Thrane
The spirit of the Silver Flame took hold of the hearts and souls of the people of Thrane seven hundred years ago, and this religious fervor remains the driving force behind the nation. Thrane was one of the original Five Nations founded by the human settlers of Khorvaire; the culture and heritage of the region goes back millennia. It was absorbed into the Empire of Galifar and remained a pillar of that celebrated empire for almost a thousand years. While the rest of the Five Nations followed the tenets of the Sovereign Host, a new religion found life in Thrane before spreading far and wide across Khorvaire. In the wake of the Last War, Thrane stands as a theocracy devoted to the Silver Flame.
Structure
The royal family and secular authority of the crown has been replaced in Thrane by a theocracy in league with the Church of the Silver Flame. The Keeper of the Flame, currently eleven-year-old Jaela Daran, sits on both the spiritual and worldly thrones of the nation. The Council of Cardinals aids the Keeper in overseeing the functions of government and church. Both secular and religious authorities follow a reporting structure atop which sit the Cardinals, who in turn report to the Keeper of the Flame. Archbishops serve as governors and mayors throughout the realm, while bishops and archpriests run individual cathedrals and churches within Thrane and abroad.
The secular nobles who once paid homage to the royal family and provided taxes and troops to the crown continue to serve the theocracy. Those noble families who strictly embrace the tenets of the Silver Flame have risen to the top of the secular order, while those with weaker ties or even other faiths have lost power, influence, and even position over the years.
The royal family remains in place, serving merely as a figurehead in present-day Thrane. The current heir to the crown, Diani ir’Wynarn smiles and appears at the Keeper’s side as ceremony and occasion warrant, but she secretly seeks to return her family to power and glory—and she has begun to make overtures to foreign powers to help her accomplish this.
History
Thrane ir’Wynarn, third scion of King Galifar I, was appointed to oversee the nation that would eventually carry his name shortly after his father united the kingdom. As with the other nations, the name was changed to match that of its regent by popular decree in 32 YK. Thrane, and the greater kingdom to which it belonged, prospered as the decades grew into centuries.
In 299 YK, the event that started the religion of the Silver Flame took place. In that year, a terrible eruption split the ground and a great pillar of crimson fire emerged from the resulting chasm. No one understood the significance of the blazing column of flame, but most who dared approach it felt unrelenting malevolence in its radiating heat.
Tira Miron, a paladin dedicated to Dol Arrah, received a powerful vision about this strange fire while exploring the western reaches of the realm. In her vision, a great rainbow-winged serpent warned her that a terrible evil was emerging in the east, riding crimson fire from the depths of Khyber itself. Tira rallied the forces of Thrane and defeated the dark creatures that had come to venerate the crimson fire and help free the malevolent entity trapped within its flames. With her great sword Kloinjer, its pommel capped with a Khyber dragonshard, Tira turned to face the emerging demon just as the great serpent with the rainbow-feathered wings of her vision appeared and dove headfirst into the fire. Tira watched as the serpent and the demon struggled in the flames. The battle within the fire seemed to last for an eternity, and as she watched the demon began to overcome the serpent. Horrified, she saw the demon strike a crippling blow. The serpent, calling on its last reserves of power, encircled the demon and buried its fangs into the fiend’s fiery throat. At the same moment, it sent a mental plea to Tira, and the paladin didn’t hesitate. She leaped into the fire, plunging Kloinjer through the writhing serpent and deep into the demon’s flesh.
Then, the legend says, a powerful explosion rocked the entire kingdom of Galifar. The hot crimson fire became a cool silver flame. Tira remained within, now part of the divine fire that had replaced the evil conflagration. She became the Voice of the Silver Flame, and a new religion was born. Flamekeep, a simple stone castle, was erected around the everburning pillar of silver fire. Deep within the chasm, at the point where the fire erupts from the earth, it is said that mighty Kloinjer’s blade is buried almost to the hilt, binding demon, serpent, and paladin together forever.
In time, the castle became a cathedral, and a city grew around it. By 400 YK, the Church of the Silver Flame was the dominant religion in Thrane. The Sovereign Host, accepting of most faiths, saw the Silver Flame as just another expression of the divine pantheon on Eberron. The Silver Flame, on the other hand, tolerated the Host but had little love for faiths that didn’t accept the cleansing light of the Silver Flame.
Over the centuries, the kings and queens of Galifar, and their sons and daughters who governed the Thrane realm, have had a mixed relationship with the faith of the Silver Flame. As the Thrane people began to turn to this faith in droves, the royal family was forced to accept the Church of the Silver Flame as a force within the kingdom. Early on, they tried to restrict it to Thrane, but the faithful were zealous, and missionaries soon appeared to bring word of the Silver Flame to the rest of Khorvaire. More than one scion over the centuries, while governing in Thrane, adopted the faith. One particularly dark episode occurred in 558 YK, when Queen Joliana reached the throne after serving as Thrane’s regent. She was a devoted follower of the Silver Flame, and decided that under her rule all of Galifar would accept the Silver Flame as the one true religion. A few bloody clashes almost led to civil war before Joliana died suddenly and mysteriously before the second year of her reign had ended.
When Jarot died and the scions broke with tradition and started the Last War, Thalin of Thrane saw another opportunity to spread the Silver Flame to the entire kingdom. While the other scions had more personal or philosophical reasons for refusing to honor the traditional rights of succession, Thalin believed that he had a divine right to the crown. This tendency on the part of Thrane to place itself above the rest of the shattered kingdom led to some of the most terrible battles of the Last War.
In 914 YK, w ith the death of King Thalin, Thrane’s people rejected Thalin’s heir’s claim to the throne and turned to the Church of the Silver Flame for leadership. Thrane became a theocracy. The Keeper of the Flame, the head of the Church of the Silver Flame, took control of the temporal as well as the spiritual reins of the nation. This turn of events has led to tensions that go beyond the nation’s borders, as the leaders of the remaining Five Nations see the mingling of church with crown as unnatural and potentially dangerous to their own plans and ambitions.
Today, Jaela Daran serves as the Keeper of the Flame. She assumed power when she was six years old, identified by the Silver Flame as the successor to the church’s previous Keeper. Now eleven years old, Jaela helped guide Thrane through the peace talks and has developed into a caring and forceful leader despite her young age. It isn’t unusual for a Keeper so young to be selected, but it hasn’t happened since the nation became a theocracy.
War remains a primary preoccupation for the nation of Thrane. To Jaela’s advisors and the other leaders within the theocracy, the current peace presents a chance to rest and prepare for future conflict. Until all nations have accepted the Silver Flame, there will always be enemies at their borders waiting to exploit the first show of weakness or hesitation. Jaela believes that, with the exception of wiping out true evil, war is a futile endeavor. The Silver Flame doesn’t call for war; indeed, she believes that the Flame is saddened by the conflict that has pitted brother against brother. Her power within the theocracy isn’t as ironclad as some believe, however, and she has learned to negotiate her course carefully and with much deliberation. As long as most of the spiritual and secular leaders of Thrane want war, the best Jaela can hope to accomplish is to delay the start for another day, week, or year.
Demography and Population
- Human 70%
- Khoravar Half-elf 10%
- Dwarf 9%
- Elf 4%
- Halfling 4%
- Other 3%
Religion
Despite common belief, the majority of Thranes are not zealots and tolerate other belief systems because most are aware that Tira Miron herself started as a paladin of Dol Arrah. The Thranish understand that The Silver Flame demands its followers only destroy evil incarnate in the forms of the undead, fiends and other abominations. If a paladin sensed the evil within a person they would council them back to the light and as a rule would not attempt to execute them. However on some extreme occasions this has been too hard a set of ideals to follow.
Agriculture & Industry
Thrane has attempted to develop a closed economy since the start of the Last War that allows it to rely on itself and not require goods or services from beyond its own borders. The Thranes have not been entirely successful. They continue to make use of the services of the dragonmarked houses, and some amount of trade occurs between this nation and its neighbors.
Thrane exports wool and textiles, some fruits, livestock, and fine crafts. Perhaps the most prominent export of Thrane is the missionaries of the Silver Flame. The followers of the Flame tenaciously promote their faith throughout the Five Nations and beyond. Most preach a tolerant version of the faith, but some zealous missionaries see little difference between true evil and those religions that don’t venerate the Silver Flame.
Glory to the Silver Flame
Founding Date
894 YK
Type
Geopolitical, Theocracy
Capital
Demonym
Thranish
Head of State
Head of Government
Government System
Theocracy
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Market economy
Major Exports
Fine crafts, wool, textiles, missionaries, fruit, livestock
Official State Religion
Location
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Related Ethnicities
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