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Deeply odd question here.
One of my players is designing a Varisian fighter to recruit as a cohort, and he is interested in taking the Nimble Deflections feat from Dragon #335, p. 88.
This raises the question, are keyboard instruments known among the Varisians? I'd allow it without question for a Magnimartian or a Chelaxian.
I can't see Varisians with pianos, organs or harpsichords, but perhaps accordians?
Creative Director
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Keyboard instruments are the most complex of the instruments, so there won't be a LOT of them around, compared to others. Also, there may be a bit of an anachronistic sting to some of them for some groups; many keyboard instruments are relatively recent inventions, after all.
That said, there certainly are pianos, organs, pipe organs, harpsichords, clavichords, accordions, and the like in Golarion. For a classic Varisian character, the accordion is actually a pretty good choice of instrument, since it's portable and the classic Varisian is always on the move. But the organ's a good choice too; Varisians are to a certain extent inspired by cultures in eastern Europe, and by fiction set there, like Dracula, who looks quite at home playing the pipe organ...
But not all Varisians are traveling nomads. And PCs (and by extension their cohorts) should be exceptions to the rule more often than not.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Also, there may be a bit of an anachronistic sting to some of them for some groups; many keyboard instruments are relatively recent inventions, after all.
James,
Vitruvius, in his work on architecture (1st century A.D.) , describes an organ with balanced keys. Next we learn that Emperor Constantine sent a musical instrument having keys to King Pepin of France in A.D. 757
The great musical genius, Guido of Arezzo, applied the keyboard to stringed instruments in the first part of the 11th century. Guido's diatonic scale, eight full tones with seven intervals of which two were semitones, was used in the first claivchords, which had 20 keys. There are no reliable records in existence, as to who applied the chromatic scale first. Giuseppe Zarlino added the semitones to his instrumnets about 1548, but insturments of earlier date have the chromatic scale, as for instance the clavicymbala, some of which had 77 keys to a compass of four octaves.After the 15th century nearly all the makers of key-stringed instruments used the chromatic scale practically as we find it in the modern piano.
As it turns out, that pretty much squares with more authoritative sources like Willi Apel.
I wouldn't put keyboard insturments in Ancient Greek or Roman cultures, and I would immagine that the Land of the Linnorm Kings would find such instruments terribly odd. But any fantasy culture that can handle 14th Century technology should be able to accomodate keyboards.
My suggestion for Varisians would be some variant on the Hurdy-gurdy, with a keyboard for one hand and a crank for the other. If you wanted to make it a little more impressive, there's the very strange wheel-harp.
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I wouldn't put keyboard instruments in Ancient Greek or Roman cultures, and I would imagine that the Land of the Linnorm Kings would find such instruments terribly odd. But any fantasy culture that can handle 14th Century technology should be able to accomodate keyboards.My suggestion for Varisians would be some variant on the Hurdy-gurdy, with a keyboard for one hand and a crank for the other. If you wanted to make it a little more impressive, there's the very strange wheel-harp.
Actually, even the Greeks and Romans had some (according to _Ancient Inventions_ by James and Thorpe), but they were rare, and usually the work of a few geniuses: in the 3rd c. BC, Ctesibius of Alexandria invented the first keyboard instrument, a "water-organ" complete with pipes and keys. Heron of Alexandria made a wind-powered version 200 years later, and near the end of the first century BC, good ol' Vitruvius described further refinements. So, perhaps in a city like Absalom, or in the old imperial capitals, Golarion "ancients" might have left mosaics or examples behind from the really old days.
As for modern Varisians (and sailors, too!), concertinas (smaller accordions, with the bellows in more of a tube-shape than a "radiator" and the buttons on the end cap) work very well. There's a sailor NPC-type playing one behind Kirk Douglas and his guitar early on in Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" movie (playing the song, "Whale of a Tale"). ;->
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Creative Director
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As I recall, there was a haunted piano in the Foxglove Mansion. So pianos have been around for at least forty years or so. Maybe they're a relatively new invention, and it's considered very "in" to own one among nobles and the wealthy.
Pianos may be relatively rare, but I don't see them as being new inventions for Golarion.
Keyboard instruments are more complicated than some others, but they're still generally just wood, string, and metal tubes... nothing about that requires much technology, just craftsmanship. And Golarion is full of that.
Now if your bard wants to fire up Logic and start programming some sick techno beats, then we might have issues... but then again, maybe not. Dancing lights could make for a pretty sweet rave party.
Golarion distorted heavy metal guitar? A lyre on speed??