Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Strap in, Pathfinders, because we're entering the home-stretch of our grand tour around the Age of Lost Omens, as presented in next month's Lost Omens World Guide hardcover sourcebook. We've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks on the continent of Garund, but now we're headed back to where it all began way back in 2007 with the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path—the northern stretch of Avistan now known as the Saga Lands!

In the history of Golarion, no empire has reached the heights of influence nor seen that influence ripped away by revolutionaries and anarchists than Cheliax—at least if modern accounts of Chelish history are to be believed. But in today’s Cheliax, ruled by Her Infernal Majestrix, Queen Abrogail II of the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune, the truth is malleable and is often altered to support the reigning regime rather than objective fact. From the outside, Cheliax appears as a failing state, whose territories have slipped through its fingers in the wake of decades of tyrannical rule by devil-worshipping nobles more concerned with their own power than the plight of their people, an empire in decline despite its own claims to the contrary.

Since we first revealed the map of the Age of Lost Omens campaign setting, with its ten meta-regions and updated names for existing locations, fans have been asking for more information about the Mwangi Expanse. Well today I'm happy to be able to grant that wish, with a brief overview of how the setting's iconic jungle has evolved between editions!

When we were first dividing the nations of the Inner Sea region into the ten meta-regions that comprise the Age of Lost Omens campaign setting, one of the first ones we floated as a proof of concept was the Impossible Lands—the nations of Geb, Nex, and Jalmeray, and the magic blasted wilderness of the Mana Wastes. This is the "high magic" part of the core setting, where centuries of warfare between archmages shaped the land and imbued the local culture with magic unlike anywhere else on Golarion.

Sit right back and I'll tell a tale, a tale of a frightful trip that started in a tropic port and involved a fateful ship. Tighten your floatation devices, take a deep breath, and let's dive in to our tour of the High Seas meta-region of the Age of Lost Omens campaign setting!