It occurred to me that I forgot to mention a few key traits of the Fanged Islands. Castle Altranor is not [url=http://www.newgumbrea.com/psearch/g1023.jpg]Castle Dunwyn[/url], but more like [url=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/Chateau-de-Gisors.jpg/800px-Chateau-de-Gisors.jpg]Chateu de Gisors[/url], if it were three times as large. All of the Fanged Isles put together has something like the surface area of France, so the eight kingdoms - which do not encompass the entire area of the islands - are small and frugal compared to the ones we have today.

There's most likely more, but I can't recall any specific ones right now.

[b]Edit:[/b] Also, because I feel it might not have come across in the original description, any wizard can make a wand. If you have a knife, a forearm-length piece of a stiff material that can be carved with a knife, and some measuring equipment (or not, if you're enough of a genius), you can turn basically any spell you like into a wand. It's not actually a magic item, so you don't need any expensive ingredients or anything. They require manual activation by their creator (or at least someone who can cast the spells involved and has studied the wand for a while), so they can't just be handed out to anyone.

In game, this essentially means an arcanist can use their combat spells without standing in one spot, waving their arms and shouting for half a minute first.