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Odraude: I've been building a campaign based off Puerto Rico and Taino culture for a while myself. I was inspired by the Turey el Taino comics from back in my childhood. I have a ton of hand written notes I would share when/if I convert them to a computer document, deployments keep me from the drawing board for periods of time.
Thanks for the references!
RE: horses...something to consider might be to have horses but perhaps have hipparion or some other horse type involved. Might add a bit of weirdness if the horses were browsing animals adapted to forests, or resembling Quaggas more than typical horses.
Odraude: I've been building a campaign based off Puerto Rico and Taino culture for a while myself. I was inspired by the Turey el Taino comics from back in my childhood. I have a ton of hand written notes I would share when/if I convert them to a computer document, deployments keep me from the drawing board for periods of time.
Thanks for the references!
Consider me highly interested. I think I might've seen an issue when I visited Puerto Rico a couple of years ago, but never read it. I'll have to see if I can snag some issues. Definitely want to see what he does with the zemi.
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Here are the major roadblocks I felt merited attention:
Horses. This isn't Earth, and as has been pointed out, the Ulfen have had a fort here for five, thousand, years.
So horses: Arcadia has them. It has cavaliers and paladin mounts and a long legend that goes along with their reemergence, involving (naturally) a trickster culture hero. And trade is far beyond what might be expected, thanks to the return of horses.
Disease. Arcadia has clerics, so that is not the devastating tragedy it would have been.
Metallurgy. A bit of cheat, a bit of RAW. Low level magic weapons are slightly more common, bypassing fragility. A lot of masterwork, and a fair bit more metal than otherwise expected (dwarves, Ulfen). Druids do a brisk trade in wood shaping and hardening, and the Shee/elves know of rare hardwoods that equate with metal plating.
Those 5000 Years of Vikings: this one hurts. It just feels like someone didn't really study their own timeline, but It Is What It Is. So I had to reverse the joke.
The 'Skraeling' are a barbaric tribe looked down upon by everyone for weakness and depravity. They, and a never ending band of monstrous humanoids have been locked in battle with the Invaders for millennia. The region itself is cursed, blurring time and stoking aggression. All civilized people avoid the entire nation, pitying those trapped within. If your average Arcadian knew that the Linnorn Kings were shipping more of their people in to this day they would be positively horrified.
I'm afraid I don't have the best interests of the Aldorians and Chelish conquistadors in mind, either. Their stories are easier, but their lives might get a bit difficult.
I like.
On metallurgy? Looking at the ISWG map, however inaccurate it may be, one thing leaps out at me: the whole continent is pocked with large, round lakes.
Natural formations... or the craters of outlying meteorite strikes from Earthfall? If the latter, that says "LOTS OF EASILY ACCESSIBLE METEORIC IRON" in letters of fire a half mile tall. Maybe even skymetals.
The Ulfen have probably imported domesticated cattle, pigs, and assorted grains, because Valenhall just isn't Valenhall without plentiful beef, ham, ribs, bread, and beer. (If there's been more trade than your scenario speaks of, fusion cuisine may even have produced barbecue sauce!)
I hope for a city(or cities) of gold to be found in Arcadia. If not gold something that looks like gold and may or may not be valuable.
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I hope for a city(or cities) of gold to be found in Arcadia. If not gold something that looks like gold and may or may not be valuable.
The Seven Cities of Skymetal! One each.
Oh man, if skymetal wasn't already linked to the Runelords and Thassilon, I'd be totally down for that! Maybe a sky-metal-meets-ancient-astronaut civilization in the more Central American-esque area.
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Skymetal's not specifically linked to Thassilon, they just found some interesting uses for it. In modern times, remember, the skymetals are heavily linked to Silver Mount and Numeria.
So if there happened to be some large skymetal meteorites impacting Arcadia during Earthfall...
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Personally, I think the lack of mounts and domesticated animals (minus dogs and cows) is an iconic aspect of pre-columbian Amerindian culture. Native americans were masters of plant life though the way eurasians mastered animals. Most of the world's plant based food today was developed by the native americans.
As for ulfen colonies for 5k years it could have just been a small isolated outpost most of the time. It does not have to have been continuously occupied the whole time.
Most of the world's plant based food today was developed by the native americans.
Some of it, yes (corn/maize, tomatoes, potatoes, some beans/squash). Most of it (wheat, rice, barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum, most root vegetables, apples, citrus fruits, cucumbers, peas) is Old World stuff.
Though I agree that the relative lack of domesticated animals might be an interesting Arcadian thing, it seems likely that in a world with magic they'd have their own domesticated (or perhaps associated) animals.
Someone mentioned having megafauna, I think instead of dinosaurs having some megafauna would be interesting.
Has anyone seen the Croods because that one had some great made-up animals and plants that would interesting.
Cities made of sky metal would be interesting but the stuff is way too rare and some of those metals are not great building materials or just plane dangerous.
It would nice to see some more made up animals and plants from the world of Golarion. Also with made up plants you can have made up fruits and vegetables.
Also this would be a cool place for a shaman class(cha based spontaneous caster with druid class list and uses totem animal spirits instead of bloodlines/revelations)
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Personally, I think the lack of mounts and domesticated animals (minus dogs and cows) is an iconic aspect of pre-columbian Amerindian culture.
Frankly, I don't want pre-Columbian at this point. I want radically changed and unfamiliar post-Columbian.
Personally, I think the lack of mounts and domesticated animals (minus dogs and cows) is an iconic aspect of pre-columbian Amerindian culture.Frankly, I don't want pre-Columbian at this point. I want radically changed and unfamiliar post-Columbian.
This is something I honestly don't want with Arcadia. I still want to see the Pre-Columbian cultural influences as well as other great fantasy ideas mixed in for the nations of Arcadia, much like what they did with the Inner Sea and Tian Xia and their respective cultures. I feel completely ignoring the culture for the sake of making it different would be a completely missed opportunity in an RPG setting to both show and teach about human culture.
I like the idea of them having different mounts/beasts of burden in the form of megafauna. It feels very fantasy while still remaining familiar, and it brings a lot of the megafauna that were native to the Americas into the forefront. It kind of fits somehow. Now with the other two colonies, we can't ignore that they'd bring horses, nor should we ignore that.
As for Valenhall, I always surmised that the Arcadians avoided it due to it's associations with disease and the supernatural, especially since it's guarded by Valkyries and run by norns. Or that the natives and the community of Valenhall were at a cold-war like stalemate where they avoid each other but are ever watchful of another attack.
I do see your point. If I recall correctly, there is already a city in Garund that has Arcadians as the people's ancestors.
What issue did you have with Maztica?
Fair point. I don't know much about Maztica or Forgotten Realms so that's a huge shocker to me. I wouldn't want that, magic-wise or technology-wise.
One concept I plan/planned to use in a Hollow World: Oltec Gazetteer is one that could certainly also be used here, and it definitely fits into a fantasy world:
I do see your point. If I recall correctly, there is already a city in Garund that has Arcadians as the people's ancestors.
That would be the Caldaru people of Senghor.
It was a hazy maybe they came from Arcadia, or potentially from somewhere south and off of the map in southern Garund. The geography of both were undefined at the time, so I hinted at potential origins for their original parent culture without giving a defined answer.
As for Arcadia in general, I'd prefer to include more crazy fantasy stuff and less analogs to real world cultures. With all due respect, I don't think we need Maztica 2.0.
The sirynx absolutely should be picked up and run with. Azlanti influence and any Earthfall impacts that hit that continent as well. I do like the idea of Nazca style magical geoglyphs and some suitably altered Moche analog because well, they had a chief deity named 'The Beheader'. But largely I'd personally prefer to move away from direct analogs and more new fantasy territory, especially some non-human cultures.
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I think the catfolk would be very fitting as a major race in Arcadia, particularly since great cats (and cat-headed people) are such a major iconic image in many Native American culture (particularly the jaguar).
The syrinx idea, of course, should be developed, but I would also like to see some other bird people, perhaps some raven people (again, as the raven/crow is a recurring character in North American Native American mythology).
I've always found it interesting that the concept (and name) of the sipapu was used among the kellid peoples of the Mammoth Lands (as another name for the Earthnavel) as sipapu is the Hopi term that was symbolic of the hole in the Earth that the ancestors of the first people came through to the surface world. Perhaps there could be a tie-in between Arcadia and the Inner Sea that way, or at least a tie-in to Arcadia's own Underdark.
Frankly, I don't want pre-Columbian at this point. I want radically changed and unfamiliar post-Columbian.
I would like to see this, myself (and have attempted to do similar with another campaign setting), although I think there is certainly room for both. After all, even in our own pre-Columbian Americas, we had several large scale empires with populations rivaling- even surpassing- some European cities at the time, as well as smaller tribal groupings.
Also, while on the topic (and I'm just now catching up with the thread and see some great ideas from Gnoll Bard), while researching the Inca for that previously mentioned Oltec Gaz earlier, I did run across an article on a possible Nazca Hot Air Balloon.
Again, stuff like this may be sketchy as far as having any real solid RW evidence to support it, but it fits pretty well into a fantasy world, IMO, so I don't feel too bad mining it for ideas, even if I remain a skeptic as far as history goes. :)
As for Arcadia in general, I'd prefer to include more crazy fantasy stuff and less analogs to real world cultures. With all due respect, I don't think we need Maztica 2.0.
The sirynx absolutely should be picked up and run with. Azlanti influence and any Earthfall impacts that hit that continent as well. I do like the idea of Nazca style magical geoglyphs and some suitably altered Moche analog because well, they had a chief deity named 'The Beheader'. But largely I'd personally prefer to move away from direct analogs and more new fantasy territory, especially some non-human cultures.
Well from what I've read of Maztica, we can agree that we don't want another setting like that. Still, while I'd like to see more of that crazy fantasy stuff, I think we can have that and still have a lot of the cultural influences from the Americas. I mean hell, we've got the badass "Sky Captains of Machu Picchu" as one of our ideas, so I think we're mostly on the same page here.
Also, while on the topic (and I'm just now catching up with the thread and see some great ideas from Gnoll Bard), while researching the Inca for that previously mentioned Oltec Gaz earlier, I did run across an article on a possible Nazca Hot Air Balloon.
Again, stuff like this may be sketchy as far as having any real solid RW evidence to support it, but it fits pretty well into a fantasy world, IMO, so I don't feel too bad mining it for ideas, even if I remain a skeptic as far as history goes. :)
Damn, that balloon looks pretty awesome. Definitely adding that to the Google docs!.
While I am sure some Catfolk can be found in Arcadia, the majority are found in southern Gerund. We already have crow/raven people, there are called Tengu.
What is so wrong with having Native American influenced fantasy stuff, if we can have European and Asian why not American. Why make the American analog of Golarion so different if most the other ones are more stereotypical of there analogs.
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Speaking of other Native American creatures/myths to add to Arcadia, I've long wanted to create Kachinas as a monster group (like such groups as Kami, Archons, etc, etc.)
They'd be either Fey or Outsiders, but other than that, there is such a wide swath of them to base various creatures on. The Ogre Kachinas, Guardian Kachinas, Runner Kachinas, etc.
Oh hey, Pukwudgies are even already in Pathfinder!
...It's a general tenet of Golarion that humans are the only near-100% spread-out race, with each region having its own common nonhuman races -- even the "classic" elves, dwarves, gnomes, and half-orcs are mostly confined to the Inner Sea Region (with halflings getting sort of a pass because they tag along anywhere humans go). So we definitely need a slate of Arcadia-common playables. Strix would probably be one of them, maybe with a different name for the right flavor, and I like the idea that halflings are actually from Arcadia (I used to know the names of a few "little people" in NA myth, but they're mostly escaping me now -- nunnehi?)
If Tian Xia is the model, than Humans will be the most abundant, there will be one other "normal" race present (Elves in Tian Xia, Halflings maybe in Arcadia?), one race that is fairly uncommon in the Inner Sea but more common in Arcadia (Tengu in Tian Xia, Strix? in Arcadia), and 4 new races.
I don't think the Syrinx will be one of those, since James Jacob has mentioned they are mostly evil and maybe not suitable for PCs (So more like Hobgoblins or orcs than say elves or gnomes).
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So much awesome stuff! Love the map Coyote Toledo; I've been working on something similar myself. I wasn't sure, though, if you were under the impression that Arcadia connected to the crown of the world. We got a complete map of the boreal continent in Jade Regent, and it appears that Arcadia is actually pretty far across the sea from it.
I definitely get where Todd is coming from in preferring a more exotic sort of fantasy setting to one with a lot of real-world analogues, but I think there's room for both in Arcadia. Maybe the southern part of the land mass is more "out there" than the north, as seems to be the case in Garund, or maybe there's just a wild mixture of the familiar and the bizzarre.
I've been tinkering with ideas for an Arcadian "pantheon" that would be same same sort of multicultural grab-bag as we've got in the Inner Sea and Tian Xia. Obviously the religions of the precolumbian Americas are incredibly diverse and rarely involve the kind of vaguely Greco-Roman deities depicted in D&D and Pathfinder, but if the Asian analogue continent gets a pantheon then I figure the American analogue continent should have one too. Tell me what you think!
A quick note: I used Maya mythology as a jumping-off point for this pantheon, though I think I've managed to make it fairly diverse. Because of the importance of astronomy in Maya culture, as well as other North American cultures to varying degrees, I thought it would be neat for each deity to be associated with a particular heavenly body.
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: monsters, natural disasters, war, Akiton
Domains: Death, Evil, Law, Trickery, War
Notes: While I was browsing a list of Myan mythological figures, I couldn't help but notice a name suspiciously similar to that of one of the established deities in the setting, and since he's red and has the war domain, Achaekek seemed like a natural fit for the god associated with Akiton. In Serpent's Skull it's suggested that the ancient Azlanti worshiped the mantis god as the patron of monsters and natural disasters, so I went with that take rather than the "god of assassins" interpretation common in the Inner Sea Region.
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Portfolio: change, chaos, language, trickery, Apostae
Domains: Chaos, Charm, Knowledge, Luck, Trickery
Notes: A must for any North American fantasy setting. Right now he has the same domains as Calistria, which I'm not terribly happy with, but she does seem to be the closest the Pathfinder setting has to a trickster deity. They probably shouldn't be taken to be the same entity, though.
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: forbidden knowledge, insanity, witchcraft, Akiton
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Knowledge, Madness, Magic
Notes: I figured I needed something suitably Lovecraftian for the deity representing Akiton, and when I read the description of the Mayan god Ekchuah (a deity associated with merchants depicted as a deformed black-skinned man with a sack) I ran with it. I'm also trying to capture the "Black Man" archetype associated with early colonial American witch folklore. With these domains, he could be an avatar of Nyarlathotep, but he doesn't need to be.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: agriculture, rulership, the sun
Domains: Good, Law, Nobility, Plant, Sun
Notes: Maybe it's just me, but Inti is the first mythological figure that comes to my mind when I try to think of sun-centered religion in the Americas. I could have gone with one of several Aztec solar deities, but I didn't want to crowd the list too much with Mesoamerican analogues.
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Portfolio: despair, fate, owls, slavery, Bretheda
Domains: Evil, Knowledge, Law, Nobility, Rune
Notes: So, this one is kind of a conglomeration of several ideas. I wanted a deity who could be the patron of the Stryx, and I also thought it would be cool if the worship of Lissala were still practiced beyond the Inner Sea region, albiet under a different name. I also thought it would be interesting to have the deity representing Bretheda be associated with fate, particularly dark fates, since I read that the massive storms on that planet's surface seem to have somehow forshadowed the death of Aroden. The name is Aztec and pretty much unrelated to the concept, but I like it.
Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: civilization, good, knowledge, Aballon
Domains: Air, Glory, Good, Knowledge, Law
Notes: I figured it would be cool to have a deity who was sort of an ascended Couatl. I was initially going to call him Kanku, which was a couple of relevant Mayan words smashed together, but I couldn't help but notice how close that was to Kaknu, an avian culture hero of the people who used to live in my neck of the woods here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: greed, lies, murder, Eox
Domains: Charm, Death, Evil, Knowledge, Trickery
Notes: Mokoch was a name I stumbled across in a dictionary of Mayan glyphs, a minor mythological figure whose name means something like "knot mouth." Once I had decided that the deity associated with Eox would *not* be the primary death god in the pantheon (more on that later), it seemed fitting to me to have that blasted planet be associated with a betrayer-figure. The obvious similarity to Norgorber is intentional, and meant to pose something of a mystery, considering Arcadia's relative cultural isolation from Absalom. Perhaps he somehow usurped whatever deity was previously associated with Eox, or assumed a long empty place in the pantheon.
Alignment: Neutral
Portfolio: creation, ferocity, the wilderness, water, Verces
Domains: Animal, Earth, Plant, Strength, Water
Notes: Olobit is meant to be analogous to the horned snake and the underwater panther archetypes that are widespread in North American mythology. Believed to have originated in the "Southeatern Ceremonial Complex" of the later mound-builder civilizations, these figures mean different things to different groups, but are usually fearsome and associated with water and/or the underworld. Often, they are depicted as being at war with the thunderbird(s). The name is from a Cherokee character associated with the archetype.
Alignment: Neutral Good
Portfolio: beauty, marriage, protection, the moon
Domains: Charm, Community, Darkness, Good, Protection
Notes: A Quechua lunar goddess, to go with the Quechua solar god. Traditionally she's the protector of women specifically, but considering the general lack of gender politics in the Golarion setting, I figure she could be a more general protector figure.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Portfolio: strength, transformation, adventurers, Triaxus
Domains: Chaos, Good, Magic, Protection, Strength
Notes: The name here is from a mythological figure shared by a number of far northwestern peoples, a culture hero often depicted as a whale. More generally, I mean for him to be an analog to the monster-slaying hero ancestor archetype found in a number of North American mythologies. Usually such characters are tricksters as well, so the role could be lumped in with the other aspects of Coyote, but the particular myths I'm looking at involve a specifically benificent trickster who transforms the world for the benefit of humanity, so I think its distinct enough to inspire a separate deity.
Alignment: Neutral
Portfolio: anger, storms, weapons, Liavara
Domains: Artifice, Destruction, Fire, War, Weather
Notes: The equal and opposite counterpart to Olobit, this guy is meant to be a thunderbird-like figure. In order to make him a little more unique, I drew inspiration from a Mayan god associated with storms, obsidian, and royal lineages to make Tlanuwa sort of an "urban" counterpart to the wild Olobit. I believe I got the name from Natchez mythology.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Portfolio: fertility, healing, passion, Castrovel
Domains: Animal, Chaos, Charm, Good, Healing
Notes: Based particularly on a couple of closely related Aztec goddesses, Toci is pretty much your archetypical Earth Mother type figure, albiet a more overtly sexual one than you'll find in most new-age religions.
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Portfolio: curses, death, disease, hunger, misfortune, the Diaspora
Domains: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil, Magic
Notes: The two rulers of the frightful Mayan underworld of Xibalba seemed to fit perfectly as the deities associated with the two destroyed planets that became the Golarion system's asteroid belt, the Diaspora. One of the names has been changed such that they're meant to mean, roughly, Six-Death and Seven-Death, as the lost planets were the sixth and seventh planets from Golarion's sun. It might make sense for Pharasma to have a following in Arcadia, considering that she seems to be *the* judge of Golarion's dead, but these guys are more similar to Zyphus in being associated with various bad ways to die.
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Portfolio: dreams, travelers, luck, the north star
Domains: Chaos, Good, Liberation, Luck, Travel
Notes: This is, of course, Desna, under a name that I believe I took from a Mayan word simply meaning "north." I felt like it was only appropriate to include her in the pantheon consindering how ancient she is, espeically since I was going for a celestial objects motif.
The lists of core deities for the Inner Sea and Tian Xia both have 20 members, so there's certainly room to expand this list. If one were to continue with the astronomical motif, the other deities could be associated with particular stars or constellations.
That's a pretty cool list and I especially love the associations with the planets. Makes it a nice touch. I think it's a little heavy on the Mayan influences and could probably use a bit more North American/Caribbean deities in there, but this is a really good comprehensive list. :)
Or throw Coyote out the window and use Raven from the Pacific Northwest instead?
On the animal thing, if the Ulfen have been there for thousands of years, it's rather unrealistic to not have horses find their way to the rest of the continent. Of course, if they have their own horse-alternatives, then horses may not end up widely adopted even if they have particular advantages. If there are different sized races, horses may not be appropriate mounts for them.
I hope to see a 'floating mega-city' akin to Tenochtitlan amped up with magic, something on the scale of Absalom or larger, with agriculture integrated, etc. Although if it ends up in Southern Garund I won't complain, somewhere in Arcadia does seem appropriate.
With the Syrinx, I could see them having an empire centered on high mountain cities, using their flight to easily move between steep peaks, any slaves/serfs without wings would be hobbled by the need to move around via tortuous, indirect paths, etc. (Having things like airships to transport mass cargo, and flightless slaves, etc, seems plausible for such a society, if magic isn't desired) With their 'history of barbarism', they seem prime candidates for having a 'sister' race or culture, akin to Elves/Drow, Dwarves/Duergar, who continued with the savage 'barbarism' (cannibalism/sacrificial murder?) or perhaps went in a Good direction.
While we have Tiny sized Fey and other species, there doesn't really seem to be any mass, territory dominating nations comprised of such creatures in the rest of Golarion... I think there's an opportunity to do that in Arcadia... Chihuahua-men? Prairie Dog-men?
I would guess that Serpentfolk have a good chance to show up in some form, and Grippli seem plausible as well...
Of course, gotta have Sasquatch ;-)
I imagine some historical connections with other planets and planes, perhaps not as much Castrovel/Akiton like Avistan/Garund seem to focus on... The outer planets, the inner planets... I think having some sort of 'high tech' would be an interesting contrast with how we normally imagine 'native american' cultures, perhaps some of that could correspond to those extra-Golarion dealings.
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Gotta have Pharasma in there somewhere. She's not Golarion's Judge of the Dead, she's the entire universe's Judge, period.
The Trickster might just be the Trickster, putting on names and faces like we put on hats.
Hobgoblins could be an interesting 'carry-over' race from Tian Xia...
In my mind I've been calling Pharasma 'Skeleton Woman' and otherwise leaving her alone, short of putting in a Skeletonway society, maybe even a Dance.
A good fit for Pharasma might be to combine her a bit with the Hopi god Masauwu, or that concept. (Again, tying into the pre-existing Golarion term sipapu in the Mammoth Lands, itself a Hopi term).
What if the humans of Arcadia actually emerged from the Underdark onto the continent of Arcadia in the distant past? Perhaps they came originally from the Inner Sea area (or even Tian-Xia) but were driven underground for some reason (Starfall?) and eventually emerged back onto the surface on the opposite side of the world? Not unlike the RW crossing of the Bering Straits, but via a different (fantastic) route?
It isn't just Hopi mythology that deals with the people coming originally from the Underworld, but Mesoamerican and other North and South American mythologies as well (such as the Inca and Aztec).
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Or throw Coyote out the window and use Raven from the Pacific Northwest instead?
How about the best of both worlds? Have a deity simply known as the Trickster and have him/her appear as either a coyote or a raven. They may even use those animals as heralds and psychopomps. Also, I know you mentioned the Inner Sea was linked to Castrovel and Garund to Akiton. Perhaps Arcadia could be linked to Verces, to kind of represent the Ancient Astronaut theory a bit. Like an ancient crashed ship from Verces is somewhere there, lost in the mountains and rainforests of Arcadia. Although, it might be too close to Numeria.
I have two ideas for deities. First one could make a good demon lord actually.
Kigatilik, The Fangs of the Arctic, The Shaman Eater
Alignment: Neutral evil
Portfolio: blizzards, heresy, desolation, darkness
Domains: Darkness, Destruction, Evil, Void, Weather
Notes: The god (or demon lord) of the destructive nature of ice and blizzards, of the slaughter of all clergy and shamans that would spread warmth and kindness, and of the cold, desolate twilight lands of the northern wastes. Based on Inuit mythology, it took me a long time (and sifting through a lot of Champions Online forums) to find out whether Kigatilik (kih-GAH-til-lick)was a demon group or a full-fledged demonic deity. Would be very cool to have him, though as far as demons go, there would be some overlap with Kigatilik, Kostchtchie, and Sithhhud. Perhaps while Kostchchie and Sithhud focus on frost giants and undead respectively, Kigatilik could focus more on adlets.
Guabancex, The Storm Maiden of Chaos, The Queen of the Winds
Alignment: Chaotic neutral
Portfolio: chaos, storms, destruction,
Domains: Air, Chaos, Destruction, Water, Weather
Notes: The goddess of the island devouring waves, the capricious weather, and of pure chaos. I actually combined aspects of several storm gods of Taino myth, including Boinayel's control over rain, Marohu's over sun, and the concept of Yurakan and the hurricane. I didn't go with Yurakan because even I'm not sure if he was an actual god or if it was just the name given to what we now call hurricanes, or even both. Guabancex (if my pronunciation is correct, wah-BAHN-sehs) is the queen of storms and the weather, using her two heralds to bring down rain and winds respectively to the lands. I chose her because hurricanes play a big deal culturally and ecologically in the Caribbean.
In my mind I've been calling Pharasma 'Skeleton Woman' and otherwise leaving her alone, short of putting in a Skeletonway society, maybe even a Dance.A good fit for Pharasma might be to combine her a bit with the Hopi god Masauwu, or that concept. (Again, tying into the pre-existing Golarion term sipapu in the Mammoth Lands, itself a Hopi term).
What if the humans of Arcadia actually emerged from the Underdark onto the continent of Arcadia in the distant past? Perhaps they came originally from the Inner Sea area (or even Tian-Xia) but were driven underground for some reason (Starfall?) and eventually emerged back onto the surface on the opposite side of the world? Not unlike the RW crossing of the Bering Straits, but via a different (fantastic) route?
It isn't just Hopi mythology that deals with the people coming originally from the Underworld, but Mesoamerican and other North and South American mythologies as well (such as the Inca and Aztec).
I like that idea, as the concept of humans coming from underground and caves is very prevalent across many tribes in North America, South America, Mesoamerica, and the Caribbean. I know with the Taino, there was a belief that people would hide in caves because they were afraid of the sun transforming them into things. It was with the watchman Macacoel's failure in his duty to keep the people in the sacred caves that they escaped to the island.
Also, I think it would be cool to have an ancient empire similar to the Mayans that make up the early history of Arcadia, much like Azlant and Thassilon did for the Inner Sea and like Lung Wa did for Tian Xia. Maybe once led by the Syrinxes but ultimately was destroyed by the affects of the Earthfall (or something else).
In addition, I rediscovered my list of New World monsters we can add along with the great deal that was added in the Bestiary 3 (which I will list in the Google Docs in the first post soon).
Coatlicue: A beautiful lady with a skirt of serpents, she is a force of life and death. Mixing the classic mythology with her appearance in Golden Sun, I'd make her a beautiful fey or outsider with the skirt of snakes and a large water jug filled with healing water.
Xmulzencab/Ahmuzencab: A 'swarm of bees' demon. Looking through the bestiaries, we have few 'living swarm' type of monsters, like the Worm that Walks and the Hellwasps. The first name is Aztec while the second is Mayan and more named after a bee deity.
Cipactli: A massive underground primordial fish-caiman monster. Similar to the tarrasque in sheer terror and danger, it has maws on it's elbows and knees and multiple legs. Perhaps it could have tongues that try to grasp people and pull it into it's many jaws. Would make a great Tarrasque-like monster. A subterranean caiman-like monstrosity with mouths on its knees/elbows.
Nagual: In recent times, it is a witch that transforms into an animal (usually jaguar) to drink the blood of people, spread curses, and give diseases. It's synonymous with brujo. In the past though, they were people that were linked to spirits of nature that lived side by side with people and protected them. It was based on tonalism. In this, good nagual exist and don't necessarily drink blood.
We could combine both ideas and create a template similar to the Animal Lord in the Bestiary 3 and give it some witch-like abilities and possibly blood sucking for the evil nagual.
Jaguars: Because Jaguars are awesome! I'd imagine they would be similar to Leopards but with a greater jaw strength. Plus, jaguar animal companion would be cool.
Totochtin: Shortened from Centzon Totochtin, they were rabbit deities that were immortal and enjoyed alcohol and partying quite a bit. Imagine an Aztec version of the Tanuki, minus the giant scrotum ;)
Itzli: Itzli and many gods prefixed by the word Itz- all have to do with obsidian. I'm sure we can use this for obsidian golems.
Flayed Ones: A bit of an original creation here. Imagine a ghost or rotting corpse that wears the flayed skin of it's last victim and it goes after people to take their skin. I've based it on the practices of priests of Xipe Totec (Our Lord the Flayed One) who would flay people alive as part of their sacrifice. So imagine ghosts that can take people's skin and gain strength from it, but perhaps they can be attacked normally when it has this skin on.
Xiuhcoatl: A terrifying fire serpent of epic proportions. Like Cipactli, I'd say tarrasque levels of danger for this one.
Zemi: The nature spirits and ancestral spirits of the Taino culture. They have similarities to kami. I'd like to imagine carvings (bone, wood, stone) given life. Maybe native outsiders with construct traits, or even fey with construct traits.
Toa: Spirits of abandoned children left by their mothers at riversides and lake shores. Frog-like in appearance (i'd imagine like a tree frog), they constantly cry out 'toa toa' to their lost mothers. In the Folklore, there is a story of a man that tricked all the women into leaving their villages and children. Without anyone that could breastfeed them (since only the fathers were left), the children would continue to make a 'toa' sound until they all unfortunately 'died' and became frog creatures.
For Pathfinder, I think it'd be an interesting type of aquatic/jungle undead. Have Small sized humanoid frogs that are thin and constantly cry out their name, trying to lure people (usually mothers) to their doom. It'd be much like a harpy's call. Whether it's out of malice or want of a mother... is up to the GM of course :)
Hupia/Op'a: A form of undead that look as they did in real life, minus their naval and their faces. Sleep in caves all day in the form of bats or owls and come out at night to devour fruit, play tricks on people, and sometimes kidnap people. They can shapeshift into bats, owls, and people's loved ones, giving them a face. In their natural form, they are ghosts, incorporeal and without face or navel. But, when they take shape to interact with people, they are corporeal and have a face, but can be told apart from living people because of the lack of a navel. In addition, there has been some talks from Proviones-Bishop's paper on the Taino that hupia can spontaneously reincarnate into people. Perhaps that could be reflected by a weakness to the spell reincarnation, so much so that an hupia killed by the spell could actually reincarnate? Would be an interesting twist to the concept of undead.
That's all I have for now. Hope this helps and I plan on compiling the Native American creatures that are in the Bestiary 3 later. There are quite a bit.
Isn't Kigatilik the storm/frost giant guy you gotta fight in one of the raids in the Champions Online mmo?
Isn't Kigatilik the storm/frost giant guy you gotta fight in one of the raids in the Champions Online mmo?
Yes, but he is based on an Inuit demon. The guys that do the HERO system really push Canada to the forefront in their setting, including using Inuit heroes and legends.
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For creatures that fit the setting, you can't go wrong with Manly Wade Wellman.
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Ulfen I don't think are really known for their horsemanship. It would also be likely they are still using longboats, which are not good for carrying a lot of animals. L'anse Aux Meadows was only a small fishing village remember. It wasn't there thousands of years, no, but you have to remember everything advances at a snail's pace on Golarion. They have been at a roughly medieval technological level for as long as humanity has had civilization here on earth.
It's like the opposite of Star Wars (who have been at the same sci-fi level for tens of thousands of years)