Pens

Pens’ economy thrives on two primary pillars: trade and taxation. Its location at the nexus of major overland trade routes allows goods from all corners of the western continent to flow through its vast marketplaces and merchant districts. Caravans pour into its trade squares, selling spices, armaments, silks, exotic animals, and more.   The city also boasts the western continent’s only centralized bank, an institution backed by the Crown itself. This bank underpins much of the realm's financial stability, issuing loans to nobles and guilds, safeguarding treasuries, and facilitating large-scale trade agreements. Tax revenue collected through this financial infrastructure further enriches the capital, funding its upkeep and reinforcing the monarchy's influence.

Pens is home to many of the realm's most prestigious guilds, including the renowned Dungeoneering Guild, whose headquarters reside within a fortified quarter near the city's outer walls. The presence of such institutions makes the city a magnet for adventurers, mercenaries, and scholars alike. From spellcasters to blacksmiths, artisans to monster-hunters, nearly every profession finds representation within Pens’ bustling guild quarters.

As the cultural crown jewel of the realm, Pens is also a major destination for tourism and spectacle. Its calendar is filled with festivals, tournaments, royal parades, public executions, scholarly exhibitions, and arcane demonstrations. Travelers from all walks of life visit Pens to witness the famed Grand Joust, the Arcane Convergence, or the Masquerade of the Crown, events that draw massive crowds and bring with them waves of commerce.   Lavish inns, street performers, guided tours of royal halls, and monuments commemorating great battles and fallen kings add to the city's allure. Pilgrims also flock to Pens to pay respects at sacred sites and historic temples nestled within its old quarters.

Despite its political might and cultural prestige, Pens is notably poor in natural resources. The lands surrounding the capital are largely exhausted plains and rolling hills, offering little in the way of material wealth. The few small forests that remain are carefully managed for limited lumber production, providing only enough wood to supply local artisans and repair city infrastructure.   Likewise, the region holds only minor coal deposits, scattered in shallow seams near the city's outskirts. These small mines produce just enough to support essential functions such as blacksmithing, heating, and minor industrial activity, but not at a scale capable of sustaining a city of Pens’ size and influence. This scarcity has shaped Pens into a city that survives not by what it produces, but by what it attracts and controls. Its reliance on trade, taxation, and tourism is not a luxury—but a necessity.