The Godsrain Prophecies Part Five

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

One interesting line of thought that I have yet to formally consider goes beyond the question of whether these “prophecies” should be considered equally as a whole to whether the whole of each of them should be equally considered. If, for example, I dismiss the effects of a particular god’s supposed death, does this mean that I am dismissing their prophesied death altogether? Does every part of a prophecy have to come true for it to be considered prophetic? If the vast majority proves true, what is wrong could be an error of translation, interpretation, or prophetic understanding. On the other hand, if most of a prophecy is false, what is accurate is likely a lucky guess. The Windsong Corollaries never reach this sort of sentence-level consideration (a gap that I might perhaps publish a small paper in when my Lady does not need me, so long as I keep things strictly theoretical). I expect a reading of Beyond Aroden: Failed Foretelling in the Age of Prophecy is in short order to establish a bit of a baseline, but it will be up to my Lady (with my assistance, I hope!) to determine what level of possibility and accuracy any of these must have to be fully considered a work of prophecy.

–Yivali, Apprentice Researcher for the Lady of Graves




The Death of Erastil

Erastil runs. Gallops really. Hoof over hoof, his antlers gleaming, bounding over shallow stream and whirling under tree branch, his body flying forward in a streak of joyous motion. He cannot always be the stag, but there are times he needs to run and feel the wind across his legs, familiar as the dawn but as new as any sunrise. He runs until he’s just past tired and ready for a drink of water, shaking leaves from antlers in a spray of autumn colors and transforming back into the form his followers are used to—horned head and wiry body of an age-old master hunter.

But he is not the only age-old creature resting in this wood. Something emerges, slowly, from a refuge it has tired of, assorted sharp and fleshy parts dragging its pouch of hunger up from somewhere down below. Even Erastil’s well-trained eyes do not quite see it slowly crawling, clawing onto haunch and belly, drawing closer to the god and waiting for the perfect moment. Not until the instant that it rises up to strike.

Erastil runs. Scrambles really. Step after step, bow at the ready, preparing even as he flees, trampling through a clutch of bushes, plunging through the river’s cold, trying to stay ahead until he whirls around to face what hunts him, show it that he’s unafraid. But there are things that even Old Deadeye has no defense against. And when that something catches him, its jaw wide and devouring, it turns what once was hunting god to nothing more than helpless prey, only stopping its ravaging to marvel at the flavor. There’s something here it’s never savored, in between the crunch and squelch—divinely filling in a way that it has never known before and now can never be without. Once it has consumed its meal and all that’s left is bits of bone, it scents the air and twists its body, reveling in the aftertaste of something past mortality, and lurches through the undergrowth to find another morsel.

Followers of Erastil who felt his blessings fade track his remaining footprints to the place he fought and fell. (There’s luck in that, or Jaidi’s hand, steady despite a widow’s grief, putting firm hands against their backs until they find whatever place his hint of dust remains.) A hunt is called, a holy ride, in honor of the fallen god, to track and take whatever beast has left their altars bare. But all they find across their path are other grieving worshippers whose gods (most small in name and reach, their purpose only known by handfuls) now are merely carcasses, devoured by some wretched beast that no one ever glimpses. The Hunters offer shelter and a purpose to these wanderers, and some find comfort in the endless chase across the Great Beyond, even as they never seem to find the subject of their search. Whatever killed Erastil, whatever hunts the other gods, is always hidden from their view, is always one quick turn away, is always adding to the trail of carnage just ahead.

The gods take notice of the beast, each readying their own defense. Some draw together, forming pacts and promising to shield each other—the radiance of the Dawnflower reaches the realm of the Midnight Lord, Norgorber and Iomedae draw swords with Cayden Cailean, the half-abandoned Summerlands fill up with frightened deities—but others use the moment as the perfect time to strike. Gorum turns on the cowardly and sharpens blades against their backs, Asmodeus carves clauses into those he has a contract with, Calistria builds safety from the ashes of revenge. Pantheons rise and fall and splinter in the shadow of the beast, endlessly repositioning even when it has gone to ground, its hunger sated only briefly every new time that it feeds.

Among the mortals, fear takes root as one god or another falls, and those who live are sometimes absent, too caught up in safety to give followers their strength. Some flourish in these absences that gods might once have kept in check, selling hope or cruelty as counters to divinity, creating order from the chaos any way they can. And when the gods grow used to fear and venture back into the world (beast still lurking in the corners, drooling at the prey), some find their temples turned to rubble, dusty from years of disuse, or built over to some new purpose they can barely recognize, and must now find a new path in a half-godless Golarion, even as something in the shadows starts to hunt

An array of 20 portraits depicting the gods of the Pathfinder setting. Asmodeus, Cayden Cailean, Erastil, Pharasma, and Urgathoa’s portraits have been marked “safe.”

When the god of the hunt falls prey to an unknown hunter, what chance do the beast’s other quarries have of avoiding a similar fate?





Much as I found it distasteful to read about, I wish this supposed prophecy had gone into greater detail about this “beast” with what I suppose is a taste for divine flesh (a prospect I can barely conceive of, let alone comment on!). While I did attempt to use my rudimentary artistic talents to create some sort of sketch, even my best guess at the appearance of this beast has fallen quite short, as it matches nothing I am currently aware of. Either my skills are not up to the task, the prophecy has purposefully been vague, or this beast has never been seen before. If the latter, this is yet another reason to doubt this prophecy in particular. Anything this powerful would surely be noted in someone’s annals. Beyond that, though, the breakdown of the gods noted here seems very unlikely. In both my studies and experiences of the gods, I have found them to be quite devoted to those who worship them (each in their own way, of course), even when to their own detriment. No matter how horrible the threat, I do not believe mortals would be abandoned in this way, nor that they would abandon their gods in return. Or, at least, I do not wish to believe it. Best, I think, to move on to some new, and hopefully less troubling, prophecy.


About the Author

Erin Roberts has been thrilled to be able to contribute a few small threads to the fabric of Golarion in the pages of books like Lost Omens Firebrands, Lost Omens Highhelm, and Lost Omens Travel Guide. In addition to her work for Paizo, she freelances across the TTRPG world (and was selected as a Diana Jones Award Emerging Designer Program Winner in 2023), has had fiction published in magazines including Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and The Dark, and talks about writing every week on the Writing Excuses podcast. Catch up with her latest at linktr.ee/erinroberts.

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I hope it's Desna or Gozreh or Shelyn, because those are all gods I want to not die, but also want to see what might happen IF they died.


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LandSwordBear wrote:
keftiu wrote:
Unicore wrote:
keftiu wrote:
Our hint for this week from Luis: the deity has a two-syllable name.
This is a hint about which god will be featured this week, right?
Yes, this week's prophecy, not the actual dead deity.

Which makes it the deity who is going to not-die.

Wow. So amazingly…amazing. Stop with the tension. I might…care.

If you don't care, why comment? The folks enjoying this are having fun here.


I'm just hoping Nethys is either dead, or in this list of prophecies. I want to see how he dies. Bets are either on spontaneous combustion, or some magicless technological death.


I would feel so much better if the next Deity marked safe is Shelyn.

Like Pharasma and Shelyn were the two I really didn't want to lose.


Violant wrote:
I'm just hoping Nethys is either dead, or in this list of prophecies. I want to see how he dies. Bets are either on spontaneous combustion, or some magicless technological death.

I want Nethys's prophecy to just be "the entire universe is consumed in a explosion"


Or the knowledge they've been holding back spills out and drives people insane.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
PossibleCabbage wrote:
I would feel so much better if the next Deity marked safe is Shelyn.

I'd like it to be Desna, but for hype train "keep people engaged in the countdown" purposes, my bet is on Gozreh or Gorum.

Community and Social Media Specialist

We derailed there for a bit. Please keep things on topic. I'm still interested to hear who everyone things the reveal is going to be tomorrow.


I'm hoping for Nethys or...is that Zon-Kuthon with the head spikes?

Anyway, that would give the card a diagonal bingo.


I predict Gozreh simply on the basis of one of my friends playing a cleric of Gozreh in our Strength of Thousands game.


Well, going on my earlier crazy ideas about origin alignment and row....

Sanityfaerie wrote:

So... based on my wacky out-there hypothesis, we should expect to see safe calls for...

- Sarenrae (only one remaining on Row 1 that is not LG)
- Abadar (only one remaining on Row 2 that is not CG or NG)
- One of Gozreh or Nethys (Row 3 needs a second, and it makes more sense to double up on N than on LN)
- One of Calistria or Gorum
- One of Rovagug or Lamashtu.

We'll see, I suppose.

Now we hear that it's going to be two syllables, which leaves us with Gozreh, Gorum, or Nethys.

I think it's not Gorum. First, I think he's a decent pick for the guy who eventually gets the axe (He's kind of bland, and not in a good way. He isn't a particularly good patron for heroes, villains, or rogues, and he's not really structural to anything.) and second I just don't think that his death story is all that interesting. I mean, I'm sure you could make it interesting with enough work, but it's better when you have a good prompt to work with, right? I also don't expect Calistria to be the one that bites it, and at the same time she does have a fun story.

Side note: it occurs to me... given the history we're working with, Arazni actually does make a decent patron to the Orcs in some ways - at least to some of them. They've certainly had enough things done to them that they might not want to ever forgive. I don't think she makes sense as a primary deity of the Orcs, because I don't think that it makes sense for Paizo to take their culture in that direction, but I could totally see her as a strong secondary - especially given how she's likely to smile on hatred of the Whispering Tyrant in particular.

That leaves us down to Gozreh or Nethys... and both of them have potentially interesting stories to tell. I'm going to echo the thought had elsewhere that Nethys would make a lot of sense to show up as one of the two - either one of the 10 saved or the final lost. Gozreh feels like they're a fun story for one of the ten, but maybe not so much as the one to fall? So there I'm going to guess that either it'll be Nethys or it'll be Gozreh and we'll see Nethys at the finale.

It's constructed on some rickety logic indeed, but if you want a guess from me, that's my best guess.

Liberty's Edge

I hope for Gorum, both to know what can defeat the ultimate warrior and to make sure he is safe.

I've been waiting too long to be able to play a good Champion of Gorum to lose this now.


I'm saying Desna's next. Just because I still remember a villain write-up from 1e of a Rakshasa Oracle, Iksha the Void Star, whose ultimate goal is to EAT Desna. And that would make a trippy what-if story.


Elfteiroh wrote:
About Ko’kquali, its description ends up being very different from Igroon

The only thing that was consistent in the descriptions and depictions of Ko'kquali in that story was that it hated dragons. The characters in the story couldn't even agree on its name, or if the "five" in it referred to eyes, teeth, or "points".

Likewise, nobody in Ready? Fight! can agree on what Igroon's appearance is ("Many reputable sources claim that Igroon’s scales can bend light in order to camouflage itself. Others insist that Igroon’s form is indeterminate").

"The Dying Wish" didn't describe Ko'kquali's teeth as being tree-like, it described the petrified grove of trees off Jalmeray as being tooth-like.

Luis' cute little fella has five pointy front-mouth teeth ("a creature only called Ko’kquali, so named for the formation of its teeth ... Ko’kquali. Five points. Not eyes") and, just for fun, a tail with antler points.


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I'm thinking about Luis's prompt of "what kind of creature can kill a god" in the sense that traditionally Pathfinder deities cannot be killed because they do not have rules, they operate on the level of stories rather than mechanics. Lamashtu can kill Curchanus not because of her attack bonus and his AC but because that's what happens in the story.

So something can kill a deity because it is the sort of thing that consumes stories. It's like something infused with what Fallen London calls "irrigo" (basically radiation that makes you forget, potentially anything) or some kind of black hole creature that consumes information and renders it irretrievably lost (it's not likely that actual black holes do this, but some scientists have thought they do.)

Possibly some creature born in the Akashic Record that was nurtured in the Dark Tapestry.


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Meet, cutting it close this week! Was being chased by my own beasts...
Godsrain Contingencies (5) Erastil and the Unbidden Beast out now!
In the wake of Erastil’s death a beast has risen and the hunt is on. But is it for the beast, or from it? Who will join and who will leave? What gods will rise and which will fall? And as the gods linger out of reach, how will the Forsaken Cleric’s move on in life?
People who've already purchased can head back on over to Pathfinder Infinite to download your updates. For people who're interested now, purchase it here!
Week 5 is 4+ pages dedicated to new material for a world with retreating gods.
* 1 cleric class archetype, 3 new doctrines
* 1 new deity entry for the Unbidden Beast
* 3 new feats
* 3 faithful reactions


Sanityfaerie wrote:

Well, going on my earlier crazy ideas about origin alignment and row....

Sanityfaerie wrote:

So... based on my wacky out-there hypothesis, we should expect to see safe calls for...

- Sarenrae (only one remaining on Row 1 that is not LG)
- Abadar (only one remaining on Row 2 that is not CG or NG)
- One of Gozreh or Nethys (Row 3 needs a second, and it makes more sense to double up on N than on LN)
- One of Calistria or Gorum
- One of Rovagug or Lamashtu.

We'll see, I suppose.

Now we hear that it's going to be two syllables, which leaves us with Gozreh, Gorum, or Nethys.

...

That leaves us down to Gozreh or Nethys... and both of them have potentially interesting stories to tell. I'm going to echo the thought had elsewhere that Nethys would make a lot of sense to show up as one of the two - either one of the 10 saved or the final lost. Gozreh feels like they're a fun story for one of the ten, but maybe not so much as the one to fall? So there I'm going to guess that either it'll be Nethys or it'll be Gozreh and we'll see Nethys at the finale.

It's constructed on some rickety logic indeed, but if you want a guess from me, that's my best guess.

So... my rickety logic appears to have resulted a successful prediction and become somewhat less rickety thereby. That's cool. Assuming that it holds, then, the remaining picks of the 10 are going to be

- Sarenrae
- Abadar
- One of Calistria or Gorum (I'd guess Calistria)
- One of Rovagug or Lamashtu.

I'm not going to put any real confidence in it until maybe the last one or two, though.

The one that I'm least confident in is Sarenrae, as (for other reasons) I think that she has a reasonably high likelihood of being the deity that winds up dead. If she shows up as Prophecy Six or something, and then another for Prophecy 7 then I'm thinking this all starts looking pretty solid.

Shadow Lodge

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MadamReshi wrote:
Arachnofiend wrote:
If a beast starts devouring gods the first thing I'd check is if anyone's seen Achaekek recently.

Yes. What IS Achaekek's role in all of this?

He's supposed to protect the gods, right?

Roles subject to change.

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