Crescen

Crescen is a tiny but renowned nation; nearly all of the best mages in Archia were educated within its borders, and it produces a hundred times as many magic users per capita as any other nation. Crescen is home to many universities, but the largest, Crescenscia University, is a city in its own right, with separate campuses for every school of magic. Crescen is a magocracy, a nation ruled by three of its most powerful magic users. Whenever one of the Magi dies or steps down, a massive tournament is held and seven champions are chosen based on their performance in several categories; the remaining Magi select the new Magus from these champions.   Magic is so common in Crescen that most of its urban population knows at least one or two handy cantrips; in Crescian cities, not knowing at least Prestidigitation is similar to not being able to read and write in our world. As a result, Crescian fashion is unbounded by normal considerations, like delicate designs that may tear when being washed; wealthy Crescians often wear clothes that have some sort of magical flourish to them, like a gown that ripples with color as its wearer walks. But although Crescians enjoy displays of their magical prowess, they prefer to dazzle outsiders, rather than exclude them, and they welcome travelers and foreigners into their cities and universities quite readily.   Crescian architecture reflects the nation's magical abundance; its cities are full of floating gardens and impossibly angled structures. Though it is situated in an arid desert, many buildings are windowless but nevertheless magically cool; archways are enchanted so that only members of a household and their guests may pass through, and magical brooms sweep sand off the streets. Most of the food in Crescen is supplied by druids or imported from Isseria, and there are dedicated mages in charge of maintaining the water supply of each city, as Crescen has no rivers and its lakes are filled with saltwater.