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Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
Do goblins ever ride giant vermin (like spiders and whatnot) or is that the exclusive domain of mites?

No, because vermin can't be trained normally unless you have some sort of weird ability to interact with them. Like mites. A goblin that climbs on a giant spider is gonna get eaten.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Paladinosaur wrote:
James, I know you're not involved with Starfinder, but, do you think that an Space Horror AP is now a possibility? Something inspired by the Alien franchise and the like?

If that's not something possible in Starfinder, then we messed up.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

MeanDM wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:

Ish okay, make up for it by asking the Directorsaur a question if you'd like!

James, are there any books you're currently reading and liking?

Yes. Been reading Joe Hill lately, and LOVING his work. NOS4A2 is what I'm reading now and it's excellent.
He's Stephen King's son, right? Do you have a favorite one of his works? I've thought about picking something up by him.

Correct.

N0S4A2 is my favorite so far. Just started reading The Fireman and it looks like it's gonna be the best yet, what with it being such an epic post-apocalyptic horror story.


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I don't have a question. Just letting you know there were tweaks to the georeferencing of the Inner Sea map since you last checked in on the thread. Through the mathemagic of Karl Brandan Mollweide, Magnimar's latitude is now on par with Everett, WA and the scales of all the regional maps in the ISWG are true to within ~10%.

OK, I lied; I do have a question. How in the world do you manage to keep up with this thread? Yowza!


Hey James!

Hope you're well.

Q: Have you seen the British movie The Dinosaur Project (2012)?

I cannot vouch whether or not it's a good movie, but it is a 'found-footage' film, which you have said that you're a fan. And there are dinosaurs!

Thanks for your generosity in always replying to all of our questions.

Have a good weekend!

--C.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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John Mechalas wrote:


OK, I lied; I do have a question. How in the world do you manage to keep up with this thread? Yowza!

By checking the thread daily and answering daily.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Psiphyre wrote:

Hey James!

Hope you're well.

Q: Have you seen the British movie The Dinosaur Project (2012)?

I cannot vouch whether or not it's a good movie, but it is a 'found-footage' film, which you have said that you're a fan. And there are dinosaurs!

Thanks for your generosity in always replying to all of our questions.

Have a good weekend!

--C.

I have seen it and quite enjoyed it. I can vouch for it as being a good and entertaining and worth-the-time-to-watch movie.


How cool is this azhdarchid pterosaur news???

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Garrett Guillotte wrote:
How cool is this azhdarchid pterosaur news???

Lots.


What kind of hobbies does Ileosa have? I mean the kind of mundane things she'd do with her girlfriend/bodyguard or by herself before she went crazy about facial mutilation.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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AlgaeNymph wrote:
What kind of hobbies does Ileosa have? I mean the kind of mundane things she'd do with her girlfriend/bodyguard or by herself before she went crazy about facial mutilation.

Spending money, playing with treasure, being snarky and petulant, hosting parties, enjoying the comforts of being a queen.


James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:
What kind of hobbies does Ileosa have? I mean the kind of mundane things she'd do with her girlfriend/bodyguard or by herself before she went crazy about facial mutilation.
Spending money, playing with treasure, being snarky and petulant, hosting parties, enjoying the comforts of being a queen.

Ooo, fun. :)

What'd she like to buy? What kind of parties did she host? Why did Neolandus let her anywhere near the treasury?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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AlgaeNymph wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:
What kind of hobbies does Ileosa have? I mean the kind of mundane things she'd do with her girlfriend/bodyguard or by herself before she went crazy about facial mutilation.
Spending money, playing with treasure, being snarky and petulant, hosting parties, enjoying the comforts of being a queen.

Ooo, fun. :)

What'd she like to buy? What kind of parties did she host? Why did Neolandus let her anywhere near the treasury?

Expensive things.

Parties that gave her the chance to be the center of attention.

Because he didn't anticipate her being supercharged by an ancient dragon spirit, and because she was the Queen.


Since Taldans apparently have British accents and Andorans have American accents, does Nirmathas, Molthrune and Druma have national accents of their own with real-world inspirations? If so, what are they?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Delightful wrote:
Since Taldans apparently have British accents and Andorans have American accents, does Nirmathas, Molthrune and Druma have national accents of their own with real-world inspirations? If so, what are they?

They don't.

If we put some of them in an audio drama, we'll have to decide at that point, I guess, but I suspect they'll all have similar accents, frankly, since that's kinda not supposed to be the focus of the entertainment—matching regions to accents.


James Jacobs wrote:
Psiphyre wrote:

Hey James!

Hope you're well.

Q: Have you seen the British movie The Dinosaur Project (2012)?

I cannot vouch whether or not it's a good movie, but it is a 'found-footage' film, which you have said that you're a fan. And there are dinosaurs!

Thanks for your generosity in always replying to all of our questions.

Have a good weekend!

--C.

I have seen it and quite enjoyed it. I can vouch for it as being a good and entertaining and worth-the-time-to-watch movie.

Thanks for the (indirect) recommendation! Wasn't too sure about it.

Glad you enjoyed it! I'll have to give it a try. ^^

Q1: About how old were you when you first became interested in dinosaurs?
I was almost 4. :D

Q2: As a dinosaur-enthusiast, what was your favorite dinosaur book(s) growing up? (Before high school, or there abouts.)

Mine were/are:

  • Dinosaurs (All About), by Rupert Oliver & Bernard Long [Illus.] (1983)
  • The New Dictionary of Dinosaurs, by Ron Wilson & Cecilia Fitzsimons [Illus.] (1986)
  • Dinosaurs and How They Lived (Windows on the World), by Steve Parker & Giuliano Fornari Sergio [Illus.] (1988)
  • The Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia, by Dougal Dixon, Andrew Robinson [Illus.] & David Johnston [Illus.] (1988)

Please & thank you.

--C.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Psiphyre wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Psiphyre wrote:

Hey James!

Hope you're well.

Q: Have you seen the British movie The Dinosaur Project (2012)?

I cannot vouch whether or not it's a good movie, but it is a 'found-footage' film, which you have said that you're a fan. And there are dinosaurs!

Thanks for your generosity in always replying to all of our questions.

Have a good weekend!

--C.

I have seen it and quite enjoyed it. I can vouch for it as being a good and entertaining and worth-the-time-to-watch movie.

Thanks for the (indirect) recommendation! Wasn't too sure about it.

Glad you enjoyed it! I'll have to give it a try. ^^

Q1: About how old were you when you first became interested in dinosaurs?
I was almost 4. :D

Q2: As a dinosaur-enthusiast, what was your favorite dinosaur book(s) growing up? (Before high school, or there abouts.)

Spoiler:
Dinosaurs (All About), by Rupert Oliver & Bernard Long [Illus.] (1983)
The New Dictionary of Dinosaurs, by Ron Wilson & Cecilia Fitzsimons [Illus.] (1986)
Dinosaurs and How They Lived (Windows on the World), by Steve Parker & Giuliano Fornari Sergio [Illus.] (1988)
The Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia, by Dougal Dixon, Andrew Robinson [Illus.] & David Johnston [Illus.] (1988)

Please & thank you.

--C.

Q1: I've always been interested in dinosaurs, since before I can remember a time I wasn't.

Q2: My favorite dinosaur books were two books by Donald Glut: "The Dinosaur Dictionary" and "The Dinosaur Scrapbook." There were lots others, but those two stand out and are books I still own to this day.


Did you like Jurassic World? We just watched it last night.

Silver Crusade

James are Kangaroos stated up in any books. One of our players wants to be an awakened Kangaroo ninja of all things. I did not see a Kangas in hero lab.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Steve Geddes wrote:
Did you like Jurassic World? We just watched it last night.

I did like it, although that was in spite of it being a pretty paint-by-numbers movie that lacked the strength and style of the original.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Lou Diamond wrote:
James are Kangaroos stated up in any books. One of our players wants to be an awakened Kangaroo ninja of all things. I did not see a Kangas in hero lab.

Check Bestiary 3, page 191, under "Marsupial."


Suppose I wanted to magically move the Sunken Queen closer to shore, either telekineticly or through teleportation. What level of spell would I need?

Oh, and I found an error in the Curse of the Crimson Throne big book. On p.357, it says "reproduced as Handout #6–2 on page 138" when the handout's on p.358.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

AlgaeNymph wrote:

Suppose I wanted to magically move the Sunken Queen closer to shore, either telekineticly or through teleportation. What level of spell would I need?

Oh, and I found an error in the Curse of the Crimson Throne big book. On p.357, it says "reproduced as Handout #6–2 on page 138" when the handout's on p.358.

Mythic wish, I guess. Moving an immense object like that is generally beyond the power of mortal magic.

And this is not the right place to note errors in hardcovers. Note those in the appropriate product thread, since if/when we reprint the book that's where we'll look to see if anyone's found errors, not here.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

If you like graphic novels, Joe Hill's "Locke & Key" series is amazing.

Are you a Resident Evil fan? Are you playing RE7, and if so, what do you think about it? I'm only a couple of hours in, but loving it so far.

Radiant Oath

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

What do you think is cooler: Constantly being under the effects of haste or adding your Charisma modifier to all your saves and your AC?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

shadram wrote:

If you like graphic novels, Joe Hill's "Locke & Key" series is amazing.

Are you a Resident Evil fan? Are you playing RE7, and if so, what do you think about it? I'm only a couple of hours in, but loving it so far.

I do like graphic novels, and will be buying Locke & Key at some point once I get the money to spend and figure out the best way to get them, since like all graphic novels, there's about 50 different versions to choose from it seems.

I've never really played any of the Resident Evil games and have found the camera controls on them to be too frustrating. The new one looks good though, and I might end up playing it at some point, but again... depends on the finances.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
What do you think is cooler: Constantly being under the effects of haste or adding your Charisma modifier to all your saves and your AC?

Depends entirely on the character. As a fighter I'd prefer the haste. As a bard I would prefer the Cha mods to saves and AC.


Do you use Bing or Google?

Also, how do you pronounce Iomadae?

Lastly, your favorite (or least favorite) cult in Golarion?

Scarab Sages

Is The Little Prince anywhere to be found in the Golarion system?

If so, what are his stats?

What are his flower's stats?

Scarab Sages

Any chance a f~~!ed-up monster based on Hallucigenia may make its way into a future Bestiary?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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MageHunter wrote:

Do you use Bing or Google?

Also, how do you pronounce Iomadae?

Lastly, your favorite (or least favorite) cult in Golarion?

Google

eye-OH-mah-day

Favorite cult = cult of Nocticula.

I don't do least favorites in public.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:

Is The Little Prince anywhere to be found in the Golarion system?

If so, what are his stats?

What are his flower's stats?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:
Any chance a f*%~ed-up monster based on Hallucigenia may make its way into a future Bestiary?

I guess.


James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:
Suppose I wanted to magically move the Sunken Queen closer to shore, either telekineticly or through teleportation. What level of spell would I need?
Mythic wish, I guess. Moving an immense object like that is generally beyond the power of mortal magic.

Damnit, I should've mentioned teleport structure (from p.29 of Quests and Campaigns) in my original question, I don't wanna look like I'm trying to gotcha you.

Let's say I wanted to move a building that wasn't cleared and unoccupied, and to a new place in the wilderness. Would your answer still stand?


1. The power Nethys absorbed to become a deity was so great that his very mind is divided, right? I'm curious, because other gods don't suffer from this kind of dual personality problem. Is it because Nethys is very powerful? That the power he absorbed is much more powerful than that of other gods? Or is it because Nethys is very weak? That he couldn't even properly handle the power that other gods(including those who were once mortals) handled easily? So the dual personality was formed because of his weak and fragile mind?

2. Nethys is the god of magic. And he's not kind. Does that mean he would be included among the most powerful deities? Or at least, even other powerful deities are afraid of, or beware of Nethys?

One side of him is burned and broken, yet other side of him is calm and serene. And his holy symbol is a two-toned mask, black right and white left(from the wearer's standpoint). So I thought that the black part of the mask represents his insane, destructive half, and the white part of the mask represents his normal, protective half. But surprisingly the illustration in page 101 and 106 of Inner Sea Gods clearly show that his left half is the broken part, and right half is the serene part. The mask he's wearing in the illustration also proves it. I'm confused. His insane half looks clearly black to me, and his normal half looks clearly white to me. Even the illustration in page 104 of the book clearly shows the left as white and the right as black(no racism intended). To complicate matters even more, page 71 and 72 of The Thousand Fangs Below shows a woman, whose left part is broken and right part is normal, but whose left hair is black and right hair is white. But we already know Right=Black=Serene, Left=White=Broekn. I'm really confused. So I have to ask several questions.

3. Which color corresponds to which part? White=Destruction, Black=Protection? Or White=Protection and Black=Destruction? And which part is left, and which part is right?

4. The reason that this discrepancy(especially those in The Thousand Fangs Below) would be, maybe Paizo made an error while drawing the two illustrations of Nethys in Inner Sea Gods, and when you found out it was already too late to change the color of the mask?

5. The illustration in page 106 of Inner Sea Gods was actually an absolute mirror image of the one in page 27 of Gods and Magic. So, which version is the original one, and which is the reversed one?

6. Who created Nethys? Maybe you?


7. Nethys' nickname is the All-Seeing Eye. But there's no omniscient one in Golarion universe. So can I assume that his omniscience is relative? I mean, compared to other deities, can Nethys certainly be considered the most near omniscient god?

8. Anyway, does the word All-Seeing means omnicient in english?

9. Nethys became a deity long before Absalom Reckoning. But Aroden was born before the Earthfall. So I have to ask you. Was Nethys born after the Earthfall?

10. Were Nethys and Irori demigods before becoming deities? Or have they never been demigods?

11. Amaznen, the former god of magic, sacrificed himself to save Golarion. But Nethys is supremely indifferent to mortals. Pleas for mercy have no effect on him. So, if Nethys was the god of magic at the time of the Earthfall, do you think he would have sacrificed himself to save humanity? And if he was the god of magic when Rovagug attacked Golarion, he wouldn't participate in the fight because he's indifferent to the wellbeing of mortals and the world?

12. At first I thought the name Nethys seems like an ancient Egyptian word, because it sounds like Nephthys, an Egyptian goddess. Are they somehow related?


13. In page 14 of Guide to Absalom, I found that there's a temple in Absalom called the Seventh Church, where Iomedae performed her seventh act. Absalom is the center of the world. And this temple is one of the most holy sites of Iomedaean church. So, can I assume that the Seventh Church is the center of Iomedaean religion in the world, and thus Genedair the Faithful, the head priest of this temple, can be considered the supreme leader of Iomedaean faith?

14. Every article in Inner Sea Faiths has an illustration of the god at the beginning. Apsu has an illustration that depicts a silver dragon with other dragons, So logically that silver dragon would be Apsu. But every article in that book also has an illustration of the god in the middle of the article, and Apsu has an illustration that depicts a green dragon with red whisker. That doesn't look like a silver dragon to me. To complicate matters even more, there's the same illustration in page 345 of Inner Sea World Guide, and the book clearly said that the green dragon is Apsu. I really don't get it. So, I have to ask you. Is Apsu green or silver? And what caused the illustration discrepancy in Inner Sea Faiths?

15. Actually, I found the same illustration in page 187 of now obsolete Campaign Setting. The book said that "These apocryphal tales speak of the souls of long-dead and vanished heroes waiting for times of great danger, the souls of the truly innocent dead in peaceful repose, and a titanic dragon of unknown type attended by celestials reading the dreams of gods within the reflections in his scales." It doesn't mention the word nirvana dragon, but it does mention a titanic dragon of unknown type. Does that mean Paizo originally wanted to make this illustration as that of a nirvana dragon, but after Paizo decided not to create nirvana dragons, it simply gave the illustration to Apsu, because that illustration had to be used somewhere and ordering a whole new drawing would incur an expense?

16. The sentence I mentioned above said a titanic dragon, not titanic dragons. So, in Paizo's original design, there's only one nirvana dragon, and not several nirvana dragons?

17. Apsu's holy symbol is a silver dragon on pool. Does that mean Apsu likes silver dragons more than other dragons? I'm surprised, because I thought gold dragons are the paragons of goodness and thus they should be liked by Apsu best.

18. So, if that green dragon is Apsu, can I assume that the silver dragon in page 16 of Inner Sea Faiths is not Apsu? It looks like a normal silver dragon, but then it also has a pair of horns that look slightly different from those of normal silver dragons.

19. Is the red dragon in page 34 and 38 of Inner Sea Faiths Dahak? It looks like a normal red dragon to me, but then I found that it has a pair of black horns that cannot be seen on other red dragons.


20. Page 240 of Inner Sea World Guide shows an illustration that depicts planes. It seems that every plane is physically connected. Positive Energy Plane is in the middle of the Material Plane, and the Material Plane is in the various Elemental Planes, and this Inner Sphere is in the Outer Sphere. Does that mean, if a mythic wizard (who don't grow old and don't have to eat or sleep or breathe thanks to his mythic power) builds a starship and travels outward into space, would he eventually reach the Positive Energy Plane, or the Outer Sphere? Or maybe a devil can simply walk out of the Hell and enter the Axis?

21. Greater Teleport doesn't allow me to teleport to another planet. But a plane is much bigger than a planet. Then, can a demon simply great teleport from a place in the Abyss to other place in the Abyss?

22. Can a demon great teleport from the Abyss to the Maelstrom or Abaddon?

23. How big is the Eternal City of Axis? Maybe as big as the city of Absalom? Or maybe as big as the Midnight Isles?


James Jacobs wrote:
Aenigma wrote:
24. I thought Pharasma should have luck domain, becuase she is the goddess of fate, and there's fate subdomain under luck domain. But she doesn't. I'm curious. Isn't fate a significant part of her portfolio?
24) Fate is the reverse of luck. With fate, there's only one thing that can happen, because that's fate. No luck involved.

24. But... isn't fate a subdomain of luck domain? It's strange. Pharasma deserves fate subdomains because she's the goddess of fate... but cannot have it because luck is not related to her?

25. Aroden's death caused all prophecies stop working. Then what about those prophecies that were made after Aroden's death? Do they work normally?

26. Pharasma is the goddess of fate. So, the malfunctioning of prophecy somehow weakend her prophetic ability?

27. You have said that Asmodeus is a liar. But I thought lawful evil doesn't lie, because they are lawful. So I thought a word from a lawful evil character can be trusted. Am I missing something?

28. Was Thron, the father of Shelyn and Dou-Bral, a deity?

29. What are the alignments of those dead gods like Amaznen, Acavna, Curchanus, and Thron?


30. What is the cold iron? I read the relevant article in wikipedia but I'm still not sure. In Golarion universe, is cold iron a material entirely different from normal iron? Or is cold iron made from normal iron, via very special and hard process?

31. A weapon made of silver is very effective against werewolves. But isn't silver too soft to be made into a weapon? Maybe the so called silver weapons in Golarion are actually silver-plated steel weapons?

32. Witches are considered Irriseni spies by Ulfen. Are Ulfen good at distinguishing non-witch mages(wizards, sorcerers, or something like that) from witches? Or they aren't, thus they simply discriminate and persecute all arcane spellcasters equally?

33. I thought that, if Tsuto Kaijitsu waited a few years more, he would be recognized the legitimate heir of Minkai by the Amatatsu Seal because he's male and Ameiko is female. But you said that Tsuto is not the son of Lonjiku. Does that mean, even if Tsuto was a good person and thus didn't get killed by the PCs, he won't be the heir to the throne because he's not a true Kaijitsu?

34. Gnomes are childish and pay their whole attention to fun. But Lini, the iconic druid seems like very sedate to me. Is she a rare exception to the norms? I really wish she doesn't turn into a bleachling.


35. Who decide the symbol, sacred animal, and sacred colors of the gods? The gods themselves? Or the worshipers?

36. While reading the appendix at the end of Inner Sea Gods, I found that in the Outer Gods section in page 328 there are two Nyarlathotep. One is called the Black Pharaoh, and the other is called the Haunter of the Dark. I'm curious. Does this mean Nyarlathotep has a dual personality too?

37. Humans have five fingers and five toes. How many fingers and toes does a dragon have? Five? Four?

38. What is the color of the belly skin(or belly scales?) of a red dragon? The illustrations in bestiary and Dragons Unleashed suggest yellow color, but the illustration in page 4 of Kobolds of Golarion suggests white color.

39. What is the gigantic creature that can be found in page 46 of Guide to the River Kingdoms? It doesn't seem like a treant to me.

40. There's a village called Riverton in the River Kingdoms. The maps in Guide to the River Kingdoms and in Inner Sea World Guide both depict the village is located in the southeastern shore of Kallas Lake. But I thought that area is part of Galt, not the River Kingdoms. So, is Riverton in the southeastern shore of the lake?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

AlgaeNymph wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
AlgaeNymph wrote:
Suppose I wanted to magically move the Sunken Queen closer to shore, either telekineticly or through teleportation. What level of spell would I need?
Mythic wish, I guess. Moving an immense object like that is generally beyond the power of mortal magic.

Damnit, I should've mentioned teleport structure (from p.29 of Quests and Campaigns) in my original question, I don't wanna look like I'm trying to gotcha you.

Let's say I wanted to move a building that wasn't cleared and unoccupied, and to a new place in the wilderness. Would your answer still stand?

I've never heard of/read that spell, but the Lady's Light is FAR to enormous for that spell to work on it.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:

1. The power Nethys absorbed to become a deity was so great that his very mind is divided, right? I'm curious, because other gods don't suffer from this kind of dual personality problem. Is it because Nethys is very powerful? That the power he absorbed is much more powerful than that of other gods? Or is it because Nethys is very weak? That he couldn't even properly handle the power that other gods(including those who were once mortals) handled easily? So the dual personality was formed because of his weak and fragile mind?

2. Nethys is the god of magic. And he's not kind. Does that mean he would be included among the most powerful deities? Or at least, even other powerful deities are afraid of, or beware of Nethys?

One side of him is burned and broken, yet other side of him is calm and serene. And his holy symbol is a two-toned mask, black right and white left(from the wearer's standpoint). So I thought that the black part of the mask represents his insane, destructive half, and the white part of the mask represents his normal, protective half. But surprisingly the illustration in page 101 and 106 of Inner Sea Gods clearly show that his left half is the broken part, and right half is the serene part. The mask he's wearing in the illustration also proves it. I'm confused. His insane half looks clearly black to me, and his normal half looks clearly white to me. Even the illustration in page 104 of the book clearly shows the left as white and the right as black(no racism intended). To complicate matters even more, page 71 and 72 of The Thousand Fangs Below shows a woman, whose left part is broken and right part is normal, but whose left hair is black and right hair is white. But we already know Right=Black=Serene, Left=White=Broekn. I'm really confused. So I have to ask several questions.

3. Which color corresponds to which part? White=Destruction, Black=Protection? Or White=Protection and Black=Destruction? And which part is left, and which part is right?

4. The reason that this discrepancy(especially those in The Thousand Fangs Below) would be, maybe Paizo made an error while drawing the two illustrations of Nethys in Inner Sea Gods, and when you found out it was already too late to change the color of the mask?

5. The illustration in page 106 of Inner Sea Gods was actually an absolute mirror image of the one in page 27 of Gods and Magic. So, which version is the original one, and which is the reversed one?

6. Who created Nethys? Maybe you?

1) Every god is unique and different, and how they work is defined by the story we want to tell, not by rules.

2) "Not kind" does not automatically mean "Always mean." Magic isn't evil or good, lawful or chaotic in its natural state. It gets that way when outside forces interact with it. The other gods don't really fear Nethys as a result, but neither do they necessarily count on him for friendship or help.

3) I'd prefer to say white = destruction and black = protection, and that which half is which can vary.

4) Sometimes when art is laid out, the art department "mirrors" the art because the artwork looks better on the page. This can get pretty complex, such as in the case of Ameiko, who has a tattoo on her arm; when she ended up on the cover of Pathfinder #49 the Art Department mirrored her because it looks weird to have someone facing OUT of a page instead of IN to the page, which meant that the original depiction of her with art on one arm had to be changed in text and art forever after. INCIDENTALLY: This is the main reason we don't make assumptions about which hand is dominant for which character, because it's not going to matter in the rules anyway, and saying it on paper means we shackle ourselves graphically. In the case of Nethys, though... he's a god, and he can change shape. Which half is white and which half is black is irrelevant, and can alter as his mood does.

5) The hardcover is the correct one because it's seen by more people.

6) Maybe not. Nethys wasn't part of my homebrew. He was one of the deities that more or less got created by committee ten years or so ago.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:

7. Nethys' nickname is the All-Seeing Eye. But there's no omniscient one in Golarion universe. So can I assume that his omniscience is relative? I mean, compared to other deities, can Nethys certainly be considered the most near omniscient god?

8. Anyway, does the word All-Seeing means omnicient in english?

9. Nethys became a deity long before Absalom Reckoning. But Aroden was born before the Earthfall. So I have to ask you. Was Nethys born after the Earthfall?

10. Were Nethys and Irori demigods before becoming deities? Or have they never been demigods?

11. Amaznen, the former god of magic, sacrificed himself to save Golarion. But Nethys is supremely indifferent to mortals. Pleas for mercy have no effect on him. So, if Nethys was the god of magic at the time of the Earthfall, do you think he would have sacrificed himself to save humanity? And if he was the god of magic when Rovagug attacked Golarion, he wouldn't participate in the fight because he's indifferent to the wellbeing of mortals and the world?

12. At first I thought the name Nethys seems like an ancient Egyptian word, because it sounds like Nephthys, an Egyptian goddess. Are they somehow related?

7) It's relative. He's not "near omniscient". The name is metaphorical for how magic is everywhere.

8) No.

9) Unrevealed, but that makes sense.

10) Unrevealed. In Nethys' case I doubt it. In Irori's case, I suspect so.

11) This is a deliberate design choice to show that gods of magic aren't all the same. If Nethys were god of magic at the time, he would not have taken the actions Amaznen did, but whether or not that would have played out differently is unknown, since Acavna would still have been involved.

12) Nethys is not related to Nephthys.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:

13. In page 14 of Guide to Absalom, I found that there's a temple in Absalom called the Seventh Church, where Iomedae performed her seventh act. Absalom is the center of the world. And this temple is one of the most holy sites of Iomedaean church. So, can I assume that the Seventh Church is the center of Iomedaean religion in the world, and thus Genedair the Faithful, the head priest of this temple, can be considered the supreme leader of Iomedaean faith?

14. Every article in Inner Sea Faiths has an illustration of the god at the beginning. Apsu has an illustration that depicts a silver dragon with other dragons, So logically that silver dragon would be Apsu. But every article in that book also has an illustration of the god in the middle of the article, and Apsu has an illustration that depicts a green dragon with red whisker. That doesn't look like a silver dragon to me. To complicate matters even more, there's the same illustration in page 345 of Inner Sea World Guide, and the book clearly said that the green dragon is Apsu. I really don't get it. So, I have to ask you. Is Apsu green or silver? And what caused the illustration discrepancy in Inner Sea Faiths?

15. Actually, I found the same illustration in page 187 of now obsolete Campaign Setting. The book said that "These apocryphal tales speak of the souls of long-dead and vanished heroes waiting for times of great danger, the souls of the truly innocent dead in peaceful repose, and a titanic dragon of unknown type attended by celestials reading the dreams of gods within the reflections in his scales." It doesn't mention the word nirvana dragon, but it does mention a titanic dragon of unknown type. Does that mean Paizo originally wanted to make this illustration as that of a nirvana dragon, but after Paizo decided not to create nirvana dragons, it simply gave the illustration to Apsu, because that illustration had to be used somewhere and ordering a whole new drawing would incur an expense?

16. The sentence I mentioned above said a titanic dragon, not titanic dragons. So, in Paizo's original design, there's only one nirvana dragon, and not several nirvana dragons?

17. Apsu's holy symbol is a silver dragon on pool. Does that mean Apsu likes silver dragons more than other dragons? I'm surprised, because I thought gold dragons are the paragons of goodness and thus they should be liked by Apsu best.

18. So, if that green dragon is Apsu, can I assume that the silver dragon in page 16 of Inner Sea Faiths is not Apsu? It looks like a normal silver dragon, but then it also has a pair of horns that look slightly different from those of normal silver dragons.

19. Is the red dragon in page 34 and 38 of Inner Sea Faiths Dahak? It looks like a normal red dragon to me, but then I found that it has a pair of black horns that cannot be seen on other red dragons.

13) You cannot assume that, no.

14) For Apsu, there was a miscommunication between the Creative Director and the developer who wrote the art order, and I caught the error only the day before the book was shipped to the printer. I managed to have them swap out the full body illustration for the correct illustration of Apsu, but couldn't do a thing about the half-page illustration, so that one is merely showing Apsu in the form of a silver dragon, and unfortunately thus does not mirror the format of the other illustrations.

15) That same illustration is also on page 245 of the very-much NOT obsolete Inner Sea World Guide, where it has a caption that says "Apsu." That's been what Apsu looks like, officially, since that book was published in 2011. The original illustration was ordered mostly as just "Let's illustrate a new dragon" but there wasn't much more thought beyond that. When the illustration came in, we ended up dropping in a vague bit of text about a "nirvana dragon" to justify the illustration being in the book, which was a sloppy and last-minute band-aid to cover poor planning. By making that an illustration of Apsu, we got the best of both worlds. There were a LOT of errors in that first hardocver, be they typos or rules errors or wrong world design choices, which is why that book is no longer canon and we replaced it with the Inner Sea World Guide.

16) No. The original design was "OH CRAP we need to justify this weirdo dragon before the book goes to print in a few days!"

17) He likes all dragons. Gold dragons are the most powerful, but that doesn't mean they should get all the glory.

18) The silver dragon on page 16 is Apsu in the form of a silver dragon.

19) The same bit of confusion happened there. My preference was that both Apsu and Dahak would be unique in appearance, but that didn't get communicated, obviously, to the developer who created the art order for the book. I still hope to some day illustrate a unique looking Dahak, but not sure where or when that can happen now, which is unfortunate.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Aenigma wrote:

20. Page 240 of Inner Sea World Guide shows an illustration that depicts planes. It seems that every plane is physically connected. Positive Energy Plane is in the middle of the Material Plane, and the Material Plane is in the various Elemental Planes, and this Inner Sphere is in the Outer Sphere. Does that mean, if a mythic wizard (who don't grow old and don't have to eat or sleep or breathe thanks to his mythic power) builds a starship and travels outward into space, would he eventually reach the Positive Energy Plane, or the Outer Sphere? Or maybe a devil can simply walk out of the Hell and enter the Axis?

21. Greater Teleport doesn't allow me to teleport to another planet. But a plane is much bigger than a planet. Then, can a demon simply great teleport from a place in the Abyss to other place in the Abyss?

22. Can a demon great teleport from the Abyss to the Maelstrom or Abaddon?

23. How big is the Eternal City of Axis? Maybe as big as the city of Absalom? Or maybe as big as the Midnight Isles?

20. That map is a two-dimensional representation of a multi-dimensional (far more than 3 or even 4 dimensions) concept. It's possible to "walk" from one plane to another, but in pretty much every case, the distances are so vast that nothing has been alive long enough yet since the dawn of creation to make that journey without plane shift. Think about how long it would take to "walk" from Earth to the edge of our universe—that distance would ONLY be you walking from Earth to the Elemental Plane of Air. You'd have to walk a comparably vast distance to go from the edge of Air to the edge of Earth, and so on. And then ALL of the inner planes are contained in the center of the Outer Planes as a tiny speck in the middle, so the physical distance between Heaven and Hell, while not an infinitely long distance, is for all practically purposes a larger distance than mortals can comprehend.

21) It cannot. Movement between Abyssal layers requires planar travel, not teleportation.

22) No. It must use something like plane shift or gate.

23) It's big enough to include everything we need it to include. This could well mean it could be bigger than our solar system, or it could be smaller or bigger. We haven't defined its size, as far as I know, and I doubt we ever will.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Aenigma wrote:
24. I thought Pharasma should have luck domain, becuase she is the goddess of fate, and there's fate subdomain under luck domain. But she doesn't. I'm curious. Isn't fate a significant part of her portfolio?
24) Fate is the reverse of luck. With fate, there's only one thing that can happen, because that's fate. No luck involved.

24. But... isn't fate a subdomain of luck domain? It's strange. Pharasma deserves fate subdomains because she's the goddess of fate... but cannot have it because luck is not related to her?

25. Aroden's death caused all prophecies stop working. Then what about those prophecies that were made after Aroden's death? Do they work normally?

26. Pharasma is the goddess of fate. So, the malfunctioning of prophecy somehow weakend her prophetic ability?

27. You have said that Asmodeus is a liar. But I thought lawful evil doesn't lie, because they are lawful. So I thought a word from a lawful evil character can be trusted. Am I missing something?

28. Was Thron, the father of Shelyn and Dou-Bral, a deity?

29. What are the alignments of those dead gods like Amaznen, Acavna, Curchanus, and Thron?

24) Fate being a subdomain of luck doesn't mean that fate = luck, any more than blood = war. You can have blood without war. You can have a war without blood. You can have luck without fate. You can have fate without luck.

25) Aroden died. Prophecy stopped working. It's a chicken and egg thing. Which one caused the other, or if both were caused by something else, or if they only just coincidentally happened at the same time is part of the whole mystery. Prophecies, as far as I'm concerned, are "written down predictions of the future." Prophecies have a long tradition in the fantasy genre of being a story trope, and it's one of the tiredest and most cliched of all fantasy cliches. Furthermore, they SIMPLY DO NOT WORK when you involve a group of player characters, who typically do things in game that the GM can't predict. In fact, usually in a tabletop RPG when a prophecy gets involved, the players actively resist it because players don't like being told what to do. In a way, the fact that Golarion is a game and player characters exist is why prophecy cannot exist in the world. If Golarion were merely a shared world used in the way a TV show or movie or novel series or something uses a world, then prophecy could work because there's one storyteller, not 5 or more.

26) No.

27) Nope. There's nothing intrinsic in "lawful" that says you can't lie. You just lie with more pedantry and trickery and obfuscation than others, I guess.

28) Unrevealed.

29) Unrevealed.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:

30. What is the cold iron? I read the relevant article in wikipedia but I'm still not sure. In Golarion universe, is cold iron a material entirely different from normal iron? Or is cold iron made from normal iron, via very special and hard process?

31. A weapon made of silver is very effective against werewolves. But isn't silver too soft to be made into a weapon? Maybe the so called silver weapons in Golarion are actually silver-plated steel weapons?

32. Witches are considered Irriseni spies by Ulfen. Are Ulfen good at distinguishing non-witch mages(wizards, sorcerers, or something like that) from witches? Or they aren't, thus they simply discriminate and persecute all arcane spellcasters equally?

33. I thought that, if Tsuto Kaijitsu waited a few years more, he would be recognized the legitimate heir of Minkai by the Amatatsu Seal because he's male and Ameiko is female. But you said that Tsuto is not the son of Lonjiku. Does that mean, even if Tsuto was a good person and thus didn't get killed by the PCs, he won't be the heir to the throne because he's not a true Kaijitsu?

34. Gnomes are childish and pay their whole attention to fun. But Lini, the iconic druid seems like very sedate to me. Is she a rare exception to the norms? I really wish she doesn't turn into a bleachling.

30) Cold iron is a fantasy metal that is iron forged without a fire.

31) Nope. Silver being something that works against werewolves is a long-standing real-world myth, and we weren't going to change that in this game. I personally wish we didn't keep the "silver weapons do less damage" because I feel it's rules clutter that doesn't add to the game. If you want a "silver" weapon that doesn't have a damage penalty, buy a mithral one.

32) Some are, some aren't.

33) Tsuto Kaijitsu doesn't know anything about any of that. And he's not Lonjiku's son anyway; he's the son of Lonjiku's wife and an elf (the names of both of those characters escapes me at the moment). As such, according to the rules of Minkai, he's not a legitimate heir, so that falls to the eldest of the legitimate Kaijitsus—Ameiko.

34) Lini is not sedate.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Aenigma wrote:

35. Who decide the symbol, sacred animal, and sacred colors of the gods? The gods themselves? Or the worshipers?

36. While reading the appendix at the end of Inner Sea Gods, I found that in the Outer Gods section in page 328 there are two Nyarlathotep. One is called the Black Pharaoh, and the other is called the Haunter of the Dark. I'm curious. Does this mean Nyarlathotep has a dual personality too?

37. Humans have five fingers and five toes. How many fingers and toes does a dragon have? Five? Four?

38. What is the color of the belly skin(or belly scales?) of a red dragon? The illustrations in bestiary and Dragons Unleashed suggest yellow color, but the illustration in page 4 of Kobolds of Golarion suggests white color.

39. What is the gigantic creature that can be found in page 46 of Guide to the River Kingdoms? It doesn't seem like a treant to me.

40. There's a village called Riverton in the River Kingdoms. The maps in Guide to the River Kingdoms and in Inner Sea World Guide both depict the village is located in the southeastern shore of Kallas Lake. But I thought that area is part of Galt, not the River Kingdoms. So, is Riverton in the southeastern shore of the lake?

35) It varies by religion.

36) No. Nyarlathotep has 1000 different forms, each of which is its own separate incarnation of the god. Obviously we only had room to detail 2 of them, but over the past century or so since Lovecraft invented him, he and other authors have been creating many many more incarnations as well.

37) Dragons have claws, not fingers. It's never been canonized in any event. They have how many digits they have in their art.

38) It varies.

39) It's a unique treant I guess with something weird going on that we haven't defined yet.

40) No idea off the top of my head, but if it's in the River Kingdoms, then it would make sense that it's in the River Kingdoms, not Galt.


What about categorized compendium books with all (or nearly all) rules/mechanical material published by Paizo until now?

I'd suggest something between Ultimate Equipment and the D&D 3.5 compendium books (i.e. Spell Compendium, Rules Compendium, Magic Item Compendium) format.

I think Pathfinder is too old/mature (almost 8 years since august/2009) at this time; and from now on, I guess less new mechanical material (with exception of monsters hehe) will be published in the next years, and the compendiums could be very useful in the game table (I prefer books instead of online material in most of times, and I think a lot of players have the same feeling/preference)

Well, it's just an (good) idea, and a fan's desire :D

Just finishing, it could be:
Classes Compendium (including Archetypes and Prestige Classes)
Feat Compendium
Spell Compendium
Equipment/Magic Items Compendium

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