Mana
Introduction
In the past you needed to have a PhD from the High Elven University of Manamatics to be able to figure this out. Or alternatively, to get an Ogre to understand the concept ( and they are as dumb as rocks, we all know that ), use one of the mana calculators. However, this is no more. The Overlords have decided this complicated Shadowmere life too much when you already have to worry about so many other thing as the ruler of a kingdom ( things like "do I buy that new four poster bed for my private quarters" and "should I have pheasant or peasant for dinner tonight" ).
There are a few ways to increase your mana reserve. The way you get the largest return is seeding it by casting the maximum power ( yes, all of it ). You can also increase it by taking turns, you will more or less double your reserve when you start from your seed in 3-4 turns (after that the increase per turn will see a steep decline). Or by using the spells Mana Sap and Dark Rituals.
The amount of mana you can make in your kingdom depends on the following factors:
Mana and Races
The exact mana modifiers for the different races can be found under "Species of Shadowmere". Some races produce a lot of mana, some races hardly produce any and there are some in the middle. Sprites, Leprechauns, High Elves, Dark Elves, Vampires, Wood Elves and Humans ( in that order ) are the ones that produce a lot. Werewolves, Goblins, Trolls and especially Ogres produce very little mana. The remaining races produce some mana, but nothing truly impressive.
Mana and Population
The higher your population, the more mana you get !
Mana and Magic Skill
Next to studying the Magic spheres to learn how to cast more Spells, you can also study Magic Skill. This too actually is pretty straight forward, the higher your magic skill, the more mana you will produce. If you are one of those races with a good mana production rate, studying Magic Skill is well worth the trouble . If you are a race that has a low mana production rate, you have to put some more thought into studying Magic Skill. A Troll can study all he wants... and that is not a lot. You will find you have to use a lot of physical force to get them to study in the first place and once you have them in the class room.... well, let's just say a cane will not really do it to keep order. The Troll is not going to be making any significant amount of mana how ever much classroom torture you put him through.
There is a "but" though. If you are planning to use Scrolls and if you are in an alliance or have made a High Elven friend, there is a good chance you do want to be using Scrolls, you need Magic Skill. Lets say you are that Troll again and have not studied Magic Skill at all but you did get some large scrolls from your High Elven friend. Then what would happen you think ? The Trolls would get out the scroll feeling all high and mighty and rip it open to read it out loud. Obviously he wouldn't get half of it without having studied anything about all things magical and the true power of the scroll would be lost. He would only get a small percentage of the actual power of the scroll returned in the spell. So in short, you need to have magic skill to be able to use scrolls. The more powerful the scroll, the more Magic Skill study you need to be able to use it to its full potential.
Mana and Buildings
You can build some structures to increase your mana production. In essence they add to your own race specific mana modifier. These buildings in order of the amount they contribute are:
Mage Towers ( mages optional )
Mana and Unknown
There is one other way to increase the amount of mana you have. This is by searching The Unknown. One of the things you can find there, are so called "Mana Fluxes", they give a boost to your stored mana. The more Rangers you use, the more powerful the mana fluxes you find. A small notion of caution on the unknown though, next to good things, bad things lurk there too. One of those bad things is the rare mana sink hole, which will sap your mana.