vexua

The island nation of Vexua was once a simple forest-covered island, inhabited by a few isolationist elves and gnomes who preferred to keep to themselves. Their society was thrown into uproar upon the removal of arcane magic by the Gods, and the island's remaining few lost faith in the few gods they had previously worshipped. Whilst their friends and families were imprisoned in the sky, they trained to develop methods of eliminating any wayward paladins who were sent to convince the island's inhabitants to resume their worship - this, over time, lead to a steady distrust of any outsiders, and walls began to form. Due to their antireligious stance, they attracted both war and those fleeing from it, and were forced to develop a way of dealing with both: many died before they established a way to join the city.

When the Worldrend happened and their mages returned with more knowledge than ever, society was destabilised, and their leaders stepped down in the chaos. It took an older elf, running with a strong focus on maintaining their society and closing their borders, to reconstruct society, and it was at this point that an offshore nation attacked, trying to take advantage of their disarray. The Vexuans fought back with magical weapons and their first constructs, easily decimating their foes, and immediately began sealing their nation off from the world, deciding that they'd rather not deal with the outside attention as they were already able to stay self-sufficient. Using the clockwork constructs their mages had begun to experiment with as a base, they worked to create mechanical beings to maintain their borders. This would have stayed basic if a small party of powerful mages hadn't gone exploring the galaxy, bringing back strange technology that kicked the nation into a tech-frenzy, eventually spurring the rise of the Technic League [name subject to change, I'm being lazy and borrowing this from IG] who soon took control and organised the island as efficiently as possible, taking control of all that they could and then some.

Vexua is split into multiple districts, each with different tasks, yet all citizens are treated the same and live in relative comfort. The League doesn't directly interfere in their daily lives, and Vexuans are fairly happy for what they know. They live in angular apartment buildings and have most menial tasks automated and standardised so that they might concentrate on more important things, such as research and relaxation. Regular citizens might work in farms, factories, shops, public services or the like; those with no other position are given maintenance positions or set to do menial work that's too varied to be automated easily. In the standardised Vexuan schooling system, children are taught a variety of topics and are trained in many skills: every Vexuan is able to use a gun, has researched the nation's history and geography, and understands basic technology. They are also tested for their combat abilities. Those who are proficient with magic are trained separately and individually, and those who're skilled with weapons (or other combat-related feats) are directed into training streams personalised for them. The schooling system also incorporates light brainwashing techniques to instil loyalty to Vexua, positioning the citizens from a young age to oppose the outside world.

Those who wish to leave Vexua are quickly pulled aside by the Enforcers - they usually return with no desire to exit the country, though if they continue to wish to leave, they are permitted to say their goodbyes whilst being watched, then have their memories of critical parts of Vexuan knowledge wiped (which they are made well aware of) and are released into the wilds. If someone leaves, they are not permitted to return outside of exceptional circumstances (such as knowledge of an enemy attack), unless their travel has already been prearranged.

The races of Vexua, as previously mentioned, are primarily elves and gnomes. However, due to their brief period of allowing refugees, the nation does have a few others: humans, drow and lashunta, primarily. Drow, surprisingly, are not shunned here, as the elves of times past accepted them as variants who didn't choose their fates; and besides, they fled their homelands to arrive. The lashunta are immigrants who came back with the mages, fleeing their own homelands for the safety of Vexua. Aasimar, tieflings and other elemental beings are rare and prized for their genetic superiority, and are usually separated and indoctrinated specially.

However, the one race totally native to Vexua (well, on Istralar, at least) and the biggest source of outside interaction/trade for the nation, are the androids. They function as entirely sentient beings and are created in a enormous underground factory, each of them totally different in personality to the next, whilst remaining fairly uniform in base body. Cosmetics make them look as different as possible. In reality, androids are essentially the same as any other being in that souls inhabit and 'power' their mental facilities. However, since Vexua is able to mass-produce the metal beings and, through their own secret arts, are able to subjugate them, they do export them as specialised slaves. Androids are often bought by the rich and powerful as guards, researchers or assassins, and are able to be customised by their purchaser to their liking - most nations are completely accepting of this trade, as androids are not seen to be people. This treatment has caused strife between religious organisations - for instance, Sarenrae's followers do not oppose slavery, whereas Milani's are vehemently against it.