A'laur

A'laur is one of two high elven nations in Cybele. It is located in the relative north, just south of the Barrier Range and to the west of Aetheria. It's capital, Auver, resides in the north east of the nation.

History and Culture
An ancient nation formed over 7,000 years ago in 8A 0, it predates all other extant nations save Aetheria, which formed along side A'laur as a successor state to the Aionian Empire following the General Split. The creation of A'laur and Aetheria began the 8th age. Following the split, A'laurian and Aetherian cultures diverged substantially. A'laur took on a new form of governance. The new government is comprised of three components. These components are the Meritocracy, the Hierarchy, and the Military. They run academic research, bureaucracy of governance, and the army and civic works groups respectively. In terms of governance, the meritocracy decides how A'laur should function ideally, the hierarchy decides how to put those ideal goals into practice, and the military defends the nation and facilitates putting those goals into practice. The tripartite governance structure is headed by the informal small council, which consists of the ministers of each of the components. The ministers and their direct deputy ministers together form the executive council, which is the official highest governing body of A'laur.

The society pushes a strong sense of duty to one's craft, town, society, and nation, with service above self as the centerpiece of this ideology. This strong sense of service helps to prevent rampant abuse of the powers of the hierarchy, as does the hierarchy's self regulating nature. Should one fail at their duties due to an obvious lack of qualification, whoever promoted that individual up the hierarchy is held accountable just as much as the individual themselves. These changes refocused A'laurian culture around their highly defined gods of reason and logic, and became the greatest exporter of magical constructs and techniques. In contrast, Aetheria became a major exporter of culture, religion, and medicine.

Economics and Constructs
A'laur is the continent's pre-eminent producer and exporter of advanced magical items and constructs, and values such constructs highly. The most incredible constructs are the Seven Great Creations of A'laur, systems of immense complexity and expense that have been built across the world at enormous expense. Currently, the seventh creation is under construction. The Iluvian Network is an instantaneous transportation system which will eventually span all of A'laur and a number of other nations. The Archive, the world's pre-eminent institute of knowledge, is located in southwestern A'laur.

Military
A'laur possess the most advanced weapons systems and combat technologies of any nation. It is not the world's largest military power, this title goes to the Thero-Vindurian Empire, simply due to the dwarves larger numbers and greater resources. But the A'laurian military makes use of many magical constructs which are more powerful in combat than anything deployed by any other army. A long martial tradition is also helpful in maintaining a quality military, and the hierarchy has instilled such a tradition. A'laur is most powerful on the defense, thanks to its very well defended cities, which employ city-wide wards to protect from assault. The greatest example of such defenses is the third great creation in A'laur, the Great Citadel of Auver.