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To this end I have Jhod playing an open role at the Statue of Erastil and the Temple of the Elk. Open Role. Last time we had ran this Jhod, and Erastil ended up just being related to quests and note having an impact on the politics or campaign. It was just something that happened in the background, passively. This time I plan to spotlight the faith because it matters, and will have an impact on at least one of my player's plans. To me I view the stolen lands as empty save for the monster populations, save for transient merchants. Erastil has a history in the region, but there are no more than a few hundred people's in the region anyways. Any migrated effort will overwhelm the established faith in the area. What attracts Erastil's followers back to the area is that history, and the frontier environment. However Pharasma is the common faith of Brevoy. Brevoy who is sponsoring the expedition, Brevoy who is seeing people displaced from civil war. Pharasma has the strongest grasp over the majority of people moving there, as opposed to who is already there. Also view Pharasma as a goddess of the fields is only in her purview of death and rebirth, but it is one that I feel matches this description from the book, "Our lady of Gentle Repose is the divinity of the common people of Brevoy, more concerned with cultivation, birthing, and harvesting than wealth" ... Erastil is mentioned as "not uncommon in far flung rural areas" Not to say that these wouldn't be more pluralistic. "A Brevic peasant's life is largely the same throughout Brevoy- up with the sun on the short spring and summer months to tend the fields in Rostland, or fish and mine in Issia, with household chores filing up the rest of the day. In the long, dark winter months there is no shortage of mending, brewing, carving and cleaning. Men visit local taverns or tap-house in the evening and such places host dances or revels perhaps two or three times a season. The wise man attends to his own house and avoids the attention of noble and priest alike., praying to all their gods simply for decent weather, good crops, a healthy family, and the peace which to enjoy them." Given mention of above decent weather is likely Gozreh, good crops is Erastil, healthy family is Pharasma, evenings for ale and dance is Cayden Calien... after all "Brevans make it a point to honor all gods"
After an extended hiatus, caused by a rotating roster of unstable players and one friend moving away, my player decided they wanted to reboot their Kingmaker game from scratch. We had been engaged in the early parts of RRR, and decided that there were enough continuity interruptions to warrant starting over. This time I went from a largely irreligious party to one featuring a Cleric of Asmodeus who wants to form his own order of Hellnights and a Medvyed Summoner who wants to unseat Lamashtu by passing the Test of the Starstone and stealing her dominion over beasts. I feel that religion will play a more central tone on this play-through and hope to challenge both players through meaningful political interaction. To this end I have Jhod playing an open role at the Statue of Erastil and the Temple of the Elk. They will also be strong in Tatzelford. This makes them, at very least, a regional power. Hunts of dangerous beasts like the Tatzelwurms, Hodag, Crackjaw, and Tuskgutter will be celebrated and become symbols among their faithful. As a tie in I'll be running "Fane of Fangs" as an attempted demonic incursion, which should attract the attention of both players mentioned. In terms of population they may be the largest or second largest portion of the faithful, My cleric respects Abadar, and will likely encourage patrons of the god of cities and civilization into the realm to encourage trade and build up the cities themselves. He views them under Asmodeus's shared aspect of civilizers. My player will preach unity in their faith, most likely. I've even stated that Oleg keeps a small devout shrine to Abadar in his outpost, even though it looks poor do the bandit attacks. Their faction will likely be small but wealthy giving them some disproportional power. The deity most likely to compete with Old Deadeye is Pharasma. Pharasma's role in my campaign in two parts. First she serves the commoners of the kingdom. She goes among farming communities, helping give birth to children, and livestock, assisting with the planting and harvesting of crops, among other encouragement in day to day tasks. For the Kamelands, this faction will grow with every farm tile placed, and under the leadership of their high priestess a simple, but influential growth will occur. Pharasma's other role will be the Quietists. The quietist are a sect of undead hunters that arise after the Stag Lord has been deposed. They will come and purify the graves set along the Stag Lord's Haunted Hillside. If my PCs throw the Stag Lord's Corpse to Davik Nettles, the Quietist's will view that as holy ground, and build a monastery there. They will restore the the toll bridge to fund the monastery, and perform baptismal confessions for the grieving, or those that feel they wronged the dead so that they can bring the restless peace. When the PCs are done with the Ransuer it will be attempted to be bought by the sect and enshrined as holy weapon. After the Lonely Barrow is found the Quietists will assume their presence is needed in the Stolen Lands and start militant patrols seeking out rumors of undeath in order to oppose it. Gyronna will likely be opposed by the other faction oddly enough. Meanwhile, my cleric of Asmodues will likely be acquiring new converts. If they spare the Sootscale, I suspect that the Kobolds may make interesting followers. I also think among those concerned with personal honor and lawful behavior he may have a voice. Eventually he'll invite in someone to help him become more than an armiger, and in turn build up to becoming a lictor of his own order. I suspect his enemies will likely come from a chaotic block of followers of deities. Gorum is likely to be popular with at least some of the more lawless Issians, and Riverlanders. The call to conflict and battle will likely ring a few times in later books, as Gorum has no problem with his warriors fighting among themselves. There is also likely to be common ground between Pharasma and Asmodues in containing the brute. Calistria is also likely to be among the Rostlandic population as the civil war to the north displaces them from their homes. Gralton or Elven influences may follow the Savored Sting. Cayden Calien comes with the same bravado, and Mivonese foreign influence, that my player's cleric will view both as destructive influences on precious order. Desna is likely to be minor until the Nomen Tribe becomes an influence, and by then at least the Greenbelt will have an early establishment in place. So how do these factions interact with one another? Given my player's goals is there anything I should look for during the campaign? Are their religious factions that I'm missing that may have an important impact on the people or players? Is there anything I can do to prepare, or anything I should consider adding or taking away?
Looking at Spirit Warden(shaman archetype) , it gets a decent spell list. Speaker of the Past(shaman archetype) feels like it plus bones would give you a potent arsenal of spells as a necromancer, but you give up the Spirit Animal stuff, and you get revelations instead of the wandering spirit stuff. They are even stackable. This leaves you open to take a different Spirit if you desire. I personally like Heavens because of enveloping void, heaven's leap, Starburn, free darkvision, does not need to breath, and a once per day casting of prismatic spray. Its not night and day above the rest, but it is incredibly dangerous.
If it makes it better zapbib I'm asking as a DM. I want to be able to explain why the fluff that goes along with and is described by the mechanics works together so that I can world-build with that information. MechaPoet, basically I want to know how Patrons are different from Spirits(spirits differ from mysteries only in that they grant hexes instead of revelations)? I see that mechanically that patrons, mysteries/spirits and domains(judgements, blessings) are all similar in that they are aspects that grant access to thematic spells and abilities. Heck, bloodlines work the same way. I knows that they are similar because there are only so many ways of doing things. I know that class descriptions are only snapshots of the concept behind a class. However fluffwise they do work very different from one another. I really don't want to handwave it and say this is just how magic works. I want to explain the differences between them. The question is supposed to be setting neutral, and its a little high concept. But I really find the fluff behind it invocative and my research isn't leading me anywhere.
(This is from a thematic point of view. I understand the need for distinct mechanical differences, but would like some help interpreting some class differences.) So as I understand it magic comes about in a few ways. It can be learnt and studied(Wizard, Bard), it can be something inherent that you are born with (sorcerer, oracle, it can be granted by a more powerful being (witches, clerics, inquisitors) or concept (druids and rangers with nature or the green faith, prophecies of kalistrade, paladins with goodness?), and it can be forged through a bond(shamans and summoners). Learned, Inherent, Granted and Bonded Magics. Of these only Learned Magic does not come initially from an outside power. Inherent Magics are the only ones not learned from an outside source. Granted and Bonded come both from interacting with some sort of outside source being. First off is this a good basic way of looking at magic or am I missing some important nuances? Secondly, what are the differences between these outside sources. How does getting your spells by interacting with an Eidolon, Patron, or Spirit differ so greatly from the interactions brought with interacting with Nature, Philosophy and the Divine? Thirdly, what makes those entities distinct? Patrons and Spirits are mechanically identical, but are categorized differently. Are the same thing, or are spirits the manifestations of mysteries they parrot? Are spirit animals and familiars to patrons and spirits as outsiders are to deities? And how do eidolons fit in this interaction? Do any of these sources interact with one another? Please someone help me straighten out my Pathfinder cosmology. Thank you.
I wish I could use Sacred Fist to qualify for Champion of Irori, honestly though Sacred Fist might be a stronger option. Deities having two or more of the domains listed. Core
Other Good
Other Neutral
Other Evil
Sorry to include the evil but I figured it might be useful for someone.
So, I wanted to do something similiar to this for my own campaign, which included adding in Kobold tribes that fit each dragon. In addition I've added in a now deceased blue that was a mage tied to Candlemere and its cult, Akirsedd, and I'm using Thelsterex from Thornkeep (pg 29). Thelsterex is only an adult, but territorial enough to kill off his younger siblings, and thus has been kept from expanding his territory. His mother might have been part of the previous struggle but was likely killed off by Ilthuliak. Akirsedd would outdate the current conflict though and many of her clutch have been hunted by either Silverstep or human's in the area. The Blue Dragonhide Armor and matching shield are from her or her kin in area Q. In Dragon's Unleashed pages 16-19 are dedicated towards Eranex, the daughter of Silverstep. She may be of use to your players as she wants to reclaim her father's old lair. As I mentioned before to enforce draconic themes early and often I started developing Kobolds of the region to fit their 'patron' dragon. A green scaled kobold tribe is the Narlmarches, and they in turn follow the King-of-the-Forest, the Forest Drake found in area S. Green scale Kobolds were drawn to the area by Thelsterex's mother but found themselves scattered after her death and driven out by the Kingdom of Zog. I've given them Day Raider in place of light sensitivity and darkvision and Wild Forest Kobolds in place of crafty. The tribe particular to the Narlmarches is called the Gnarled Kings. Originally the largest groupings of Kobolds in the Stolen Lands were black scale tribes, such as the Sootscale. Between the Branthlend Mountains and the Tos of Levintine there were none greater. But then the humans showed up, and the Boggards, and there was constant predation from the First World. Their numbers, especially outside of the Sootscale Tribe, are now in the hundreds. I did not perform any customization here. Akirsedd's presence on Candlemere and her dedication to the Old Gods caught the attention of a small tribe of blue scaled kobolds. The descendants of these Kobolds still live on the western shores of the Tuskwater and Lake Candlemere today, and go by the name, Tuskfishers. Other than fishing the lake the small tribe's presence has been very quiet, though they have taken to worshipping Ragadahn the Water Lord. No alteration have been made here either. The Brushfire Tribe is found in southern Brevoy and the northern Greenbelt. Like other Redscale Tribes, the Brushfires were attracted to the area by Chorral and have taken up burrows in lands he has conquered.
Finally I did decide to give Silverstep his own tribe of Kobolds, altered to fit his nature. These are stronger and fewer than the other tribes, and dwell in a small abbey in the Levantines. They've been adapted to the cold of the mountains, and their scales reflect light like sunshine on snow. Because of external danger and the lack of numbers the tribe mostly stays sequestered. They call themselves the Argent Word. These Kobolds have the Boreal Template from Irrisen, Land of Eternal Winter (page 57) , and replaces crafty, the racial armor trait, dark vision and light sensitivity with Day Raider, Gliding Wings and Dragon-Scaled. I think this turns the draconic background into more of a theme, though its easy to be wrong.
In a 4e campaign I had a character that when he was in towns he'd go to the nearest diviner and play him to watch sporting events and the news. I called this Scrytube. So when my players founded a Tavern inside their kingdom they had it have Scrytube and had it stream images from Tymon. One of the world's earliest sports bars.
I actually interpreted Dunsward as a cold steppe given its geographical area and that Centaurs live there. I imagine the rivers being a lot like the Colorado or Green Rivers, working their ways to a low point. My problem is the Mountains of the Five Kings. I'd love to see a take on a geographically accurate Golarion. Something tells me we'd have Lake Kingdoms or an Internal Sea instead of River Kingdoms.
It is a bit fantastical, but it is still data that can give a rough idea. Another source to check out, that also seems a bit guessy is People of the River. It was a nifty map of the Sellen River system. If nothing else it is beautiful.
Debating if I should add in smaller factions, like monster tribes found throughout the adventuring path, bandit groups, or mercenary orders. Also thinking about if I should add Iobarian factions. Thoughts? I could also provide annotations on different factions here if you'd like. I can also pull where I got ideas from.
The Iobaria map uses a different projection from what I can tell by the size of the Lake of Mists and Veils. But weird things also happen when maps have in universe elements to them. It gives room for artistic error. The reason I'm more keen on the hex map is because its least likely to have those errors, because of the need to scale exactly. One thing I'm trying to do is to make maps that go five hexes in every direction from a city. This would give me a sixty mile radius which I could then take a compass, draw a sixty mile circle and then replace those areas with hex maps. I was thinking of starting with Restov, but it might be easier to do Skywatch or Pitax. Ft. Drelev is already hexes and as said before Lake Hooktounge is fairly accurately drawn on each map so it may also be my reference.
Again these are simplified numbers rounding to the nearest 30. These measurements are relying on me to draw a straight line as well, so they could be off a little. It's also relying on Restov as a reference point as it is the only point to appear on the Brevoy, Iobaria, Stolen Lands hex map and world map. Restov to Katrivish is 180 miles. About 15 hexes.
And so on and so forth until I edit later.
If they see Goblinworks as a subsidiary of Paizo it could be listed as a second party game, but definitely not a third party. It could also do with it being Kickstarted. Either way it seems contrived as Paizo is the publisher, which automatically makes it a first party product, even if Goblinworks is considered the developer.
Xbox 360 and Windows.and PS 3. Its about two years old at this point, but basically you are fighting off raids of corrupted winter fae in the Faelands as someone from a Norse inspired mortal races. They basically wanted to set God of War style combat in an Elder Scrolls like setting. RA Salvatore came up with the world, and Todd McFarlane worked on the art direction. Might be worth stealing from a little.
The guide to the River Kingdoms does mention that because the rivers are constantly shifting that maps drawn a decade ago may contain significant errors regarding wilderness areas (which the Stolen Lands are), and those from a century ago may be all but unrecognizable. (Lightly paraphrased pg. 3 and 4) Other than the Tors there has likely been significant changes from when the Stolen Lands where last mapped. It being too large though is certainly an issue. In universe the cartographers are probably getting some faulty information from surveys. The hex map is likely the most recent survey, and definitely the most detailed, so likely the most correct. (for now) Just for scaling purposes I decided to take the Brevoy cities and measure the distances from one another according to the 90 mile scale on the map. I don't have a ruler so these aren't precise. Grayhaven to Port Ice is just under 90 miles.
This is meant to be a list of all of the major factions and families in the River Kingdoms, and other potential trading partners for the kingdom, like the Issian Houses, or the Aldori. I'll place a (*) next to an entry if the information is fabricated by myself or (^) if I got the information from a non-Pazio Source like Red Celt's Game of Thrones thread. Otherwise I can provide citations. Already in progress, but feel free to suggest changes or other material I can add.
I really think Maguses and Bards would be amongst the Aldori ranks. When I started developing my houses Rosanov specialized in Magus training as they were attracted to the flare that spell combat added. League of Merchants probably handles most of the Naval stuff, but they terrify me as much as the Lords of Mivon. Every time they are mentioned its negative. In Thornkeep they are mentioned and basically they are racketeers. Religiously I think you can say Milani is very popular here.There are likely plenty that wish to take back the homeland and revolt. Seeing an inflammatory priest of one take root and trying to stir rebellion and unification for the Stolen Lands, Mivon and Rostland is definitely possible. You did say they are already hawkish in Mivon (which is true)so a transfer of that revolutionary spirit seems likely at least in part. Guide to the River Kingdoms also mentions a group of Elves in exile to Mivon's northeast. Mivon also seems like a logical place for those outside of Nystra at the time of its destruction to settle, along with their wares. I'd assume at least one house is involved with that. If you want to deal at all with their relationship with Pitax it seems that the Liacenza's are persona non grata in Mivon.
For the record I just thought it was the best AP for the party you put forward. Any APs are going to have some immunity issues somewhere, and as you said the Double Dragons have other ways to deal. Shattered Star has constructs which are going to be trying for an all magic party. If I was just suggesting which AP I thought was the best and wouldn't steamroll or be steamrolled I say just run Reign in Winter. Its probably the best written thing I've read from paizo, it would mix well with your fey blooded Kitsune, and your Dragons would get a chance to go to town with fire.
I was drawn because of the Wish Wars in the backstory as well as the magical artifacts, plane hoping and other beings in the background. You also have plenty of foes from the very first adventure which will challenge but not overwhelm a magic based party. The only other ones that strikes this chord for me with sorcerers is Serpent's Skull or Jade Regent. My inclinations with a sorcerer based party is to keep them from being primarily in dungeons, but not in a wilderness based campaign which makes those two less appealing in my mind. Plus I know there already conversions for 3.5 to PF out there for the APs, and Legacy of Fire gets that treatment more than most as from what I can tell its beloved.
I think they tried to use her as a Succubus pulling strings to some effect, only as a fey. Thats why she always acts through agents.
Your bloodline could be so impure and so diluted that the effect didn't take you. Quite frankly they full on lay out that your proof isn't very good, and you are a discredited source for proclaiming your nobility. Wouldn't that be even more so if you claim to be the last Rogovarian? Further more you'd make yourself more and more of a target the more and more strength you gathered, and soon you would be a pretender to the throne. Its a compelling story of conflict and drama,and probably becomes one of the main threads of the plot to the individual campaign.
I might move up the Shambling Mound sap quest from book two. But then my group has an herbal obsession. Any plant of possible value is firmly gathered and expirmented with as well as harvesting any useful bits they think they can get from the creatures they come across. You might try something similliar as a way to exploit their gold lust.
Thanks for the shout out. I'd love to see how you put my list to work. I wonder if you've had a chance to look over the Aldori Swordlord class from Paths of Prestige? A culture with that class at the center with no kings or fealty to anyone other than family should be a rather interesting one, no? Anyways, just here to say I'm a fan of your work, and that I'm glad that I could help.
Actually looking at the Reign in Winter stuff has been an incredible boon. Its so well written, the fey stuff is mind blowing in how helpful it is, and generally Heldren looks completely transportable to somewhere near the Narlwood, you could use Tatzlford in its place with ease. I'm planning to set the beginning whilst the players are off saving Varnhold. From that point on I'd have the hex that was infected as a bastion for Winter Fey, and maybe have the Player Kings have options on what to do with those left behind.
Warning: This thread is primarily for DMs wishing to flesh out there campaigns. There might be some inspirations in here for making a character from Mivon, but if your DM clocks you it isn't my fault. This is pretty much a placeholder until I put my thoughts into words. I've tried to write this post six times now and haven't been pleased with my attempts to put my unorganized notes and dozens and dozens on thoughts into something organized and elegant. What should be going here after I've finished writing out an introduction and a bit of the content is my stuff on Mivon. It should detail their great houses, and some other noted factions, with plot lines, leaders and how they interact with one another as well as with the Player Kingdom. I really like what exists on Mivon and it has successfully prompted me to fill in the details on my own and I hope this stuff can be used to help others use Mivon in their own campaigns. |
