Type: Nation
Population: 25 million
Govt: Monarchy
Capital: Korth
In a nation of storms and long winters, the grim and stoic Karrns are accustomed to enduring hardship without complaint.
First and foremost, Karrnath is known for its military tradition. Strength, strategy, and discipline are the core values of Karrnath. Karrnath's soldiers might be the finest in Khorvaire, but they lack the magical support of Aundair or Thrane, which evened the odds during the Last War. Nonetheless, Karrns are proud of their martial history, and most are convinced that they would have eventually won the Last War.
Karrnath suffered a series of severe food shortages and plagues early in the Last War. As a result, the king embraced the Blood of Vol as the national religion. The priests of this faith bolstered Karrnath's forces with undead, developing the Odakyr Rites for creating tremendously efficient animated soldiers. The current king, Kaius ir'Wynarn III, broke ties with the Blood of Vol and has stopped creating new undead, but Karrnath still has a significant number of skeletons and zombies in service. Many Karrns still believe in the Blood of Vol and approve of the use of undead (particularly within the Grand Duchy of Atur), but just as many feel that this practice disgraces Karrnath's proud military history and that the necromancers might have been responsible for the famines and plagues.
The nation's name has not changed since the ancient days before the founding of the Five Nations, when Karrn the Conqueror not only established the country that still bears his name but also tried to conquer and unite all of Khorvaire under his rule. Centuries later it was another Karrn, one of King Galifar's sons, who rededicated the nation to himself in 32 YK, the same year when the Five Nations officially adopted the names of Galifar's five eldest children.