From a recent video I saw, a question came to mind.

What exactly are Thayans?

*slowly gets behind a barracade and waits for the response*

People who come from Thay.

Oh yeh, and they are like...*points to video DruQKs posted up in the 'What Thayan Mages do in their spare time' post*

Thats them.

And remember, Kharant is fat

-_-,

Thay is a country controlled by powerful militant wizards known as the Red Wizards. They are a very evil group, who promote slavery and conquest. A Thayan is literally someone from Thay, like an a Canadian is from Canada.

For more information, search around on Google for "Thay" or "Red Wizards." The first site that I came up with proved rather good, but I'm sure there are more thorough ones out there.

Thanks

Thrawn Thay is a country controlled by powerful militant wizards known as the Red Wizards. They are a very evil group, who promote slavery and conquest. A Thayan is literally someone from Thay, like an a Canadian is from Canada.

Just because we also promote slavery and conquest is no reason to draw parallels between Thayans and Canadians. After all, we don't obsess about colours.

*chuckles* ah....colours...you people slay me. Seriously, we all know your evil plots Alstro. The Dairy Council has detailed files. Thayans wear red....and the canadian flag is....YOU REALLY ARE THAYANS!

Warning. All of this is conjecture. It is mostly based off source books but also based on my experiences from playing a Thayan cleric of Kossuth on “that other server” for a long time and a red wizard here. The only official source are the DMs and the source books. I’m doing my best to make it clear when what I say is only my opinion.

Tristan And remember, Kharant is fat

Kharant is not fat, he is slender and slightly muscled! >< Bit skinny from all the studying.

Thay is a country to the east of where the main focus of most forgotten realms adventures goes on, which is either around the sword coast, or sembia/cormyr and the dales.

If you wanted to imagine a map of the real world, Europe is where most of the focus in the forgotten realms is, and Thay would be north of Turkey. A good comparison of Thay might be the Roman Empire, but think of it as smaller, a higher slave to citizen ratio and of course, magic. Oh, and its populated by people ethnically similar Arabs.

In the forgotten realms there are a very small number of actual *COUNTRIES*. Most areas are under the control of city states, or a federation of loose city states. There are few actual nations. Sembia is one, Cormyr is one, Zhentarum is one(kind of). Thay is one.

If you want to imagine what your typical Thayan looks like, imagine modern day Arabs with darker, or in the case of the Red Wizards, lighter skin. Most of the populace of Thay are the mulhorandi, the red wizards are the Mulani. Tatooing is very popular amoung the red wizards and most shave all hair off their bodies.

Thay was till “recently” another of the kingdoms of the region which had been ruled for centuries by priests of the mulhorandi Pantheon-especially powerful priests. The Red Wizards overthrew them.

Thay is ruled by the Red Wizards- a group of highly regimented and very evil wizards. A Red Wizard essentially has the power of life and death over most non Red Wizards in Thay. There may be as great exception a neutral red wizard, but the overwhelming majority are evil, it really is not conceivable to have a good red wizard-I’d place it as rarer then good drow. The accepted form of advancment up the red wizards hierarchy is by assassinating or murdering your immediate superior. Good people simply will not last long in the hierarchy. Before anyone asks, Kharant is of course evil, he is your typical Red Wizard.

To give an example of the sort of control that the Red Wizards have, it is illegal to wear the COLOR RED anywhere in the country unless you are a Red Wizard. To give a passing nod to the law, lower ranking Red Wizards who murder their countrymen may just drape a red robe over their victims, accusing them of wearing red-which is punishable by death.

A significant portion of the population are slaves and Thay embraces monsterous humanoids to a greater degree then really any other nation in the world. Lots of monsterous humanoids are in Thay’s army, or their slave pits.

At the top of the Red Wizards are the zulkirs, one for each school of magic. The oldest and most powerfull of them is Szass Tam(sp?), a lich and the zulkir(not surprisingly) of necromancy-he has had a number of #### ups in recent years and is loosing some political clout, but not much actual power.

The most popular god of Thay is arguably Kossuth but there is not a great deal of actual religious persecution-why the hell would any Tormtard or Tyrian even go to Thay? Kossuth is the god of fire and a distant and foreign deity with an alien logic, who has only verifiably intervened once in the history of the world, though he m ay have intervened one other time-to save Thay in a war. Kossuth, unlike the other elemental gods, has a high divine rank and is one of the more powerful gods in the forgotten realms.

Velsharoon was a rogue red wizard and a necromancer who ascended to godhood, he was a rival to Szass Tam when they both lived. He is the god of necromancy-there are mixed feelings about him in Thay. Some wholeheartedly embrace him, some(I would say more, but this is open to interpretation) reject him.

Thay is arguably one of the most advanced nations in the world, from a “technological” standpoint. Magic is entirely embraced in a way that rivals every other part of the world. Even the weather is controlled by magic, to produce enormously high yielding crops-this weather control magic continues to play havoc on the ecosystems of neighboring countries(I said they were evil, right?).

Your typical Red Wizard might have an attitude that a member of the aristocracy would have at the height of Roman power-though Thay does not control nearly as much land. The world is filled with savage barbarians beneath even your lowest slave. The entire world is there to be exploited by you. You can be confident you come from the strongest, greatest, most culturally advanced civilization in the history of the world. It is obvious to you that it is only a matter of time till Thay conquers the world, Thay deserves to conquer the world and the world will be better off for it. Thay and the Red Wizards are the greatest wizards in the history of the world, baring ancient Netheril and surley Thay in its greatness, will surpass even Netheril in time.

However since a favorite way to rise in the Red Wizard hierarchy is killing your superior(or one of his), there is tremendous infighting. If Thay ever cooperated they might have a serious chance at taking over the world, but for now, it is not possible. Thay wages continuous war on its smaller neighbors and has recently suffered a number of embarrassing defeats. Since most of the population of sanctuary seems focused on areas distant from Thay, it is unclear who knows what about the goings on in Thay.

In response to a number of embarrassing and unlikely military defeats, Thay has expanded its efforts at global conquest through commerce. Thay has begun building diplomatic enclaves in major cities throughout the world and uses them to sell magical items. Thay is a *huge* exporter of magical items. “Triumph through trade” is one slogan associated with this relatively new change in Thayan strategy, it could actually work. The enclaves attempt to integrate themselves into the local society, earn gold and subtly manipulate local politics, waiting for an opportunity to arrive to (presumably) take over.

Thay is hated in most of the world and has a very bad reputation as slavers, infernalists and necromancers. The enclaves are trying(with mixed success) to change this image.

I *think* that is almost everything any player on EFU would need to know about Thay as a player, unless they are making a character actually from Thay, or near it.

I am always happy to discuss Thay and currently play a red wizard, Forent Kharant. If anyone ever wants to coordinate or just has questions, shoot me a pm.

To my understanding, wearing red isn't but impersonating a Red Wizard is punishable by death and for that reason most non-Red Wizard Thayans avoid wearing any red in their attire.

Er what I meant, sorry ;).

The thing to do is kill a peon, drape a red wizard robe over them, then accuse them.

Most just don't wear red as a result.