Why do some countries prosper while others founder?

Is it the implementation of some foreordained decree? Or is it the result of choices made by mankind exercising its free will? Those are the questions that were haunting the citizens of Mahogany Island as their watched their beautiful land, once considered --a piece of land broken away from Heaven, the pearl of the Antilles-- descend into the abyss of poverty, environmental degradation, and social depravation.

What would it take for Mahogany Islanders to rise again and embark on the pursuit of their dream? When apocalypse seemed inevitable, a mage bearing the marks of Mahogany Islands tribulations came with words of redemption. Maybe it is true that nations never die.