Starfinder Iconic Characters Revealed!

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Last Friday, our friends at Game Informer released a sneak preview of all seven iconic characters for Starfinder. We wanted to share that image with you as well, but first—what do we mean by "iconic character," anyway?

As many of you probably already know, in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, as in Pathfinder, every class is represented by an iconic character: a single individual who illustrates and embodies the concept behind that class. Originally, way back when Paizo was still publishing the magazines Dungeon and Dragon, this was just a convenient shorthand for us—rather than explaining to each new artist what made a ranger a ranger, we could just show them a single piece of art and say, "Draw this ranger." But to our surprise, as these reference characters appeared in more and more illustrations, fans began to grow attached to them and wonder about their stories. So when we launched Pathfinder, we went ahead and gave these characters names and backstories, and they quickly became some of our most popular characters, going on to star in comics, audio dramas, and more. (I know that I personally have a heck of a lot of fun writing Valeros, Merisiel, and all the rest in the Pathfinder comics!)

Character Illustrations by Remko Troost

Now, with Starfinder, we're excited to unveil a whole new lineup of iconic characters to showcase their respective classes and races! In the coming months, we'll be giving you each character's backstory in blog posts here at paizo.com, but for now here's a sneak preview of their art, plus their names, races, and classes. Going clockwise and starting with the leftmost character, we've got:

Raia (lashunta technomancer): Lashuntas are a race of telepaths, and technomancers are the magical version of computer programmers, hacking the laws of physics.

Iseph (android operative): Androids are artificial people, and operatives use stealth and skill to get in and out of dangerous situations.

Obozaya (vesk soldier): Vesk are powerful reptilian aliens, and soldiers specialize in heavy weapons and armor.

Keskodai (shirren mystic): Shirrens are insectile people who recently broke free from a predatory hive mind, and mystics channel the universe's mysterious energies, often through faith in a god.

Altronus (kasatha solarian): Kasathas are four-armed aliens from a desert world, and solarians shape the energy of stars and black holes into armor and weapons for themselves.

Navasi (human envoy): Humans are... well, humans, and envoys use wit and charm to bolster their allies and demoralize or befuddle enemies.

Quig (ysoki mechanic): Often called "ratfolk," ysoki are a plucky and hotheaded race, and mechanics build their own custom drones or rely on an implanted AI to aid them in combat.

Which of course leads to the question—which of these is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for more Starfinder previews and design blogs!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director