Newspapers of Khorvaire
Information infrastructure · Major publications: Korranberg Chronicle, Sharn Inquisitive · Distribution: House Orien courier, city mail, Sivis speaking stone networks
KORRANBERG CHRONICLE — SPECIAL SUL EDITION
WAR IS OVER!
Treaty of Thronehold signed. Galifar is no more.
Reading which paper someone trusts often says more about them than what they believe.
Khorvaire's newspapers do not merely report events — they frame them. Each publication serves a distinct audience, shaping how disasters, crimes, and political shifts are understood, excused, or exploited. The simplest chronicles are scrolls nailed to public message boards containing the pertinent news of the week. More ambitious ones — the Aundairian Scroll, the Breland Ledger, the Sharn Inquisitive — are printed as folded broadsheets nested together into simple books, distributed by Orien courier or city mail.
The press is not neutral infrastructure. It is owned, funded, and staffed by people with interests. Who controls a paper, who funds it, and who it has made enemies of are as important as what it prints. A subscription to the Korranberg Chronicle means access to Sivis-verified reporting across the continent. A well-placed Inquisitive exposé can destabilize a Watch commander or a Council seat. A Voice of Breland editorial can shape how a neighborhood views its Cyran neighbors for a year.
The Korranberg Chronicle
By far Khorvaire's best-known and most widely read newspaper. Published out of Korranberg in Zilargo and distributed across central Khorvaire through a deal with House Orien, the Chronicle earned its reputation through unflinching and mostly unbiased coverage of the Last War. It is released three times a week — on Mol, Wir, and Far — and each edition carries a mixture of news from across Khorvaire, accounts of adventurers and expeditions, business solicitations, royal proclamations, and almanac information.
Offices. The Chronicle's main offices are in Korranberg, with field offices throughout the Five Nations, the Mror Holds, and Zilargo. Each field office shares space with a House Sivis message station, giving reporters direct and discounted access to the home office. Employees of the Chronicle can travel on House Orien lightning rail coaches at a discounted rate of 8 sp per day, rather than the usual 1 gp.
Staff. A large editorial staff — mostly but not exclusively Zil gnomes — works across an extensive hierarchy, from senior editors responsible for broad categories like international affairs or crime, down to junior editors covering specific district beats. The Chronicle sends reporters across Khorvaire; most live in Korranberg or near a field office, but correspondents might be stationed in remote regions for long periods, and the paper frequently publishes stories written by freelancers. An adventuring party working for the Chronicle most likely falls into that last category — at least at the start of their careers.
Leadership. All senior editors answer to the Chronicle's top tier of management, including its publisher and its secretive board of owners. The publisher is Cassia Lorridan Claddik, a Zil gnome whose connection to Korranberg's ruling Council of Nine is well known. She is the most public face of the Chronicle's leadership, but not its ultimate authority. That rests with the owner board — a body whose composition has been the subject of considerable investigation.
Allies. House Orien distributes the Chronicle along its mail and lightning rail routes. House Sivis handles inter-office communication, billing the paper directly for speaking stone use. Zilargo's government is broadly friendly and, in extreme circumstances, might advocate for Chronicle employees abroad.
Enemies. The Boromar Clan has nursed a grudge since a Chronicle exposé published a decade ago resulted in the arrest of many of the clan's leaders and gave rival organizations a foothold in Sharn. Chronicle reporters who pry into Boromar business face active sabotage and the threat of murder. King Kaius of Karrnath holds a grudge from the Chronicle's coverage of the Thronehold peace process; reporters working in Karrnath face bureaucratic obstruction and official harassment. House Thuranni will not cooperate with Chronicle reporters under any circumstances — the snoops and spies of the Chronicle have pried one time too many into the house's private affairs.
When the Chronicle confirms an event, it becomes part of the historical record rather than rumor or scandal. Because of this, it is often weeks behind breaking news, methodical where faster papers are reckless.
The Sharn Inquisitive
The city's local chronicle and its most widely read paper. The Inquisitive appears every Sul and is distributed via city mail. A year's subscription costs 3 gp; though not normally sold by single issue, discarded copies circulate freely in the days after publication.
Its publisher is Haftak ir'Clarn, who runs the paper out of Haftak's Books and Binding in the University District of Upper Menthis — a bookstore and bindery that serves as both his marginally profitable main business and the Inquisitive's production facility. Haftak is a minor member of one of Breland's noble families with a significant fortune at his disposal, which allowed him to start the Inquisitive as a sideline. He is a distant cousin of Lord Ruken ir'Clarn, a member of Breland's parliament who often expresses viewpoints in opposition to King Boranel. Critics claim the Inquisitive goes out of its way to support or attack the Brelish crown depending on which direction is more convenient; Haftak does not publicly address his cousin's political views.
The Inquisitive covers everything from council politics and dragonmarked scandals to murders in the lower wards, often embellishing facts to sustain reader engagement. Its reporters cultivate informants across the city, and while accuracy varies, it is usually first to break a story. When the Inquisitive focuses on an event, pressure follows — on the Watch, the City Council, or whoever has been named. It rarely tells the whole truth, but it tells enough to make ignoring an issue politically dangerous.
Mainstream Papers
The Breland Ledger, the Aundairian Scroll, and papers like them present generally balanced coverage of world events, with a slant toward their home nations. These are the papers of record for their respective countries — not propaganda, but not neutral either. Each covers Khorvaire-wide developments through the lens of national interest. Their reporting is more methodical than the Inquisitive but more timely than the Chronicle, occupying the middle ground between speed and accuracy.
Local rags — the Vathirond Journal, the Vedykar Sentinel, the Write of Passage, and similar small papers — are limited in circulation and perspective to their own home city. They are the primary source of news for residents who have no interest in events beyond the city walls.
Propaganda Papers
Some papers exist not to report but to sustain grievance. The Voice of Breland and similar publications in other nations print fiercely partisan content designed to fan the resentment that lingers from the Last War — editorials steeped in national pride, curated outrage over perceived injustices, coverage that frames domestic problems as the product of foreign enemies or internal traitors.
The Voice of Breland has been openly hostile to Cyran refugees in Sharn, publishing pieces questioning the loyalties of former soldiers now living in High Walls and suggesting that Cyran survivors may pose an active threat to Brelish security. It is this same paper that has published what it claims is investigative reporting on the Chronicle's owner board — alleging that the Trust and the Aurum are well-represented among the Chronicle's secretive owners.
The Press as Political Actor
Khorvaire's information infrastructure gives newspapers real political weight. Magic compounds this considerably. Message stones and Sivis sending networks allow editors in Korranberg to communicate with field reporters in Sharn or Rekkenmark within hours. Illusion magic enables dramatic visual presentations; divination can be used for source verification or, in less scrupulous hands, for opposition research. Forgery and illusory deception make fake documents and fraudulent endorsements easy to produce, meaning that every paper's credibility rests partly on whether readers trust its verification practices — and whether they have any way to check.
FROM THE VOICE OF BRELAND
IS YOUR NEIGHBOR A CYRAN INVADER?
In the wake of the Mourning, our king welcomed the survivors of that tragedy into our cities. In Sharn, High Walls alone holds more Cyran refugees than Karrnath has allowed across its borders. Although we at the Voice of Breland sympathize with all who suffer, we refuse to ignore the deadly threat in our midst. The majority of Cyrans who survived the Mourning did so because they were beyond the borders of their nation. And why is that? Because they were soldiers. The Sharn Inquisitive talks about starving children and ailing peasants, but it doesn't mention the Cyran special forces and elite war mages who now reside in High Walls. Remain alert, people of Breland! Don't let the current plight of these unfortunates blind you to the danger!