Hello Pathfinders! Did you miss our Lost Omens Special stream this past Friday? Worry not—we’ve got all the reveals and surprises for you here on the Paizo blog!
Want to watch the stream for yourself? Catch the VOD on Youtube!
Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide
Coming Spring 2024, Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide details the many nations and cultures of Tian Xia. During our stream, we showcased three of these regions!
Minata
Illustration by Sammy Khalid
Eleanor gave us an overview of Minata—a nation with a wide diversity of cultures and heritages. Once ravaged by natural disasters and fighting, Minata now enjoys a time of peace and prosperity, protected by reefs said to be made of the bodies of dead dragons. Minata is known for its feasts, festivals, and celebrations.
Illustration by Paulo Magalhães
Seafaring is a vital part of Minatan culture—ingrained so deep because the first humans came to Tian Xia via Minata and then sailed further in. Because of Minata’s wide diversity of islands and accessibility by water, a variety of ancestries live here—including one as-yet-unannounced ancestry coming in the Character Guide.
Illustration by Riley Spalding
Valash Raj
Illustration by Sam White
Next, Luis took us into the Valashmai Jungle. This great forest was long thought to have no inhabitants save kaiju and monsters, but we can see that the Valash Raj civilization has flourished within these dangerous conditions.
Kaiju are still a big part of the Valashmai Jungle—so big, in fact, that there are whole cultural elements and occupations that relate to them. One such occupation is the kaiju caller, people who can communicate with the kaiju to direct them around settlements, helping communities co-exist.
Illustration by Nicholas Phillips
The Valash Raj is still a place of many dangers—not the least of which is “dinosaur season,” the time when all of the dinosaur eggs hatch and the new babies go hunting for food. But the people of the Valashmai Jungle have made lives for themselves out of the danger, and there is a rich world to explore there.
Illustration by Nicholas Phillips
Wanshou
Illustratiohn by Alberto Dal Lago
Our third region, special for this Friday the 13th stream, is Wanshou—an agricultural district with “nothing else going on,” or so says its leadership. Wanshou was devastated by over-taxation and flooding before it was brought back to prosperity by Zhanagorr, an elder kraken known throughout the land as Wanshou’s divine savior.
Illustration by Nicholas Phillips
Lots of the cultures and clothing of various Tian Xia regions take inspiration from real world cultures. James took some time to show off some of Kent Hamilton’s concept art for the denizens of Wanshou—showing a variety of headwear designed to keep citizens safe from the near-constant rains, inspired by real-world mino coats.
Concept art and notes for the region by Kent Hamilton.
One of many ways Zhanagorr maintains his grip on Wanshou is by careful manipulation of the ruling class, including the three noble houses given the honor of directly communing with him. As a result, political intrigue abounds, leading to the cultural role of a gift receiver—someone whose duty is to accept gifts (and the curses that may come with them) on behalf of the intended recipient, similar to a food taster.
Illustration by Gunship Revolution
Deities
Luis, Eleanor, and James each introduced one new deity from the Tian Xia World Guide.
Illustrations of Lady Nanbyo and Yamatsumi by Zach Causey, and Baekho by Carl Springer
The three deities chosen for this stream were Lady Nanbyo, Yamatsumi, and Baekho. Lady Nanbyo is the goddess of plagues, disasters, and bad luck. Yamatsumi is the god of mountains, volcanoes, and winter. Baekho is the god of harmony, mending rifts, and the transition between seasons.
The Tian Xia World Guide also includes new rituals. One such ritual, the trial of the unseeing blade master, was shown off during the stream. To fulfill the ritual, you must defeat 20 enemies while blindfolded, which then grants you the Blind-Fight feat.
Illustration by Carl Springer
Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide
Coming Summer 2024, the Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide adds a variety of character options to Pathfinder! We’re saving some of these reveals for later, as we get closer to the book’s release, but the team brought a couple of new options to the table!
Illustration by Paulo Magalhães
First, a heritage for poppets: tsukumogami! Tsukumogami are objects that are granted sentience and life due to being well cared for—or neglected and treated poorly. Their heritage abilities include giving a bonus to a skill that corresponds to the object you once were (for example, a kitchen knife tsukumogami granting a bonus to cooking), as well as sprouting a ghostly face to terrify newcomers. The team also talked about one feat from each of the currently announced ancestries: whether that’s the ability for samsarans to remember how to use the ancestral weapons of other people through their Samsaran Weapon Memory, wayangs’ ability to briefly become two-dimensional with Palm Leaf Silhouette, or tanuki’s Rolling White Bottle Form, which lets them transform into a wine bottle to roll away from harm before resuming tanuki form face-down on the ground.
Illustration by Sandra Posada
One of the new options for familiars in Tian Xia are paper familiars, with some sub-groups based on the various different paper dolls and paper crafts of the area, including shikigami familiars that can bear elemental seals or shadow puppets that can grasp objects by extending their shadows.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Divine Mysteries
After the Q&A, Luis Loza took the end of the stream to make a surprise reveal—the cover and title of the third Lost Omens book for 2024: PathfinderLost OmensDivine Mysteries.
Cover Illustration by Ekaterina Gordeeva
As part of this announcement, Luis confirmed that the book is tied into the War of Immortals event. While the deity who dies is still shrouded in mystery, Luis has revealed who will be taking their place—Arazni is joining the core twenty.
Divine Mysteries will update Gods and Magic to the remaster, giving sanctification information, remastered statblocks, and more lore to the existing deities, while also adding more divine content in the form of new gods and a few character options.
Concept art of Yivali by Kent Hamilto
The book is narrated by Yivali, a nosoi psychopomp of Pharasma. Divine Mysteries is essentially her graduate thesis, which she will present to Pharasma to become a full psychopomp.
We’re so excited for all that’s coming in 2024! We’ll have more to share about Tian Xia, Divine Mysteries, and more as time goes on.
Written by: Misha Bushyager, Jessica Catalan, Carlos Cisco, Rue Dickey, Aoife Ester, Ivis K. Flanagan, Tomas Gimenez Rioja, Leo Glass, Alastor Guzman, Thurston Hillman, Laura Lynn Horst, James Jacobs, Michelle Y. Kim, Monte Lin, Luis Loza, Stephanie Lundeen, Poorna M., Adam Ma, Jacob W. Michaels, Zac Moran, Jon Morgantini, Matt Morris, Morgan Nuncio, Daniel “Drakoniques” Oleh, Pam Punzalan, Jessica Redekop, Jaime Reyes Mondragon, Kevin Thien Vu Long Nguyen, Erin Roberts, quinn b. rodriguez, Michael Sayre, Mark Seifter, Austin Taylor, Isis Wozniakowska, and Sebastian Yūe.
Original Gods & Magic writing and design by: Robert Adducci, Amirali Attar Olyaee, Calder CaDavid, James Case, Adam Daigle, Katina Davis, Leo Glass, Joshua Grinlinton, James Jacobs, Virginia Jordan, Jason Keeley, Jacky Leung, Lyz Liddell, Ron Lundeen, Stephanie Lundeen, Jacob W. Michaels, Matt Morris, Dave Nelson, Samantha Phelan, Jennifer Povey, Jessica Redekop, Nathan Reinecke, Patrick Renie, David N. Ross, Simone D. Sallè, Michael Sayre, David Schwartz, Shahreena Shahrani, Isabelle Thorne, Marc Thuot, Jason Tondro, and Diego Valdez.