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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9562186" data-attributes="member: 93670">[USER=7006]@DEFCON 1[/USER] It weas unapproachable east not FRCS.  The section on Thay is quite a few pages★ & really outlines an interesting region to adventure in with a lot of <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackAndGrayMorality" target="_blank">morally grey to black</a> stuff going on that is often not things that can simply be cleanly solved with the addition of higher level adventurers.  I was going to just grab the paragraph or so talking about it but decided to grab a bit more of the life & society section because it really does a good job of setting the tone of how magic warped Thay society[spoiler="Unapproachable East"]Life and SocietyThere are four levels of Thayan society. They are, in orderof increasing influence: slaves, commoners, nobles, and RedWizards. It’s no coincidence that this is also the decreasingorder of population. There are far more slaves in Thay thanany other group, but they have the least power. The Red Wiz-ards, on the other hand, have few members but easily themost power.SLAVESThe lowest level of Thayan society is, of course, the slave. Theeconomy of Thay is built upon slave labor, and without it thecountry would quickly collapse. The current trade in magicitems has changed this only a little, and it has not improvedthe lives of slaves one whit.Slaves are not considered citizens and have no rights. Theyare chattels, like livestock. Killing or harming a slave is notmurder or mayhem. It is merely damaging someone’s prop-erty. A slave’s owner can do with his own slave as he wishes,but if he harms someone else’s property, he is expected tomake reparations.Slaves are costly (a young human field slave sells for about50 gp in the markets at Eltabbar), so few commoners have themeans to own them. Since slaves represent a significant in-vestment for a small farmer or artisan, common Thayanstake good care of them. Slaves consigned to the broad estatesof noble Thayans face a harder existence, and those unfortu-nate souls sold off to the vast state-run fields or mines aretreated as nothing more than beasts of burden.Thay imports slaves from all over Faerûn, and just aboutevery race is represented among the servile population. Thosewho survive the trip are usually the hardiest, but most do notlast long in their job. House slaves live in relative comfort,caring directly for the needs of their Mulan masters. Thoseconsigned to the mines rarely survive a year of scratchingmetals from the unforgiving Underdark.COMMONERSAs a whole, commoners do not have much better lives thanslaves do. However, they are citizens, not property, whichmeans they can’t be indiscriminately tortured or killed. TheRed Wizards can usually get away with such behavior, but theyusually have to invent some sort of pretext for their actions.Commoners have a far better life expectancy than slavesand better prospects overall. The worst jobs go to slaves, so bydefault, the commoners are a slight step up. Some have evenmanaged to claw their way to the top of the heap, usually bybecoming successful adventurers or wealthy merchants. A feware actually wealthier than most of the nobles and even someRed Wizards. Most commoners are Rashemi, although thereare a few members of this class from more distant lands.NOBLESMost of Thay is owned by ancient noble families of Mulan de-scent. The dividing line between a well-off Mulan commonerand an impoverished Mulan lord is starkly defined by ances-try. Certain Mulan families are noble, and others aren’t. Thenobles of Thay are content to be governed by the Red Wiz-ards (after all, the most influential mages in that order arenobles themselves), but they jealously maintain control overthe elevation of commoners, even heroic ones, to noble status.Nobles enjoy two paths to comfort, power, and wealth: landand service. Wealthy nobles often own vast tracts of land andmake money by leasing it to those who reside upon it, whetherthey are farmers, ranchers, or miners. Land ownership is notrestricted to the noble classes, but in practice, most land inThay is already owned by a noble, so it is difficult for a com-moner to acquire land of his own.Landless nobles (or those who simply wish to make some-thing of themselves) often take up service in Thay’s army, bu-reaucracy, or clergy. While any free Thayan can become asoldier, official, or priest, leaders are most often drawn fromthe ranks of well-off nobles who purchase their rank or title.For example, in a typical Thayan garrison, the captain is aminor landed Mulan noble, his officers are landless Mulannobles, and his sergeants are Rashemi veterans. The troops, ofcourse, are mostly Rashemi. A noble who buys a good post canenrich himself just as easily as one who owns a great estate:It is expected that a powerful official or highly-placed officerwill divert a certain amount of “taxes” for his own use.THE RED WIZARDSAt an early age, noble children are carefully examined for anysigns of arcane talent. Any who are shown to have even asmall aptitude are immediately inducted into wizardryschool, followed by a long and arduous apprenticeship to a RedWizard. Those who survive their apprenticeship and are am-bitious, resourceful, and talented are invited to join the RedWizards. Some refuse the red robes, but this is rare: Becom-ing a Red Wizard is such an obvious path to power that thezulkirs don’t need to recruit anyone.The Red Wizards are the ruling class of this magocracy. It’sillegal for any Red Wizard to take on an apprentice of otherthan Mulan blood. Some still do, however, and it’s usually anopen secret. At any given time, most Red Wizards claim up toa dozen apprentices (in game terms, wizards who have not yetacquired their first level in the Red Wizard prestige class),whom they keep at one another’s throats to advance their ownschemes. Apprentices exist to serve as the master’s agents, min-ions, and thralls. What magical training they gain in the processis determined solely by their own ambition and initiative.Only Red Wizards are permitted to wear red robes, theirbadge of office. The penalty for posing as one is instant deathat the hands of the first Red Wizard to uncover the deception.The Red Wizards are ruled by a council of eight zulkirs, onerepresenting each of the eight schools of magic. These posi-tions are for life—the only way a zulkir would ever deign toleave office would be feet first. Within each school exists anelaborate pecking order, in which standing is determined bymagical ability and the patronage of more powerful wizards.The current leader of the council is Szass Tam, the zulkir ofnecromancy.The Red Wizards are evil through and through. Their ul-timate goal is nothing less than world domination, and theyhave spent much of Thay’s history in pursuit of that effortby military means. It’s only within the past few years thatthey have set aside the ways of war in favor of more insidi-ous, economic methods.ECONOMYThay’s economy has traditionally been borne on the backs ofthe vast number of slaves who are brought into the countryin chains. With the increase of trade in magic items over thepast few years, the number of slaves sold in Thay hasn’t gonedown one bit. In fact, now that Thay has enclaves in just aboutevery major city of Faerûn, its merchants have even moreaccess to slaves, and the slave population is actually growing.Revenue from the sale of discounted magic items in the en-claves has far exceeded expectations. Thayan merchants havelong traded their nation’s goods throughout the world, butthey are finding their wares in high demand these days. Beforethe change in policy, the vast bulk of Thayan exports were rawfoodstuffs, timber—including that of the highly prized black-wood tree—and Thayan artwork, jewelry, and crafts, mostlyfashioned by skilled slaves. Such trade continues to this day,cementing Thay as a mercantile powerhouse.Everyone the Thayans do business with is aware of theirhorrible history and their evil ways. The prices and quality oftheir wares, however, are just too good to turn down. This suitsSzass Tam and the rest of the zulkirs, who have not given uptheir goal of world domination. The current plan is to use thegreed of other people as a tool against them. Bearing dis-counted goods, Thayans should be able to work their way intoevery major economy on Faerûn. Once the Red Wizards havebecome entrenched in a nation, they can learn enough aboutthe locals to dismantle them quietly from within.Not all the zulkirs agree with this policy. This is particu-larly true of the more aggressive leaders such as Aznar Thrul,as well as those who aren’t in a position to line their own pock-ets with the wealth brought in by this new venture, such asZulkir Nevron of the school of conjuration. As with mostlarge projects in Thay, this one could be brought low at anypoint by the bickering of the zulkirs.LAW AND ORDERAnyone, foreigner or Thayan, traveling in Thay must carrya pass issued by a tharchion allowing the traveler to use spe-cific roads and visit specific cities. All tharchions delegate thetask of issuing passes to minor officials and officers, whichmeans that a travel permit for most points can be purchasedwith a suitable bribe (generally, 10 to 50 gp for foreigners).Soldiers, messengers, and officials engaged in the perform-ance of their duties are exempt from the requirement toobtain permission to travel, but they generally carry tokensof their authority.Outsiders traveling without authorization find it difficult,if not impossible, to move about the plateau. Patrols con-stantly scour the roads and byways, searching for escapedslaves (and the occasional brigand, criminal, or foreign spy).The penalty for being caught is usually death. Those foundinside a Red Wizard’s estate, on the other hand, are in for aneven worse fate as the subject of painful magical experiments.The laws of Thay are simple, and the penalties are brutal.They are mostly concerned with establishing who’s in power.The tharchions and zulkirs consult a set of tomes known as theLibrary of Law when faced with a serious problem. However,most of the time, the authorities ignore these books in favorof expediency. These are the most important laws of Thay.Only Red Wizards may wear red robes, so that all shall be ableto identify them instantly.Do not steal from other Thayans or harm their belongings,especially their slaves....[/spoiler]In 4e FRG that was changed to [spoiler="this"]The Unapproachable EastBeyond the Easting Reach lie the exotic lands folk inthe Heartlands call the Unapproachable East. Today,this region is dominated by the dark and forbiddingland of Thay and its endless undead armies. A pallof smoke and ash smothers the land, sometimesextending into neighboring territories. On Thay’speriphery lie the rugged lands of Aglarond, Rashe-men, and Thesk. Aglarond is a land of open waterand deep woods peopled predominately by half-elves.Feral warriors name the rolling hills and sparse pineforests of Rashemen home. Ruled by the Iron Lordand the mysterious Wychlaran, this land of witchesand berserkers has confidently defended its bordersfor centuries. Thesk, the Gateway to the East, is thestarting point of the fabled Golden Way trade road tofar-off Shou Lung on the continent of Kara-Tur. Thisland of tolerant folk is home to large numbers of civi-lized orcs, Tuigan settlers, and Shou refugees.[/spoiler]While UE did have a section talking at length about "defense & warcraft" it continued the black & grey tone  quoted earlier & involved mage breeding type super soldier experiments on loyal orcs. The shift to Thay being all about undead & undead armies is a bizarre shift.★23 pages</blockquote>

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