore of the Emaru River and increasing mining in the Rame Mountains.

The Academy is controlled by the Board of Deans who elect from their number both the Prime Minister of Te’ran and the First Seat, who conducts Board meetings. The current First Seat is Boanar Ten-Dragon (Male human black dragon sired Rogue 2/Wizard 6) his main concerns are expanding relations with the Bardic College of Harpsfell and the Tower of Arcana in Minde Forme as well as overseeing the construction of a new floating sentinel to provide protection for Yu’dara Angledown’s new farming enclaves in the East.

Organizations and People
Academy of Arcane Arts
The Academy remains one of the most respected institutions of arcane magic in the world, second in respect only to the Bardic College of Harpsfell and second in power to none. The Academy is based in the capitol city of Des Morganes, in the Tower Sentinel; a castle of black granite and marble that rises thirty stories above the skyline.

Sub-schools, where students go to pursue more specialized training, are located in smaller, floating, domed structures called floating sentinels, which drift lazily in preset paths that are controlled from within the Tower Sentinel. The bear names vaguely indicative of their field of research. Sentinel Chimera, for example is dedicated to experiments with developing new magical creatures.

The Academy seeks to further all kinds of magical research, including divine magic and taboo subjects such as necromancy.

The Order of the Long Night
Mages who seek to use their abilities in battle or for the greater good find themselves joining the order of the long night rather than pursuing research. These young men and women permanently become stationed at floating sentinels from which they help protect the outlying settlements of Te’ran from spirit beasts.

Major Settlements
Des Morganes (City 22,000)
Located on the shores of Lake Middleton, the city of Des Morganes grows up around the black and gray spire that is the Tower Sentinel, the principle building of the Academy of Arcane Arts. The buildings here are most often made of stone quarried from the Rame Mountains; rich black granite, grey marble and dark grey slate. In these buildings live the families of the Academy wizards, merchants, and the sundry peoples that keep the city lively.

Des Morganes is famed across the continent for its many high class and affordable inns, which are used to catering to short term or wealthy students at the Academy. All inn costs in Des Morganes are reduced by 25%.

Locations of Note
The Blackmire
On the western face of the To’Rizen Mountains is a thin stretch of ever-shifting, dangerous marshland called the Blackmire. In places, the ground is little more than soggy islands of soft, deep mud that can swallow a horse whole given the chance, in others, narrow waterways allow travel by boat for up to twenty miles before weeds and mud choke off egress.

Legally, the Blackmire belongs to Te’ran, but a treaty signed during the Western Wars to discourage Calderian raiders gifted the land into perpetuity to the Black Dragon Nation, Hulden’slyth. The great beasts make their lairs in the Blackmire now, making examples of any Calderians they capture in accordance to the treaty. The black dragons, however, are not bound to drive away other dangerous creatures, and so don’t – making hags, dinosaurs and other monsters a lingering problem for those trying to navigate the Blackmire.

Encounters
A large number of spirit beasts prowl Middleton Valley, largely cowed from raiding the villages by the Order of the long night. They readily attack any who stray too far from the protection of the mages. Additionally, many mages protect their assets with summoned, conjured and created monsters. The Blackmire is home not only to black dragons, but a number of species of dinosaurs, hydra and dire animals. A few tribes of lizardfolk and kobolds also keep residence in the Blackmire.