Exploring Paizo's Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Part 4
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The life of a Pathfinder is filled with constant peril, but this I can promise: you won't see the shining spires of Alkenstar cloistered in some stuffy academy or manning the walls of Absalom in a guardsman's helm.
—Venture Captain Alissa Moldreserva
In Part 1, we unveiled our first faction, Andoran, and spoke a little about the faction system we'll use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. In Part 2, we unveiled our second faction, Cheliax, and we talked briefly about faction prestige, how it's earned, and what it means for the world of Golarion as well as what it means for you as a member of the Pathfinder Society. In Part 3, we unveiled the third faction for Pathfinder Society Organized Play: Osirion, Land of the Pharaohs. For Part 4, we bring you the fourth faction: Qadira, desert frontier kingdom, gateway to the massive continent of Casmaron, and the westernmost satrap state of the Padishah Empire of Kelesh.
QADIRA
Desert Frontier Kingdom
Let them sit on their thrones and revel in their power. They still need spice for their meat, cloves for their breath, and incense for their barbaric stench. Let their taxes flow to our golden coffers as fast as we can collect them.
—Pasha Muhlia Al-Jakri
The westernmost satrap of the Padishah of Kelesh, Qadira is a kingdom with the power of the sprawling Casmaron empire at its back. Qadira is Kelesh's doorway to Avistan, and is perhaps the single most valuable piece of real estate on Golarion. Rivers of spice and gold flow through its capital of Katheer, and Xerbystes II, the Satrap of Qadira, boasts correctly that his kingdom holds the wealth of any other three on the Inner Sea.
Qadira has long been a power to be reckoned with. Taldor has felt the bite of their scimitars and nearly lost their entire empire in the struggle. Osirion bowed before them for over three thousand years. The war drums of Katheer have been silent for an age, but they never stopped waging their wars. Gold is their weapon now, spices are their shield, and their incredible trading power is their armor.
Qadirans value wealth above all else and they seek to make their fortunes abroad. The wealth of Absalom, and more importantly the trading opportunities proffered by control of the great city, has long drawn the gaze of the satrap's most powerful merchant princes. Many Qadirans are ready to leave their deserts behind for the promise of lustrous Absalom gold.
Goals: No Life without Trade
The world is small and gets smaller everyday. The key to power is trade. Qadira couldn't care less who sits on the Grand Council of Absalom, so long as the Qadiran trade fleet dominates the harbor. Qadira plans to rule the Inner Sea's trade and then bleed their enemies' coffers dry. Collecting debts and supplying the demands of other nations' peoples is how Qadira plans to rule. If their kingdoms slave to send gold east, the satrapy remains contented.
Methodology: All that Glitters is Power
You can always pay someone to murder your enemies.
—Pasha Muhlia Al-Jakri
The Qadiran faction seeks trade and economic advantage above all else. They seek to break their enemies' monopolies and enforce their own. They offer wares and goods no one else can supply and destroy competition with a ruthlessness that put the devil-bowing Chelish to shame. Qadiran missions involve a greater plan, usually embarrassing or defaming an economic rival, or ruining the business of another nation's trade companies.
Check the blog again on Thursday when we reveal the final faction for Pathfinder Society Organized Play.
