Illustration by Nikolai Ostertag

First World Preview—The Places

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Last week, I showed off one of the Eldest write-ups from our upcoming campaign setting book, The First World, Realm of the Fey. This week, I thought I'd give you a taste of some of the bizarre adventure locations you'll find inside.

My philosophy with gazetteers has always been to squeeze as many ideas into an article (or in this case, book) as possible: give GMs just enough fun details to get their minds spinning, then go off in an entirely different direction and leave them (or future adventures) to fill in the rest. These short shotgun blasts of ideas are also one of my favorite thing to write, and thus I try to carve them out as much space in my books as possible! As a result, this book has a heaping helping of encounter locations, ranging in size from a mere paragraph for random adventure sites to an entire page for the Eldest's seats of power or cities in need of maps. Presented below is just one of these locations, plus its awesome illustration!

Cobyslarni: The gleaming domes and steeples of this magical academy would be impressive anywhere, yet instead of standing atop a mountaintop or in some bustling city, the Traveling Academy of Cobyslarni roams the plains of the First World, riding like a howdah atop an enormous, three-eyed elephantine beast. The university's charter holds that its founder, Cobyslarni, decided the best way to foster independent thought was to be constantly moving, never able to be claimed by any given Eldest or city government. In the academy's halls, some of the greatest arcane and occult scholars of the First World gather to teach promising students, peruse the school's extradimensional libraries, or debate the finer points of occult theory upon floating disks in the school's open-air auditoriums. Overseeing the day-to-day running of the school is Headmistress Bofika Nemesan (NG female human wizard 11/occultist 6), chosen from among her peers by the school's illustrious founder. As for Cobyslarni himself, any student or traveler may ask him questions, yet he rarely deigns to answer these days, busy as he is contemplating the mysteries of the multiverse and carrying the school upon his vast back.

For dozens more locations like these, please check out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The First World, Realm of the Fey, coming later this month!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director