Thenol may be the largest nation on Taladas, it is also the most disfunctional being ruled through ruthlessness and scheming rather than consistent order. Let’s learn more abou the Thenolites. Buy Time of the Dragon: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16960/Time-of-the-Dragon-2e?affiliate_id=50797

https://youtu.be/ZgpNiZ3xOsI

Transcript

Cold Open

If you want a Game of Thrones style campaign, you would be right at home in Thenol.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about The Thenolites of Taladas. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. I am referencing the Time of the Dragon boxed set for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below.

Discussion

The Kingdom of Thenol is not a place for the faint of heart. It was initially a small knot of lands, but has grown by conquest. This is not to say it is as mighty as the Imperial League of Minotaurs, or as defensive as the Confederation of Armach, because it is not. But what it lacks in military precision, it makes up more than sufficiently in mass. Mass of living and dead soldiers that care less for the significance of loss or the ultimate outcome of domination. This has, as one might expect, drawn the most crafty and cunning of leaders to its fold. The kingdom stretches to the marshes of the Blackwater Glade in the South, to the Steamwall Mountains in the East. Its Western border is the sea itself and its Northen borders are shared with Armach and the League. 

Founded by exiles of Styrllia, a province of the prae cataclius Aurim Empire of Taladas, and led by Guidan after the Great Destruction, or the Cataclysm, they traveled great distances. Guidan treated the myriad of malcontents and rebellious in his group with kindness. He ultimately resorted to granting titles to the exiles which ultimately undermined his authority, and these nobles became the true rulers, for a time. Tired of journeying, the nobles demanded an end to their exodus and against Guidan’s better instincts caved to public opinion, not that he had authority to do otherwise. New Aurim was thus founded, and the nobles took to seizing lands and struggling with each other for territory. Each wanting to rule as king, but none being able to see it done, they ended up as a tenuous united kingdom of Thenol, and forming the Senate of Lords to exact some semblance of control over each other.

The position of king was passed down to the progeny of Guidan, and up to the Secondus Catacluus, fourteen of his family had reigned. The true power lay with the Lords of the Senate however, and then only with the great lords, those with the largest land holdings. And thus the game or ruling continued, secret agreements to usurp weaker lords, or treaties to stand against the great lords were enacted, all with the end desire of power and control. The most talented and effective of these ambitious men was Bishop Trandamere. He first came into power as the head of the Temple of Hith, or Hidukel. And began the small cult, and was blessed by the god, ending up working in secret among the lords to seize power without alerting any to his true ambition. This required him to be masterful in his diplomacy and at times eliminating those who saw the truth of his schemes. Trandamere ruled for more than forty years in what became the age of true power in the kingdom of Then...