Thrane

Thrane is one of the original Five Nations that formed the Kingdom of Galifar before the Last War. It is the only nation out of the five that has replaced its monarchy with a theocracy run by the Church of the Silver Flame. Unlike the other nations, which largely worship the Sovereign Host, Thrane's state religion is the Silver Flame.

Geography

Thrane is located in central Khorvaire , sharing its western border with Aundair and its southern one with Breland. It also shares a small land border with the Mournland in the south-east, though it is largely separated from the Mournland by the Scions Sound, which forms nearly all of Thrane's east coast and also separates it from the nation of Karrnath. Thrane's long coastline on the Scions Sound gives it close proximity to Thronehold.

Society & Culture

Thranes are largely proud, honest and passionate and devoted to family, career, and their state religion, the Silver Flame. Thranes are known to be hard working and, once accepting a task, they dedicate themselves to its completion. The Thranes tend to lead abstinent lives; gambling, carousing and the like are discouraged.

Heraldry and Motto

The heraldry of the nation of Thrane is a silver sword set beneath the symbol of the Silver Flame (an arrowhead emblazoned with a flame). Thrane's national motto is "Glory to the Silver Flame."

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 Thranes 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 senses evil within a person, they ought to counsel them back to the light and not attempt to smite or ruin them without cause. However, this has been often too hard a set of ideals to follow.

Art

Thranish art similarly embraces and expresses the tenets of the Silver Flame. The most popular style of art in Thrane is Kree-Flamic style, which employs cubes and triangles to form all other shapes in a stylized form of rendering images. However, a counterculture has emerged within Thrane's art world known as Pre-Kingdom style and, though still small, it is growing.

Cuisine

Most foreigners tend to think that the theocracy stifles secular life in Thrane, but Thranish cuisine is surprisingly good. During a diplomatic visit Princess Wroya of Breland once said "It is like a breath of fire in the cold of a dark winter's night" after partaking in the Feast of the Silver Flame.

Thranish cuisine utilizes thrakel spices cooked in thick sauces. Thrane cuisine tends to be heavy, filling and spicy. Renowned Thranish dishes are thrakel-seared beef in red sauce, three-thrakel fish stew, and silvered vegetable skewers. Desserts are also popular and are used to counteract the spicy nature of the main meal. The desserts are often sweet and served cold, the most famous of which is silverfruit pie topped with beesh-berry sorbet.

Government

Politically, Thrane is very different to the other Five Nations. The most notable deviation is that it is no longer a monarchy but the first and only theocracy of Khorvaire. After the death of King Thalin, many were concerned about the weakness of the next-in-line, Prince Daslin. Since the country was at war, it was relatively easy to convince the people to want to replace the prince. In 914 YK, Prince Daslin ceded the throne to the Church of the Silver Flame without opposition. The Church's takeover of a monarchy was seen as threatening by the monarchs of neighboring nations, and as a result Thrane often feels isolated and during the Last War had the most difficulty making alliances.

The Theocracy

The head of state of Thrane is the Keeper of the Flame, the spiritual leader of the Church of the Silver Flame. The current Keeper, Jaela Daran, is very young, only 11 years old. As a result, the de facto leader of Thrane is Jaela's regent, High Cardinal Krozen. Krozen, in particular, has taken most of the secular administration of the nation into his purview and largely treats Thrane as his personal kingdom. In practice, the Council of Cardinals runs the country from the city of Flamekeep, though they are in fact subservient to the Keeper of the Flame, but she seems primarily interested in spiritual rather than secular matters.

Who should rule the country may be the biggest political debate within Thrane. The majority are content with the status quo, but many believe that the monarchy should be restored. To this day, the scions of the Thranish monarchy are simply figureheads without any temporal power. Current Queen Diani ir'Wynarn supports the return of the monarchy and many Thranes, especially nobles, support her return. A third proposition to solve this problem within Thranish politics, one held by Captain Otherro of the Knights of Thrane, is that the monarchy should be restored to rule alongside the church rather than replace them.

Supporting the side of restoring the monarchy are a group of extremists known as the Galifar Loyalists or colloquially the Throneholders. This group criticizes the events in which the church seized control of the nation, thus casting doubt on its legitimacy.

Thrane is still rebuilding from the Last War and its treasury is low. It is in debt to many dragonmarked houses particularly House Kundarak and in return its citizens are overtaxed. Unable to afford large-scale repairs, many cities still show signs of destruction wrought by invaders.

Trade

The dragonmarked houses find it very difficult to operate within Thrane due to the church's strict legislation.

Flametouched Iron, a rare and sacred metal to the Purified used for both armors and weapons as well as holy symbols, is mined only in Thrane.