Other locations in the Material Plane and other deities?


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


So, do all Gods on all worlds have influence in Golarion setting? For example, in the context of Pathfinder... are there people that worship Desna, Shelyn, Erastil and such on Earth? Could someone from Earth who a cleric of the Christian faith (like a "faith healer") who ended up on Golarion... would they have to convert to a Golarion god, or would the Christian God still be able to grant them powers?

Same for the Greek and Roman and Norse gods... do all gods 'real' (by real I mean from real world religions) and 'fictional' (by fictional I mean ones made up entirely as fictional gods, not from any real world religion)

It hopefully goes without saying, but I just want to be clear, this is not intended to be a discussion of real life religious beliefs, and my mention of "faith healers" is in no way an invitation to discussion on whether they are real or not in the context of the real world I am merely wondering if there is any information on what happens when a FICTIONAL Earth/Greyhawk/Faerun worshipper (cleric or not, but especially cleric) ends up on Golarion.

I ask because some campaign settings in the past have done it one way, others have done it another way. For example, Forgotten Realms 3.5 specifically said that when a cleric travels from Greyhawk to Forgotten Realms, they are CUT OFF from their god and lose their powers until they turn to a Faerun deity. Ravenloft also had a similar thing (at least in the White Wolf writeup), although there the Dark Powers granted the clerics power and deceived them into thinking their deity was still with them.

Dark Archive

As I understand it, the world of Golarion is supposed to exist in the same universe as, say, the Earth, with the Mad Monk Rasputin. Clerics of various Golarion gods seemed to retain their powers during the adventure set on Earth (AFAIK, I haven't read the adventure...), so it would seem to be appropriate for a priest of a god from another world to retain whatever priestly powers they had on their homeworld while visiting Golarion.

So, assuming that there's a version of Earth in the setting where followers of the Christian God have Cleric powers, then those Clerics should function normally on Golarion.

That's a pretty big assumption, obviously.

Various gods of other game settings might have very specific limitations, as well, and not grant power to priests off of their home world, for whatever reason, but that would likely be a property of that god (or planet, whatever), and not of Golarion itself.

As for gods of Golarion worshipped elsewhere, some seem to have a following on other worlds (Calistria on Castrovel, for instance), but others don't even seem to have followings on the other side of the planet, and others are pretty recent (Cayden, Norgorber and Iomedae, but also Urgathoa, Irori and Nethys), so it seems unlikely that they'd be worshipped on many other worlds (and particularly not on worlds like Greyhawk or Toril that already have their own gods of beer and magic and undead or whatever).

If I were going to add Golarion to Spelljammer's cosmology, which already has Ptah and Celestian the Far-Wanderer as 'spacefaring gods' whose powers extend across multiple crystal spheres (IIRC), I'd add Desna (and the Great Old Ones) to the 'space gods' who are more likely to be revered by spacefarers.


Yeah, I am making some Spelljammer type (but not Spelljammer) characters that are not from the Golarion system, but are stuck here (they had a firefight with The Dominion of the Black, and crashed on Golarion... not like Golarion has what they need for repairs) so I was trying to decide what gods to have them worship. Shortly after I made this thread, I noticed that Archives of Netyhs has the recent writeups of the Egyptian gods from Mummy's Mask (Something I bet you like, Set hehe) so from that write up I think I might go for Hathor for my Musetouched aasimar (she is friendly with azata AND has travel as a domain? Score!) and then for my android (a race I created, they are not from the same culture as whatever created the Numerian ship) I was thinking Ptah, since he's the Artificer and such.

Plus, that will fit them nicely into the world I originally created that they are from... They knew about, but had never been to Earth (in their time Earth is destroyed, but pretty sure I don't want them to be from the future in this campaign) and were actually from Alpha Centauri. So, it kind of works, I can say that they are still from Alpha Centauri.


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Considering I believe there was some world-hopping in Reign of Winter to a couple other planets, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to totally screw over a player that picked a cleric for something like two-thirds of the adventure path. And we do know some deities are basically 'local', while others are far more wide-spread, particularly the older ones, like Pharasma, who is probably worshiped in some form or another practically everywhere, one suspects.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure that as long as you're in the same multiverse as Golarion, Earth, etc., you'll definitely be able to keep granting them power, and possibly even from a different cosmology depending on how you want to run things, unless you have something specific in mind, like a deity that has an arrangement with other deities to not interfere on a specific world via his worshipers or whatnot.


Luthorne wrote:

Considering I believe there was some world-hopping in Reign of Winter to a couple other planets, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to totally screw over a player that picked a cleric for something like two-thirds of the adventure path. And we do know some deities are basically 'local', while others are far more wide-spread, particularly the older ones, like Pharasma, who is probably worshiped in some form or another practically everywhere, one suspects.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure that as long as you're in the same multiverse as Golarion, Earth, etc., you'll definitely be able to keep granting them power, and possibly even from a different cosmology depending on how you want to run things, unless you have something specific in mind, like a deity that has an arrangement with other deities to not interfere on a specific world via his worshipers or whatnot.

Yeah, like Faerun had in 3.5 So yeah, I think I will go with what I said above, they will be worshippers of the Egyptian gods. If epic levels the players start traveling in space.

As for mention of Reign of Winter, yeah I love that AP and in fact it was part of why I even made these characters for Golarion in the first place. I was like hey, if Earth exists, then why not my "Alpha Centauri" area? Then figured I'd have them crash on Golarion. Question then is why are they so far from home? That will be something they know and I'll figure out later, all I have decided so far is it has something to do with The Dominion of the Black.


Luthorne wrote:
So yeah, I'm pretty sure that as long as you're in the same multiverse as Golarion, Earth, etc., you'll definitely be able to keep granting them power, and possibly even from a different cosmology depending on how you want to run things, unless you have something specific in mind, like a deity that has an arrangement with other deities to not interfere on a specific world via his worshipers or whatnot.

You can also use a loan-share system. While the cleric of deity A is within the domain of deity B, who is similar in outlook to deity A, deity B provides them with their divine spells under the agreement that in return, for when deity B has clerics in the domain of deity A, deity A will provide them with spells.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:

So, do all Gods on all worlds have influence in Golarion setting? For example, in the context of Pathfinder... are there people that worship Desna, Shelyn, Erastil and such on Earth? Could someone from Earth who a cleric of the Christian faith (like a "faith healer") who ended up on Golarion... would they have to convert to a Golarion god, or would the Christian God still be able to grant them powers?

Same for the Greek and Roman and Norse gods... do all gods 'real' (by real I mean from real world religions) and 'fictional' (by fictional I mean ones made up entirely as fictional gods, not from any real world religion)

It hopefully goes without saying, but I just want to be clear, this is not intended to be a discussion of real life religious beliefs, and my mention of "faith healers" is in no way an invitation to discussion on whether they are real or not in the context of the real world I am merely wondering if there is any information on what happens when a FICTIONAL Earth/Greyhawk/Faerun worshipper (cleric or not, but especially cleric) ends up on Golarion.

I ask because some campaign settings in the past have done it one way, others have done it another way. For example, Forgotten Realms 3.5 specifically said that when a cleric travels from Greyhawk to Forgotten Realms, they are CUT OFF from their god and lose their powers until they turn to a Faerun deity. Ravenloft also had a similar thing (at least in the White Wolf writeup), although there the Dark Powers granted the clerics power and deceived them into thinking their deity was still with them.

If you're looking for "official" answers, there aren't any. I suspect that this is something intentionally left to DMs to work on their own. Golarion clerics may be maintaining their powers solely based on their faith in their distant deity as opposed to said deity actually having a presence on WW1 Earth. Use whatever interpretation you want.


LazarX wrote:

If you're looking for "official" answers, there aren't any. I suspect that this is something intentionally left to DMs to work on their own. Golarion clerics may be maintaining their powers solely based on their faith in their distant deity as opposed to said deity actually having a presence on WW1 Earth. Use whatever interpretation you want.

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, I mean like I said 3.x had actual rules (at least Faerun did) but didn't think they'd really gone into it in Pathfinder (yet). So, thanks everyone for your input.

Fun thing though, I have actually decided to make them atheist actually. One is a white-haired witch and the other is a bladebound hexcrafter magus so i think it would be fun to have them shun the gods entirely (complete with all the feats :Þ ) Plus, it fits more with how they were in my original write-up before I made them in Pathfinder. Won't really say much more than that (only cause it's totally off topic to this section of the forums), but if you are interested, send me a PM and I'll tell you more there.

Liberty's Edge

Pretty clearly (based on several deities having worshipers on both Earth and Golarion, as well as players not losing magic on other planets) deities can exercise their power wherever they like on the material plane. But deities in Golarion aren't omnipotent or omniscient, they to focus their attention, and many focus on a limited number of planets or areas. Cayden Cailean normally only focuses his attention and power on the Inner Sea, for example, since that's his homeland and he's pretty young. Other deities extend their reach a bit further. And all will extend their power to do so to support an existing worshiper who's just far from home.

So, in short, a worshiper of a God focused on Earth (say Thor or Vishnu) can absolutely retain his powers if he goes to Golarion (or vice versa...sorta, see below) but the God won't necessarily be known there, and might easily not want them to proselytize there (depending on whether they want to focus their attention there).

Now, as a separate but related matter, it's very possible that Earth is in something of a dead magic zone. That's not true of the area you're in for Rasputin Must Die! but that's a specifically odd area linked to the First World. Powerful people (like Rasputin) are still seemingly able to use some of their power outside it, but how much is a bit unclear.


Deadmanwalking wrote:


Now, as a separate but related matter, it's very possible that Earth is in something of a dead magic zone. That's not true of the area you're in for Rasputin Must Die! but that's a specifically odd area linked to the First World. Powerful people (like Rasputin) are still seemingly able to use some of their power outside it, but how much is a bit unclear.

That is an interesting take. Although, I would think that it's not that Earth is dead magic, more that nobody really believes any more. So, nothing is stopping anyone from doing arcane magic, except that they don't truly believe it's possible, even if they want to believe it's possible anymore...

Samson - Carnivale wrote:
Before the beginning, after the great war between Heaven and Hell, God created the Earth and gave dominion over it to the crafty ape he called man. And to each generation was born a creature of light and a creature of darkness. And great armies clashed by night in the ancient war between good and evil. There was magic then, nobility, and unimaginable cruelty. And so it was until the day that a false sun exploded over Trinity, and man forever traded away wonder for reason.

Then again, some thought that would ignite the atmosphere and kill us all... it didn't, but... maybe it did still have an effect? Maybe it was that first nuclear bomb testing at Trinity that turned the entire Earth into a dead magic zone?

Liberty's Edge

AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:
That is an interesting take. Although, I would think that it's not that Earth is dead magic, more that nobody really believes any more. So, nothing is stopping anyone from doing arcane magic, except that they don't truly believe it's possible, even if they want to believe it's possible anymore...

Eh...if that were true, Native American shamans would've had a lot more success stopping Europeans. They believed in magic, after all.

AbsolutGrndZer0 wrote:
Then again, some thought that would ignite the atmosphere and kill us all... it didn't, but... maybe it did still have an effect? Maybe it was that first nuclear bomb testing at Trinity that turned the entire Earth into a dead magic zone?

That doesn't really work for the reason listed above, and given the timeline, isn't relevant anyway given that current Golarion is roughly in-synch with 1919...and so it won't come up for a while.


Why it wouldn't work for the real world or such wasn't the point... but if we want to get into what Pathfinder actually says about Earth...

Pathfinder wiki (Rasputin Must Die is sourced, as is a thread where James Jacobs chimed in about R'lyeh) wrote:

Earth is a planet far distant from Golarion, in a solar system beyond the Dark Tapestry. Magic was once as prevalent on Earth as it is on Golarion, but as time wore on magic and mysticism were replaced by science and technology, and now magical creatures have all but disappeared from the world and the existence of the supernatural is known to only a few mystics.

At the present time, a conflict known as the Great War rages between several of Earth's major political powers.

The primary inhabitants of Earth are humans of countless ethnicities. A few magical creatures such as fey still exist on Earth, but are largely forgotten.

Cthulhu, one of the mightiest of the Great Old Ones, dwells in the corpse-city of R'lyeh beneath one of Earth's oceans.

So right there says pretty much what I said... magic DID exist, but science and technology is making it fade away.

And yes, I know the current timeline, I was just saying that quote as an example of how a magical Earth setting could remove all magic suddenly and swiftly. Then, note what that says... have "all but disappeared" so the first nuclear bomb could be the final nail in the coffin of magic, who knows?


Short answer tot he OP is yes, by default a cleric of a deity from a distant world retains her connection to her god(dess) over any distance. A place being able to cut the cleric off would be a special property of that place; distance has nothing to do with it.

Great Cthulhu has cultists on Golarion, and Great Cthulhu is (a) asleep and (b) just a demigod. Any entity that's the real deal would certainly have a reach across galaxies.

Earth isn't magic dead, but magic is a lost art.

One could have fun with the possibility that as the time for the stars to come right comes ever closer, more and more of what supernatural entities live on Earth are abandoning ship.

Like, Mab and Titania and others can see far enough down the line to see what's coming, and they booked it back to the First World and closed the doors behind them.

Great Cthulhu ain't the only thing that waits dreaming...

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