Points of Interest
Three Great Libraries
The Great Gnome library, located in the overlap lands between the gnomelands and the elven city states, is also home to a renowned spellcaster school. It is a magnificent structure built into the natural caverns. Its entrance is adorned with intricately carved stone archways and illuminated by glowing crystals. Of the three libraries, it is perhaps the least useful in terms of ancient knowledge and sheer volume of text. But it is the best library for technology, the sciences, history, and most all things non-magical.
Ingenium, located in Pegro City, is an impressive building made of pristine white marble, with towering pillars and a sweeping staircase leading up to its entrance. It is controlled by the OWM (depending on the time period), and specializes in philosophy and military history, as well as more regulated magical texts.
The Sanctum Grove library, located in Proc Flana, is by far the most inaccessible, almost mythical. It is located in a swamp, in a labyrinth of trees that are all connected at the roots and are one organism. Even if you reach the library, you must be granted access by the Wizard Sortileges. It has contains powerful Briderus Spells, magical artifacts, and the type of knowledge that some may want to keep hidden (all three libraries have this, but the Grove most of all). It is the most extensive and well rounded library of the three.
Mines of South Calcutta
Mines of South Calcutta is a dwarven mine located under the ruins of South Calcutta, an old, abandoned city. It was built into the extensive cave system beneath the city, and now has relatively high domed ceilings. As such, it's not actually all that claustrophobic. Of course, the mines beneath the many underground city are absolutely claustrophobic and extensive.
The dwarves of the Mines of South Calcutta are experts with explosives, both creating powerful explosives and knowing how to use them safely with minimal risk of cave-ins or unintended damage.
The dwarves of South Calcutta are a republic. There are two ruling councils. The House of Miners consists of representatives of the eldest families, effectively nobility, and have the most say over the military and foreign policy of the city. The Populist is an democratically-elected ruling council, and has the most say over the internal laws of the city, but can overrule the House of Miners when over 90% of the Populist votes to veto the House's decision.