An Empyreal Lord is an archangel, more or less.
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If you're playing in Golarion, Irori is LN and certainly has LG followers. He's the god of monasticism. There's also Korada, a NG Empyreal Lord, who is a spirit of contemplation.
This also bugs me: apparently female (non-romantic) fantasy writers are still pressured by publishers to write using male pseudonyms or androgynous names. (See here). Thank goodness that sort of thing never caught on in game writing.
There are. I'd like to say I was one of those women. But then, part of me feels like this thread is a nice idea to help draw attention to get more people to contribute, and part of me feels like I am, and other female gamers are, being pandered to because of my anatomy, rather than, say, encouraged to participate because I might have good game ideas. I ABSOLUTELY know that was NOT the intention, but it kind of comes off that way to me, a little. You are right to do so! The key game-writing credential that any amount of writing skill or technical know-how won't help overcome is an imagination. Diverse imaginations make for more interesting and more unexpected adventures. Homogenous writers (and artists) - in one aspect or another - ends up creating blinders in gaming. Hence the whole "male gaze" issue with computer gaming. Thankfully Paizo has a pretty diverse collection of contributors and artists. Anyway, even if there's no real "win" here - choosing "pandering" versus silence, engaging with the problem is still a good thing. Conversations don't have to win to be useful. I think we also need more non-Caucasian writers as well, but that's not as visible an issue on the boards. Less normative gaming is simply more interesting, and even if the product sin't to your taste, it challenges conventions and makes things continue to evolve in a positive way. White Wolf made that clear in the 90s.
Bills & single dad-hood have eaten my gaming budget... Hopefully I'll be back
One of the main cities for my India-analogue is based on Varanasi. I have a copy of Diana Eck's Banaras: City of Light (which I strongly recommend to anyone interested in a Vudra type setting). But this link here is almost as useful: A New Mirror of Kashi - a guide to the city (Kashi is another name for Varanasi) and to a 19th century pilgrim's map. Also, this page: Indian Life and Landscapes has a couple of interesting pictures, as does the site in general.
I think that some serious consideration of alternate RW and fictional "heavens" besides the ones that have appeared in the game lineage so far - i.e., Judeo-Christian/Norse/generic Native American come to mind - would be interesting. They should be as varied and as fun to visit (if not as dangerous for non-evil parties) as the evil planes. There's some pretty interesting stuff in Chinese, South Asian, African, and Middle Eastern legend and myth that would be interesting to see reinterpreted.
Thread necro! This gallery is really cool and creepy...
There are also norns, fey creatures based on the Norse norns, and if they don't do the fairy godmother shtick occasionally, I'd be rather surprised.I thought about them when I looked through bestiary but I found them a bit lacking in this role... Unless you think that bestow curse or geas a decent blessing for a newborn godchild. Well, they do take on the role of the original - the Parcae type, goddesses of fate (Fata > Fay > Fairy) who visit the newly born. Fairy godmothers tended to be less "good" and more embodiments of destiny instead, at least before the 18th century.
My current character is a Kensai Magus, run as an aristocratic duelist, more or less. Not an optimized build, because I had to take rapier over scimitar, but fun.
There is Grandmother Crow - Andoletta, an Empyreal Lord. She watches over children and appears some of the time as an old woman. I think she represents a very similar concept.
Well, Azruverda from Bestiary 3 are CG and live in filth and their fungal gardens. They are clearly powerful enough to drive off kobolds and yet seem mostly interested in their own affairs. I seem to remember a Couatl serving the same purpose in some adventure I read - something that creates a sanctuary in a otherwise dangerous dungeon.
Kobolds, you'd think, would use every nook and cranny. First thing that leaps to mind - a good or curious monster that's too powerful for the Kobolds but not interested in eating the party having a lair somewhere in the complex.
Does anybody have any reasons it would be a bad book?Yeah. That's a book on animals with no myths or gaming lore attached to them. Also, they're animals, so not exactly fascinating opponents either - claw/claw/bite and well that's about it. Technically, the ancients did have legends about prehistoric creatures. Of course, mammoth skulls were those of cyclopes, and dinosaurs were dragons... There are some who hold that the Aborigine myths in Australia have memories of extinct species. However, there are plenty of modern myths, folklore, and ideas, including real scientific theories, regarding dinosaurs and prehistoric megafauna out there that could be mined for material.
Braganza in Molthune is a RW place too... it's the name of a town in Portugal and the title of the heir to the now defunct throne.
Well, it's a whole planet. There's bound to be some variation. Culture exists even among animals. The male lions of India, for instance, are pair-bonders, not harem-keepers.When you consider the actual roles and behavior of African lions, you might want to rethink who's keeping whom. The females do most of the hunting, and can (and do) decide as a group to expel the male if he doesn't meet their standards. Huh. I hadn't thought of that that way... thanks!
Well, it's a whole planet. There's bound to be some variation. Culture exists even among animals. The male lions of India, for instance, are pair-bonders, not harem-keepers.
I thought I might share this - photos of Holi. Incidentally, the Festival of Colors (Holi) is the setting for the beginning of Cult of the Ebon Destroyers, so it exists in Golarion as well...
Now, to an off-topic, yet very important, question: How many teeth does an average T-Rex have? This verges on a trick question, actually. 11-12 on the upper jaw and 11 to 14 on the lower. (see here, under differences from T. Rex) See these links (1 and 2, for more on the question). Since Tyrannosauri would lose teeth on a regular basis (and get them back), and different species might have different numbers, a round number is kind of artificial. "More than enough" is exactly what they evolved to have - room for a few extra so the constant replacement - which assumes a few being left in bones when chowing down - keeps them able to keep chomping.
Well, the RW caste societies I'm familiar with generally incorporate some difficult escape hatches into their rituals and legends. In a fantasy game (as in say, Hindu myth), this would tend to follow a magical solution - a magical transformation or divine intervention.
Will there be Sea Vanaras? They do have invisibility as a spell-like ability, I believe.Expect to have your "sea vanara" itch scratched by the end of Skull & Shackles. HA HA! Pirate monkeys! OOk.
I agree. She's a good choice. Her vahara (animal-mount) is clearly a tiger. She's mentioned only briefly in Escape from Old Korvosa. India - the Kumaon hills specifically - was historically a site of fossil collection in classical times. Of course, they thought the bones were of dragons and griffons, not dinosaurs.
Wow! Well, it was fun working w/you on Lost Kingdoms!
Not James, but the first thing that came to mind was a small child or baby. Treasure to their parents - and to Baba Yaga (remember, she is a grandmother).
Also, btw, the powers granted by tapas - extreme ascetic practices - are granted by one of the Trimurti - the faces of Brahma or by Shakti, hence they have a supra-divine source. Of course, in Nondualism, Brahma is one's true self.
Well, there is an inner source of power in Indian myth - it's called tapas (heat) - and is the origin of the magic powers of the Yogis. It's also supposed to be very hard to attain, and tends to attract the unwanted attentions of the Gods, specifically Indra, who regulates access to magic, because sufficient tapas makes one autonomous from the Devas' authority. The Asuras are said to seek tapas specifically to overthrow the gods.
Will there be Sea Vanaras? They do have invisibility as a spell-like ability, I believe.
James Jacobs has indicated that Psionics (or Mind Magic) will work differently in PF than it did in 3.5 (or 1.0 or 2.0). As such, any Vudra book will probably be developed in tandem with a new system. You may notice that the 3.5 style Psionics vaguely discussed in the Campaign Setting book is absent in the Inner Sea Guide, including the associations with Vudra. We'll see how they are interpreted. I decided with my setting to take on the problem by using authentic sources. One thing I discovered about the notion of psychic powers from Indian legend is that they in folklore, practice and in the ritual texts they resemble Western style magic more than they do Sci-Fi materials (some of this is just reskinning, but I think also that Psionics uses a different system to be different, not because the spell system actually does a bad job of doing psychic powers and superhero abilities).
Don't forget Spicy Talk! Or Kanishka!Kanishka? A Buddhist Kushan ruler of Kashmir? Huh? You're making me hungry.
Don't forget Spicy Talk! Or Kanishka! Kanishka? A Buddhist Kushan ruler of Kashmir? Huh?
I agree. And miniature horses, and maybe the fun prehistoric ones. I want riding zebras and a discussion of pegasi and their mating habits as well. Seriously though, mules and donkeys are far better for dungeoneering or exploring craggy mountains with.
:} Are you coming to PaizoCon Adam? I'd love to meet. PS. I also have a 20 page sketch of an AP for Vudra. It's Golarion-centric, but I am planning to revise it for a Earth-like setting, should A Thousand Gods get out into book form.
Interesting. I have about 170 pages of PF based India goodness finished (A Thousand Gods is the working title). It'll probably be about 200 or so when I get to the Con in July. I'm not sure I'm a true expert (my Sanskrit is sketchy at best). But I've been researching the subject for maybe 10 years, and have a background in mythology, linguistics, and poetry. I have read all the epics, the Rig Veda, the Puranas, the Shahnameh, the Dastan of Amir Hamza, the Journey to the West, a number of Indian grimoires, books on and about Yoga, Tantra, a large number of Tibetan Buddhist histories and esoteric texts, and the Greek, Roman, and Medieval European romances and fables about India. Here's what I've got so far: 20 pages of timeline based on Hindu, Persian, and some European and Chinese legend. I've used alternate but mostly authentic names for gods and heroes to keep things from being too based on the RW and all the political and religious fallout that entails. Rules for Karma, Dhamma, and the effects of these on things like caste and magic. Being an outcast actually makes you more dangerous in witchcraft, for instance. A few classes in development: the Yogi, the Bhikku, and the Avatar. Plus the Faqir, Devadasi, and Yantrika and Mantrika archetypes, and the Strangler, Tantrika, and Charioteer prestige classes. about 60 pages of monsters:
about 30 pages of Gazetteer. The India I'm using is based off 800 CE early medieval India so I could include the Journey to the West, the Arab invasion, various stripes of Buddhism (including Tibetan, which originated around then) and Jainism, and Tantrikas. It does have Vanaras and other non-humans playing a role, so it's not exactly a duplicate of our world's medieval South Asia. Lots of maps. Discussions of using the material with different types of campaigns and game worlds. A breakdown of the basic cosmology (a compromise between Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism). This isn't Vudra - it's closer to say, Pendragon in its intention to be a semi-historical fantasy, though it does pre-suppose that the epics happened, and hence the magic level is close to PF standard rather than low-magic. I do not use Psionics in this book. Study of the Yoga magical systems (not just stretching...) and the Buddhist abhijinas (thought magics) suggests they are best simulated by the standard spell list. In fact, I don't have to invent many spells at all. I'd love to retrofit this to Golarion - though it would be a lot of work... but I suspect that I'll get it out 3rd party and then all the crunchy bits will be OGL for when Paizo does get around to it. Oh, and I have about fifty pages of ideas on Iblydos, too.
In all this time, I never once thought of that. And that is exactly why I started this discussion.Well, the ultimate fertility power that follows along these lines is resurrection (a la Adonis, and some other mythic figures: the cycle of crops and life). Simply being able to resurrect or possibly reincarnate sans a material cost maybe? Thanks :)
I was asking because I finished reading Distant Worlds last night and no mention was made of the moons name, unlike the other planet's moons. The description of the upcoming Moonscar module does not name it either. Children of the Void doesn't say and neither does the Wiki.What is the name for Golarion's moon?Somal. At least, that's the name of the moon in my homebrew, and until we actually name Golarion's moon in print, that's what I call Golarion's moon. (Can't recall off the top of my head if we name it in "Distant Worlds.") Interesting. Soma is the name of the Moon (alias Chandra) in Sanskrit. That's what it's called in my India campaign book, too... I can't imagine that's a coincidence... but maybe it is? (Just wondering...)?
Loup-garou, I'd think. Plus all sorts of Caribbean things - check out GR's Skull & Bones and Nyambe for importing some ideas...
Well, the ultimate fertility power that follows along these lines is resurrection (a la Adonis, and some other mythic figures: the cycle of crops and life). Simply being able to resurrect or possibly reincarnate sans a material cost maybe?
There's a bunch of Tian Xia themed PFS scenarios that are coming out or are out that could be used to set up a campaign and include some localized info - even if you don't use them with a PFS session.
If Shelyn is a goddess of beauty as well as of love, she would have to acknowledge, I think, that predators, including outsiders and undead, could have an awful (in the old sense) beauty to them. But that may carry over to a wisp of regret rather than an active desire to convert them.
I just remembered that back when the APG came out someone homebrewed an Oracle of Passion. The flavor is about perfect for a Qedeshot (or Devadasi).
I treated the sacred dancer concept as a monk for my India campaign. If you do use a bard, I'd change the spell list to a divine one. What's the matter with your Fertility domain? Can you post it? I'd think a mixture of Charm, Plant, and emotion based spells, myself.
There is a certain inconsistency in the depiction of the Underworld in Western myths - sometimes it is a prison for evil-doers, and sometimes it is their residence. Hence the "Angel of the Pit" - Abaddon - is sometimes a being which keeps evil spirits and the spirits of evildoers inside, and sometimes he's an evil spirit himself. In any case there is a certain bifurcation between dangerous servants of Heaven and rebels or foes of Heaven that becomes blurred.Devils more or less correspond to Yama (Enma)'s hellish bureaucracy in Indo-Chinese myth, and Demons more or less to the powerful monsters who are not incorporated into the Celestial bureaucracy. Akuma uses the same character as the Chinese Ma - the Sanskrit Mara, and hence refers to a spirit of bad emotions and attachments representing the physical world. Hence Akuma = demon, more or less. The association of ghosts, death and entropy with Abaddon suggests it might be Yomi. Perhaps 魔王 (maou) can be used for Devils in general. These are vague notions and I am much more familiar with Indian myth and a little bit with Chinese rather than with Japanese, however.
What a cutie! Brings back memories... being in the snow in the mountains en route to Vegas and hearing my daughter's first cry over the phone.
I prefer tradition. No arboreal dwarves or brooding gothy halflings in my games, as a general rule. When I DO break tradition, it's on a specific eccentric character by eccentric character basis. The Dwarves started out in the earliest versions of Tolkien's Silmarillion as evil or at least greedy and unpleasant. They gradually became less asocial, particularly following the Hobbit. Anyway, the legend of the magic necklace is from Norse mythology - the necklace of Brisingamen - and there the enemies of the dwarves are the Aesir - whom the alfar serve. Dwarves tend to be neutral with evil tendencies in my game world, and I have found this makes them more interesting, even as eccentric (good) PCs. I know this sort of thing won't fly in a generic or standard fantasy campaign - though I'm curious, James, whether there's anything wildly different in your racial or monster interpretations within your homebrew from the traditional or Gygaxian worlds...?
Raktavarna is from Sanskrit. Rakta = blood
However, Raksha[sa] is linked by popular etymology to Rakta. The Japanese and Chinese form of Raksha is Rasha. My impression is that most Sanskrit words are rendered into Chinese and then translated into Japanese (though of course there are two different sounds associated with the kanji), at least in Buddhist literature.
Good for you!
According to Wes in another thread (which my cunning search is having trouble locating), the word Azruverda was a slight adjustment to the word Ayurveda. So it was inspired by Indian medicine/beliefs, but the concept for the creature was all new...
A big book of advice on how to make those CR adjustments would be cool, though!Could Paizo please release a hardcover all about setting CRs? I've always played as if the village Adept had spells like "Ease Childbirth" and "Summon Children" and so forth - spells no ordinary PC would bother with but that in a magical universe would have been invented by some harried spell-caster, somewhere. Though "Summon Children" has a certain Grimm connection. Is this true in your games?
And since neither empire (Osirion or the League) existed before Jistka, Iblydos, for all we know, was before them. Certainly they have some relation to Koloran, the Cyclops empire in Casmaron, which was very old. The island of Kortos has a Greek thing going on, but maybe it had Iblydan connections, since it makes a fine colony for trade from the Obari to the Inner Sea. In terms of Asian locations - well, the Greeks did once rule Persia and parts of India in the RW. Certainly the most important cultural connections of Ancient Greece were eastern - with Asia Minor and the Near East, not with the Balkans or Italy, at least until later.
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