Bluenose -- City of Phantasms

If Errolyn is the City of Courtly Love, then Bluenose is one of phantasms--including perhaps some you might think of.  Anything goes in this part of Alphatia.  The main objective in Arogansa's capital is to welcome and cater to wealthy guests, especially wizards and aristocrats.  Therefore, luxury guest houses, comfortable inns, and private rooms are readily available, some year-round. In the summer, at the height of the season, the few still for up for grabs fetch obscene prices.  

Next come the attractions, and they'd better be decent since they mean to entertain some of the most learned and skillful patrons in Mystara.  Everyone knows that wizards are interested in one single thing: magic.  It's like flies and honey.  Whether attractions involve a walk through a haunted house, a suite of phantasmal dreams, a thrill ride through the sky, escaping a spooky dungeon, a fake magic-user's duel, a magical show in a theater, an enchanted merry-go-round, a tavern where one summons exotic and occult fares, or more sordid services somehow magically enhanced, all strive to attract mighty patrons.  Cheekily hawking prospects from the establishment across the street is common practice.  Some businesses aren't above resorting to charms and other mind-influencing tactics, although these are highly illegal in Arogansa.

Dominion Stats -- Arogansa

Arogansa, for all its uniqueness and prestige in Alphatia, fares no better than its neighbors as regards its general demographics.  It remains sparsely populated and mostly rural.  The highest density population clusters along the southern coast and the Thera River, with an island of Alphatian civilization clinging to Avrads in the far north.

Designer's Note: for those who wonder how population is distributed, I do apply an empirical method, described below.

Suburban Areas: First, the highest density population is marked on the map (referred to as "Suburban," shown in purple on the map below.)  Hexes with urban centers including large and small towns are considered suburban.  They get a purple square.  In other words, plenty of hamlets and farms dot the countryside in the immediate vicinity of towns.  Cities are different in that their suburban population spills over into most adjacent hexes, depending on terrain.  Furthermore, city suburbia spreads out one more hex along roads and rivers.

Coats of Arms of Arogansa

This is a quick recap of the coats of arms I devised for the main Arogansian aristocracy.  There is a peculiarity with these shields, in that they display a pattern of symbols on the top area that indicate precisely to what degree of nobility they belong.

The progression is as follows.   

Coventries: a vice-coventrie bears one star (a mullet,) a coventrie bears two, and a high-coventrie, three.  There presently are no vice- or high-coventries in Arogansa.  See Coriomanus & Yalastrian.

Conjuracies: a vice-conjuracy bears two stars and a crescent, a conjuracy bears one star and two crescents, and a high conjuracy
                                   bears three crescents (see on the right.)

Theurgies: a vice-theurgy bears two crescents and an annulet (a ring.)  A theurgy bears one crescent and two annulets  (see Liliendo on the right.)  A high-theurgy bears three annulets.

Thaumaturgies: a vice-thaumaturgy bears two annulets and a quatrefoil (see Llyndemar.)  A thaumaturgy bears
                               an annulet and two quatrefoils.  The high-
                               thaumaturgy bears three quatrefoils.

Sorcelries: a vice-sorcelry bears two quatrefoils and a hawk's bell (see Talismeroth, just below.)  A sorcelry bears a quatrefoil and two hawk's bells.  A high-sorcelry bears three hawk's bells.

Wizardate: a vice-wizardate bears two hawk's bells and a resplendent sun (see Scarabellyn, just below.) A wizardate bears a hawk's bell and

                                  two suns (Festerilandus.)  A

high-wizardate bears, as you expected, three suns (see Cacodemus at the top of the page.)

Archmagencies: the augmentations do not apply to archmagencies.  They are recognizable by the stone coronet above their arms.  There is only one such title in Arogansa--see
                                  Merlioness, just above.

The Alphatian Province of Arogansa -- Updated July 27th

Bluenose Area

Arogansa is first and foremost, at least from the point of view of those who may benefit from it, a realm where one goes for rest and recreation.  It offers in good faith, if the price is right, anything ranging from mindless entertainment to secluded serenity.  Phantasmal fakery defines the most popular and affordable attractions.  Yet, those whose arcane skills and standards of living permit may experience profound and perhaps life-changing events at the more exclusive estates.  Nonetheless, beach-going wizards, their families, their retinues, fun-seeking bachelors, sight-seeing sages, underage warlocks celebrating their season breaks, and overworked enchanters swirl together amid a debauchery of high fashion and utter snobbery. Truly idyllic and enthralling palaces remain within the sphere of the wealthy wizardkind and select ecclesiastics of eminent talent.  For the masses of native workers, alas, it imposes a humble life spent hiding from sight until summoned.  They remain entirely at the service and mercy of the ruling class.  All said, Arogansa embodies all that is fabulous about magocracies, and all that is deeply reviled.