"Brevoy is a proud land, known throughout Golarion
for producing able warriors, regal nobles, and clever
rogues. Yet Brevoy’s two regions, Issia and Rostland,
have long held one another in contempt and now stand
on the verge of civil war. Both Issia and Rostland were
independent nations until Choral the Conqueror’s barbarian
armies and red dragon servitors united the regions into
a single kingdom two centuries ago. Until recently, the
iron rule of House Rogarvia maintained a fragile peace
between the two regions. But a decade ago, House Rogarvia
mysteriously disappeared, and the conniving leaders of
Issia’s House Surtova supplanted them as Brevoy’s rulers.
Now a labyrinthine political landscape plagues the nation,
full of secret alliances, provincial loyalties, and nefarious
plots; civil war seems inevitable. In Rostland to the south,
the swordlords see in many of Issia’s recent political moves
the swift approach of such a war. They rightly fear such an
event, for Rostland is smaller than Issia, it has fewer armies,
and its rolling hills and grasslands offer very little in the
way of natural defenses. Worse, unlike Issia, whose northern
border stretches along the Lake of Mists and Veils, which
offers some defense, Rostland’s southern border lies along
a stretch of wilderness infested with bandits and monsters.
If Brevoy falls into civil war, it won’t be long at all before
the violent, opportunistic vultures to the south move to take
advantage of Rostland’s problems.
This southern region of wilderness is called the Stolen
Lands. While these lands are technically a part of the
River Kingdoms, several of which have advanced claims
in the past, Rostland has long viewed them as “stolen”
from it by bandits and monsters. Many attempts have
been made to settle the Stolen Lands, but to date, none
have succeeded, making these 33,000 square miles of
unclaimed wilderness the largest swath of unclaimed
land in the entire River Kingdoms. As tensions mount
in Brevoy, some of Rostland’s swordlords hope to change
that fact; they have issued charters to several groups of
adventurers, sending them south into the Stolen Lands.
These initial charters are simple enough: re-open the
old trade routes along the rivers and scatter or defeat the
bandits who have made them too dangerous to use. Beyond
that, it seems apparent that Rostland wants to encourage
new nations to grow in this region—and believes that by
supporting these nascent kingdoms as allies, it’ll gain
loyal support in any coming conflict with Issia. It’s a bold
and brilliant political move—for if Rostland turned its
own resources to the task, not only would such a move
weaken its defenses against the north, but the blatant
power grab would certainly force Issia’s hand. By sending
free agents south, the swordlords of Rostland hope to
create new allies without sacrificing their own position
of power in Brevoy.
Yet as with most complex and brilliant plans, there are
plenty of opportunities for disaster."
"Your group of characters begins the Kingmaker Adventure
Path as one of four groups sent south into the Stolen Lands
to defeat bandits and, hopefully, to establish one of four
new nations in the River Kingdoms. It certainly won’t be
an easy task. Before any such settlement can even begin,
the bandits and monsters must be dealt with—and once
that initial task is done, the danger will only increase. As
you struggle to foster a fledgling kingdom, build up its
cities, and expand its farmlands, your group is destined
to face rival warlords, ferocious beasts, strange cults,
invading barbarian hordes, and even the mysterious fey
denizens of the near-mythical First World. Can you tame
the Stolen Lands and forge a lasting settlement amid
such opposition? Who will survive to rule your kingdom?
Who among you possesses the makings of a king?"
