Thentia

The city of Thentia is built upon a wide, west-east peninsula of land jutting from the northern coast of the Moonsea. The southern flank of the peninsula is a rise of jagged, 400 foot cliffs at the base of which the gray waters of the northern sea crash. The northern face of the city is a protected harbor at the mouth of the River Thentia that flows south from the plateau of the Thar. This sheltered harbor is deep, and the heavy stone and wooden quays stretch the length of the city, from the upland towers to the west to the Watchlord's Rise in the east.

The arms of Thentia consist of three golden seabirds in flight, one facing dexter, one sinister, and the third avaunt upon a white field, below which a black ship sails, prow facing dexter.

Thentia is technically ruled by the Watchlord, elected every year by all landed, male citizens of the city. In practice, the position is an appointed one, formed from the consent of the Trade Senate. The current Watchlord is one Gelduth Blackturret, an exiled Cormyrean nobleman. The Watchlord's duties include providing for the common defence, overseeing the city guard, and serving as municipal judge. Though the term is one year, re-elections are common. The most important function of the Watchlord is handing out Trade Decrees, which are fair and straightforward laws of contracts and standards that must be followed by all while within the walls or harbor of the city. Any businessman who fails to abide by the terms of a contract, to the letter, faces severe penalties including arrest, confiscation of property, and in some cases death. Having the "Mark of the Watchlord" placed upon your home or business can be a fiscal death sentence in the city.

The real political power in the city belongs to the Trade Senate. A coalition of 99 of the most influential citizens of the city, the day-to-day affairs of the state are dominated by the power and wealth of the old "founding families", House Dilisnya, House Katsky, and House Khodolis. In addition to these ancient clans are the newer, rising families of Mamarathen and Casplardann.

Thentia was formed when the forces of House Dilisnya, Katsky, and Khodolis, defeated in the Barovian civil war of 809-819, seized control of the peninsula overlooking the River Thent from brawling pirates of the Moonsea that had been using it as a stronghold. Instead of merely executing the pirates captured by their attack, the ex-Barovian nobles coerced as many of them as they could into their service, as a defacto navy and privateer force.

It took nearly a year for the victorious forces of the Drakov dynasty in nearby Melvaunt to realize that the heavy casualties they were suffering to their infant shipping traffic were being caused by their old rivals, who stubbornly continued the war from their new encampment on the coast. The mercenary and veteran rebel forces of houses of Thentia also inflicted the first (and only) stinging rebuke of armies of Roland Drakov when he attempted to attack the coastal city from the land. For miles in every direction from the highlands of the city was a boggy, dismal, sea-swept marsh, and one skirmish with the disorganized but still fresh mercenaries employed by the Thentians was enough to convice Drakov to offer a settlement. The abrupt death (some say disappearance) of the leader of the Thentians, Leo Dilisnya, contributed much to the Thentian's willingness to broker a cease fire with their former countrymen.

The two rival cities settled into an uneasy rivalry. Melvaunt became a center of production, whose autocratic ways lent it to a highly orderly, but heavily taxed system of economy, whereas the newly risen Thentia opted to make itself a virtually tax free haven for merchants and traders willing to pay fees to the government to broker deals as a disinterested third party. With the passing of years, the two cities grew to rely on each other for trade and, in some cases, mutual protection, despite the near constant state of bitter disdain they show for each other.

Despite Thentia's wealth and limited influence, it became increasingly likely that the rise of the militaristic and expansionist forces of Mulmaster and Zhentil Keep would seize control of the merchant port as a strategic and economic prize in their continuing battle for dominance of the Moonsea, until the arrival of the first of what would come to be called the Lawless Mages arrived in the city in 1277. The wizard, Farouq Al'Hazred, arrived in a galleon like those that travel the deep waters upon the Sword Coast that emerged from beneath the waters of the harbor. He claimed to be from the south, and offered his protection over the city and her waters. In exchange, he asked only for the permission to construct towers that would aid him in the study of the latent magical energies of the region, and to be left completely alone. A demonstration of his powers involved the creation and destruction of a wall of glacial ice that completely sealed the harbor, and a towering pillar of fire near the crossroads to the west that lasted for a full day and night. With the blessing of the Trade Senate, the one-eyed wizard created a series of 8 towers, seemingly composed entirely of brass and alabaster throughout the city, their design evoking to the most worldly travelers the slender minarets of the distant south. Each was crowned by a fire that seemed to need no fuel and to never expire. The eighth tower, the largest, the powerful mage took for a home on the high bluff overlooking the harbor opposite the city.

The arrival of the wizard Al'Hazred was only the first of what would become a steady stream of powerful wielders of the Art that would come to call Thentia home. Among them, the booming and jovial Flammuldinath "Firefingers" Thuldoum, the secretive elven archmage Rilitar Shadowwater, and an illusionist known only as Scattercloak.

The city of Thentia maintains little in the way of a standing army, relying instead on the complex web of trade and commerce that ties it to it's erstwhile conquerers by chains of gold. Thentia merchants, or businessmen with interests in the free city, can be found in every port on the Moonsea and beyond. Rare is the threat that the merchant princes of the city cannot simply buy-off. For those threats that they cannot bypass, they have been able to bring to bear a near limitless supply of mercenaries to protect its interests overseas. The city maintains a force of 25 vessels to protect its shipping interests, but in times of trouble can call upon the assistance of a fleet of privateers and freebooters to harass its enemies.

In the unlikely event of a full-scale invasion, the city is protected first of all by its location. The peninsula upon which the city is perched is protected on three sides by the Moonsea, and on the fourth by the nasty, cold bogs of the southern Thar. The south face stands upon 400 foot sea cliffs, while the vulnerable harbor side on the north is protected by the sheltering arms of the city. The western approach toward the peninsula is fortified with a gray stone wall, behind which stand a line of four of Phourken One-Eye's alabaster towers. Popular legend says that the towers are able to project bolts of wizard fire, call lightning down out of a clear sky, or freeze an attacking force solid.

There is only one major temple in the city of Thentia, the House of the Shattered Coast, dedicated to the worship of Umberlee. The temple is ornate for the normally dour Moonsea, and commands a view from every point in the city. It is perched upon the cliff overlooking the harbor, the wall of the 200 foot seacliff is carved in a depiction of the goddess herself, her hand and snake-like hair seeming to "hold" the temple up, while her other hand protects (or threatens) the ships that enter the gates of the city with her mighty trident. The temple is made of sea green and white marble, with freshets of sea water pouring from it down clever channels carved in the body of the statue below. The temple is dominated by the charimatic Grigor Kurtz, a former privateer turned mystic. His priests and priestesses collect propitiations for the Sea Queen's blessing in the docks and serve, for a fee, upon merchant vessels departing the city.

Taxes are low or nonexistent in Thentia. Each ship entering the harbor must pay a 1 gp docking tax, and every winter resident of the city must pay a 5 gp wintering tax. Beyond this, the government functions on the back of fines and fees paid to it to function as a third party in trade disputes, to draw up or notarize contracts, or to store ships or goods.