Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse: coming June 2021!

Author List: Laura-Shay Adams, Mariam Ahmad, Jahmal Brown, Misha Bushyager, Alexandria Bustion, Duan Byrd, John Compton, Gabriel Hicks, TK Johnson, Michelle Jones, Joshua Kim, Ron Lundeen, Stephanie Lundeen, Lu Pellazar, Mikhail Rekun, Nate Wright, Jabari Weathers, Hillary Moon Murphy, Naomi Fritts, Sasha Laranoa Harving, Kent Hamilton, Travis Lionel, and Sarah Davis.

Anadi and Gnolls... damn. It's June yet? Give me the book.

I'm over the moon at this announcement, haven't stopped bouncing around excitedly since the stream! Brilliant to see so many black authors working on it too!

We just need some high level time skipping spells now to get to June quicker....

As someone who still uses Pathfinder 1, do the lore books like this still work for back-porting, or did PF2 do crazy stuff to the world like advancing it 100 years or having a great cataclysm? (Besides the silly total rewrite of goblins.)

did PF2 do crazy stuff to the world like advancing it 100 years or having a great cataclysm?

Not at all. Same world, same timeline, no retcons

All of the lore in 2nd edition books works fine with 1st edition. We advanced the timeline forward about ten years (to match the real world timeline advancement), but for a book like this, where we've not done much at all in 1st edition, that time advancement is almost a non-issue.

Color me crazy excited for Anadi ancestry

As someone who still uses Pathfinder 1, do the lore books like this still work for back-porting, or did PF2 do crazy stuff to the world like advancing it 100 years or having a great cataclysm? (Besides the silly total rewrite of goblins.)

Basically it was just a small 10 year time skip so the PF1 adventure paths were considered to have happened and had a conclusion one way or the other just so they have a common point to move forward.

As someone who still uses Pathfinder 1, do the lore books like this still work for back-porting, or did PF2 do crazy stuff to the world like advancing it 100 years or having a great cataclysm?

The timeline has advanced slightly, in that all the APs have happened and one or two other things have happened during the time that took. In particular, relevant to the Mwangi Expanse, Sargava's government got overthrown creating the nation of Vidrian.

But we're talking a bit over 10 years since the PF1 Inner Sea World Guide, not a huge time jump.

(Besides the silly total rewrite of goblins.)

Goblins actually haven't been rewritten that much. Most are still unpleasant and dangerous. Some specific tribes, mostly around Isger, have made some changes, and gotten some publicity, but it's not like all goblins are suddenly wonderful and firendly.

I can't put into words how much I'm happy to see this announcement! Gods, ancestries and a big amount of lore about my favorite region.

And 312 pages!! That's more that's twice the size of Legends!
Almost the size of the Bestiary 2!
Oooh, can't wait! This will be an awesome book!

I love you Paizo. You're the best. :3

Yussssssssss!

I wonder if they will have any post-AP Saventh Yi updates. That was the only AP my group did start to finish and it would be kinda neat to see something more being done with the city of seven spears. The city once again coming to life with people could be cool.

So happy to hear this announced! Man that artwork is gorgeous!

Hmm

Super hyped about this one! Keep them coming!

*Hands raised*

ALL HAIL THE GNOLL GODS!

This looks so good and is exactly what I want.

And if we get the Absalom book in the first half of 2021, it's gonna be an insanely great six months for Golarion!

Nothing makes me happier than the idea that Pathfinder 2E is going to go forward with Starfinder's philosophy on weird/alien ancestries. Loving everything about the Anadi, please keep giving us more monstrous options!

I'm gonna be a spider-friend!

Grippli!

...er...I mean this book looks interesting. ;)

Awesome, where can I read more about these races before the release of this book? Which I'm absolutely buying.

LOVE THE ART. But hm, I can't help but feel that the title "Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse" looks a little awkward--it's like using "Lost Omens" as an adjective? It similarly doesn't work to call Europe "the Earth Europe". I think it'll make more sense if future posts put a colon in it like "Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse"; the store pages of every single Lost Omens product put colons in their titles like that.

LOVE THE ART. But hm, I can't help but feel that the title "Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse" looks a little awkward--it's like using "Lost Omens" as an adjective? It similarly doesn't work to call Europe "the Earth Europe". I think it'll make more sense if future posts put a colon in it like "Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse"; the store pages of every single Lost Omens product put colons in their titles like that.

It's probably like Lost Omens - Legends, or Lost Omens - Character Guide. On the cover they will have the Lost Omens logo, then a curtain rod thing underneath it, then "Mwangi Expanse" in a bigger type. Just look at the covers of the other three Lost Omens books.

Syri wrote:

LOVE THE ART. But hm, I can't help but feel that the title "Lost Omens Mwangi Expanse" looks a little awkward--it's like using "Lost Omens" as an adjective? It similarly doesn't work to call Europe "the Earth Europe". I think it'll make more sense if future posts put a colon in it like "Lost Omens: Mwangi Expanse"; the store pages of every single Lost Omens product put colons in their titles like that.

It's probably like Lost Omens - Legends, or Lost Omens - Character Guide. On the cover they will have the Lost Omens logo, then a curtain rod thing underneath it, then "Mwangi Expanse" in a bigger type. Just look at the covers of the other three Lost Omens books.

This is correct.

"Lost Omens" is the name of our campaign setting. We use it in titles so that folks know where the book is set, pretty much. Not everyone understands that some RPGs aren't set in the Forgotten Realms or Middle Earth... :-P

"Lost Omens" also refers to the Age of Lost Omens. So Lost Omens Mwangi as a phrase would not be any more incorrect than Victorian London or Renaissance Italy. It's the time and the place.

Yes yes YES YES! Man this is exactly what I needed to see. I've been wanting to play as a peacock spider in an rpg ever since I learned what peacock spiders were. Perfect for PF2 as well; there's so much battle-dancing to be done!

I'm also very happy to see more Mwangi in general. It's already my new favourite part of the setting, basically entirely thanks to one old boi and his school. Gotta love interdisciplinary nature magic in a genuinely functional academy of magic. Plus, who doesn't love ten magic Animorphs??

Also interested to see more of Walkena and such. Guy could give Razmir some tips, y'know, if not for the whole hatred of outsiders thing.

I would like to clarify something. Is the Mwangi Expanse completely different from North Garund? I mean, Geb, Next and Osirion are all outside of the Mwangi right? The Mwangi is actually in North Garund, IIRC.

Ultra excited about this one! The PAX online announcement for this was killer, and made my hype level go to 11.

Wonder if it is safe to assume the Maulijae and Zenj, and any other culture or ethnicity, may be handled as Heritages here? That would be fun. I'm all for the more general ones, like Woodland Elves and Wintertouched Humans basically representing regional people in a general sense. But for a book like this, I would love to see more specific cultures, ethnicities, regions, and the like get Heritage treatment. Gives them more nuance. Like a Kallijae and Ekujae would be different enough to provide different bonuses and effects than just an generalized Jungle Elf; such as bonus damage to the Gorilla King/Usaro forces or militant training for the two mentioned tribes.

Wonder if it is safe to assume the Maulijae and Zenj, and any other culture or ethnicity, may be handled as Heritages here? That would be fun. I'm all for the more general ones, like Woodland Elves and Wintertouched Humans basically representing regional people in a general sense. But for a book like this, I would love to see more specific cultures, ethnicities, regions, and the like get Heritage treatment. Gives them more nuance. Like a Kallijae and Ekujae would be different enough to provide different bonuses and effects than just an generalized Jungle Elf; such as bonus damage to the Gorilla King/Usaro forces or militant training for the two mentioned tribes.

They very much seem to separate ethnicities and heritages, instead for certain ehtnicities they will often indicate which heritages they are likely to take, we see this a fair bit in the character guide.

Ly'ualdre wrote:

Wonder if it is safe to assume the Maulijae and Zenj, and any other culture or ethnicity, may be handled as Heritages here? That would be fun. I'm all for the more general ones, like Woodland Elves and Wintertouched Humans basically representing regional people in a general sense. But for a book like this, I would love to see more specific cultures, ethnicities, regions, and the like get Heritage treatment. Gives them more nuance. Like a Kallijae and Ekujae would be different enough to provide different bonuses and effects than just an generalized Jungle Elf; such as bonus damage to the Gorilla King/Usaro forces or militant training for the two mentioned tribes.

They very much seem to separate ethnicities and heritages, instead for certain ehtnicities they will often indicate which heritages they are likely to take, we see this a fair bit in the character guide.

I'm aware. What I'm saying though is that I would like for them to be a little more specific when it comes to Ethnicity, Culture, and similar things, where it is appropriate. For a book like this, which dives specifically into the lore of a region, it seems fine to actually make a Heritage specific to the Maulijae and Zenj tribes.

Maybe this would be catered too a little better through Backgrounds, considering the complexity we've gotten with some of those in the APG and the fact that we do already have region, settlement, and similarly specific Backgrounds. Either way, I would like to mechanically benefit from being a militant Ekujae or a sailing and fishing Bonuwat. Pathfinder remains a setting specific game, imo. I'd like some of that setting to shine a bit more in the mechanics.

Giving ethnicities mechanics is pretty dangerous ground, and something they will most likely completely avoid.

There will be new heritages, but they will most likely be something like "a seafaring human" heritage which many Bonuwat have, or some sort of academic heritage associated with the Magambyaa of which many are Zenj.

HYPE!
I expect that while we may see new heritages for core ancestries, I don't think they will be tied to specific ethnicities/nations/peoples as that would kinda suggest that characters from those groups couldn't take other heritages, which is not great.

Not particularly. Doesn't restrict much more than most others. You can be a Desert Elf or Woodland Elf, and be from Garund. Don't get me wrong, I understand the generalization. But for books like this, I don't see why we should throttle creative space. It just gives you another option, one more closely tied to a particular thing or idea. No reason as a member of the Ekujae, that you couldn't choose from the Ekujae or Woodland Heritage. Nor does it prevent you from being an Ekujae if you happen to live in Cheliax. They remain as flexiable as any other, that are simply more setting specific. We have a lot of setting specific content already. You can be a Bellflower Tiller outside of Cheliax. You can be a Zenj outside of the Mwangi, and have mechanically tailored abilities to represent their more niche culture.

Again, maybe Backgrounds are more the direction this would need to go. I have wanted to see Ancestry specific Backgrounds. So I would take either approach.

I would like to clarify something. Is the Mwangi Expanse completely different from North Garund? I mean, Geb, Next and Osirion are all outside of the Mwangi right? The Mwangi is actually in North Garund, IIRC.

The Mwangi Expanse is a distinct region of Garund that does not include Geb, Nex, etc. They are neighboring regions of the same continent, with very slight cultural overlap.

Yeah, I'm keen on backgrounds based on ethnicity or people group, but I'm less so heritages or anything particularly more mechanical.

Grippli!!

Here soon, perhaps we will get a Tibbit equivalent.

Playable gnolls? Check.

African-inspired lore book written by authors of color? Also check.

Lore book longer than even the standard rules-heavy books? Check.

New elven cultures explored in detail? Check.

Anadi finally get playable stats? Cheeeeeeck.

I. AM. SO. HYPED!!!

this looks awesome

This was a bold move and I love the depth. Perfect timing. I can’t wait to buy and run a campaign again Iin Mwangi. Also, can’t wait to see which region gets this treatment next. Keep it up!

Currently playing Age of Ashes and on book 2. Players have asked when meeting the Andari in book 1 and the Grippli in book 2 if they are playable. Very exciting this Thursday to be able to tell them yes, as long as they can wait for next campaign.

Not particularly. Doesn't restrict much more than most others. You can be a Desert Elf or Woodland Elf, and be from Garund. Don't get me wrong, I understand the generalization. But for books like this, I don't see why we should throttle creative space. It just gives you another option, one more closely tied to a particular thing or idea. No reason as a member of the Ekujae, that you couldn't choose from the Ekujae or Woodland Heritage. Nor does it prevent you from being an Ekujae if you happen to live in Cheliax. They remain as flexiable as any other, that are simply more setting specific. We have a lot of setting specific content already. You can be a Bellflower Tiller outside of Cheliax. You can be a Zenj outside of the Mwangi, and have mechanically tailored abilities to represent their more niche culture.

Again, maybe Backgrounds are more the direction this would need to go. I have wanted to see Ancestry specific Backgrounds. So I would take either approach.

The issue is when you start mechanically tying ethnicity to stats. It’s not a far leap from “Ekujae are all mechanically like this” to some very uncomfortable racist stereotypes.

please don't gate all the new stuff behind "must be mwangian"

i don't understand why they do that and don't see much reason for it. What, exactly, breaks if everyone can be a Turpin Rowe lumberjack?

Oooh I am totally on board with this - the Exapanse has been overdue for a detailed look at, especially with later additions of catfolk/amurrun, anadi, Holomog etc from 1st edition.

So excited!

This book features six new ancestries: anadi, conrasu, gnoll, golomas, grippli, and shisks!

Yeen so excited! Yeen just can't hide it! <3

Great to have such a big book on this region. One of my favorite APs Serpent's Skull will benefit from this when I run it for PF2 next year.

This is the coolest news I've read about PF all year. Looking very much forward to it. Hopefully the Mwangi Expanse will be made as interesting and diverse region as say Kobold Press' Southlands.

Really curious to see what the Goloma, Shisk, and Conrasu look like.

Instant purchase for me, I've been waiting for these big lore books for a while.

This does raise the question, since Absalom was planned, and is stated to be out around early 2021 hopefully, and the Mwangi Expanse coming in June, can we expect other books of this caliber detailing other parts of the world?

Like Lost Omens: The Broken Lands, or Lost Omens: Old Cheliax?

Cause I hope so.

Gnoll ancestries?!?!?! SOLD!

Grippli! Now we just need the grindylow, orang-Pendak and Wayangs for the small ancestries from 1e to be updated.

Incl. The Sprite from the ancestry guide its 9 small ancestries for my smallsquad!

Fidjit, Flower, Fibbles, Friktr, Freya, Fear, Flask, Flix, and now Froak!