Thenares

"As the sun set behind the mountains, the signal towers shifted to night operation. One by one, the beacons flared and the messages were passed on. Rivers of light were racing through the night..."
- Walter Greenfields in: The Known Lands: Thenares, Avane Street Publishing (1420)

Capital: Thenares
Population: 23,735,120 (humans 68%, halflings 18%, dwarves 5%, half-elves 3%, gnomes 3%, goblins 2%)
Government: Theocracy
Imports:
Exports:

This realm is unique in the known lands in that it has a single "official" religion - that of the god Thenos, whom the inhabitants revere as the creator of the universe and the provider of their daily needs. The Patriarch of the religion rules from the city of Thenares, and the whole church hierarchy is dedicated to the twin duties of preaching to the flock and administering the realm.
Outsiders and their religions are grudgingly tolerated within Thenares as long as they don't preach or try to convert others to their faith. Still, pogroms within certain towns and cities against members of minority religions happen from time to time, although the church tries to prevent these in most cases.

Industries

Life and Society

The faith of Thenos teaches to be humble and content with one's station in life, and most inhabitants adhere to this, quietly laboring in the same job throughout their lives that their parents and grandparents did before them. Social advancement and accumulation of wealth is possible, though only advancement within the church is truly considered respectable.
Arcane magics are distrusted by both the church and the common people, as their practice often lacks the proper humility and can lead to dangerous practices, as the creation of undead or the summoning of outsiders. The exception to this are the White Wizards of the realm, which are trained in church approved spells and are widely respected.
A highly influential church organisation is the "All-Seeing Eye", a group that was founded to combat heresy. Its lower-ranking members members routinely cast detect evil on suspicious people or just random passersby. If they find someone with an evil aura, they send investigators to spy on him. If he is found guilty of heresy or evil deeds, he will be imprisoned for his crimes. If not, he is forced to enter mandatory church councelling until he mends his ways.

Government and Politics

Groups and Organisations

Sartians: An underground movement within the Thenaran faith, Sartians hold that the physical world is inherently corrupt and ruled over by a powerful evil entity which is the jailer of humanity's souls. According to them, Thenos is not the creator of this universe, but rather a being from outside of it who opens the way for the souls of true believers to escape.
Strongly influenced by eastern faiths, especially those within the Hamajan Mountains, the Sartians are considered heretical by the official church and vigorously persecuted. They, in turn, consider the Church to be too tainted by this world to lead the path to salvation.

Religion

Important NPCs

Major Geographical Features

Important Towns and Cities

Eunorites (City, 177,221): This used to be a small, sleepy border town, but with the rise of the League of Armach Eunorites has become the center of a lot of attention. In recent years many refugees from Prosius have arrived here, and many of them are involved with smuggling weapons and other supplies back across the border. While Thenares has no love lost for the League, it does make token efforts to stop the most blatant smugglers in order to appease the League.
Nengis (Large City, 422,331): Located in the agricultural hearland of Thenares, the city and the surrounding area feed much of the realm's population. Nengis is known beyond Thenares for the many varieties of flowers it grows, surpassing even the city of Grüngarten in this particular field of expertise. Its most famous export are the so-called Choral Flowers, which produce a humming noice mimicing any sounds in their surroundings. The city hosts concerts next to fields of these flowers regularly, with spectacular results.
Pengalen (Small Metropolis, 791,822): This city houses the famous College of White Wizardry, where young and aspiring mages receive training in both spellcasting and theology. Its graduates, the White Wizards, are respected members of Thenaran society, and serve as shining examples of the faith, almost on a level with clerics and paladins.
The administration of the college works very hard to maintain this image. More often than they like to admit a graduate succumbs to the sweet allure of power, and dabbles in magic he shouldn't use. Any renegades are pursued by the College, and punished harshly and often finally. Any witnesses who might be able to tarnish the image of the College are dealt with as well, usually with mind control spells.
Tulukka (City, 133,575): The Thenaran faith states that all thinking beings can accept the grace of Thenos. When the city of Tulukka fell to Thenares during a civil war in the Hobgoblin Dominions 30 years ago, the church decided to put this tenet into practice. Instead of killing or driving the goblin and hobgoblin inhabitants away, they converted them to the faith - often at sword point.
Most of the hobgoblins have since fled to the Dominions, where they are busy agitating for re-conquering the city. Most of the more easily cowed goblins have stayed, however, and at least outwardly try to be good members of the Thenaran faith. This is as much out of self-preservation as out of genuine faith, however - if any goblin succumbs to his baser nature, and the (mostly human) priests who oversee this city learn of it, that goblin is taken away to one of the "reeducation camps" in the vicinity, where they are subjected to a hard regimen, daily sermons, and constant prayers until they are deemed ready to return to civilized society.

Important Sites

Regional History

Adventuring in Thenares

Adventure Seeds

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