Since the term First World doesn't appear anywhere in the PRD, I'm assuming it is not considered open content?
If the name is Paizo's intellectual property (as I presume it is), is there an open content name for this realm that I'm just not noticing somewhere? I'm referring to the way some of the planes were renamed in the PRD, such as Axis being Utopia, the Boneyard being Purgatory, and the Maelstrom being Limbo.
To avoid confusion, I know I can call it whatever I want in my own home game. That's not what this post is about.
In all my (two) fey products, I've been just using names like "The Realm of Faerie" and the term "Fey Lord" instead of using Eldest. It never hurts to be safe.
For a clarification on whether a particular term is Paizo IP or not, you're probably better off contacting them directly (bearing in mind the message boards are primarily customer-to-customer and that there's a good chance any given post will go unnoticed by anyone official at Paizo)
See the "contact us" link on the left-hand menu for email contact details.
I don't believe we've designated an "official" substitute name, since it's not something that really has a lot of utility for us. So call it whatever you like!
Faerie is a pretty popular term in literature...I'd be inclined to use that.
Is the term "Eldest" Paizo IP? I assumed as a class of powerful demigod, like demon lord or archdevil, they weren't protected?
Thanks for the replies :)
I would go with classical public domain name of Otherworld.
There's always Fantasia, just don't refer to the never-ending story or the nameless mouse that will death star your butt off the planet.
The only things that are open content in Paizo are generally settings- neutral rules. Things in the category of place names, like First World, Golarion, are not open, unless they were originally in the PRD or SRD, such as Fire Elemental Plane.
Also Settings based PRC's are not open, but the rules mechanics can be. You might notice that when D20pfsrd went commercial, they replaced the listings of Golarion specific PrC's with generic labels.
I know that the majority place names are Paizo's IP, including 99.9% of Golarion, the Abyssal realms of various demon lords, the names of roughly half the demon lords (the ones that aren't in mythology, previous OGL content, or other public domain sources), the names of the empyreal lords (and probably even that title), etc. There are, however, some place and creature names based on mythology that are public domain. I've noticed that Paizo generally spells them slightly differently than the source material, likely so that their version is more clearly part of their IP. I definitely noticed this in the Land of the Linnorm Kings, but that might be because I'm a huge fan of Norse mythology and noticed it more easily.
I wasn't sure if the First World was one of the names they made up, or if it was based on a pre-existing plane that I hadn't noticed. Like I said, I figured it was their IP, I just wanted confirmation. Mostly, I just wanted to know if there was an open content name for it that was 'official'; no sense re-inventing the wheel. I'm grateful for the other authors who chimed in with the name they use in their products.
And yes, I did notice the setting-based PrCs on d20pfsrd have setting-neutral names, though they forgot to change the file names in most of their URLs. :)
Yes, the term "Eldest," when referring to the demigod equivalents from the First World, is Paizo IP, as are the names and descriptions of the specific entities who make up that category.
I suppose that makes sense...all the archdevils and a good chunk of the empyreal lords and demon lords are from real life, but I didn't recognize by name any of the named Eldest.