INTRODUCTION
Once an empty land settled by colonists from old Impiltur, Thesk remains thinly populated in many spots. Although the cities of Thesk have been independent of Impiltur for more than two centuries, they have yet to forge a true nation under one government. The nation of Thesk is an oligarchy of around 1,000,000 people, inhabited by humans, gnomes, and orcs. The majority of its inhabitants are either merchants or farmers. The Golden Way, the main trade route to Kara-Tur, runs through Thesk, exposing it to a wide variety of cultures and making its people more tolerant than most.


GOVERNMENT
Thesk is very wealthy and the wealthiest inhabitant of each settlement becomes the mayor. A council of mayors exists to govern the nation. Most outsiders think of the city of Telflamm as the capital of Thesk, but in reality, the council that governs Thesk does not recognize any city as capital.


Culture/Society of Thesk
Thesk is more accurately described as a league of allied cities than as a single, unified realm. Founded more than 400 years ago by Impilturan merchants, the land retains its commercial character to this day. The realm is a true oligarchy: Councils of merchants govern each of its towns and cities, and the country asa whole is governed by the Council of Thesk, composed of the speakers, lords, or chairpersons of each of the civic councils. Appointment to a city's merchant council requires wealth, station, and success. However, the folk of Thesk place little stock in old bloodlines or musty titles - anyone with ambition, drive, and a little luck can aspire to the ruling elite.
 
Thesk's cities are associated only loosely, and no central government binds them under a common law or authority. Each is free to do as it sees fit and is expected to look after its own defense, law, and prosperity. The oligarchs of one town usually extradite wanted criminals to their neighbors, but not always, especially if the person in question is a pillar of their own community. From time to time, mercantile rivalries between cities break out into open fighting, but the folk of Thesk have no stomach for long and ruinous wars. Mercenaries contest the issue until one side or the other holds a clear advantage, and then the losing side knuckles under and makes peace.



Regions/Cities of Thesk

Ashanath is an uninhabited area of Thesk. Despite its fertile lands, its lack of settlement is attributable to the seasonal tornadoes from which it suffers.

Telflamm is a large independent city-state and the largest settlement in Thesk. Its approximately 25,000 inhabitants apparently are under the rule of a "merchant prince"

The Dragonjaw Mountains form a natural border between Thesk in the north and Aglarond in the south.

The Thesk Mountains occupy an area roughly central in Thesk.

Hill Town is a small community of about forty hill giants based in the northeastern foothills of the Tkesk Mountains. They live here with an assortment of dire wolves, ogres, and orcs, an unstable arrangement that frequently devolves into brawls over who is in charge of the place. These creatures do some hunting and gathering, but their favorite means of feeding themselves is raiding the Golden Way.

Mount Nirg is tallest of the Theskian peaks, Mount Nirg is a rampart of barren rock and loose, gravelly slopes that winds almost ten miles through the eastern reaches of the range. Its lower reaches are littered with hundreds of ancient tombs and the remnants of old stone roads built by some folk lost to history, and the mountain itself has an even worse reputation than the rest of this bleak range.