A slave, running for his life, ducks into a temple for safety, sneaking past several guards. He's discovered not by the pursuing guards but by several priestesses, as he examines a sacred glittering artifact a little too closely. He's accused by the young priestesses of attempting to stealing the artifact. The slave, is convicted to the worst possible fate: exile. But exile with a curse he has yet to understand. At least he's free from bondage and he might make it... until the full moon rises, that is...

Maybe that's not your flavor. Maybe you'd prefer the tale of a vicious pirate that conquered parts of the inner ocean and sailed the cannibal coast in search of great treasure in. A man or woman who sails the seas with the help of an undine so large that the ship and its crew can sail beneath the tide and ambush ships like a shark hunting its prey. 

No? Well there are plenty more ideas within the World of Thennla that you or I could come up with. Heyo, I’m Kat, and I’ve been a Games Master (GM) for over 10 years now. This blog concerns Thennla, a campaign world created by Jonathan Drake, and is one of The Design Mechanism’s settings for Myhras. I can tell you learning the ins and outs of Thennla has been much like me learning about the Forgotten Realms. In fact every time I turned the page I was surprised to find more and more magical, mystical, or fantastical elements to this world beyond the melting pot of civilisations. 

Let’s get you a better outline of the many reasons how (and why) Thennla compares with the Forgotten Realms and why it’s a great place for a new campaign.

What is Thennla?

Imagine a universe with three realities; the Material World, The Spirit World, and the Many Hells. Now imagine that the Material World is one flat world made of six continents each holding their own flavour of our historical cultures, such as Classical Greece, Venice, and Rome. Now envision the sprinkles of fantastical creatures like Saytrs, Simulacrums, Undines, and centaurs throughout. That’s Thennla. Quite the melting pot between worlds, and the perfect place fro new adventures with a gritty game system. 

The setting of Thennla revolves around the rules of Mythras Core and adds plenty of its own fun and exciting possibilities for us as GMs and players alike. Taygus is the main source of the human population but isn’t the only source as there are plenty around this small world. Thennla is flat with six continents that vary as wildly as its inhabitants. Its two bodies of water are known as the Inner and Outer Oceans, and both are equally dangerous to the unwary mariner. This place is fraught with danger and adventure no matter where you choose to start. 

Let’s cover the major parties of Taygus so I can explain a bit more of the character concept I talked about first.

Korantia, Tarsenia, Methalea, and Sorantia

These are the regions that you learn about the most. Korantia, Tarsenia and Sorantia being the regions that have their own books full of information and adventures or encounters. Let’s begin with Korantia. 

If you recall, above I stated that Thennla has similarities with the Classical World. Korantia is much like Greece: it is comprised of city states (each with its god, an embodiment of the city state), a jealous sun god, an emperor struggling to assert authority, and a plethora of honour in games, physical prowess, and problems working together as political entities often do. It is a place where the rich stay rich at all costs, every politician is out to cover his own rear, and the poor are just shy of slaves. Korantia therefore has its fair share of political intrigue, if that’s your preference.

The rival of the Korantine people and city-states is the might of the Taskan Empire, found in Tarsenia. This rivalry is generations-old, thanks to the strength and philosophy of the Taskan immortal emperor, Zygas Taga, who rules through the Iron Simulacrum. Everyone is free under the rule of the Taskan Empire. Those who wish to fight can; those who wish equality have it. Women enjoy equality since no gender is considered more or lesser than the other. There is no hereditary power, unlike Korantia. 

The next (and in my mind cool but odd ball) is Sorantia. Their main city is Sorandib, which resembles ancient Venice, in my mind. Sorantia is falling apart both politically and environmentally. The lands are in ruin due to raids from bandits, and, much worse, are being reclaimed by the wilderness with every journey of the sun. Their king is closing in on breaking the deal that his predecessors made with the mighty Taskan Emperor, threatening even more ruin. This is probably the reason that I find Sorandib so intriguing: you have a successful, industrious city, full of artificers, sorcerers, and, by the gods, vampires, and yet its ready to fall into the hands of the Taskan Empire as soon as the King passes. 

Where vampires are concerned, let me let you in on the second most interesting location in my mind. Methalea is a powerful matriarchy, ruled by priestesses and Amazonian warriors, with a touch of crazed lycanthropy for the exiled men of the region. The Jekkarene Theocracy rules the lands of Methalea in the name of their goddess, Jekkara. Long did the goddess of the Moon suffer with the God of the Sun, as did the women of Jekkara suffer at the hands of their husbands and revolted. Maybe. The details aren’t clear, but the Jekkarene Theocracy stands as a matriarchal culture where men are the lesser and only appointed to their positions of power by the ruling priestesses. Their power extends to inflicting lycanthropy on the men, which to my mind is one way of keeping them under firm control.

Along the coasts and in the wilderness you’ll find plenty more strange and unique civilisations. The Assibians for example,  also should have a shout out as they are another big influence on the regions mentioned above. This is the nitty gritty fast paced, sell-or-be-bought locale of rich merchants and poorer slaves. It reminds me much of Arabian culture by their descriptions. Powerful merchants and even more powerful sorcerers are found throughout Assabia. You can discover a lot more detail in two of the books that cover everything Thennla. I’ll explain a bit more on the books and where to find them next.

The Books of Thennla

Thennla is covered in four books. The first is called Thennla: A Campaign World for Mythras, and deals with the world in broad brush-strokes. This has a boat load of easily digestible information about every continent, region, culture and so on, but provides it as an introduction and overview. It’s also free to download, too. 

The next one I would recommend is Shores of Korantia (SoK). This gives you a detailed explanation of Korantia and its inner workings, from individual city-states and their rulers down to the rivalry between factions. It also gives you the character generation capabilities for everything I mentioned above and more. You can even create orcs in Thennla! SoK covers the orcs and their particulars too.

If you are interested in ready-made adventures to dip your toes in, I would also lean you towards SoK since it has three inter-connected and well balanced adventures. If you’re more than ready to dive in, I’d also lean you towards SoK because there are plenty of random encounters that are also outlined in their own chapter. That’s one of the inspirations for the pirate character I described in the beginning of this blog. 

Within the third book, The Taskan Empire, you learn more about the history of the immortal emperor and the empire itself, and are introduced to a much different region of Tarsenia. I love the concept of leaning into interacting with, or running from the Iron Simulacrum (for whatever reason) because the Iron Simulacrum as a proxy ruler is such cool idea. Plus, the Taskan Empire is such a different society to Korantia, but filled with problems of its own, it gives you a much different campaign vibe. Which leads me onto the fourth book, Sorandib

Sorandib caught my attention because of the concept of introducing artificers into Mythras. Gunpower, weapons, a demon god from which to siphon power and energy to power these creations… That blew my mind! Granted by the end of the first paragraph in Sorandib, I was floored by the statement of ‘…political rebels to common criminals and abominable vampires.’ Vampires?! Remember where I said every page turn surprised me? This is what I meant. The fun thing about Sorandib is that this book also comes with three adventures, one of which specifically highlights the vampire cult called the Brothers of Twilight.

Thennla has everything that the Forgotten Realms has, but with the Mythras flavor and it is hard to pick a spot to start because there are so many places to choose from.

Where to Begin

As a GM, time always seems against us when building a campaign. The good news is with settings like Thennla, everything is readily available for the searching. My greatest suggestion would be for you to grab the free Thennla: A Campaign World for Mythras, and read through it. See the broad strokes of the world. That’s what I did before I dug into the details of Korantia, Sorantia, and Tarsenia. Having learned something of the world, I feel that I would start with a campaign on the Inner Ocean aboard a ship, be it merchant or pirate, so the players can experience the world afresh as they discover it place by place. 

And I would start with the Cannibal Coast and in a specific coastal city such as Lythora, a small port on the southern side of the Jekkarene Theocracy’s region of control. I can see some lycanthropic pirates happening down the line. Wouldn’t that be a plot twist? 

If I didn’t have a habit of creating my own scenarios, instead of the adventures given in the books I’ve listed, I would likely run one of the Sorandib adventures to dip my toes. Likely, Twilght’s Assassins simply because I enjoy the concepts of vampires just as much as lycanthropes interacting with players.

Conclusion

There’s been quite a bit of brevity throughout this blog but that’s because there is so much rich world to cover within the four books that describe Thennla. I made the points of the Korantines, the Jekkarene Theocracy, the Taskan Empire, and the Sorantines, but its up to you to figure out where to start your own campaign. Thennla: A Campaign World for Mythras lets you dip your toes in without a commitment to all four books – unless you’re a book dragon (like me). If that’s the case, Shores of Korantia, and Sorandib are my top recommendations because both come with premade adventures. And even if you don’t like the adventures they provide, there is plenty of material that can be mined for your own campaign. 

If the thoughts of an Emperor who takes the form of an iron statue intrigues, then grab The Taskan Empire. I loved reading this one because of the history and progression of the Taskan culture. Here’s the book dragon in me: I loved all of the lore I discovered and absorbed from all of the Thennla books which is why ultimately I would recommend all of them for your game shelf. There’s nothing like bringing the flavour of the Forgotten Realms to Mythras.

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