The Strength of Thousands Adventure Path is coming in July 2021! This six-part, monthly Adventure Path takes characters from 1st to 20th level. It’s set in the Magaambya magic academy in the Mwangi Expanse, the oldest and most prestigious magic school in our world. We’ve been looking to tell a “magic school” story for a long time, and we’re thrilled to tell a non-Western magic school story set in the Magaambya. In Strength of Thousands, the characters start as students, become teachers, and ultimately hold the fate of the school in their hands.

Magaambya by Tomasz Chistowski

The name of this Adventure Path comes from a school motto; each teacher and student stands on the shoulders of thousands who have come before, so the weight of reputation and responsibility rests squarely on the heroes’ shoulders.

Strength of Thousands is open to characters of all kinds, but it’s a magic school, so some spellcasting ability is necessary. If you like playing fighters or monks or other non-spellcasting classes, don’t worry! We’re layering on additional spellcasting ability to all characters in this Adventure Path, so if you can’t normally cast spells, you get a little bit of spellcasting. If you are a spellcaster already, you get a little more. This makes the characters slightly more powerful than normal, but lets them feel like students in the world’s premiere magic school.

Celebration by Tomasz Chistowski

The adventures initially focus on the Magaambya, but soon expand to take place all over the Mwangi Expanse (and even beyond, in an interplanetary excursion!). The teachers at the Magaambya are also diplomats and guardians of the world, and we want the players to really feel that. You’ll undertake diplomatic missions in the dangerous city of Mzali, stage a rescue in the Sodden Lands, and uncover secrets lost for thousands of years.

Strength of Thousands gets tons of support in supplemental articles in each volume, including rosters of fellow students and faculty members and an academia downtime subsystem so characters get more skilled throughout their academic years as students (and as teachers). We expect Strength of Thousands to span many in-game years and thrill real-world players for a long time!

Storyteller - Mikhail Palamarchuk

We’ve established a diverse and talented team of authors for the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path. Rather than talk about them, let’s have them tell you who they are in their own words!

Kindled Magic, by Alexandria Bustion and Eleanor Ferron
Allie Bustion is an award-winning freelance narrative designer and writer who has worked on their own indie titles, like HEIST and Misbehavin', as well as Sea of Legends. You can find their name in recent and upcoming books from Paizo and others, including the Mwangi Expanse world guide, the Starship Operations Manual, and Lost Omens: Legends. More often than not, they can be found on Twitter (@madpierrot) taking a lot of pictures of their cat or analyzing popular media or on Twitch (MadPierrotTV) playing Apex Legends and Final Fantasy XIV. More of their work can be found on madpierrot.design, madpierrot.itch.io, and patreon.com/madpierrot.

Hello! I'm Eleanor Ferron, a mixed-race author, artist, and Developer here at Paizo. Along with my fabulous colleague Luis Loza, I work on the Lost Omens setting guides for Pathfinder 2E. I’ve also illustrated several RPG products, such as the role-playing card game and campaign assistant, Short Order Heroes. Both Luis and I have been working hard on coordinating an incredible crew of authors for the Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse book that will accompany the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, and so I am incredibly excited to see that setting come to life for players and GMs to explore!M.o

Spoken on the Song Wind, by Quinn Murphy
My name is Quinn Murphy. I’ve been doing freelance design and publishing my own games for a little over a decade, and have been in love with RPGs for most of my life. Over the years I’ve done design work for Dungeons & Dragons (4th Edition), Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, Misspent Youth, Trinity Continuum: Aeon, and more. I’ve been working with Paizo since last year, starting with the Pathfinder Society Quest Archaeology in Aspenthar and other projects. I am really excited to be working on the Strength of Thousands Adventure Path, where we can introduce players to wonders and teachings of the Magaambya firsthand!

Hurricane’s Howl, by Michelle Jones
I'm Michelle Jones, author of Hurricane's Howl and contributor to World Guide: Mwangi Expanse. I've been a Paizo freelancer for about 4 years now, and I'm so excited to finally write for an adventure path. Since most of my Pathfinder work up until now was on the Player Companion line, I always had to ask myself what new rules players would find exciting. It was always a fun challenge, but working on Hurricane's Howl and the World Guide gave me the opportunity to do what I'm really passionate about. The opportunity to tell a story, introduce new characters, and explore a part of the world that really deserves some love. So read World Guide: Mwangi Expanse and play Hurricane's Howl; I promise you are in for a good time. Find me on Twitter @AleshaKills.

Secrets of the Temple-City, by Luis Loza
Luis Loza is a developer at Paizo Inc. working on Pathfinder Second Edition. His work includes rules, campaign setting material, and adventure development for Pathfinder. As a writer, he takes inspiration from a variety of places including folklore from his Mexican heritage, books, movies, and video games. He lives in Seattle with his wife and a cat that should really be more cuddly if you ask him. You can learn more about him and his work at luisloza.com.

Doorway to the Red Star, by Michael Sayre
Hello! My name is Michael Sayre and I’m a designer and former Pathfinder Society developer here at Paizo. I was born and raised in Alaska, where my family is from for as far back as anyone can trace! I’m of primarily Tlingit and Irish descent, and my family are shareholders in the Goldbelt Corporation, a company formed for the Tlingit and Haida people of southeast Alaska following the Alaska Native Claims Act. Pushing the boundaries of the stories we tell beyond Golarion’s Inner Sea has been both a professional goal and a personal passion of mine since I started work at Paizo, and without giving any spoilers as to the particulars of my contribution to this project, that’s definitely something this adventure has allowed me to do!

Shadows of the Ancients, by Saif Ansari
Saif Ansari thought he had created role-playing games while making up stories with his brother in India. After emigrating to the US, he realized a whole gaming industry existed and has been running games ever since. Saif has published short fiction and short plays, appeared in anthologies, written for games, and was nominated for an ENnie back in 2017. He runs games in New York City and also lives there with his wife and two children.

Watch the Lost Omens Announcement Panel here!

Hey, there! Luis, here! Eleanor and I have been hard at work getting the next book in the Lost Omens line ready to go, and we’re proud to announce it here for you today. Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse is coming June 2021! This 312-page book will be our deepest dive in all of Pathfinder’s history into the Mwangi Expanse!

Mwangi Expanse Cover, Art by Ekaterina Burmak

Watch the Lost Omens Announcement Panel here!

Mwangi Expanse will be exploring various subjects that make the region what it is today. You’ll get to learn about the events that shaped the history of the Expanse, like the rise and fall of the serpentfolk empire and Old-Mage Jatembe’s rediscovery of magic. Learn about the dozens of cultures and people of the Expanse—from Alijae elves to Zenj humans. You’ll also get to understand the role of faith in the Mwangi Expanse and learn about the different gods of the region, which include established deities like Grandmother Spider as well as newer deities like Adanye, the catfolk deity of imagination and protection.

Grandmother Spider, Art by Valeria Lutfullina

Beyond the peoples and beliefs of the Mwangi Expanse, we’ll get to show you the region itself, traveling along the waterways of the area and trekking into its misty rainforests. The book will also take you to the various important cities of the region, like Nantambu, home of the fabled Magaambya academy, and Mzali, the temple-city home of the evil god-child, Walkena. Finally, we’ll get to experience the dangers of the Mwangi Expanse by showcasing some of the region’s nastier monsters, including old classics like chaura-kas and new threats like corpse-eating karina.

Anadi, Art by Alexander Nanitchkov

Of course, the book will also include new rules options to play characters from the Mwangi Expanse. These include cultural items like Song’o fighting sticks or the magic masks that Alijae elves use to chronicle their genealogy. It also includes the player rules for those new deities to worship that I mentioned. Most exciting of all, I feel, are the new ancestries featured in the book. This book features six new ancestries: anadi, conrasu, gnoll, golomas, grippli, and shisks! These six represent a good mix of classic ancestries and new ancestries that we know fans have been wanting to see.

We hope that everyone out there is as excited as we are to check out Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse. Look forward to learning all about it next summer!

Luis Loza
Developer