As Smaug finished the daily task of managing the economic production of his growing empire, he stepped out on the summit of the Lonely Mountain, conveniently located at the northwestern tip of Amkhez Vaz, in what used to be called the District of Thousand Needles by the ancient theocracy that brought catastrophe to the island generations before.
From this vantage point, the ancient Smaug used to feed the islands with metals and other gems grinded out of the mountains and undersea depots. In return, the people fed his wealth with silver coins, called Lites, and the industry beneath the Lonely Mountain enjoyed a rapid growth. Today, an army of 915 timeless automated warrior-workers scoured the entire world in the Dragon's service, bringing back untold treasures from the farthest reaches of the world.
But the world that used to be there is no more, wiped out by the folly of the Cult of Amkhez Vaz. Having drawn the elite of society, its brains, into the central complex of the island chain, they locked the doors and forced them to participate in horrendous experiments that led to the corruption, and eventual democide of the entire island population, leaving only the Dragon Smaug and his industrious robots to produce metals that could no longer be traded.
Over time, elvish traders returned to Amkhez Vaz to deliver the high grade metals to the lands of Asirenia, still populated by elves and men, centered around the City of Brightwell, once a bustling metropolis and heart of the empire, now little more than a crumbling amphitheater home to a handful of souls. Elves, dwarves and orcs inhabit the wilderness, and worse, vampires and necromancers in the east, but the region's wealth is to be found deeper north, in the Titanium depots of Frostbite Tundra and the legendary gear found from ancient burial mounds. And of course, the Dragon Blood taken from the untamed kin of the Zegoph Ashlands.
Slowly, people are returning to Asirenia, some as refugees, others as adventurers, but few traders and industrialists. Smaug goes back to sleep with a watchful eye over the ruins of Amkhez Vaz...