Golden Hand

The Golden Hand is a network of Terophatic territories in the Seranian interior. Originally referring to a much more extensive system of institutional and military control of the continental interior during the Terophatic Ascendancy, in contemporary usage the Golden Hand refers simply to the territories that Terophan maintains in this area. Specifically, the lands that are generally understood to comprise the Golden Hand are, from north to south, Norelakh, Cape Dovgorod and Vezderevo, the Moonlight Coast, Vizvanir, Movarsk, Zhelesgorod, and the Mirsky Canal. With the exception of the Canal, the territories of the Golden Hand are distinct from Terophatic Serania proper and constitute separate provinces in their own right.

The term 'Golden Hand' originates from the remarks of an Azophine diplomat in the aftermath of the Kethpor Accords, who compared the system established in Serania to a "golden hand suffocating our Banner"; with its entry into common usage the term lost its negative connotations. Notwithstanding the end of the Ascendancy, the capacity afforded by the Golden Hand for military deployment and trade regulation has enhanced Terophan's economic and geopolitical reach in Serania immeasurably, and it has thus been called, with some justification, the greatest and most enduring legacy of emperor Vsevolod I.