A small city full of dissidents and mercenaries, Throneport would not be particularly important except for one simple fact: It is not part of any nation of Khorvaire. Growing up around the royal castle of Thronehold on an island in Scions Sound, Throneport was originally a small town that made the castle more livable, offering food and drink, entertainment, and other supplies to the soldiers and nobles stationed in Galifar’s capital. With the death of King Jarot, the outbreak of war, and the virtual abandonment of Thronehold, however, Throneport became a haven for spies, criminals, mercenaries, and revolutionaries. In the wake of the war, Throneport has been divided up into zones controlled by the remaining four of the Five Nations, and it remains a hotbed of international intrigue.


After forging a united kingdom, Galifar I realized early on that the crown could not rule from one of the existing realms. To do so would be to put one of the Five Nations above the others, and that would lead to breaks and fractures that would eventually destroy the kingdom. Thus, he established his seat of power on an island in Scions Sound. There he built the great castle of Thronehold.

After Jarot’s death and the rejection of the line of succession that led to the Last War, the island and castle were largely abandoned. A special detachment of House Deneith guards, the Throne Wardens, remained in place to protect the castle, but all government functions ceased with the collapse of the Kingdom of Galifar.

Throneport, a town in the shadow of the castle, became a place for dissidents, criminals, spies, and mercenaries, and the once safe port turned into a rough-and-tumble town without allegiance to any single nation.

Interesting Things About Thronehold

  • Representatives (and spies) of the Five Nations gather in the town of Throneport, where it’s impossible to tell friend from foe and alliances shift daily.
  • Although Cyre no longer has a peacekeeping force on the island, many Cyrans find work here as spies and agents for other nations.

Thronehold Characters

As you develop a character or NPC from Thronehold, consider the following:

Cold Warriors. Thronehold is a gladiatorial arena for diplomats and spies, a dangerous playground for bored nobles, and a haven for treacherous double agents. Characters with the charlatan, spy, noble, or criminal background might all test their skills here.

Play It Again. If diplomats and spies have one thing in common, it’s a weakness for pleasant distractions. When not playing their games of deceit, they seek out the best entertainment and companionship the island has to offer. Characters with the entertainer background can make many untrustworthy friends here.

Throneport at War

When Jarot died and Mishann’s siblings prevented her succession, the royal throne at Thronehold fell vacant, and the stronghold itself was gradually abandoned. For a time, the population of Throneport dwindled away as well. Many of its people were part of a retinue that had followed the royal court from Thronehold to the capitals of the Five Nations on seasonal visits, and with no more royal court to follow, they drifted off to other cities, sometimes parlaying their royal connections into positions with other noble families. The Throne Wardens, special forces of House Deneith assigned to protect the castle, remained in place, tending the vacant seat of power in the expectation that order would soon be restored and a royal heir of Jarot once again installed on the throne.

As the war progressed, Throneport began to see a new rise in population and activity. It was soon recognized as a place where illegal and clandestine business could be carried out away from the watchful eyes of national governments. Brelish spies working in Rekkenmark went to Throneport to meet their handlers or drop coded messages. Black Highway smugglers carrying contraband weapons harvested from battlefields brought their wares to Throneport to deliver them to Cyran buyers. Many deserters landed in Throneport, resulting in military sweeps by several nations looking for these deserters. Press gangs periodically roved the streets looking for able-bodied soldiers of any nationality and forced them into service for one nation or another, or (more often) for a mercenary company.

After the destruction of the White Arch Bridge in 928, Karrnath briefly toyed with the idea of using Throneport as the staging ground for an assault across Scions Sound. However, the Throne Wardens denied Karranth’s ships permission to land on the island, and Karrnath made the assault without making use of Thronehold at all. In general, the castle of Thronehold remained almost miraculously untouched by the war, while the city of Throneport was a hotbed for what some have called “the war behind the war”—the thick web of intrigue and espionage that underlaid the clash of armies.

Throneport Today

Throneport remains a key site in the Shadow War that rages on in the wake of the treaties signed in the castle. As a result of the Thronehold Accords, Throneport is divided into four zones, each one controlled by one of the surviving Five Nations—Karrnath, Breland, Thrane, and Aundair—with the Tower Wardens keeping watch over the whole city and ensuring that the accords are obeyed. Each zone of the city is like a small nation in its own right, and a person passing from one zone into another is subjected to the same scrutiny she would experience crossing a national border on the continent. Identification papers are a must—residents and visitorsare required to show them on demand, even if they do not cross from one zone to another. In theory, all this security is aimed at reducing the espionage that keeps the city running. In reality, each of the four nations that has a stake in Throneport would like to prevent the others from carrying on their clandestine operations in the city, while allowing its own spies to operate without hindrance. What this means is that spies and criminals have developed elaborate ways to circumvent the safeguards and restrictions designed to interfere with their operations, and innocent people are faced with endless bureaucratic hurdles in the course of pursuing their daily work.

In a city that relies so heavily on documentation, accomplished forgers are in high demand, and officials who can issue documents are often tempted with large bribes and other favors. A spy defecting from Breland to Karrnath might come to Throneport with Brelish papers, purchase the proper identification and traveling papers, and leave the city as a citizen of Karrnath, virtually guaranteed safe entrance into his new country. A monarchist fleeing theocratic persecution in Thrane might come to Throneport—where she will fi nd many sympathetic ears—and eventually acquire identification and traveling papers showing her to be an Aundairian, which allows her to return to the continent despite the vigilant eyes of Thranes who seek to imprison her.

Besides identification and traveling papers, the other hot commodity in Throneport is information. Private inquisitives, mercenary bounty hunters, House Medani agents, and agents of national espionage agencies such as the Royal Eyes of Aundair all jostle together in the city’s busy streets, spying on each other and just about everyone else in the city. For every person in Throneport who tries to disappear by purchasing false identification papers and a new identity, another person in Throneport is probably there hunting for a fugitive, an escaped dissident, or some other missing person.

Except for the Throne Wardens of House Deneith and isolated inquisitors from House Medani, the dragonmarked houses are all but absent from Throneport. House Sivis is not involved with the bustling document trade in the city—at least, it is not officially involved—and both House Phiarlan and House Thuranni seem strangely absent from all the spying and surveillance in the city. It is almost certain that members of every dragonmarked house live in the city and work in some capacity related to the work of their houses, but as organizations, the houses are not major players in the city. Perhaps they fear that involvement in the tangled politics of Throneport would pose too great a risk to their enforced neutrality

Aftermath of the Last War

By 975 YK, Throneport had grown into a small city in which all of the nations and dragonmarked houses had at least a small presence, turning it into a hotbed of international intrigue. The Treaty of Thronehold further solidified Throneport as a multinational capital under the control of small peacekeeping forces from Aundair, Breland, Karrnath, and Thrane, with House Deneith Throne Wardens in place to make sure the terms of the treaty are honored. Today, the small city is neutral ground, but the castle and its grounds remain off limits and under the watchful protection of the wardens.