Almania

Almania is the only great power that claims no god, no relic, and no magic. Pure engineering. Their mines never miss a vein. Their weapons are precision instruments designed for threats they politely decline to name. Their treaties are signed fast, because somehow Almania always knows exactly what the other side can and cannot afford to refuse.

The official explanation is culture: discipline, logic, rational method. It's a good explanation. It's also doing a lot of work.

Because the Storm Mountains hold a sealed cave network the state classified seven hundred years ago as an acoustic hazard, and the engineers who worked there came out thinking faster and feeling less. And because no nation locates resources that perfectly by skill alone. Almania has the best maps on the continent — of everything, everyone's, everywhere.

The question no Almanian official will ever answer: maps drawn by what?