I would imagine that Vamros Harg's superior is in Almas, the capital of Andoran. There is no mayor of Falcon's Hollow. Thuldrin Kreed is sort of the de facto mayor, but he's not the official one. If that makes sense.
Question: What would you say are Korvosa's most important tradable resources? What is the city's bread and butter? What does the city import on a regular basis? I didn't get to spend as much time talking about this as I wanted to, so I'm glad you asked. Korvosa's major export is seafood. Not tuna or any other "mass-market" seafood, but stuff like oysters (the Straits of St. Alika are famous for their oyster beds), reefclaw claws, caviar, and other high-end seafoods. Also in the high-end foodstuffs department, Korvosa exports thileu bark to Cheliax at ridiculously high prices. It also exports goods made in its vassal states and is the only port that ships off Janderhoff goods. Thanks to the impressively large bank of Abadar, Korvosa is also an important banking and financial city. If Golarion has stock exchanges, Korvosa would have the largest one within 500 miles (it would be dwarfed by the one in Kerse, which would probably be the largest in the world). Thanks to the presence of the Acadamae, Korvosa is also a fair-sized supplier of magic items, especially low-level ones utilizing the school of conjuration. The Arkona family imports a lot of items from distant Vudra, which then are distributed throughout northern and western Avistan. Finally, as much as the government is loathe to admit, Korvosa has a pretty impressive drug trade, although it mainly imports such goods. Korvosa's food supplies come from the farms around it and its vassal communities, although it does import foods that can't grow in its climate. Wine is a major import, for example, as are tropical and subtropical fruits. The majority of Korvosa's imports, though, are in "manufactured goods." Despite the presence of the Ironworks in the city, Korvosa's capacity to produce finished goods lags well behind its demand, and like a good little colony it imports a lot of such supplies from its homeland. Textiles is another example of that need. p.s. If you want to see what I'm doing to Korvosa as it pertains to my campaign world then check out this post on EN World: Korvosa on Kulan. That's pretty awesome. I'm honored you would incorporate the city I designed into your campaign setting. Best compliment I can think of. Thanks! :)
I really need to buy you a beer and pick your brains about my CotCT campaign. Any chance you'll be taking the ferry over to Victoria any time soon? Alas, no, probably not this year. I like that. I hadn't really thought of the Great Houses having ranks within the group, but it makes sense that they do. My guess at the current line-up (from top to bottom): Jeggare, Arkona, Ornelos, Leroung, Zenderholm. Does that sound right? Yes, that's probably exactly how I'd rank them. And to give you a sense of how the houses interact with one another and the government, I figure each House's overall alignment goes like this: 1. Jeggare: LG
Mike, thank-you for all the great information. This is really helpful! I am always willing to talk about Korvosa, so thank you. ^_^ I don't know if the book says this still, but Zenderholm is the newest Great House and the first one that isn't also a Dock Family. It replaced House Fordyce as the fifth Great Family.That's there, but we don't know who House Fordyce replaced. Care to spill? That's a good question. My thinking is that at some point Fordyce probably was a higher rank among the Great Houses, but it slowly kept slipping down. It's my thought that only House Jeggare has been a Great House since that designation began. Maybe also House Ornelos, because the system actually sounds like something the Volshyenek would have cooked up. ;) Anyway, I imagine that at one time House Fordyce was like #2 or #3 among the Great Houses, but with the steady rise of House Arkona and House Ornelos, it started to slip. As for who House Fordyce replaced to get into the Great Houses? I would guess that after the Cousins' War there was a bloodbath (literally and figuratively) among the Great Houses. House Fordyce probably snuck in at that time, likely replacing House Viamio or one of its allies. And at the time, House Fordyce was probably just riding a wave of gratitude for its support in the war, but it probably didn't actually earn its way in, and over time it kinda got shook out because—really—it doesn't belong up there. House Fordyce is probably a mid-level House in terms of power in the city, but for a while that and a little luck allowed it to play among the big boys. Does any of that make sense? And also, if I'm rambling, please tell me to stop, as I could probably do this all day. ;D
Are any of them being mentioned later in the path, or am I good to go without fear of being contradicted? *shrug* I don't think any of them get mentioned later, but we'll need to wait for James to pop in to answer for sure. Erodred was a nice, doddering monarch genuinely interested in caring for his city, even if he wasnt particularly effective or skilled at it. I and many of my fellow Korvosans take issue with the idea of Eodred being "nice." He was certainly no Ileosa, but he was an unapologetic pederast. And yeah, he owned some slaves as well, which is technically against the law here.
The Peerage Review (PR) is composed of the heads of the Great Houses. When a Great House head dies, his (or her!) heir immediately becomes the newest member of the PR. If a Great House's head has or assigns no heir before he dies, there's some time of turmoil in the House and the PR until the House gets itself in order. A Great House without an heir for too long risks losing its Great House status and thus its place on the PR. And who decides which house is a Great House? The GM. ;) Unfortunately, I had about twice as much written about the Great Houses as saw print. One of the parts that got cut dealt with becoming a Great House (I don't know if the book says this still, but Zenderholm is the newest Great House and the first one that isn't also a Dock Family. It replaced House Fordyce as the fifth Great Family.). It basically has to do with wealth, power, prestige, and influence. As you might imagine, the various Houses in Korvosa keep track of each other's doings. If a Great House suddenly loses a lot of wealth, or power, or prestige, or influence, the other Houses in the city take note. If it loses enough, another family can try to move up the ladder and replace it on the PR. Well, I'd say that a house qualifies as "great" when they can claim to be great and no one laughs at them. Yeah, that's a nice succinct way of putting it. :)
How is the Acadamae financed? Private donations, expensive tuitions, and the occasional government grant. One of my players has written up an Acadamae graduate and was asking if there were tuition fees, since if so he'd need to work out how he got the cash together, his backstory meant there's no way his parents would have provided it. The tuition is described as "expensive," and what that means to your campaign is up to you as the GM. It's also very likely that particularly gifted students receive tuition wavers, scholarships, grants, student loans, and other forms of financial aid. Assuming the PC in question doesn't suck as a wizard, you can probably grant him some breaks in that way. :) I assume you don't pay to study there with all the servitude and death going on, With great power comes great... potential for death and dismemberment. Students do pay to attend the Acadamae, and they know going in (because it's made abundantly clear) that they might not survive the process... if they slouch off or otherwise don't work as hard as they should. It's not a partying college, is what I'm saying. Students go there to learn and they go there to gain power. so is it financed by the city and/or the Ornelos family? It receives a little bit of gold from the city once in a while (this depends greatly on the ruler at the time... Domina poured all kinds of gold into the Acadamae, whereas Eodred II cut that firehose down to a trickle). And yes, House Ornelos puts a lot of its private money into the Acadamae, and I imagine it tends to break even on the investment. Is there some kind of charter that comes with that? In my mind, whenever the crown donates gold to the Acadamae, it's generally for a specific reason. "Here's some gold, please stop killing curious trespassers." "Here's some gold, please get your imp problems in order." "Here's some gold, please get rid of that smell." "Here's some gold, please admit my nephew and see to it he survives." Or is it really that prestigious that families are willing to pay for a member to disappear for 10 years and possibly never be heard from again? Yes. Just been reminded, the other question is, particularly if pupils don't pay to attend, how do they go about recruiting? Well, most students do pay to attend. The Acadamae recruits promising and gifted (i.e., very intelligent) people who its recruiters and alumni stumble across out in the world. Most recruited students come from Korvosa and Cheliax, but Isger, Sargava, and other parts of Varisia are all well represented. Presumably people don't just turn up and demand an entrance exam? Sometimes people do. I'm not sure how the Acadamae feels about that, though. Bemused? :) Does that help? Edit: Honestly, I would LOVE to do a 64-page book just on the Acadamae. Or maybe just a 32-page Pathfinder Companion. Either way... I love wizarding schools! :D
There's a larger town called Olfden that gets talked about in Guide to Darkmoon Vale. The reason it doesn't get any mention before then is that it's not a very important town. It's bigger than Falcon's Hollow, but not much happens there of interest to adventurers. It's basically your generic fantasy town where PCs can buy and sell their phat lewtz. South of Olfden is Oregent, which does appear on the Gazetteer map, because it's actually a city. Olfden is ~30 miles south of Falcon's Hollow, and Oregent is ~30 miles south of Olfden.
The setup for Korvosa seems hard to get straight. From reading through your posts, I think the difficulty seems to be from a matter of hyperbole and scale. The problems you state are not as big and serious as you make them out to be. It's all a matter of perspective. :) You have a generally LN city with people who enjoy law and order. Yes. And you simultaneously have hordes of imps running around the city in little gangs terrorizing people. No. There are not hordes of imps. The number of imps illustrated in all the art pieces in the Guide to Korvosa probably represent the entirety of the free-roaming imp population of the city at any one time. There aren't a lot of imps; new ones just keep showing up when others get killed. You also have pseudodragons fighting the imps in the skies. Yes, maybe once or twice a year. This is not a common event. You have a demon-summoning school smack in the middle of town and roving bands of evil Hellknights. No. That entire sentence is incorrect. There is a devil-binding school in the middle of town. Also, Hellknights do not rove through towns in bands. They only come into town when hired to do so. Also, Hellknights are not evil. Like Korvosa, they are LN (with LE tendencies). It doesn't seem to hang together quite right. What lawful city would put up with an infestation of imps? A lawful evil one. But Korvosa doesn't put up with the imps. Whenever they are found they are exterminated. Those little buggers can slaughter an average 1st level commoner with ease. (Especially since they are typically presented as total pains in the neck.) I'm just very skeptical that this kind of thing would be tolerated, especially since the magic school is the entire source of these things. Nobody ever said it was tolerated. *shrug* For a LN city, it seems to have a marked propensity for rioting, gangs, etc. There just doesn't seem to be much social control, really. Huh? Where do you get that idea? It's fine to have a city dissolving into anarchy, but there is no sense in which the city was ever particularly well-run. Hey now, it was REALLY well-run up until about 4606. ;D Stupid ineffectual monarchs... ;)
That is correct. We cannot do that. *shrug* Keep in mind that for more than a decade, nobody could make any product based off D&D except TSR/WotC. I think people have forgotten with the proliferation of the OGL and SRD that it is a pretty bold step. Instead of being unhappy about what we can't do, we at Paizo try to focus on what we can. And with the OGL, that's actually quite a lot. :)
That's a little disappointing to hear since I like such prestige classes and think it makes the Korvosan Guard different then any old army soldier. Making the prestige the requirement for being in the Korvosan Guard would be a mistake, but there's no reason that a prestige class can't be the provider of benefits. Do we really need a prestige class for every job available to every person in a campaign setting? Where do we stop? Besides, the point of the Korvosan Guard is that they ARE "just" normal army soldiers. Only with a spiffy name. Sable Company marines are just rangers (elite because they use the elite array and are usually higher level) who can take a feat at 6th level that gives them hippogriff animal companions. *shrug* That's pretty much it.
We'll miss your moneys! I mean you! We'll miss you. Yeah, that was a good recovery. *nods*
(In one campaign it was one male and four female characters, he was a warrior, and they made him carry all their stuff.) In the game I run, there are 5 ladies and 3 fellas, and one of the fellas plays a hulking barbarian who... carries all the stuff...
Ugh. The much-derided hippie clan of ninjas. Oh I don't care. Kill him. Hand him over to the cops. Burn his stash of pot and make him watch. Whatever you think will cause him the most anguish. Enjoy yourself. :)
Totally. Obvious n00bs. Yeah. I'm embarrassed for their leader, honestly. No, actually, if I find out who their leader is I should just send my minions to execute him. You know, to do him a favor. Because he's obviously a crappy ninja leader. Because he obviously has such crappy ninja minions. Not like Gninjita. She's a good ninja minion. :) Well, I did express the desire for a whole bunch of cigarettes and lottery tickets. I guess I shouldn't say such things in front of the impressionable neophytes. Don't worry, Cos, MY ninja minions would have provided you with cigarettes and lottery tickets a-plenty AND they wouldn't have been seen on video. Of course, the cigarettes and lottery tickets would have been coated in the blood of their former owners, but that's the price you pay when you blab your mouth in front of my ninja minion trainees. ... But just to be on the safe side... If you have a chance, Gninjita, get your brother and the two of you go make sure none of our neophytes got out...
Okay, here’s probably enough information for a player to get a good idea of Shelyn. Keep in mind that this is only sort of canon, since it hasn’t seen print yet to make it 100% official. Also, keep in mind I’m only giving you enough here to understand the goddess and her interactions with other deities (and thus her clerics and their interactions with everything), although this did get away from me a bit and became almost 2000 words. Finally, keep in mind that not all of her details are set and a lot of the generic-sounding stuff (and some of the not-so-generic-sounding stuff) will eventually be replaced with proper names. Oh, and feel free to ask me questions on specifics relating to her or ask Boss Jacobs questions relating to the other deities and their interactions with her. That said…
Shelyn (sheh LINN) is the half-sister of Zon-Kuthon (yes, the LE god of envy, pain, darkness, and loss). She started life as a relatively minor deity of beauty, art, and music, but with the destruction of her mother (former goddess of love) she gained the very important portfolio of love and became a somewhat more powerful deity. Shelyn continues to focus on beauty (and the related art and music) and has expanded upon her mother’s relatively narrow view of love to include all forms of the emotion. Beauty
Shelyn’s is a unique beauty unparalleled in the multiverse. She is beautiful both without and within (now), and all who see her see in her what they envision as the most perfect beauty (meaning she looks a little bit different to everybody, although everyone agrees that she has eyes that slowly change color). She focuses just as much attention on internal beauty as external, and she is considered also to have the most beautiful personality (which changed greatly when she became goddess of love, such to the point that some wonder if a little of her mother’s personality didn’t meld with hers). Thus, while lesser beauties might inspire jealousy in those who see them, she does not. Nor does she herself feel jealousy when a lesser beauty (i.e., any other) receives attention. She encourages the growth and appreciation of beauty, regardless of its source or admirers, and thus she is never jealous. She surrounds herself with flowers, colorful birds, artworks, and other things of beauty. She doesn't use her beauty as a weapon (and she punishes that sort of behavior from her followers) and gently and kindly rejects all potential suitors. Some call her an eternal maiden (or sometimes, The Eternal Maiden), while others claim she is the lover of several gods, goddesses, and lesser beings. The truth, of course, is unknown. (Darker rumors put her in the bed of her half brother, but such whispered rumors never persist for very long, as Zon-Kuthon does not tolerate such things.) Art and Music
Shelyn herself has an extensive collection of artwork (mostly gifts from potential suitors or worshipers, and most of which portray her). She also has a massive collection of violins (she is likely the greatest violinist in the multiverse) and a secret one of glaives (given to her by Zon-Kuthon or his followers as a sort of dark joke). Love
Shelyn and Zon-Kuthon
To this day, clerics of Zon-Kuthon not only don’t harm known clerics of Shelyn (doing so results in harsh punishments that don’t end with death) but sometimes actually try to protect such clerics if in danger (earning them rewards from their deity). For their part, clerics of Shelyn return the favor by looking the other way when they meet known clerics or cultists of Zon-Kuthon. (Except, of course, if the clerics or cultists are obviously harming innocents, defacing art, or otherwise being unforgivably bad in front of the clerics of Shelyn.) This arrangement might seem like a serious drawback for Zon-Kuthon, as other evil deities might take advantage of it to put him into uncomfortable positions. As it turns out, though, nobody ever really moves against Shelyn or her clergy. Relationship with Other Deities
The evil deities (and most evil creatures) are mostly neutral toward her, although she and Urgathoa frequently argue (and their clergies do tend to get into skirmishes). She and Pharasma tend to have long philosophical debates, which always end when Pharasma points out that beautiful things like flowers grow from dead things (Shelyn has no argument against this). For the most part, evil deities leave Shelyn alone (and by extension, their clergy tend to ignore her clergy). She is not a martial goddess by any stretch and tends to stay as far from battle as possible, thus she has built up no animosity from the evil deities or their followers. She’s mostly just there, and they mostly just ignore her. To this day, only Rovagug, CE god of wrath, disaster, destruction can resist Shelyn’s charms at all times. He alone opposes her on any long-term basis (but only in that he opposes everything, and she is a thing) . Whisperer of Souls
Shelyn bears the glaive gifted to her half brother in exchange for him swearing the Unbreakable Oath. The weapon was crafted by the former god of smiths, who fell during the same murderous spree that claimed Shelyn’s mother. When he received it, the weapon corrupted Zon-Kuthon and convinced him to go to war against the other deities. It was during this war that Shelyn lost her mother and became goddess of love. When created, Whisperer of Souls was given the ability to absorb souls (hence its name) and once it absorbs 100 powerful souls (not just anybody’s soul will do) it will become a god in its own right and bring about an era of murder and death. When Zon-Kuthon received the weapon it held no souls. By the time Shelyn stole Whisperer of Souls it had almost all it needed. In the time since, Shelyn has been able to free most of those souls thanks to the help of Nethys and brave adventurers (a grand quest of goodness must be performed to release a soul). Much to the frustration of Whisperer of Souls, it can’t seem to corrupt Shelyn or influence her in any way (earning her the title "the Incorruptible"). Quite the opposite, in fact: when Shelyn first stole the weapon it was a nightmarish and hideous piece of craftsmanship, but in the millennia since, Shelyn has remade it into a beautiful piece of art. It still bears a few ugly bits here and there, but they become less pronounced with each soul she releases. Anyway, enough background. On to the useful bits!
I hope that helps! :)
Is the world of Pathfinder going to have one single unified pantheon, with each race paying homage to the same gods (or demon lords, as the case may be)? This is our intent, yes. We like the idea of there being universal deities worshiped by different races in their own ways and for their own specific reasons. And there's nothing stopping a particular race might favor a deity more than other races (for example, the dwarves might favor the god of mining more than elves do). The dwarves might depict most deities as dwarves, of course, while elves show them as elves and different human cultures depict them as humans from their cultures, but at the end of the day all the deities are the same.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Yog-Sothoth! So Friday night, a number of us from James’s campaign (including James, Wes, Jason, Erik, and myself) went into Seattle and saw a set of plays based on Lovecraft stories. That set the mood very nicely for yesterday’s latest rendition of… James Jacobs Runs Call of Cthulhu! … The letters from Colorado which we awaited finally arrived and they contained information which we found both useful and disturbing. The first two letters from Mr. Henry Hancock spoke of a mysterious “they” and of a desire for a gray stone star. They also mentioned “Sons of Yog-Sothoth” and a man named Belphegor, as well a code set up between Jacob Hancock and Henry Hancock to authenticate correspondence (a mention of Jacob’s deceased father). The third letter contained an unconvincing “Uh, we had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?” It also lacked the proper code. We feared for Henry’s life. Dr. Edwin then offered us $300 a week for as long as we remained in his employ and continued to search for clues surrounding this mystery. He also paid for and set up our tickets to Scotland. Poor Brendan (Wes’s character, as Wes couldn’t attend yesterday’s session) found himself holed up in whatever passes as a hospital in Black Nob, Vermont. The rest of us took our leave of our convalescing friend and took a ship to bonny ol’ Scotland. Now, because this was a Lovecraft-inspired game and Lovecraft hated the sea and everything in it, we were of course doomed from the moment the ship set sail. And indeed, as we steamed across the North Atlantic for a week, terrible and frightening events occurred… somewhere… I’m sure. But not aboard our lucky liner! Safely on land again in London, we traveled by train to the city of Inverness, wherein we ascended to the top of a tower and… oh wait… wrong game. So, Inverness! Scotland! We needed to get from Inverness to the small town of Cannich, some 30 miles distant. No train, trolly, or taxi went there, nor bus, boat, or biplane. So we bought ourselves two vehicles. Sy used a portion of his savings in addition to his first generous payment from Dr. Edwin ($300 a week!) to buy a brand-spanking-new 1928 truck. This top-of-the-line beauty could accelerate from 0 to 50 kilometers an hour in 17.8 seconds and had the latest in safety equipment: a driver’s side mirror and a rearview mirror. Snazzy! He asked Mr. Whittaker to drive the truck, as only Viktor and Whit knew how to drive and, but Viktor bought himself a used car (from an obviously reputable used-car salesman). In order to fit in a little better, Codwin purchased some “local clothes,” which I imagine means he’ll the spend the rest of our time in Scotland wearing a kilt. The next day, Viktor and Sy spent the morning in the library with the others, but in the afternoon they purchased forty sticks of dynamite and some other mining tools. The rest of the group spent the entire day in the library. Sy and Viktor also spotted a wanted poster from London looking for a man named Belphegor. Interesting… The world got a little smaller… The day after that we headed down to Cannich after a quick stop by the library and the police. Along the way, we stopped to allow Viktor to test out our dynamite—which worked just fine, thanks. And into the sleepy village of Cannich we arrived. Quickly to tavern went we, looking for information and rooms to let. As we chatted, someone mentioned Henry Hancock, which made Margaret reset. Reset I say! She blinked her eyes at his name, then greeted us warmly as if we all had never met. The bartender told her to take the rest of the day off and fed us some cockamamie story so unbelievable it has since drained from my mind. After settling in with a meal and securing our rooms, we made for Mr. Hancock’s house. Once inside, a series of imagined sounds, shadowy figments of motion, and the very real disappearance of an elephant gun led us all to believe the house had a ghost. We explored all around the main floor before making our way upstairs. Once there, most of us entered the master bedroom, where we found two sizable holes looking in on an adjacent washroom. Dr. Mason, however, looked directly into the washroom and saw quite a fright. He let out an exclamation and we rushed to his side. Sy was the first to arrive, and he placed his handkerchief on the good doctor’s neck, on a patch of skin that had gone white as snow. Less than a minute later, the patch disappeared and Sy threw away his handkerchief in alarm. It was then that the wallpaper in the hall began to buckle and shift, and moments later the half-formed ghostly image of Henry Hancock appeared. He yelled at us in what sounded like hobo gibberish and took aim with his elephant gun. He missed and yelled and missed and yelled some more. Sy grabbed Dr. Mason and bodily carried the old man, heaving him into the master bedroom in an effort to retreat. Whit then suddenly showed an uncharacteristic turn of courage and withdrew from under his shirt a medallion in the form of a pentacle. Presenting the star forcefully, he succeeded in calming the ghost of Mr. Hancock for a moment. Once the moment passed, the ghost turned his elephant gun on himself and fired a quick shot—ending his upstairs manifestation. He was not put fully to rest, however, as we learned when we descended into the basement. It took us mere minutes to ascertain the emptiness of the basement and to discover a hidden door beyond a trophy room. Behind that door sat a locked box sealed with wax. Whit attempted to pick the locks, but found no success. All others, except only Sy, also made feeble and untrained attempts at unlocking the box in the semi-traditional way. That’s when Whit drew his pistol. The rest of us left the room while Whit put his “practice” to work. Eight or nine shots later (how exactly do you miss an inanimate lock from two inches away?) he declared success and we re-entered the room. Whit undid the wax seal and opened the box, revealing 100 pounds of solid gold in the form of a disk fragment. Of those present, only Sy could even lift the coin piece (really, it was around 100 pounds) in the box, but he struggled. Whit attempted to lift the coin piece out of the box and went all cross-eyed. He reported feeling cold and filled with vertigo. So Whit convinced Sy to help him carry the box out of the house, and each man took one end. They made it about halfway up the stairs when the inevitable occurred: Whit insulted Sy’s Chinese heritage one time too many. Sy dropped his end of the box. The coin piece tumbled out of Whit’s baffled fingers and rolled clanking to the floor. The door at the top of the stairs slammed shut. Then ol’ Henry reappeared. Sy, Viktor, and Dr. Mason decided they wanted no more of the house or the gold or anything else. The three of them stormed from the house, yelling the whole time for Codwin and Whit to do the same. Meanwhile, Whit and Codwin frantically tried to lift the coin piece with a bit of sheep’s hide. The coin piece just fell right on through. So they used the hide to slip the coin piece back into the box and struggled up the stairs, all while Mr. Hancock continued to fire at them with his elephant gun. It was of the opinion of Sy and Viktor at that point that we should have brought the dynamite… ... PS: Yeah, look at that! We played our monthly game almost exactly a month after the previous session! :D |
