I see. I was just wondering if the close proximity to the Rift was what shaped the Elysian beliefs.
I think that it would make sense that a chance of being born with a "mage gene" (for lack of better world) increases with proximity to the gate, and thus it makes sense that more mage focused nations would be near the gate. From this perspective, placing the gate on Elysium would work ... however, we will have to establish what would happen should a person interact with the Rift, because I bet you still want to avoid dimensional hopping to be abused to a greater degree.
Alternatively, I have interesting idea I think - do exact opposite, invert the mechanic and state Pandora Gate is the place where our world physics actually seep through, hence Elysium, being far from the Gate, have much more mages than those who are much closer. Ironically enough, Hellas has same mage potential as Elysium, but went for different route for cultural reasons.
As Elysium focused her effort toward the sea, their home island's inland territories were relatively neglected. Recently, however, with the influx of evacuated expats from the overseas, this has been changed. Many lands were opened up to the new colonists and granted away in exchange for military service.
Depends where you stand with an gate business.
I personally think that Elysium would be fairly well developed, having an industry with enough steel mills, shipyard, refineries etc. and rely on import for resources. Which is a reason why they went to war, to keep the influx of cheap resources from their dominions. Depends how climate works, it may be viable to have farmlands more inland, with industries on shores where goods from colonies can be unloaded.
Also, do you think I should justify the unusability of electronics as because of the different physics of alternate dimension, or keep the current fluff of the Spirits' presence messing with electronics?
I would make it one and the same. World is stick with different dimension and it's natural presence of the spirits that causes a problem, but everyone, including the technological development, slowly acclimatize for the change. I am not fan of statis setting, but in the same time, I would like to prevent one-man industrial revolutions brought by self-insert like characters or factions.