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James Jacobs wrote:
Impossibly Diverse wrote:

Hi James,

I've got a question regarding the Tian Pantheon. For the most part, they seem to be a loosely defined group of gods, hailing from throughout the outer planes and connected only by being the gods most widely worshiped in Tian Xia. But the parts about Shizuru's authority over them and her punishment of Fumeiyoshi imply that they're a well-defined state-like group ruled by Shizuru and united by something significant enough that they take their membership of the group seriously. So my question is, what unites the gods under Shizuru's authority?
Tradition and respect and honor pretty much.

That's not exactly what I meant. How did these gods come to have a distinct set of traditions shared by them but not by any of the other gods? What's stopping Sun Wukong from deciding that while he respects Shizuru's status as Empress of Heaven and thus her authority over the Tian pantheon, he doesn't consider himself part of the Tian pantheon and thus owes her no more obedience by virtue of her imperial status than does Sarenrae?


PossibleCabbage wrote:

Well, the Eagle Knights are a state-funded military organization in Andoran. The Firebrands are a lot less official, in that whatever materiel aid they receive from the governments of Ravounel or Vidrian has to be on the "plausible deniability" level.

There's a significant difference in how the relevant countries relate to Cheliax. Ravounel and Vidrian are protected from Chellish invasion via contractual shenanigans and remoteness, but are small and comparatively weak as new countries without stable governments and would get rolled if a war actually did break out. Andoran has been preparing to go to war with Cheliax for the last hundred plus years.

So Andoran probably does have contact via the Twilight Talons with high ranking Firebrands, as they share similar goals, but officially it's not in either's best interest to officially unite. For one thing, if Cheliax and Andoran do go to war, Ravounel is treaty-bound to come to the aid of Cheliax- something neither Eagle Knights nor Firebrands want.

In terms of "which to make your character" the big difference is that Eagle Knights are Andoran patriots, whereas Firebrands are freedom fighters and rabblerousers from everywhere else.

Thank you for your explanation.


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The Firebrands and Eagle Knights seem very similar - both of them are organisations devoted to fighting against evil, with ideals of freedom and equality, with strong ties to former Chelish colonies. Considering this, what is the difference between the two organisations? When Vidria was reaching out to other former Chelish colonies with similar values to form the Firebrands, why didn't they contact the Eagle Knights as well as the Silver Ravens? Why aren't the Eagle Knights listed among the allies of the Firebrands? And how does one determine whether to make a character an Eagle Knight or a Firebrand?


Hi James,
I've got a question regarding the Tian Pantheon. For the most part, they seem to be a loosely defined group of gods, hailing from throughout the outer planes and connected only by being the gods most widely worshiped in Tian Xia. But the parts about Shizuru's authority over them and her punishment of Fumeiyoshi imply that they're a well-defined state-like group ruled by Shizuru and united by something significant enough that they take their membership of the group seriously. So my question is, what unites the gods under Shizuru's authority?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Shizuru is described as "Empress of Heaven", but her empire clearly neither encompasses nor is limited to Heaven. She is said to rule over the "divinities of Tian Xia", but what does that mean? She seems to have a well-defined sphere of authority, but elsewhere the deities of Tian Xia come across as being a fuzzily-defined set of gods united solely by being widely worshiped in one particular continent on the material plane, which seems like an odd way for gods to assign authority. So, what exactly does Shizuru rule?


20. Lord Hago, an earl who is at the court to lobby the king to make some legal reforms which he presents as being purely an attempt to modify the kingdom's overly specific land use regulations to facilitate the use of new agricultural technologies, but in fact will alow him to use various legal technicalities disposess huge numbers of peasants and steal their land.