First World Preview—The Eldest

Thursday, December 1, 2016

With the release of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The First World, Realm of the Fey rapidly approaching, some kind folks on the forums have been asking for a taste of what you'll find inside. And what better place to start than with the godlike Eldest of mysteries and secrets?

It's no secret that this book is special for me. Not only have I been working on it sporadically for so long that the original paper pagination I wrote out has started to look like an antique treasure map, but the First World has always captured my love of the weirdness of Pathfinder. A place where anything can happen, there's infinite variety around every corner, and beings great and powerful can toss you into an adventure in an instant! It's the same draw that led me to first start work on Kaer Maga (following in the gonzo footsteps of folks like China Miéville and Richard Pett), or to follow trailblazers like Wes and Jacobs into the Outer Planes with my novels. For me, the more bizarre oddities you can pack into a setting book, the better.

And one of the things that excited me most about this project was the prospect of getting to give all of the Eldest a full Book of the Damned/Chronicle of the Righteous-style write-up. Ever since Wes did the first Book of the Damned, it's been one of my favorite campaign setting books, and I shamelessly ripped off that format for The First World. Each of the Eldest in the book gets their own spread—the left page a write-up about the god (like this one for Ng), and the right detailing that Eldest's seat of power—in Ng's case, the fabled Palace of Seasons. As with Inner Sea Faiths, all of the Eldest come with boons and obediences that work with both the prestige classes in that book and the new feysworn prestige class presented in this one.

But of course, the true best part of this book for me is finally getting to see the Eldest illustrated! Ever since their first introduction in Pathfinder Adventure Path #36, I've wanted to see them brought to life, and this version of Ng is everything I had imagined and more, perfectly capturing the aura of mystery and menace that should accompany any of the fickle fey lords!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for future blogs, where I hope to do at least one more preview before The First World launches!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director