Mid-Season Faction Updates

First they took Shadow Lodge from me, but that was ok, I was fairly new and joined Osirian.
Then they took Osirian from me, but that was mostly ok, because the Scarab Sages seemed like an interesting long-term commitment...
...and now... I'd protest, but I'm a tiefling, so it's not like we have the numbers for a vote even if we were like Liberty's Edge.

... this must be my karma for the use of the misfortune hex

Season 4 saw the end of both the Shadow Lodge and the Lantern Lodge (mine and my son's favorite faction). Season 9 will see the end of another of my favorites in the Scarab Sages (Now I am excited to run and play 9-07 more than when I started prepping it when it was released).

I am excited about the introduction of the Concordance as, based on the information provided so far, it seems as though the Scarab Sages is evolving and not really retiring so to speak (I could be wrong).

Now to contemplate, which of my characters may be switching to the Concordance or preparing to join them next year. Looking forward to see where the campaign goes in the coming year.

This is really upsetting, to be honest. :(

I guess I'll have to hope for a "Spirit of the Scarab Sages" boon so I can properly play the character I built specifically for this faction and spent one of my race boons on.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
);

My first real character was a scarab sage! GOOD BYE SCARAB SAGES! I SHALL MISS THEE!

*CRIES*

Well, darn. I still haven't had a chance to play *any* of the Scarab Sages storyline with my Sage character. She'll probably fit in with the Concordance fine, though.

So here's one question not specifically answered in the guide or the FAQs: If you're forced to choose a new faction, do you get to pick one of your new faction's traits for free?

And lo did another excellent faction fall to the wayside...

I have been begging for a nature themed faction for a long long time but to come at the expense of the Scarab Sages is really painful. It does overlap in focus with the Dark Archives though I admit.

Maybe the Shadow Lodge can return based on how events unfold canonically for 9-07...?!

Any options to jump into the new faction (even a reduced PP cost)? I have a sky druid sylph that is screaming out to jump ship across. If not then i have some maths to start on....
attempts to read better, nice was not about for any of the new ones coming in...

I have a couple of Scarab Sages and while I'm not happy to see the faction gone I hope they get better closure than what happened to the Shadow Lodge... hell, while reading I almost hoped for a return of the Shadow Lodge, but it seems that boat has truly sailed after all.

On the other hand I'm happy to see an halfling as Faction Leader. Considering the setting it makes sense for one to be at the head of Liberty's Edge. Besides Pathfinder's Society needs more demihumans (dwarves especially!).

Any options to jump into the new faction (even a reduced PP cost)? I have a sky druid sylph that is screaming out to jump ship across. If not then i have some maths to start on....

As has been the case with the introduction of other factions, characters will have the option to switch to the Concordance without spending any Prestige Points.

I have a couple of Scarab Sages and while I'm not happy to see the faction gone I hope they get better closure than what happened to the Shadow Lodge...

Salvation of the Sages is a textbook example of how to end a faction's story.

This is incredibly upsetting. Especially as the season began with one of the best boons in PFS being a Scarab Sage mission. I would have liked to see the faction fleshed out rather than be put to bed.

Well, where does this leave us:

The Grand Lodge is as boring as dirt without the Shadow Lodge to serve as its foil.

The Dark Archive's leader has lost her teeth and flavor since her disassociation from Cheliax.

Liberty's Edge has been less than inspiring for a while due to questionable leadership, so hopefully that will improve soon.

The Exchange is now a two-headed beast with muddled flavor and focus.

The Silver Crusade continues in general, vague goodness.

The Sovereign Court has semi-noble goals, depending on one's perspective, but lacks the decadence or intrigue of its prior incarnations.

Honestly, I'm starting to miss the original nationalist factions.

I'm super excited by this announcement.

I like to see change over time and appreciate that PFS leadership has shared the news ahead of time.

I like to see change over time and appreciate that PFS leadership has shared the news ahead of time.

I do just want to note my agreement with this. I'm still very upset for various personal reasons, but from the larger perspective of the Society and organized play, I think they're doing a good job with this.

This is really cool. The concordance is an amazing faction, and I can't wait to convert my Pawladin of Ranginori! I wonder if we will be able to keep the faction journal benefits we've accumulated up until now. It'd be kind of lame to lose 21 adventures worth of skipping dayjobs and doing extra checks just to start anew...especially when my character already had the concordance of the elements boon from Gencon ahaha...

I wonder if we will be able to keep the faction journal benefits we've accumulated up until now.

In addition, members of the Scarab Sages faction will keep any benefits earned on Scarab Sages Faction Journal Cards, but once the faction's retired, they won't be able to fulfill further goals.

I have two Scarab Sage characters. One is level 11.2 and started as Osirion and has played almost every Scarab Sage mission. The other is level 1.

I'd intended to have my high-level character go out by slow-tracking Words of the Ancients and the Waking Rune (since she's hit all the other Lissalla 7-11s in preparation), but now I think I need to slow-track Salvation of the Sages and then Waking Rune.

Decisions, decisions.

What's sad is that locally Scarab Sages are the most-played non-Grand Lodge faction. (Though Dark Archive has been gaining ground.)

I'll certainly run it for you - we can slot another character in for Words of the Ancients. Sometimes your faction calls.

Besides, you have a deva to counsel anyway.

I am so excited about a Concordance faction! My sylph psychic used to work for the Concordance until they asked her to join the Pathfinder Society, so this is so perfect for her!

What’s also disappointing is that the Scarab Sages are the only Garund-based and focused faction. Instead of expanding outwards into Golarion beyond tne Inner Sea region, the Society seems to be contracting in on itself.

The blog introducing the Concordance faction is now live, too.

They re also the only non evilish bookworm faction in a society that prizes knowledge . I guess knowledge is power, power is corruption, study hard be evil?

Always disappointed to see factions disappear, hopefully their departure will be handled significantly better than Shadow Lodge(#StillCastsAShadow). For an organization devoted to obtaining knowledge and preserving history, removal of the history preservation faction strikes me as a very odd choice. From my perspective, it makes much more sense for Liberty's Edge to be given the boot, since the Society doesn't particularly care about social justice, and has a good motivation to cut ties with everything Maldris touched.

It's also strange to me that the Concordance of Elements is showing up again, considering Unleashing the Untouchable pretty handily ended the Society's forays into the elemental planes...

Rather specific but important question

What’s also disappointing is that the Scarab Sages are the only Garund-based and focused faction. Instead of expanding outwards into Golarion beyond tne Inner Sea region, the Society seems to be contracting in on itself.

I am torn on it. I still sort of question why the Lantern Lodge faction was ever retired at all since it continues to be a major story focus but the society DOES go to the Dragon Empires quite frequently and this season has seen a lot of the society going to northern Garund, so I do expect the Sages to still be around...unless we as players decide for their organization to get destroyed in 9-07.

But it is being replaced by a planes/nature focused faction set in the Elemental Plane of Air so its hard to call this a real contraction.

That said my good aligned scholarly sorts do now find themselves without a home. Grand Lodge just never feels like the right fit (without the shadow lodge I really have no idea what supporting the decemvirate even means to be honest.)

I guess they will go to the Silver Crusade because at least they seek to use the society's awesome power for good, even if beyond the Durant Valais story they havent...done much since year 5.

Rogar Valertis wrote:

I have a couple of Scarab Sages and while I'm not happy to see the faction gone I hope they get better closure than what happened to the Shadow Lodge...

Salvation of the Sages is a textbook example of how to end a faction's story.

True, other than that we have 2/3 of a season to go... plenty of time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. ;-)

No, really, as sad as I am to see them go, I'm confident they'll get a respectable send-off!

I have a number of homeless druids and ranger-types who are already very excited about this!

The only question I've got is whether we'll get a new set of faction vanities for the Concordance, or if maybe they'll end up with the old Osirian vanities instead?

I only had one Scarab Sage character, so I'm not particularly feeling the sting of this, but I understand why people might not be happy.

I have two Scarab Sage characters. One is level 11.2 and started as Osirion and has played almost every Scarab Sage mission. The other is level 1.

I'd intended to have my high-level character go out by slow-tracking Words of the Ancients and the Waking Rune (since she's hit all the other Lissalla 7-11s in preparation), but now I think I need to slow-track Salvation of the Sages and then Waking Rune.

Since Scarab Sages is getting retired I have a quick question, there's a vanity called "the Risen" for the Scarab Sages which calls out if we have that vanity we can never leave the faction... so after the retirement of the faction do the Scarabs with "the Risen" also get retired?

Since Scarab Sages is getting retired I have a quick question, there's a vanity called "the Risen" for the Scarab Sages which calls out if we have that vanity we can never leave the faction... so after the retirement of the faction do the Scarabs with "the Risen" also get retired?

I recall we ran into the same concern when the Osirion faction turned into the Scarab Sages. I don't remember the exact resolution then (I can search for it a little later), but I recall the decision was pretty tame. I would not expect any issues with that vanity at the end of Season 9—particularly not a character's forced retirement.

Rather specific but important question

** spoiler omitted **

I agree, that is an important question, since I had to blow some PP on a raise dead a while back. I wouldn't want miss out on the thing, even if with my primary mental stat being Charisma it makes me an unusual Scarab Sage.

I applaud the change. Druids have been needin' the love for a long time now. Welcome to the party, Concordance!

I appreciate the advanced warning, and to be honest despite at least one nitpick I have with the scenario Salvation of the sages is a worthy conclusion to the faction's story.

---

To be honest, the Sages where a faction that was kinda hard to sell to new players, and I would bet that locally it is pretty rare. The Concordance has distinct advantages when it comes to that.

neat!

This announcement nearly caused me to drop out of a session tonight. There is no good faction for the character I'm playing to go to. She is an historian and archaeologist who finds the Scarab Sages a perfect fit. There really does need to be a faction for students of history, even if the Scarab Sages themselves are no longer part of the Society.

I hate to say it, but the Grand Lodge can cover that niche. Nowhere near as well as the Scarab Sages, of course.

"Wh' th' he'??? CAYDEN WEPT!"

"'t'ain' righ', I tell y'. Ain' righ' a' all."

I started PFS during Season 5. At the time I looked at the factions and felt that Osirion and Taldor were kinda MEH. But after seeing stuff unfold as a GM and seeing the whole picture I realized my first impression was wrong and the new Sovereign Court and Scarab Sage factions became my favorites.

Seeing Scarab Sages retired as a faction will hurt, thought I understand the need of the Concord of Elements and will move at least one char to that (thought not my Scarab Sages). The few times I played this past 2 years were with my Scarab Sage characters. Guess I will have a reason to go back to other characters.

Just promise me that #9-07: Salvation of the Sages will be at GenCon in case I miss my chance at Who Yer Con.

So, if all our factions that we *like* get retired, can we just pick 'Unaffiliated' as our faction and get 'Unaffilated' credit, and then at some future point get a free transfer to any new faction that pops up?

Edit: No, not Grand Lodge, thank you. I have very few folks that fit that 'mindset'.

I'm really getting burned on this as 5 characters of mine won't fit in any other faction. It's essentially character death for all of them. Why can't we lose one of the more boring factions?

Because none of the boring factions have fulfilled their story arcs

Arashi al-Ranginori wrote:

I wonder if we will be able to keep the faction journal benefits we've accumulated up until now.

John Compton wrote:

In addition, members of the Scarab Sages faction will keep any benefits earned on Scarab Sages Faction Journal Cards, but once the faction's retired, they won't be able to fulfill further goals.

So I have until February to get the Salvation of the Sages boon....

"It will be interesting to see what our new leader will do with the resources of the Edge at his disposal, and what our goals as a faction will be in the coming months.

Will he cleave close to his original path, or will he grow outwards even as others grow with him?"

Kalindlara wrote:

Arashi al-Ranginori wrote:

I wonder if we will be able to keep the faction journal benefits we've accumulated up until now.

John Compton wrote:

In addition, members of the Scarab Sages faction will keep any benefits earned on Scarab Sages Faction Journal Cards, but once the faction's retired, they won't be able to fulfill further goals.

So I have until February to get the Salvation of the Sages boon....

You have until the end of July to do so.

My only local venue closed a while back, and likely won't reopen until early next year. So I'm glad there's a little more time. I have to gain from five to nine levels before time's up, though... so I'm a little worried.

Because none of the boring factions have fulfilled their story arcs

Well if they would quit being boring maybe they would.

But seriously, is that really how this works? When a faction completes their goals they vanish from existence instead of just finding new goals like you'd expect? Because if that's the case what's the point in making a character loyal to a specific faction if you're eventually gonna be given a choice to either make up a reason for them to join a different faction or throw all their chronicle sheets away?

Because none of the boring factions have fulfilled their story arcs

Which kind of brings up two other things...

Will folks who are in the Scarab Sages at retirement be allowed to keep their Scarab Sages icon on the forums?

And...

Lantern Lodge fulfilled their arc by bringing the Society to Tian Xia and vice versa.

Shadow Lodge did their thing (most of it still under Grand Lodge censoring ie, haven't played some of it yet)

Guaril Karela made the most un-even trade deal *ever* with the Trade Prince and it resulted in a lop-sided faction that has two heads and confused agendas. Only based on how my characters have been treated by the Exchange, not necessarily the reality.

The Silver Crusade is unlikely to be retired any time soon, as there is always evil in the world, right?

The Dark Archive is unlikely to be retired any time soon, as they are the ones who run 'Lodge 13'

Liberty's Edge is all about freedom and abolition and there's still a buncha slavery in the world, so unlikely that they'll be retired any time soon...

Grand Lodge is The House.

Did I miss any of the current ones?

When a faction completes their goals they vanish from existence instead of just finding new goals like you'd expect?

You mean like Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira, and Taldor did?

Corwin Icewolf wrote:

When a faction completes their goals they vanish from existence instead of just finding new goals like you'd expect?

You mean like Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira, and Taldor did?

Beats me, I wasn't in pfs when they were around. But I thought they went away because they decided to make the factions non regional. Scarab sages had similar goals to osirion only not osirion specific, and so on.