The Age of Lost Omens

Ten thousand years ago, the world of Golarion came close to ending. Earthfall, as this extinction-level event came to be known, saw the world pummeled by a shower of falling stars that sank continents, hollowed out new seas, and destroyed civilizations. It took centuries for the world to recover, and centuries more for society to rebuild, but recover it did.

Do you want to be sure to get the latest and greatest Pathfinder and Starfinder products shipped to you directly from the Paizo warehouse upon release? Of course, you do! When you become an ongoing subscriber to one of Paizo’s many product lines, you'll have that security.

In this series, we’re diving into Paizo Subscriptions, including what you can subscribe to today and what’s just around the corner. We’ve looked at the Pathfinder Rulebook and Special Edition Rulebook Ongoing Subscriptions and Starfinder Rulebook Ongoing Subscription. Now, we’ll explore the popular Lost Omens setting line!

From the Pathfinder Lost Omens World Guide to the Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide, the Lost Omens setting line currently includes seven hardcovers the bring deep lore and campaign-specific rules to enrich your Pathfinder game. You can start your Pathfinder Lost Omens Ongoing Subscription today with Pathfinder Lost Omens The Mwangi Expanse (available now) or Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar (scheduled for October)!

South of the forbidding Barrier Wall mountains lies a land of illustrious history and immeasurable natural beauty. Since time immemorial, the Mwangi Expanse has been home to an untold diversity of cultures and peoples, hosting powerful, isolated city-states that often paid little attention to their neighbors. Yet the turning tides of fortune have begun to usher in changes that ripple across the world, and the Mwangi people now look both inward and outward with new prospects. Pathfinder Lost Omens The Mwangi Expanse lays forth both a vast landscape and a living history to be explored, in the ultimate resource for a realm of magic, monsters, and intrigue!

Be the first to market with Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar! The Grand Bazaar is Absalom’s greatest marketplace featuring items from all over Golarion. Here, an adventurer can find equipment of all kinds to help them on their next quest, like new weapons, armors, magic items, accessibility items to enable adventures for anyone, new animal companions, and more! The Grand Bazaar is also home to countless unique merchants and shops. Game Masters can use these new shops as part of their campaigns to flesh out the world and inspire new adventures. See what’s for sale at the Grand Bazaar, and snap up the good deals while you still can!

A Merry Month of Mythical Monsters and a Magical Metropolis!

In December, you can look forward to both Pathfinder Lost Omens Monsters of Myth and the urban and fashionably late Pathfinder Lost Omens Absalom, City of Lost Omens hardcovers!

Release the beasts! Heroes abound in the Age of Lost Omens, but for every great hero, there is an even greater monster. Lost Omens Monsters of Myth provides details on 20 of the most infamous and terrifying monsters from the Inner Sea region and beyond. Uncover the secrets of some of Golarion's greatest monsters, from the Sandpoint Devil to Fafnheir, the Father of All Linnorms, and more. Monsters of Myth provides rumors, tales, and even treasures for the brave adventurers willing to face these legendary creatures!

For nearly 5,000 years, the great city of Absalom has stood at the center of the Inner Sea’s culture, commerce, and prophecy. Now, with the death of the city’s founder-god Aroden, the disappearance of the city's lord mayor, and newly launched attacks from some of its greatest foes, Absalom stands at the gateway to a new and uncertain destiny!

This lore-packed hardcover, now with over 400 pages, serves as a guide to the locations, denizens, and adventures of Pathfinder’s most famous city! Absalom, City of Lost Omens is the largest Pathfinder city sourcebook to date, presenting a fascinating locale suitable for years of adventure! A huge 8-panel poster map of the city sets the scene in unprecedented detail, so your heroes can walk upon streets paved with centuries of history, following the steps of generations of questing heroes to chart a new path in the City at the Center of the World!

Did you catch that the Grand Bazaar is Absalom’s greatest marketplace? That’s right, all the contents of Pathfinder Lost Omens Grand Bazaar reside within Absalom, City of Lost Omens!

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PAX Online runs September 12–20. Don’t miss our Pathfinder Lost Omens Announcement Panel on Saturday, September 12 at 2:15 p.m. PDT on @PAX3 and @OfficalPaizo on Twitch. Join our hosts, Developers Luis Loza and Ron Lundeen, and a Special Guest, as we reveal and explore the next hardcover for the Pathfinder Lost Omens setting, the next Pathfinder Adventure Path, take a look at the Pathfinder Beginner Box with Publisher Erik Mona, and more. Then play amazing Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society games with friends around the world from September 12 through 17!

Join Paizo Organized Play, Find a Game, Party on Discord
Our planned schedule includes three blocks of Society scenarios Saturday, September 12th and Sunday, September 13th, and six blocks of Pathfinder Adventure Card Society and Pathfinder Bounties. We move to one block of scenarios and two blocks of Card Society/Bounties on Monday, September 14th through Thursday the 17th. We invite you to join us at TPKon on Friday the 18th, as we hand the convention reins to the Online Region. See below for more information about TPKon.

To view the full schedule and register for games, visit our Warhorn page. Each event listing includes the GM’s choice of virtual tabletop, including Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry. GM signups for the event are now closed. Player signups will open tomorrow (September 5) at 3 p.m. Pacific. Tables are limited to 3 player signups; the other three seats will be available to walk-up players half an hour before each game begins.

Never played Pathfinder or Starfinder before? Come try a taster session! Everything provided! Starting every hour beginning at 8 am with last seating at 10 pm Pacific on Saturday and Sunday and Monday through Thursday from 2 pm with last seating at 7 pm Pacific. To join, pop into the Paizo Organized Play Events Discord and post in the #lookingforgame channel.

All voice communications and table mustering occurs on the Paizo Organized Play Events Discord. To register, follow the link on our PAX Online landing page. The full server will open on Thursday at 9 a.m. Pacific; until then, hang out in the discussion channels!

More PAX Online Events
PAX Online is the result of the convention-organizing supergroup made up of the people responsible for PAX West, PAX Australia, as well as new friends at EGX to create the new PAX Online and deliver a steady 24/7 stream of content, events, discussions, and gameplay. Check out their webpage for more gaming and streaming content.

TPKon 9 – September 18-20
TPKon is an Online region convention, featuring tables of Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society. The new Pathfinder Society interactive special, PFS 2-00: The King in Thorns, will be run on Saturday. GMs are still able to submit games as long as they own the scenario. You can find more information on the TPKon website or on the Online Region Discord at pfschat.com.

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Last week we looked at the Eye of Dread region of Avistan, as described in the forthcoming Lost Omens World Guide, and boy was it gloomy! Let's change the scene for this week's look into the new state of the campaign setting in the era of Pathfinder Second Edition. What better locale to differentiate itself from mist-shrouded, undead-infested than the sunny deserts of the Golden Road?

Illustration by Mary Jane Pajaron

This is one of the largest meta-regions in the book, stretching along the northern coast of Garund from the island of Nuat, across the Obari Ocean and Stonespire Island, to Qadira where Avistan and Casmaron meet. Five nations comprise the Golden Road—Katapesh, Osirion, Qadira, Rahadoum, and Thuvia—and while they all feature wide deserts, they're nevertheless distinct from one another, providing endless inspiration for adventure along trade caravans, teeming bazaars, long-lost pyramids, or hidden oases.

In Katapesh, the mysterious Pactmasters maintain their enigmatic rule over the mercantile nation, as implemented by their agent, Pactbroker Hashim ibn Sayyid. In the bazaars of Katapesh, adventurers, collectors, and purveyors of the bizarre can find just about anything they seek, assuming they can effectively barter for it. The nation takes its name from the euphoric drug, pesh, the foundation of the region's black market, and full stats for the drug's refined form are available for players or GMs willing to risk addiction for the pleasure of a little escape. The slavers of Okeno off Katapesh's eastern shore still peddle flesh, despite facing an influx of abolitionist movements on the waters of the Inner Sea and Obari Ocean. While the slave trade has been outlawed in Absalom, it's very much alive in Katapesh, giving liberators and Firebrands a new target in their war for universal freedom.

Illustration by Luca Bancone

In Osirion, Ruby Prince Khemet III has rescinded his policy of welcoming outside explorers to the nation's many ruins, after many of the new discoveries brought more trouble to his land than they brought wealth. In perhaps the most trying event of Osirion's modern history, the Sky Pharaoh Hakotep I rose from his tomb in 4714 to reclaim his ancient empire with a fleet of flying pyramids. Though he was stopped by brave adventurers, upon his defeat, that fleet of pyramids pyramids fell to the ground, causing incredible devastation in population centers like Sothis and peppering the desert with newly unearthed ruins for Osirionologists to explore.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

The rise of a new, more capable ruler in Taldor has quieted Satrap Xerbystes II's saber rattling in recent years, but Qadira represents just the eastern tip of the continent-spanning Padishah Empire of Kelesh. Over the millennia, trade and expansionism from the empire have led to many wars and conquests across the Golden Road, including a lengthy rule over Osirion and the religiously-motivated Oath Wars that led Rahadoum to adopt their Laws of Mortality. Though tensions between Qadira and its neighbors may have calmed of late, the nation's military remains under the control of the satrap's vizier, Hebizid Vraj who was appointed by the Padishah Emperor himself, and has the power to overrule the satrap if he leads the nation in directions against the empire's interests. What those interests are and what they may lead to in the future is anyone's guess.

Illustration by Oksana Federova

Rahadoum continues its longstanding tradition of eschewing all divine interference by strictly enforcing the Laws of Mortality, which restrict the preaching of religion and the trade of holy texts or symbols. Where other nations might have thriving churches to myriad deities or demigods, the Rahadoumi instead have some of the most advanced schools of arcane magic, science, and philosophy on the Inner Sea. Of special interest to characters who wish to forge their own destinies instead of being pawns to supposedly "higher" powers, the Godless Healing feat allows for augmented healing in the absence of a divine healer.

Illustration by Klaher Baklaher

To Rahadoum's east, Thuvia stands out for being less a single nation than a confederation of allied city-states. The nation's economy is largely dependent on a single product, the powerful sun orchid elixir, which allows those wealthy enough to purchase a vial extended life and youthful vitality. Though the tradition of alternating which city would host the annual auction for the season's batch of the potent alchemical concoction, recent shifts in the balance of power have some Thuvians worried that the delicate balance may soon come to an end. Agents of all five powerful city-states now advocate for unification into a more traditional nation, though each believes that their city should be the new capital.

Illustration by Rogier van de Beek

Seven new backgrounds provide new rules options for characters from or associated with the region, allowing members of all ancestries and classes to become black market smugglers, Osirionologists, or secular medics! Furthermore, those adventurers who dabble in the living monolith archetype can transform their bodies into stone in order to better protect the ancient secrets of the region.

Illustration by Ksenia Kozhevnikova

Well, that wraps up our whirlwind tour of the Golden Road meta-region of the Age of Lost Omens campaign setting. Next we'll join Chris A. Jackson (and one of his existing characters from the region) on a short adventure in a bustling bazaar on Thursday, followed by a voyage on the High Seas next week!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

One of the most wide-reaching events to become the baseline assumption of the Pathfinder setting between first and second editions is the Whispering Tyrant's escape from his centuries-old prison to once again terrorize the nations of the living. The specifics of how he breaks free from Gallowspire and the direct results of that escape play out in the Tyrant's Grasp Adventure Path, which wraps up next month with Midwives to Death. Needless to say, things for the lands on Lake Encarthan's western coast are NOT. GOOD.

Illustration by Federico Musetti

As we've hinted at with the name of the most recent set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, Ruins of Lastwall (available now!), the Knights of Ozem who stood vigil over Gallowspire since the Shining Crusade met an unfortunate end, and are now scattered throughout the Inner Sea region, licking their wounds and trying to muster support for taking the battle back to the Isle of Terror, where Tar-Baphon has made his new headquarters. For more information on what became of Lastwall, check out the Tyrant's Grasp Adventure Path. Without giving too many spoilers of the whys and hows, I'll just say that what was formerly Lastwall is now the undead-haunted realm known as the Gravelands. Things sound totally awesome there, right?

Illustrations by Mirco Paganessi and Rogier van de Beek

To the south, the conflict between the nations of Molthune and Nirmathas has cooled considerably, thanks to the events of the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path and the advent of a larger threat in the region. Despite the ceasefire between the warring nations, tensions remain high, and agents of the Whispering Way would certainly love to see the people of both nations return to fighting one another rather than directing their military efforts toward the armies of the undead.

Illustration by Ksenia Kozhevnikova

The other notable result of the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path was the establishment of a new hobgoblin nation in the Mindspin Mountains. General Azaersi rules Oprak from the newly founded capital of Hunthul, but the mountains of Golarion's surface aren't the full extent of the fledgling nation's territory. Thanks to a powerful artifact giving the hobgoblins access to the natural resources of the Plane of Earth, the kingdom also stretches into the elemental planes. Azaersi's expansionist tendencies have been redirected toward mercantile growth, and if she gets her way, Oprak could soon become more of an economic threat to its neighbors than it is a military threat.

Illustrations by Fabio Gorla and Rogier van de Beek

With the fall of Lastwall and the rise of the Whispering Tyrant's third period of rule, the orcs of Belkzen have broken from tradition and refused to rally to the lich's side. That places them in the unfortunate role of being among the first bulwarks against the undead's expansion beyond the Gravelands and will try the governing abilities of the region's new ruler, Overlord Ardax the White-Hair. I'm sure a nation of disparate orc tribes will do fine in uniting to quell the burgeoning threat to their south and east. What could go wrong?

Players whose characters hail from this region will find eight new backgrounds including cursed family, onyx trader, and Whispering Way scion, as well as the Lastwall sentry archetype!

Illustration by Ainur Salimova

Be sure to check this spot in two days for the third entry in our ongoing series of Tales of Lost Omens flash fiction when Pathfinder Tales veteran Chris A. Jackson debuts the first of three stories with an exploration of a character cursed by blood to face one of Ustalav's most enigmatic haunts. Next week, we'll follow the Golden Road to see where it might lead your second edition campaigns. Until then, Pathfinders, don't get caught in the Tyrant's grasp!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Continuing our preview of the ten meta-regions of the Lost Omens World Guide, releasing in August, this week we take a look at the Broken Lands. This region occupies the northeastern corner of Avistan, consisting of Brevoy, Mendev, Numeria, Razmiran, the River Kingdoms, and the Sarkoris Scar (what used to be the Worldwound). While many parts of the world could be described as "broken," this region is particularly scarred by political upheaval, war, and demonic invasion. Player characters in these lands are likely to find rival factions competing for control of a government on the edge of collapse, open conflict between opposing city- or nation-states, or the remnants of the Abyssal horde now cut off from their demonic home plane and stranded in a world no longer focused on eradicating the threat they present.

Illustration by Federico Musetti

Unlike Absalom, which we examined last week, there have been several adventure paths and standalone modules set in the Broken Lands whose outcomes we've canonically codified into the second edition status quo. Among these are Iron Gods, Kingmaker, and Wrath of the Righteous.

In Numeria, the Technic League has fallen from power, leaving Black Sovereign, Kevoth-Kul to kick his addiction to the mind-muddling drugs they'd been feeding him for years all on his own. What erratic behavior may come from the throes of withdrawal, and what political factions may vie to replace the league as the power behind the throne remains to be seen. Perhaps the adherents of the new goddess, Casandalee, will play a role?

Illustration by Valeria Lutfullina and Rogier van de Beek

In the River Kingdoms, a new nation rose in the Stolen Lands (conveniently left unnamed so that the kingdom you created in your Kingmaker campaign doesn't invalidate canon) and overtook Pitax.

In neighboring Brevoy, a king left at the altar has brought the lands of Issia and Rostland closer to war than ever before. Meanwhile, the previously abandoned and sealed Skywatch presents a new mystery for adventurers uninterested in the feuds of the nation's noble houses.

Illustration by Klaher Baklaher

Queen Galfrey of Mendev, kept alive with sun orchid elixir to ensure constant leadership against the agents of the Abyss, has been given a well-earned retirement, and has left the nation in the capable hands of Chancellor Irahai. The end of the Mendevian Crusades, however, has left the nation without purpose or common threat, and the chancellor has her work cut out for her in unifying the people to foster a national culture long overshadowed by the threat of war and legions of foreign crusaders calling the northern land home.

Illustration by Cynthia F. G.

In what was formerly the Worldwound—closed when mythic heroes defeated the demon lord Deskari—demons still lay claim to the tainted wasteland. While before they could count on endless reinforcements from the heart of the Abyss, the surviving demons and cultists are now cut off from their home plane and desperate to survive. The native Sarkorians who once called the land home have begun to return and reclaim their ancestral homeland, but they won't find its current inhabitants particularly welcoming. With the help of remnant crusaders not yet turned south to face the rising threat of the Whispering Tyrant and the strange outsiders that the Sarkorians call their gods, perhaps they can heal the Sarkoris Scar and make it into a stable, fertile land once again.

Illustration by Rogier van de Beek

In Razmiran, once merely a River Kingdom and now a nation in its own right, life continues as it did before the Whispering Tyrant's escape, its citizens taking solace in the knowledge that their land is protected by a benevolent deity, Razmir. The Living God has not opposed the Whispering Tyrant and a constant stream of "donated" corpses to the lich's armies has ensured a tenuous peace between the two powers.

This chapter of the Lost Omens World Guide presents seven new character backgrounds and the Aldori duelist archetype, which allows player characters to master the iconic dueling style of Brevoy's Aldori swordlords!

Illustration by Klaher Baklaher

On Thursday, be sure to check out the second in our Tales of Lost Omens series of flash fiction, written by veteran Pathfinder Tales author Tim Pratt, who previously explored the region in the pages of the novels Liar's Blade and Reign of Stars. Next week, we'll look at the Eye of Dread along the shores of Lake Encarthan, where the shroud of undeath has once again fallen upon the world.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager