Stealth

When asked which is the richest nation in the continent, even an uneducated would not need to think twice before coming up with the answer.

The Empire.

The Empire, since it's inception, had waged countless wars against the Confederation. And to drive these battles, they needed a huge amount of resources. And these resources came mainly from two sources.

First- the behemoth of a nation covered an entire half of the habitable half of the continent which equated to a huge landmass. Be it everyday materials, precious materials, magical metals or even magic crystals of various qualities- they lied abundant under the surface. Many of the mines were already being used and many others were still waiting to be discovered.