Espagnoll's page

Some references to the authors Robert W. Chambers, Ambrose Bierce and William Hope Hodgson, specially Hodgson's work since The Night Land, The House on the Borderland and Carnaki's tales were a vital influence on Lovecraft's mythos. It will be cool to see some of the creatures described in Hodgson's stories like the hog monsters.
Chambers and Bierce should be at least mentioned in the AP's metaplot since they predate Lovecraft.

Espagnoll wrote:

Why walk when you can drive?

I found the lack of vehicles in this AP quite disturbing, so decided to add four bikes (aesthetically similar to those of the film/manga Akyra) in Fires of Creation with an holovideo showing androffan technicians teaching Isuma how that vehicle works and is drive (also a good way to make Isuma do an early cameo).
I also introduce cars and bikes for the Lords of Rust, but far more primitive and very similar to those found in the film Mad Max 3 (using alchemical fuel instead of a solar electric battery like the bikes found on Fires of Creation). It also gave me the excuse of make the Lords of Rust far more aggressive as a gang as they need to raid crusader merchant caravans in their constant need for Numerian fluids or alchemical products for produce their fuel.

Valley of the Brain Collectors. Why aren't you a Hex Map?
Good question, why the third module of Wrath of the Righteous has an hexmap and this module, being also quite sandboxy, doesn't?
Tangentially, I had decided to introduce far more aliens than the module has, like a group of Elder Things, an Eoxian bonesage and his taskforce of skeletal champions equipped with power armors and necroguns, Vercite pirates and a member of the Great Race of Yith.

I made other modifications to the AP, like introduce a legendary figure named Captain Cheen'aro Warkher, an Androffan war hero who sacrificed himself for crash the Divinity before it could reach homeworld and bring the madness of the Dominion with it. I intend to make Cheen'aro's ghost appear in Lords of Rust or at least made the PCs find holovids about him fighting with his mono plaza fighter against the bioship that appears in Valley of the Brain Collectors (which also decided that crash landed by the damage done to it by Cheen'aro). Captain Walker (as he is known on Numeria) legend would be a hint that some of the Divinity crew survived and somehow mixed with the natives, as a big tribute to Mad Max 3, as the stories about his fight

...

-Elder Things: Those were actually Golarion natives, the few still able to fly members of an Elder Thing colony from the Crown of the World. They got contacted by the aboleth, who detected the arrival of the Dominion ship. Aboleths REALLY hate the Dominion as they know them from previous visits (Osirion), but being the aboleths unable to leave some other "affairs" they are involved for attend this invasion, they contact the Elder Things in exchange for an ancient favor. They are hostile to both Mi-Go and Dominion as well as the PCs (The aboleths asked them to kill any possible humanoid witness of the Dominion and the Mi-Go).

-Gernakho de Thrul and Sentinel Terror Trops: Gernakho de Thrul is a fallen from grace Bonesage who has been tasked with surveillance on the Sentinel for control any possible threat coming from beyond the solar system. When the alarms started to wail and detection system signaled that The Cage (Golarion) got a visit from the Dominion, he called a trio of skeletal champions (elite shock troops from before Eox becoming a wasteland) and used a scroll of planetary teleportation for find the Dominion ship and its crew with the intention to annihilate them. Gernakho is hostile towards the Mi-Go, the Elder Things and the Dominion. His shock troops and himself would also be hostile towards the PC in first contact, thinking they are Mi-Go or Brain Devourers in disguise. If somehow the PCs manage to make Gernakho no hostile, he provides a side quest which consist of capturing alive a neh-thalggu so he can bring it to the Sentinel for interrogation. Gernakho will grant a magical property to a tech weapon as a reward.

-Vercite Pirates: A vercite voidship and its pirate crew crash landed after being attacked by the Dominion bioship. Only the captain, her first mate and three members of the crew survived the impact, some of them are gravely injured. Their disposition towards the other aliens is hostile, indifferent towards the PCs. If they are made friendly (mainly by healing the injured crew members) they will offer the PCs the chance to use their campsite as a shelter as well as provide chances of commerce as their cargo is intact. They can offer a sidequest, which would consist to convince the reclamation robot to repair their voidship, being the reward a technological item.

-Great Race of Yith: This one is a prisoner of the Dominion who can be found inside the colony and about to be tortured by a kython with the intention of know the secrets about this ancient race chronomancy. If rescued, can provide the PCs with some support for the final encounter.

Why walk when you can drive?
I found the lack of vehicles in this AP quite disturbing, so decided to add four bikes (aesthetically similar to those of the film/manga Akyra) in Fires of Creation with an holovideo showing androffan technicians teaching Isuma how that vehicle works and is drive (also a good way to make Isuma do an early cameo).
I also introduce cars and bikes for the Lords of Rust, but far more primitive and very similar to those found in the film Mad Max 3 (using alchemical fuel instead of a solar electric battery like the bikes found on Fires of Creation). It also gave me the excuse of make the Lords of Rust far more aggressive as a gang as they need to raid crusader merchant caravans in their constant need for Numerian fluids or alchemical products for produce their fuel.

Valley of the Brain Collectors. Why aren't you a Hex Map?
Good question, why the third module of Wrath of the Righteous has an hexmap and this module, being also quite sandboxy, doesn't?
Tangentially, I had decided to introduce far more aliens than the module has, like a group of Elder Things, an Eoxian bonesage and his taskforce of skeletal champions equipped with power armors and necroguns, Vercite pirates and a member of the Great Race of Yith.

I made other modifications to the AP, like introduce a legendary figure named Captain Cheen'aro Warkher, an Androffan war hero who sacrificed himself for crash the Divinity before it could reach homeworld and bring the madness of the Dominion with it. I intend to make Cheen'aro's ghost appear in Lords of Rust or at least made the PCs find holovids about him fighting with his mono plaza fighter against the bioship that appears in Valley of the Brain Collectors (which also decided that crash landed by the damage done to it by Cheen'aro). Captain Walker (as he is known on Numeria) legend would be a hint that some of the Divinity crew survived and somehow mixed with the natives, as a big tribute to Mad Max 3, as the stories about his fight against the Dominion, his leadership during the riots of the crazed crew and his final sacrifice for not let Unity not the Dominion reach Androffa made him a somewhat messianic figure that would come back and guide those of Androffan ancestry back to home.

I also made Hellion cult be like a mix of televangelism and infomercial, as Hellion damage programming could only found these two references for create his church. The dogma of Hellion is going to be in my campaign quite a satire of wild consumerism and techno fetishism: "Hey true believers, Hellion here with a new thing which would make your life in Scrapwall more exciting! THE HOLY SYMBOL! Its shinny, its metal, its does funny noises and it can be all YOURS if you convert n-n-n-NOW!".

Another modification that I made is Unity not launching itself into space but instead developing a modified with divine and arcane magic extinction wave device which is going to annihilate all the deities linked to Golarion. This device is going to be fired into Axis trough a wormhole and it is basically a weaponized equation which is going to turn most of the deities worshiped on the planet into fictional beings, making Unity the only true deity.

I think I am going to have tons of fun with Hellion.

"Look at you, barbarian, a pa-pa-pathetic adventurer of meat and bone, raging and panting trough my dungeon corridors"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOFZ5fv_pb8

I had this idea you all may like.

Asterion:
NG God of good aligned minotaurs, logical problem solving, physical fitness, friendship and self discovery adventuring.

The son of the god Zeus and the queen of a now long gone kingdom in a far world, Asterion was imprisoned in a labyrinth designed by a genius for contain his evil. Far from truth as Asterion had a good nature, the labyrinth was in fact created as a way to diminish the ranks of subjugated nations' nobles as it was an incredible deadly dungeon. During his youth, Asterion helped many of the presumed sacrifices to him escape until he clashed with the evil hero Theseus. Thought death by the toxins Theseus used in his weapons, his body was leave on the wilderness to be devoured by the beast but the noble minotaur managed to overcome the paralyzing effects of the poison.
Free at least, Asterion made many good deeds but his monstrous appearance forced him to take a new entity, using a ring of change self he assumed human form and he called himself Iolus. During those years he meet and befriended the hero Herakles (and today priest of Asterion argue in a friendly way with those of Herakles about who came with the strategy to defeat the Lernean Hydra) and it is said the facade which Asterion used during these years was revealed by his friend in one of his legendary fits of rage. People instead of react towards Asterion with rejection accepted him as what he was.
Being Asterion incredible modest concerning the affairs of love is not sure if he is the main source of the existence of half-minotaurs in Iblydos.
Asterion teaches his followers problems must be approached with logic first and use brute force as last resort, that an adventurer's life must be for discovery oneself's nature and bring back to your community what you had learned for enrich it and there should be a balance between body and mind. The priest of Asterion train both mind and body, making their temple public gymnasiums and academies in which maths and philosophy are teach to the followers of the White Bull.
Asterion haves a good relation with all the good aligned gods and empyreal lords, specially Herakles, which friendship is as strong as the first day. The only exception is Caiden Caylean, which during a party in Nirvana the drunkard god was so intoxicated he mistook the White Bull for the demon lord Baphomet, breaking Asterion's right horn with a mighty blow before the Labyrinth Solver knocked him out with a self defense upper cut. Calystria was present and it is said she find the sight so hilarious she laughed hysterically for a whole year. Followers of Asterion are still today looking trough the Prime Material Plane for the Lost Horn of Asterion, said to be a powerful good aligned artifact capable of destroy the mightiest evil doers. Some legends said the Horn was found by the Bonesage Malifax of Eox and put in custody in his laboratory hidden in one of the many asteroids of The Diaspora, in a labyrinth guard by mighty robots, powerful undead, runic magic and quantum technology traps.

[Cont.]

Espagnoll wrote:

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Ummm... You do know that (bad Sci-Fi notwithstanding) there is no greater impetus for technological (or magical... or psychic... depending on the cosmology) advances than conflict/war? Unless both sides manage to wipe each other out/destroy their societies in the process (which is extremely uncommon).

I'd say the historical Androffans aren't "Star Trek Federation," by any means. They definitely don't seem to have had a pacifistic/non-interference mindset and were probably expansionist. However, they did seem fairly inclusive and accepting of other "alien" races as crew members on Divinity.

In a conflict between standard sentient humanoids, yes, war effort would had bring a Big Science leap. But we are talking about a civilization of humanoids unfamiliar with magic and facing a "confederation" of beings which are the embodiment of cosmic horror. Just imagine what a spell like glyph of madness could do to a society which is almost all the time on-line being download into the net. In no time the whole Androffan civilization would had end Event Horizon.

Pulling the "they're aliens, they don't have to make sense" card is a cop out. Either they learn from/coopt the "good stuff" from other races they encounter or (eventually), they'll be pushed aside by a race that does.

In a conflict: (1) it's over quickly and the winners appropriate the losers' "good stuff" (tech has a lot of "good stuff" for magic types, and vice versa) before the losing side can make adjustments and start learning, (2) the conflict brings changes on both sides while it lasts as each side starts figuring out/coopting the other's "good stuff" (through various methods, including spies and traitors, interrogation/torture of captured opponents, study of captured equipment, etc.), or (3) they decide to delay/end the conflict and get distracted by something else/want to avoid the secondary consequences of continuing (think the Korean...

According to Lovecraft one of the key elements of cosmic horror is the idea of the alien being as a pure expression of The Other. They make sense, but their own sense, in the meaning its actions can't fit into the moral and ethical scope of mankind. The Dominion of the Black is a more space opera interpretation of the concept exposed by Lovecraft in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature .

If the Dominion of the Black invaded the space of the Androffans, they did not because they need resources nor because of manifest destiny, they are above those elements, they may just did because they are pure Dada and perhaps their sole purpose is bring madness and chaos were logic and reason rule. If you start to introduce elements which rationalize their actions you eradicate their ethos as cosmic horror.
The fall of Androffa (if such thing happened) sure would be a tale of true horror as their most brilliant minds, from xenologists to militar strategist, tried to crack the modus operandi of these incredible ancient beings (perhaps the first ones to achieve sentience) which actions doesn't make sense at all according to what they expect the universe to be!
Just visualize it in your mind, being an Androffan soldier, wearing the most advance/state of the art power armor and equipped with the latest plasma weapon, traveling faster than light in a mighty battle spaceship which suddenly is swarmed by Mi-Go, who doesn't need no spacesuit, which are equipped with weaponry which seem to mess with the laws of physics and which physiology is so out of the norm the expected points to be fatal in a normal living being. Now imagine yourself as a general of said forces, trying to predict which is going to be the next attack of these forces, finding the strategy of the Dominion of the Black doesn't make any sense: One time, they attack the civilians directly instead the places of military importance, the other they just let their forces be slaughtered without offering any resistance. You can't find a chain of command nor seems to be any limit to their resources, there is no clear leader, no political body. And it will no too late you end hearing your own troops chanting names as Nyarlathotep or Shub-Niggurath and behaving "erratically".

Ummm... You do know that (bad Sci-Fi notwithstanding) there is no greater impetus for technological (or magical... or psychic... depending on the cosmology) advances than conflict/war? Unless both sides manage to wipe each other out/destroy their societies in the process (which is extremely uncommon).

I'd say the historical Androffans aren't "Star Trek Federation," by any means. They definitely don't seem to have had a pacifistic/non-interference mindset and were probably expansionist. However, they did seem fairly inclusive and accepting of other "alien" races as crew members on Divinity.

In a conflict between standard sentient humanoids, yes, war effort would had bring a Big Science leap. But we are talking about a civilization of humanoids unfamiliar with magic and facing a "confederation" of beings which are the embodiment of cosmic horror. Just imagine what a spell like glyph of madness could do to a society which is almost all the time on-line being download into the net. In no time the whole Androffan civilization would had end Event Horizon.

Right. "Universe" and "Common Sense" were the two novellas combined to make "Orphans of the Sky", so they weren't neglected in my list :)

Shame on me, I didn't realize that when I did read your post, after all I do own the compilation and I have both tales as a unity in my mind.

"The Inverted World" by Christopher Priest could also a good source for people which language and culture is highly dependent on a mix of limited view of the world and dependency on technology barely undestood.
Concerning mutants, I guess the best depiction in fiction is "Engine Summer" by John Crowley, most of the characters are barbaric post-humans thanks to previous generations genetic engineering and cross breeding with aliens.

Long story short, the player's character is a female aasimar paladin of Shelyn which ended seduced by Nocticula. The queen of succubi basically used her interest into arts for get access to the paladin, managing to have a "moment of intimacy" from which gave a boon to the PC.
During the battle with Baphomet I informed to the player she could summon Nocticula for help them kill the Lord of Minotaurs for once and all, so she did it and after the battled ended just described her being "kidnapped" by Nocticula.
Not convinced by the default outcome of such blasphemous act, got the idea of Nocticula turning this paladin of Shelyn into her champion after the goddess forsake her for her sin.

Following the advice of James Jacobs I made an anti-paladin archetype which is basically only playable with CN characters, it can smite good, evil and law and which powers are associated with the domains of the Queen of Succubus. Lust is still present but is minor aspect of this archetype, granting just bonuses into diplomacy and bluffing.

I am playing in a Kingmaker campaign a NG winter witch who is an adept to the Green Faith. Said character doesn't really belong to Irrisen as she was born in Brevoy and belongs to the Medvyed family, but during her late childhood her father was hired as the bodyguard of a quite troublesome stilyagi and she moved with him to Irrisen, spending most of her teenager years in Chillblight and learning the arts of the winter witches, always careful to not display her good nature openly. The background of the Medvyed family and the contact with the fae in Chillblight made her embrace the spirituality of the Green Faith.

I think it should be interesting if in some cells the PCs find inevitables.

I got my hands recently on AP #77 and after reading the article and the background concerning this demon lord I found perhaps the impression he did escaped from Asmodeus labyrinth is in fact misinformation.
Asmodeus most certainly has manipulated the Lord of Minotaurs for turn him from a brute into a force of political and social destabilization so people feel the need of order deliver by an iron hand in a silk glove. Let me elaborate this, Baphomet could think he did escaped but in fact was let to escape by Asmodeus when the Prince of Darkness find the demon lord has changed his mindset to the point he became less demonic and more devilish (this explains also why his head changed into that of a goat).
This also would explain why Nocticula is so eager to murder him, she knows Baphomet is just a pawn of Asmodeus cosmic political chess for total multiversal domination.

I can see what would happen if the Worldwound expands into Numeria.
"We must awake the great hero from the vaults!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf47DQj_2Gg

Geb was the kind of necrommancer who really didn't wanted to become an undead himself but be pragmatic about mindless undeads making life for the living easier. However his obsession for eradicate Nex became so great this project was twisted into the Geb we know now, one in which intelligent undead made the elite of society. Geb is a very pragmatic and rational individual (if we ignore his obsession for Nex), a good example of this is the commerce relation with the nation once ruled by his arch-nemesis and the rules which basically force intelligent undead behave like civilized individuals and not mindless hunger driven beasts.
Tar-Baphon is just an insane nhilist (or used to be, the imprisonment on Gallowspire perhaps has changed his mind) which pretty much was a pawn of a bigger threat.

Another wild guess:
The spaceship is related to the civilization oppressed by The Salvation Machine [Artifacts & Legends; Saint Cuthbert's Mace], the same A.I. who created the demiplane known as The Machine Armory [The Great Beyond; Other Demiplanes]. If this is correct, then the capital ship name is Ouphineil.

My wild and crazy guess of the week:
Eox Bonesages kidnap humans from a non magical world for their entertainment on the Halls of the Living (maybe Malifax of Eox did this?), rescue mission is assembled and they succeed but when they where leaving the solar system the Bonesages decided to activate Eox orbital defense platform, capital ship is seriously damage and crash lands on Golarion.

Geb and Arazni will do anything for stop Tar-Baphon, as sure they see him as an insane "happy trigger" maniac with a very old fashioned vision of the world, his release will unleash a mass hysteria undead rising scare which would sure affect Geb at a diplomatic level. The Noktoria ghouls will also be interested to keep the Whispering Tyrant in Gallowspire as his obsession to turn everyone into undeads will put the ghouls civilization to social collapse (pretty much the same for vampires), as they need the living.
There is also the chance Tar-Baphon has changed his mindset during his imprisonment and decide to do a different approach to world conquest.
What if Tar-Baphon pulls out an Ozymandias (Watchmen)/Palpatine strategy?
Instead of conquering Golarin in an active way, he sets in motion a conspiracy for unite those evil and neutral inclined nations into an expansionist campaign trough the other worlds of the solar System with him as the supreme commander?

I think Arazni would redeem herself only in the case Tar-Baphon is released from Gallowspire, and with redemption I mean vengeance.
"Whisptering Tyrant, meet the Harlot Queen of Geb!"

Not a bad idea, Espagnoll. It could be the "swords and planets" AP that some have been clamoring for, actually. Moving through space via the Vaults, picking up Mythic power.

That AP should be the answer to certain questions found in previous APs [warning, spoilers ahead]:

-Why the Mi-go are so close to Golarion to the point of being easily "summoned" by the skum? [Carrion Crown]
-What happened to the real Malifax of Eox? [Shattered Star]
-Which kind of information the neh-thalggu agents were looking for in their vivisection of humanoids? [Wrath of the Righteous]
-Why the flumph when to silent? [Misfits monsters redeemed]
-Who or what is the entity which contacted with the lich Meyi Panaho? [Lost kingdoms]
-Which were the reasons behind Nikola Tesla interest into build a machine capable of imprison a being of such power as Baba Yaga? [Rasputin must die!]
-What is driving the formians to be more nomadic than expansionist lately? [Distant Worlds]

Something is stirring in the darkness within the stars and the key to survival is an interplanetary alliance.

In the suggestions thread I mentioned the inner art should be at least done by Ron Spencer and Simon Bisley (if you want to display barbaric action, these two are the masters). Richard Corben would be welcome just for the sake of doing a thinly veiled reference to Metal Hurlant magazine (a.k.a. Heavy Metal Magazine), Brom for do references to a certain post-apocalyptic setting for the second edition of the most old role-playing game in the industry and finally Boris Vallejo for some of the covers.
I also think it would be amusing if some of the inner art (basically that of the foreword) depicted the iconics performing some of the most popular heavy metal album covers:
-Valeros doing to an orc what you can see on Panthera's Vulgar Display of Power.
-Seoni in the same fashion as in The Sword Apocryphon.
And so on...

I cannot believe I didn't post this before but...
I hope the Iron Gods be like Harlan Ellison's AM.

By the way, there is going to be a Mos Eisley Cantina's reference in one of the modules?

My idea of a Numeria campaign looks an awful lot like This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1OltqVcr1Q

Part Heavy Metal, part Flash Gordon, with an unknown race of saucer-borne conquerors from a Far Star, Elder Things from Beyond, and a sisterhood of dark techno-priestesses seeking apotheosis.

...But that's just my imagination running away with me. ;)

By the side burns of Isaac Asimov!

I can see it, a final showdown between barbarian riding cyborg wyverns against 50s sci-fi B-movie flying saucers just like those of Ray Harryhausen while on the ground a horde of Mammoth Riders, robots and mutant giants helped by the Great Race of Yith fight against an alliance of Mi-go, Elder Things, Star Spawn of Cthulhu and Snakemen.

Raining Blood- Slayer

that's all

I would like to suggest Demonslayer (Debauchery) and Progenies of the Great Apocalypse (Dimmu Borgir).

Thread for those of you who are going to GM this AP.
Which original soundtracks are you going to use for support the description of certain scenes in the first module?

I agree. But there is always a way to really kill him, just because I think railroading is a blowy way to DM.

That said, I agree that Karzoug would be awesome to treat with a comeback, and it might be that ends up happening in my game...

My idea:

At the end, when you beat him in the Eye of Avarice, (or you destroy the Soul Lens), the resulting energy explosion will tear a hole in reality. Karzoug has a final Wish stored up just in case...

And when Leng and the Material Plane shift, perhaps a fact made worse by the influence of the Leng Device, Karzoug's Wish to escape will be mutated and a massive vortex might just appear where the Soul Lens was. If this happens, all living being in the demiplane will be sucked inside, including Karzoug - but when the PCs end up at at the Foot of Mar-Massif, Karzoug will not be with them. Assuming he gets some good final dialogue in, it might be clear to the PCs that he is dead - torn apart and sucked into some sort of black hole...

Until Shattered Star, when they visit Leng. One of my PCs has been enjoying some random side-games in the Dreamlands as of Chapter 2 in Rise, and I plan to incorporate her and these dreamquests in later, perhaps even in relevance to shattered star. The end result, if Karzoug escapes? Potentially, his soul could not survive as it was in Golarion - but that same soul figment trapped in the Eye was the same figment that exists when one enters the Land of Dreams, his Wish solidifying it enough to get dragged through to the other side of that portal. They may just find him again, but how is anyones guess. I was considering two options:

1) As a new power in the Dreamlands that retains his memories and seeks to return to the Waking World.

2) As a wandering dreamer on some sort of personal quest for the same end, perhaps even to find and attain Kadath. The Crawling Chaos watches him as well.

On a side option, if he -dies-, that Wish could be a Reincarnate pumped up. His soul got out. And he returns to life, memories torn...

Very good idea TwiceGreat, mind if I suggest another possible variable?

I don't know if you are familiar with the sci-fi TV show Farscape, but if you are, perhaps you should turn Karzoug into a "Scorpius mind clone" like entity inside the mind of one of the PCs.

Cult of Lissala + True Resurrection = Karzoug round 2.

Really to quote "Imhotep" ~Death is only the beginning.

Add the Cypher mages to that equation and things become even more interesting. Maybe the Cypher Mages are afraid after the rise of Xin at the end of Shattered Star the guys at Golemworks start to discover secrets of rune magic and that makes them take a course of action against that possible blow to their authority on the matter?

Perhaps a group of cultist from Xin-Shalast [according to Lost cities of Golarion its being colonized] approach them, bringing the chance to obtain a source of knowledge which even surpass those find in the old crystal palace of the First King: Karzoug himself.
A resurrected Karzoug would be more subtle than when during the events of RotR, using groups of adventurers [even the Pathfinder society itself] as pawns for get rid of the other sleeping Runelords, getting rid of any possible competence for when he starts to set his plans for build a new empire of his own.
I think being Karzoug a transmuter and after gathering enough information about the powers in the Inner Sea region of the Age of Lost Omens, his course of action would be similar to that of Auric Goldfinger, striking the economy of Cheliax, Taldor, Andoran, etc by creating gold or platinum in such amount there would be a coin devaluation and a consequent social unrest which can turn into rebellion or insurrections.
A conspiracy of that level would involve not only the Cypher Mages of Riddleport or the cultists of Lissala, but also evil aligned Prophets of Kalistrade [which aren't aware of Karzoug's true intentions of devastating the economy], the Aspis Consortium [who would be used for smuggle false thassilonian artifacts recently created with the help of Karzoug which would help maim the economy] and Galtan revolutionaries [once the fecal material hits the fan they would be the spark which starts a great conflagration in the Inner Sea].

Before Nethys there was another god of magic which used to be a rival of the Lady of Runes, according to a Shattered Star AP article. In the Age of Lost omens cosmology we find lots of gods which weren't around during the times of Azlant and Thassilion with the exception of Asmodeus, Pharasma, Sarenrae, Desna, Gozreh and Rovagug (gods which sure weren't worshiped by the azlanti). This made me think about the identity of Abadar.
If Abadar was an azlanti deity, being cities one of his domains, he sure could had inspired his non-azlanti followers to build civilizations following the azlanti standards, a thing which didn't happened until Aroden's ascension. Maybe Abadar was a minor barbarian god of roads which in the times after Earthfall grow in power, acquiring domains like wealth and cities, which implies the First Vault doesn't belong to him but perhaps a now defunct or disappeared azlanti deity.

Reactionary players debate a side, I am glad the people of Paizo dared to get into new fields for a genre as stagnated as sword and sorcery by doing references to its past in the gaming industry.

A well written Numerian AP could be more than just "Conan meets Dune", it could be a true "Road trip" trough Golarion's solar system at high levels, a tribute to the comics of Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Alex Jodorowsky or Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézèries, to Heavy Metal covers' art, to the science fiction of Jack Vance and Roger Zelazny.

Cyborg technomancers, Anti-grav bike riding barbarians, mammoths fighting giant robots, aballonite companions trying to understand organics, space battles between vercites pirate ships an eoxian frigate... Really, I can't wait for it.

The Nex/Geb/Absalom stuff is just so ripe with possibilities that it just screams adventure path. I mean can you imagine an AP where in part 4 the characters are doing something like exploring the Spire of Nex and suddenly...BAM...Nex is back and Geb comes running and Absalom is under seige and its all out Wizard War III and ...WOW!

Of course I also think one of the great things about any setting is the unsolved mysteries so maybe we need to just leave these guys be.

The AP could start at Absalom, perhaps a group of rookie Pathfinders had find a clue concerning Nex's fate. The second and third module could be in Nex, the fourth in the Mana Wastes and the two last ones in Geb.

In fact could be a spiritual sequel like Shattered Star was for the Garundi APs (Legacy of Fire, Serpent's Skull and Skull & Shackles).

I would like to suggest a work of fiction for Mr. Jacob which he could use as a source of ideas concerning the Vault People background.
There is a french comic book album called "On the False Earths", belonging to the space opera series "Valérian and Laureline" (by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières)which was published in 1977.
In said comic book, the main protagonist couple are investigating with the help of an expert in ancient history of Earth a mysterious cluster of domed islands each depicting a concrete time period and place of our world. They investigation obeys orders of the high command of the galactic government to discover who has stolen all the archives concerning Earth before the development of FTL travel and why is creating those reconstructions with androids.
The main "antagonist" is an Alien belonging to a very ancient race which didn't had "history" as they basically had high cognitive and innate knowledge of the laws of physics since the very beginning of its race. Unable to travel in time for fear the chrono-agents of the galactic government could arrest him, he decided to reproduce Earth's many societies and time periods just for his entertainment and curiosity.
I must add the Alien is implied as very "Lovecrafnian" looking as when he/she/it meets the expert on Earth's ancient history is wearing a egg like "harness" which conceals its true form to her.

1-Character creation steps.
I would like to see a character creation starting with national background, based on the kingdoms and countries close to the River Kingdoms, before even choose race or class.

2-Faction related skills.
Like in the Faction guide, be able to purchase services or even gain new skills as you earn points of loyalty with a faction.

3-Planar travel.
This may appear in game expansions, but I think game experience will be more rich if at certain level characters could adventure into the First world.

4-Pathfinder races.
Since the aparition of the Adventure paths and the Bestiaries, Paizo has offered chances of play as interesting non standard fantasy races, it could be fun be able to create and play a Dhampir or a Tifling character.

5-Alkenstar and Numerian weapons.
The chance to acquire at some point gunpowder or futuristic weaponry, specially for siege scenarios.

6-Lovecraft mythos.
The chance of fight or even summon some of the creatures belonging to the works of H. P. Lovecraft

7-Bard lumph pet.
Perhaps for special editions and with the chance of play songs from the real world picked from hard rock and heavy metal (Blue Oyster cult, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden...)