[Bishop Edward]

Hello to all.

First of all, Hello to you too! Welcome to Thay! Always glad to have new or returning players around.

Secondly, I've always felt that Thay was one of the most unique places in the Forgotten Realms with the least correlation to any RL society. Much of FR is indeed ripped from other sources both historical and fantasy. Yet I feel Thay in particular is exceedingly original. (Waterdeep is also very original). With its pseudo-republican form of government co-existing with traditional noble houses, etc., I could see how you could derive a comparison with Byzantium (and given its physical geographic location as an imperialistic hub between East and West), yet the actually geography itself (the Thaymount) is rather without any real RL corollary. Additionally the Red Wizards themselves stands apart from the usual fare both historical and fantasy as a highly original Magocracy.

Thirdly, I would posit that the Mulani themselves are in fact a thinly veiled reference to the Hebrew Jews. In their lore, they are said to be the 'slave race' of the empires in the other world from whence they came (not actual citizen-members of those societies). The societies they first formed in Faerun before Thay would be Mulhorand and Unther. It's from Mulhorand that people get the idea that Mulani are based on Egyptian (people), but that's not the whole story. They weren't Egyptians, they were the slaves of the Egyptians (vis-à-vis The Exodus). Likewise they also founded Unther which is a pastiche of Babylon (vis-à-vis The Babylonian Captivity). If you examine their culture they have other (some stereotypical I'll admit) aspects toward that end as well: their racial purity and racial superiority complex, their propensity toward greed (selling and hoarding magical items), AND the fact that they establish Enclaves (ghettos) all over the world (diaspora), I think together presents very strong evidence of this correlation. And it's easy to see why the modern material strictly de-emphasizes this for a combination of reasons (political correctness, greater market share, etc.);(first edition sources even had the Thayans as exceedingly misogynistic and homophobic, but this was taken out of subsequent editions).

Looking forward to hearing your further thoughts on it.