Inner Sea Gods: Deities

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

The release of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting hardcover, Inner Sea Gods, is fast approaching, and that means it's time for some previews. The art team already did a preview of some of the amazing illustrations to grace this 336-page tome, so I'll talk a bit more about the words that accompany the book's incredible art.

The bulk of Inner Sea Gods are flavor-filled write-ups of all 20 core deities of the Inner Sea region. These articles go into divine detail about the gods' personalities, relations with other deities, their appearances, and home realms, as well as overviews of their churches' organization, typical temples and shrines, a priest's role, holy texts, holidays, and summonable planar allies.


Illustrations by Mark Molnar and Ben Wootten

Beyond the core deities, Inner Sea Gods also explores many of the region's minor deities to a deeper degree than ever before in the history of the Pathfinder campaign setting. Among the deities covered in this section are Achaekek, Alseta, Ghlaunder, Kurgess, Naderi, Razmir (yup), Sivanah, and Zyphus. Even more deities of all sorts are presented as complete pantheons, both of racial deities (like those worshiped by dwarves, elves, orcs, and other monstrous races) as well as the Outer Gods, demigods, and forgotten and dead deities.


Illustrations by Cheng Hong and Yuriy Georgiev

If that doesn't seem like a lot of gods, check out this spread from the appendix. This is only 1/7 of the content in this massive table of just about every being you can worship in the Inner Sea.

Check the blog soon for another look inside Inner Sea Gods, in which we'll examine some of the new rules elements available in the book (and yes, we'll show off some more art). Inner Sea Gods will be shipping to subscribers and game stores in April, and is available for preorder now.

Mark Moreland
Developer

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Tags: Ben Wootten Cheng Hong Gods and Magic Mark Molnar Pathfinder Campaign Setting Yuriy Georgiev
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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I hope the image labeled Aroden is a typo because that doesn't look like the Aroden from all the other pictures.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Oh wait. *looks closer at the imagery* I think he's supposed to be a follower of Tsukiyo.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Just curious why the table doesn't include inquisitions for the Deities?

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Nifty! Curious to learn more about Sivanah, as I've recently started up a cleric who worships her.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I am actually surprised that the Tian Xia deities will be getting enough attention in this book to warrant a picture of one of their gods(or priest?).

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Why does Nyralothotep have a double entry?


Kieviel wrote:
Why does Nyralothotep have a double entry?

He's tricksy and appears in many guises.

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Rogue Eidolon wrote:
Kieviel wrote:
Why does Nyralothotep have a double entry?
He's tricksy and appears in many guises.

Touché!

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Meanwhile, Sivanah will randomly disappear from one page and appear on another, making it really hard to learn anything about her.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Razmir, you say....


One of my favorite Easter eggs is in the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook. The power deja vu is not only present on its own page, correctly alphabetized, but also randomly in the middle of the next page as well.

@Ny--Notice his two entries actually have different guise names, domains, animals, etc.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

YAY ACHAEKEK! <3

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Jiggy wrote:
Meanwhile, Sivanah will randomly disappear from one page and appear on another, making it really hard to learn anything about her.

Think this functionality could be embedded into the PDF?


I think we're about to hit Forgotten Realms level here. I'll get the postage stamps.

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Rogue Eidolon wrote:

One of my favorite Easter eggs is in the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook. The power deja vu is not only present on its own page, correctly alphabetized, but also randomly in the middle of the next page as well.

@Ny--Notice his two entries actually have different guise names, domains, animals, etc.

This could make for some real fun interaction between two clerics of his. That is if they were to actually acknowledge their true faith and be sane enough to discuss it.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

How does the Orc pantheon interact with the previous assumptions that they primarily followed Rovagug?

Looking that their deity list, I can imagine Varg being an aspect of Gorum (or vice versa, since Gorum emerged during the first wars between mankind and orckind), or Dretha being another name for Lamashtu.


Not a single non-evil orc deity:(

Silver Crusade

Dat Achaekek

Rubicante's domains and portfolio put a big smile on my face after having played Final Fantasy IV again recently. :)

Really digging that creepy Pharasmin temple too.

Quote:
Orc Gods: All CE

:(

Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(

Was hoping for at least a CN one...

Dark Archive

Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(

No non-chaotic orc deities either...

Edit: Ninjaed, dangit!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
zergtitan wrote:
I am actually surprised that the Tian Xia deities will be getting enough attention in this book to warrant a picture of one of their gods(or priest?).

Maybe we'll get lucky and have at least a small article on them if they have followers in the inner sea region (supposedly some of the more important ones do). They do seem to get small blurbs in other setting books, Kofusachi, Qi Zhong, Shizuru and Tsukiyo get table entries in Faith's of Purity for example.

*crosses fingers hoping for a Paladin Code for Tsukiyo*

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
atheral wrote:
*crosses fingers hoping for a Paladin Code for Tsukiyo*

YES

Paizo Employee Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.

The image with the filename, Aroden, is in fact a cleric of Tsukiyo. It appears in the book on the page on other human deities, illustrating those worshiped by humans in Tian Xia.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

Mikaze wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(
Was hoping for at least a CN one...

Unless you count Gorum.

Paizo Employee Developer

Galnörag wrote:
Just curious why the table doesn't include inquisitions for the Deities?

There simply wasn't room to include such for the hundreds of deities in the book and keep each entry to a single line, especially considering that inquisitions are a much smaller explored space within the rules. We have dozens of domains and subdomains to divide up among all the gods, but far fewer inquisitions.

Editor-in-Chief

3 people marked this as a favorite.

While we'll definitely be previewing more of Inner Sea Gods over the coming days and weeks, if you're keen to learn more soon rather than later be sure to check out the Know Direction podcast tomorrow!

We'll be talking about Inner Sea Gods, what's new, what's awesome, the insanity of putting this thing together, and things so secret I don't even know what they are yet.

That's tomorrow, 5:30 Pacific, Know Direction Podcast!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(

Correct. By design.

Orcs who worship non-evil deities are not part of the Golarion orc culture... and as such are worshiping other deities. Gorum is the primary CN god of such orcs.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Mark Moreland wrote:
Galnörag wrote:
Just curious why the table doesn't include inquisitions for the Deities?
There simply wasn't room to include such for the hundreds of deities in the book and keep each entry to a single line, especially considering that inquisitions are a much smaller explored space within the rules. We have dozens of domains and subdomains to divide up among all the gods, but far fewer inquisitions.

That, and inquisitions aren't really "Tied" to deities as much as domains are. They're a subcategory of a subcategory, and are far less restricted (as are inquisitors) by deities than are domains or subdomains.


*drools*

The art alone looks to be worth the price of admission for this book, but seeing that table... it does something to me in a way that collated data usually doesn't.

Dark Archive

I cannot wait to read the expanded material on Calistria. I wonder what awesome delights there could possibly be...any hints perhaps???


1 person marked this as a favorite.
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
That's tomorrow, 5:30 Pacific, Know Direction Podcast!

Fixed link (I think!)

Have the Empyreal Lords been assigned appropriate sub-domains, or do they still get "all but..."?

Hard to believe this is finally coming out - I remember thinking with everyone else "Only 2 gods per AP? We'll never get them all!"

Editor-in-Chief

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Majuba wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
That's tomorrow, 5:30 Pacific, Know Direction Podcast!

Fixed link (I think!)

Have the Empyreal Lords been assigned appropriate sub-domains, or do they still get "all but..."?

They, and many, many others, get the full treatment.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

One thing that always bothered me about Golarion's deities is the large lack of non-Demon Lords/Archdevils (or really, non-evil deities) with the Animal Domain. Out of the 38 beings that provide the Animal domain (as listed on pathfinderwiki.com), 26 are some form of Evil, 8 are Good, 4 are Neutral.

It would be nice to have more than Demon Lords, Archdevils, and Daemonic Harbingers give the Animal domain.

I look forward to this book, definitely. The artwork is pretty damn awesome (still like that Lamashtu image in the last Inner Sea Gods blog), and I enjoy reading about the various deities.


Rogue Eidolon wrote:
One of my favorite Easter eggs is in the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook. The power deja vu is not only present on its own page, correctly alphabetized, but also randomly in the middle of the next page as well.

Ha brilliant! Never noticed that before!

</derail>


That is precisely how I always imagined a temple of Pharasma would look like :D

This book excites me more and more each day. The end of the month can't get here fast enough D:


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well, here's hoping that there will be some new information on Apsu for my Paladin/Dragon Disciple. Also, that enough humans worship Daikitsu that she will get mentioned at least, hah.


I'll admit I grinned at Nyarlathotep having two separate entries in the table.

Glad to see we're getting more info, even if only a little bit, on some of the fringe entities like the qlippoth lords and the malebranche.


You have made me squee with delight. It was very unmanly.


Adjule wrote:
One thing that always bothered me about Golarion's deities is the large lack of non-Demon Lords/Archdevils (or really, non-evil deities) with the Animal Domain. Out of the 38 beings that provide the Animal domain

I think this is at least partly due to the fact that Curchanus, Desna's mentor and god of beasts, was murdered by Lamashtu so that she could gain authority over animals in his place. So in the setting, Evil actively slayed Good in order to lay claim to the domain; giving it to various good-aligned demigods minimizes the importance of that act (which turned Lamashtu into a full deity) and calls into question why she didn't just target some random animal-loving do-gooder instead.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

agnelcow wrote:
Adjule wrote:
One thing that always bothered me about Golarion's deities is the large lack of non-Demon Lords/Archdevils (or really, non-evil deities) with the Animal Domain. Out of the 38 beings that provide the Animal domain
I think this is at least partly due to the fact that Curchanus, Desna's mentor and god of beasts, was murdered by Lamashtu so that she could gain authority over animals in his place. So in the setting, Evil actively slayed Good in order to lay claim to the domain; giving it to various good-aligned demigods minimizes the importance of that act (which turned Lamashtu into a full deity) and calls into question why she didn't just target some random animal-loving do-gooder instead.

Similarly, Thron, the Prince that Howls, was a good-aligned primordial spirit, who was turned into the Prince-in-chains, Zon-Kuthon's herald and possibly the source of the flesh of some of the first kytons.

Good-aligned beasts certainly have aplace int he world: the Agathions are proof of that. But actual Good gods of beasts seem to be prey for Evil gods who would make them monsters.


I'm always impressed when people with diametrically opposed viewpoints can work together on the thing they disagree about.

James Jacobs wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(

Correct. By design.

Orcs who worship non-evil deities are not part of the Golarion orc culture... and as such are worshiping other deities. Gorum is the primary CN god of such orcs.

(Source: earlier on this page)

Rich Burlew wrote:
Nerd_Paladin wrote:
the inapplicability as satire (again I have to wonder why anyone gives a crap about whether it's fair to depict monsters are evil in fantasy games),

I CARE. I care, and every goddamn person in the world should care, because it's objectification of a sentient being. It doesn't matter that the sentient being in question is a fictional species, it's saying that it's OK for people who look funny to be labeled as Evil by default, because hey, like 60% of them do Evil things sometimes! That is racism. It is a short hop to real-world racism once we decide it is acceptable to make blanket negative statements about entire races of people.

Our fiction reflects who we are as a civilization, and it disgusts me that so many people think it's acceptable to label creatures with only cosmetic differences from us as inherently Evil. I may like the alignment system overall, but that is its ugliest implication, and one that I think needs to be eliminated from the game. I will ALWAYS write against that idea until it has been eradicated from the lexicon of fantasy literature. If they called me up and asked me to help them work on 5th Edition, I would stamp it out from the very game itself. It is abhorrent to me in every way.

(source)

Or at the very least Jason Bulhman seems to be able to work with both Jacobs and Burlew:)

Either way, my character in the only Golarion game I am playing in is excited for this book.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

7 people marked this as a favorite.

The lack of non-evil orc deities does not mean we don't have non-evil orcs.

It DOES go a long way toward explaining why we tend to have more evil orcs than, say Warcraft, and why non-evil orcs are unusual in Golarion.

And in fact... the fact that most orcs are evil makes the non-evil ones MORE INTERESTING than if we treated them and every other race as humans (aka, being all over the alignment rainbow more or less equally).

Silver Crusade

Mark Moreland wrote:
The image with the filename, Aroden, is in fact a cleric of Tsukiyo. It appears in the book on the page on other human deities, illustrating those worshiped by humans in Tian Xia.

Excited about anything new being revealed on Tsukiyo. :D

Ross Byers wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(
Was hoping for at least a CN one...
Unless you count Gorum.

I do, and I was hoping to one day see a non-evil orc culture spin out of that(both to have non-evil orcs and to have a point of consensual origins for half-orcs providing a decent culture to pull from).

But that's getting away from the subject of the thread...


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
Mikaze wrote:
Mark Moreland wrote:
The image with the filename, Aroden, is in fact a cleric of Tsukiyo. It appears in the book on the page on other human deities, illustrating those worshiped by humans in Tian Xia.

Excited about anything new being revealed on Tsukiyo. :D

Ross Byers wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Dragon78 wrote:
Not a single non-evil orc deity:(
Was hoping for at least a CN one...
Unless you count Gorum.

I do, and I was hoping to one day see a non-evil orc culture spin out of that(both to have non-evil orcs and to have a point of consensual origins for half-orcs providing a decent culture to pull from).

But that's getting away from the subject of the thread...

As I mentioned in that monstrous beast thread, I have a hope that good-aligned orcs and gnolls and other "enemy races" will be prevalent in Arcadia, and a few other comments that aren't really for this thread. But I think my hopes are misplaced.

To be more on topic, I look forward to seeing more of the artwork in this book. I also look forward to reading it and learning more about the Inner Sea Gods. Some responses to my earlier post sparked interest in their histories. I know I could look through all the various APs, but to have them all in one book will make it much better. Plus, I don't have access to all the APs, so that makes it a bit difficult.


It has been awhile since I bellied up to a Pathfinder table so please forgive me if I should know this:

What is a "Whore Queen" and why are they worshiped as deities? Are they demons? Liches?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

wolfpack75 wrote:

It has been awhile since I bellied up to a Pathfinder table so please forgive me if I should know this:

What is a "Whore Queen" and why are they worshiped as deities? Are they demons? Liches?

Roughly speaking, they are the demigod version of Erinyes. They're not part of the hierarchy of Hell, the same way the Archdevils, Infernal Dukes, and Malebolge are, since Asmodeus won't officially put females in charge of anything, but they have power nonetheless.


Ross Byers wrote:
wolfpack75 wrote:

It has been awhile since I bellied up to a Pathfinder table so please forgive me if I should know this:

What is a "Whore Queen" and why are they worshiped as deities? Are they demons? Liches?

Roughly speaking, they are the demigod version of Erinyes. They're not part of the hierarchy of Hell, the same way the Archdevils, Infernal Dukes, and Malebolge are, but they do have sway there.

Thank you, I was staring at that with no clue what it meant.. other than the obvious inference.

So they are Hell residents with power but aren't part of the corporate structure?
I didn't expect Demi-gods to be able to grant much in the way of power...

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

In many ways, they're more impressive than the Infernal Dukes, because they managed to simply take power, rather than having it granted by a higher entity.

But rather than continue to derail this thread, I'll link you over the the wiki.

The Exchange

I so can't wait. I want to see this in print soon!

Shadow Lodge

Holy crap Menyx gets a maggot for his sacred animal! So perfect.

Also does that mean we can follow the Outer Gods in PFS now?!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

doc the grey wrote:

Holy crap Menyx gets a maggot for his sacred animal! So perfect.

Also does that mean we can follow the Outer Gods in PFS now?!

This book doesn't change anything regarding what is and isn't legal in PFS.

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