| Hawksong |
I've just read through the Community Use Policy, and maybe I am bad at comprehension, but I think I would need special permission of some sort for the project I am working on.
Currently I am writing a novel - it started out as simple character notes, blossomed into a full blown project as my novel for NaNoWriMo, and now I feel that I've started something that simply must be finished!
The tale is set in my homebrew campaign world, which has elements of both Paizo's Pathfinder and the "old" D&D 3.5 setting. Most of my story doesn't involve anything specifically copyrighted by either set of publishers...but the characters reference heavily two different Pathfinder deities in my original draft: Shelyn, and Calistria (and later, Pharasma).
Now, I've taken those deities largely out of context for my own use in this homebrew setting, using the descriptions of them given in Gods & Magic, and extrapolating from there. Since these interpretations of the Pathfinder gods weren't really intended to see use other than among my personal gaming circle, I didn't give a thought to that use, for it's clearly stated that such use is OK.
But, if I want to use those names in my book - which I intend to publish eventually - do I need specific permission from Paizo? I removed the names from the draft of the novel that went up for NaNoWriMo, even though their rules and yours state that posting the story there would not have been a problem. But I was uncomfortable with it, and now I would like to find out very clearly whether I can use the names of Pathfinder gods in a non-Pathfinder setting of my own creation, in a work of fiction of my own creation.