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So the reason Kineticist was on it's own was that it was a CHUNKY class what with all the impulses that had to be printed with it.

Further, most people associate shapeshifting with Primal magic, so connecting it to the outerplanes wouldn't make a great deal of sense from that perspective. Though I would be eager to hear your justification for outerplanes.

to make this class a Shapeshifter, I would do something similar to the Kineticist. They can shapeshift for combat easily, but they have to memorize Shapes. So they would learn feats like "Friend-Shape: you transform into an adorable pet-like creature. Your stats in this shape are adjusted like so..."
"Bear Shape: You take on a combat form of a bear like creature. your stats are adjusted like this."
"INfiltrator shape" you take on the appearance of someone who likely belongs in the current environment."

And you are limited to only the Shapes you have Shape Feats for.

breaking down the shape changing into "Alchemo-Shapes" changing the nexture or physical properties of your body. "People Shapes" which are more disguise style things, and about giving you bonuses to stealth, deception, or persuasion. "Snarling Shapes" which let you turn into animals and dinosaurs" combat shapes with an emphasis on control and support. "Monstrous Shapes" which would be combat and utility shapes with a focus on cc and aoe. "Dino-Shapes" which are combat Shapes focused on big damage and more.

I would say that an option for a prosthetic limb (directly competing with basic cybernetics) would be a necrograft, that literally gives you a Phantom-Limb, a Ghost arm. and just like at higher levels you could (probably) augment the cybernetic limb, you might be able to enhance the ability of the Necrograft, letting it phase through matter, actually become invisible. give you a special unarmed attack, etc.

head cannon that started bouncing around my head...
Goblins are an oft maligned people. They are treated, all to often, as mad little maniacs and barbarians. In truth, When the world is looked at from their perspective, one cannot help but see the inherent logic.

Let us begin with violence. It is said that Goblins are savages who kill and slaughter for fun. this is not true. However, it is true that they do not hold life with the same reverence as the Longshanks do. Goblins reproduce rapidly, and as a people, were literally born from slaughter. Unlike Longshanks, who do everything they can to ignore their impending deaths, Goblins openly recognize that they will die. This is not something that is cushioned or softly broken to Goblin children. No, they are told early and often how fleeting and fragile, and inconsequential their lives will be. However, this bizarre nihilism, gives Goblins one of their greatest strengths, put best in a goblin proverb.

"When a longshank bites it in a big badaboom, the Longshank wants to be remembered for making the big badaboom.
"When Goblin bites it in a big Badaboom, the Goblin hopes the big Badaboom is remembered."

Goblins do not, generally, seek glory for themselves, but for their pursuit. In hopes that some day their big explosion, will inspire other goblins to make even bigger explosions. This leads to an interesting quirk of Goblin linguistics. "Goblin" is never singular. It is infact, incorrect to say "A Goblin" because Goblins know they themselves are not important, only what their Gob does. Gob being the Goblin word for Family, or clan, or other communal unit.

They reason they clash so much with Humans (to the point humans often assume 'Longshank' refers to them specifically, instead of the actual meaning 'non-goblin') is that Goblins find humans shortsighted and selfish. Goblins concept of "property" and "ownership" is very communal, much like Halflings. Goblins thus don't understand why a human get's upset when a starving Gob takes food from people with full fields, but they do know that they will be mad and will arm themselves.

And as we mention food we should mention the Goblin diet. it is alleged Goblins will eat anything, and this is true. the Gods have gifted Goblins with very hearty constitutions. There are even rumors of Canabalism among Goblins. This is rare, though some Gobs do practice a ritual form of canabalism to honor their dead (they would never eat a stranger or Longshank as that would be seen as calling them family or lovers). They also few Longshanks as quite rude in their eating picking at a meal slowly like they find it beneath them, instead of loudly enjoying it to show thanks to the food and to the one who prepared it. and yes, Goblin food is prepared. It is rare for a goblin to eat unprepared food. they do cook food, though their favored method of preparation is pickling and fermenting.

all three of these men are extremely talented.

You don't know that for sure though and I've had plenty of AI search with accurate info as much as non accurate.

One thing you should bear in mind: That isn't a search. AI does not search. It is making up a response based on information it has been fed, which can include a lot of BS. it is not going to search for information to pull you up the latest news. It is just making up something that by it's algorithm is most likely to be what you wanted to hear.

Then why is the Goddess named progenitor of the goblins and orcs and other monstrous races an objectively evil goddess?

Why, despite them now being playable as PC's, are nearly all sapient undead evil by definition.

Why do these tropes that are born of religious persecution and malignment still part of their narratives?

And yes, Paizo is doing an amazing job working to purge the meta of their world of horrible ideologies. they are putting in work doing it, and I appreciate that. and again, it's why I'm talking about this on a Pathfinder community and not a D&D community. But just because they are doing hard work and making the effort, doesn't mean they've completely fixed everything and there aren't places left to criticize.

Absolute morality is a very real thing in Golarion.

Lamashtu is not an absolutely Unholy deity but she is definitely not Good.

And she cannot be Evil seen by Humans and Good seen by Goblins. This is not possible in the setting.

The demonization of other people's deities that we have IRL just cannot happen for long in Golarion.

yeah, the absolute morality is what I started this whole thing to complain about. it chafes as it allows for no nuance and reinforces very colonialist ideas.

but apparently I'm the only one who dislikes the idea of "There are gods that are bad to worship because they are bad. and any of their followers can just be killed, because they follow the wrong god, and that makes them evil".

well, I definitely can't think of any times, especially in the real world, that things done by groups of outsiders were painted as "Corrupting the pure". Nope, can't think of any examples of this.

And make the beautiful monstrous... and all her children are considered monstrous... hmm...

Am I stretching here, oh hell yeah. but like I said, the talk about her just absolutely smacks of "This was a goddess of a people we wanted to subjugate, so we decided she must be evil and spread all this talk about her.

What about Lamashtu's edicts is evil? What about her domains is evil?

She's kind of the epitome of what I was talking about. We have her as the mother of monsters, the mother of the oppressed. Orcs driven from their homeland by the Dwarven Quest for Sky, Goblins constantly treated as sub-sapient. Everything she represents is GOOD.... but for some reason she is evil? Why can her followers not sanctify holy?

Again, in game lore, born a demon, yadda yadda, I know the actual reasons but again. if this were the real world I feel like any objective researcher would find pretty damn fast "oh, that's only her origins in Abadaran texts, in texts and art work from old Goblin and Orc settlements we see an origin story indicating her as a kind motherly figure who suffered with her people".

Besmara if she's PFS legal would work. It could even be flavored as mercy on your part, the undead are animated by the souls of her followers who broke her anathema and are sentenced to service in the afterlife, and serving her clerics who animate undead could be part of that service, the better they accquit themselves in services to you, the more likely their debt is repaid, allowing for a moment where you get one of your undead to do something super cool, like saving another party member at the cost of being destroyed, and you can describe how as they are destroyed the sound of a cannon's fire and a round of sailor's cheers goes up.

I want to continue exploring this bias of "Chaos is wrong, Lawful is Right"... because... wow. are people who are "Just following orders" right? even if those horrible orders are lawful?

was Robin Hood, the scarlet Pimpernel, Star Wars Rebels, Br'er Rabbit, etc all inherently wrong for being forces of chaos?

Sounds more like an archetype than a full class to me. It'd basically be the geomancer archetype with a sci fi coat of paint. I think that'd be cool but I'm not so sure you'd be able to build an entire class around it.

A few rough ideas I could see taking shape as classes are things like,
*A teleportation-focused class, as previously mentioned.
*A class which creates terrain or otherwise manipulates the battlefield, laying down zones of damage, difficult terrain, zones of healing or buffing and the like. Essentially the turret mechanic, but with even more of a focus on battlefield control.
*A class who pilots a suit of power armor or some other form of smaller-scale mech. This could be one way to go if making more general power armor rules turns out to be too difficult to balance or too wordy; restrict it to a singular class and let them go full warmachine, with different modules they can install into and swap out of their armor based on need. Perhaps acting a bit like a commander's tactics in that you have a few that grow as you level, and...

normally I hate being told "sounds more like an Archetype" but in this case I can't be mad, because you're absolutely right.

The class creating terrain and hazards manipulating the battle field, if you can figure out a way to differentiate that from the Witchwarper, I have a sci-fi name for it: The Terraformer. I've had this idea too, but it was pointed out to me how similar it is to the Witchwarper.

In the spirit of Rename/replacements especially to distance them from other classes: the Medic. Somewhere between a Ripperdoc from Cyberpunk and the biohacker. you specialize in non-magical medicine. You gain the Battle Medicine Feat automatically, and an ability to essentially "reset it", kind of like the Magus' spell strike. This would replace the old biohacker, who was essentially all about creating injectables and non-magic healing, which is kind of the purview of the Chirugeon alchemist. You would also gain a form of precision damage, that effects bleed damage. Suclasses would be specialites including Pharmacology, Cybernetics, Homeopathy, and Physical Therapy. Each giving a unique way to recharge battle medicine

I love the idea of a teleporter class. However, I had three different concepts of a teleporter that I tried to jam into one concept (teleport self, teleport others, thinking with Portals)

But if we boil it down to just Portals, that does allow for a much more coherent class. you can even call them "Drifters" since theoretically this would work by shunting things through the Drift, and it has the connotation of someone not staying in one place long.

I would also add in to a thinking with portals build that You can essentially slash with them as a special attack.

What about a spontaneous primal caster, who gains some sort of buff or rider ability from the planet they are on, like a purely primal Sorcerer, but instead of bloodline, it's a shifting ability based on the celestial body they are currently closest too, including a "Void" body if they want to attune to empty space.

So, with the knowledge that they plan to focus more on new classes after Tech Core before bringing older ones back, let's bring that discussion back.

What sort of new classes would you like to see that are more specific to Starfinder's setting?

Thinking like this is why I'm sad, but optimistic. I wanted the nanocyte class, but I also am NOT a game designer, so I accept there could be very good reasons for not making it as separate class in SF2e.

well... I'm sad, but optimistic. At a Dev Panel recently it was confirmed that the Nanocyte would be brought into SF2e as an Archetype instead of a full class. I had hoped for a full class, but we'll see what the Dev's built of it. It's coming in Tech Core.

I think the confusion earlier in the discussion regarding "Bio-Hacker" vs. "Evolutionist" is that the term Bio-Hacker has actually come to have a real world definition, when it didn't when the class was originally released. So maybe a name change for what the Bio-Hacker class originally was, Pharmacist, etc, or rolling it into a class archetype for the alchemist and leaving it there.

as for the real world bio-hacker, I can see it being a subclass of the evolutionist, but not the whole of it since that also included cybernetics, necrografts, and even Arcane implants.

Nanocyte is such a specific form of cyberneticism, I think it would remain separate from the evolutionist, unless that make the Evolutionist really granular, like the Kineticist.

Virellius: yeah, that's what I'm complaining about. It codifies in the world's lore the kind of stories used to tear down cultures and religions around the world as "backward" and "barbaric" or "evil" and worthy of colonization. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and any attempt to suggest alternate interpretations, leads people to just suggest "but their evil cause the book says so."

Vyshan: as a catholic, that isn't the same as the in universe the gods are a proven knowable fact. Like I would imagine in Golarion (and most similar TTRPG worlds) "Atheist" means something completely different. The gods are not a question or a assertion, as they are here. So Atheist would mean being like Rahadoum, they acknowledge they exist, but reject their worth of worship or veneration.

The Townsend, I dislike your response, but I respect you. Happy games traveler.

The Raven Black: Eh... what does Chaos = Wrong?

Tech Core, which will include among other things Ships, the Technomancer, and Mechanic, is coming I believe early 2027.

As for grafts I'd love to see a Bio-Tech core (including a bio hacker and Evolutionist)

So I think the fantasy of the Evolutionist, when talking cybernetics is more than "becoming a robot/android". This could be something that even the androids and SRO's indulge in as it is jailbreaking yourself. becoming open source able to customize your own body, and as an adventurer, to build yourself into a weapon or bulwark. You go from being a gaming console, to a Linux gaming computer.

With Asmodeus it wasn't my intent to redeem him or make him good, just explain how an entire kingdom can justify worshiping someone who is, yes even in my interpretation and evil POS.

I still want the Nanocyte as it's own class as it had so much going on and actually lead to a lot of different character builds.

such as Green Lantern or Venom.

Many of these reinterpretations might be rejected as "that's not the history we have". the point being that "Winner's write the history books and often defame the gods and beliefs of their conquered rivals in the process.

Zon-Kuthon: The pain as a means to strength and endurance. The pain is inevitable "Life is pain princess". So embrace the pain, become callous, become inured to protect yourself and find peace even within the storm of pain, even within the eternal darkness of the age of darkness.

Urgathoa: Not a princess by birth, but a merchant's daughter who because of her beauty married into nobility. She would throw lavish banquets with her family's money, but unlike nobles, she invited her father's employees too, she dined on the food of the wealthy, and the peasant alike. and when she died, she questioned the Goddess of death's pronouncement that there could be only one path, that mortality was the only method, she rebelled, becoming the first undead, and continued her revels and indulgences in life, inviting all to her dining table.

Lamashtu was actually born a beautiful succubae, but she conceived and found join in motherhood. her children were considered hideous, which she rebuked. She loved them, and would see them brought out of subjugation. she transformed herself to be united with her children, the be as beautiful as she told them they were.

Asmodeus: this is just an ancient king, and first law giver, contrary to the claims of Abadar. Unlike many other gods, he has not allowed many of his values to advance, so they ossify justifying slavery and cruelty as necessary to keep the rabble in line. yes, we find him dark and cruel, but that is because he is a god of the rich and noble-born, who find him reasonable and strict.

And that's fair. and I appreciate you engaging with all this.

The Townsend: yeah, the validation would be nice, good to know I'm not the only person thinking in these terms, but I do disagree that all of these topics are disparate and separate things. They are intertwined. It doesn't make sense, and it parallels religious villanization (which also doesn't make sense) and it's often justified with political compartmentalization.

Dragonchess Player: In most places, yeah, Paizo has moved past it. Which is why I felt it okay to bring up with a group of Pathfinder players, but probably wouldn't with D&D players. But even as Paizo moves past it, I still see people in these forms griping about making Drow less evil and other things made to, for lack of better word, humanize the once "unquestionably Evil" ancestries. So it isn't like no one here pushes back on deconstructing these concepts.

Possible Cabbage: Rovagug having ANY organized cult makes no sense. like you said only maniacs would follow him, and yet frequently he has organized cults to him, which would be antithetical. it's the "Satanic Cult" trope. As for Asmodeus, Zon-Kuthon, or Norgorber, you realize right now there are religions (at least in America) that large populations are willing to say "Oh, all followers of that are X" which is enabled by the idea that "people will follow an evil god" being considered normal and reasonable.

Claxon: Not at all offended, you are correct, I'm one person whining on the internet. I'm glad I haven't offended anyone. and the way people engage with media concerns me because it colors the way they perceive reality. not in so direct a way as TheTownsend suggests. but... a good example is "To Protect and Serve". we've all heard that motto for the cops in America. It's on every show where they are closing cases constantly, and all (mostly) working toward good. It's not true. Cops have gone to court and had it declared they have NO responsibility to protect people. but we think it's true, from the media we consume.

what I'm saying is that a lot of the way this topic gets framed reminds me of the framework used to say "All Orcs are evil, they have absolutely no real world counter parts, so how could just saying this entire ancestry are a group of big ugly brutish thugs that we can kill with no remorse be problematic?"

That's why I chafe at "This god is wrong and bad, so no matter what principals it espouses they, and all their followers, can be slaughtered without question".

These are subconscious biases that I'm suggesting are perhaps not entirely unpacked, and continue to creep into the stories we tell, and games we play, which then influences the reality we perceive. Even the comparison "If I wants something deep I'll read a book" makes the assumption that we learn and absorb nothing from the game.

Most of the times when it is said "I just want something that isn't political" what is meant is "I just want something that doesn't challenge my current politics."

I'm trying to be careful, because I have no right to disrespect anyone, and I hope I haven't, but this is the source of my discomfort with this kind of hard and fast cosmology, and no, it's not at all going to change to suit me, nor should it, I'm one idiot out of millions of players. but... I don't know, I wanted to say something about it. And If I did disrespect you, I'm sorry that I chose my words poorly and that I insulted you.

I dislike that way of thinking, but I can't explain it without it coming off as a major personal attack (which I don't want to do), so I'm just going to leave it as I don't like that way of thinking.

All that said, I could be making a mountain out of a molehill, or out of nothing. and I leave that bit unsaid because "How we play a game" isn't something I want to disrespect anyone over, especially as you've been completely respectful to me here.

the "crazy cultist wants to end the world and doesn't care if that includes them" is what christians think of the satanists they made up. and then ruined a lot of REAL PEOPLE's lives (Pagans in older times and more recently in the Satanic Panic) by accusing them of being this thing they made up.

I guess I just wish there were more wiggle room as so many people seem to think trying to interpret the "evil" gods as anything but completely evil is a bad way to see the game, and trying to inject any nuance into your enemy makes the game "less fun".

I get this perspective is unpopular, and definitely not Lore as Written or Intended, and it's not many people wanting that nuance so... yeah, whatever. Thank y'all for talking about it with me.

the genetic alteration and augmenting is more pigeon holed to the Evolutionist than the Bio-Hacker. It may happen where Evolutionist survives, and bio-hacker's niche becomes an Alchemist subclass, or class-archetype.

Does anyone reasonable worship or seek to empower the Ashuras or Rakshasas?

And often times the "Antagonistic forces" like I said are not Evil. in Greek/Roman it's just a transfer of power, the Gods aren't better than the Titans, they're just the ones currently in power.

there's also evidence that some of those antagonistic forces were invented or rewritten due to outside influences, such as Set's role as antagonist when he was originally a loyal servant of Ra, but because he was well received by the greek conquorers he came to be seen as a traitor by the Egyptians.

There's evidence that Snori Sterlison, the source we have for most of our understanding of Norse mythology, entirely MADE UP Loki, taking things that were originally ascribed to Odin.

I feel like the current system perpetuates a lot of harmful stereotypes and enforces western centric ideas of morality.

Okay, and that's what I was thinking for the Geneticist Subclass.

Oh, absolutely, especially in that weird Prequel

what do you think biohacking is Milo?

CANDYMAN CLASS CONFIRMED!

So... I knew what a 1e Bio-hacker was, and I was aware of the issue with the 1e Mechanic to Inventor.

I'm trying to drill into what a bio-hacker could look like IF they got that 2e mechanic treatment. What's why I'm asking about the core fantasy.

So maybe something like they have a unique MediChem kit, that serves as healer's tools, but also comes with a built in Needlegun. By default you can produce ammo for the Needle Gun in two varieties: Stim Shots, and Tranq Darts.

Stim Shots deal no damage to allies and give them a status bonus to all actions that have the attack trait
Tranq Darts can chose to forgo damage to (without save) impose a status penalty to attack actions and movement speed.

There would be other unique Stims and Tranqs you can create

Subclasses would be based on source of the stim/tranq and automatically give you an option.

Something like a "Pharmacist" would get a stim that can actually allow a reroll of saving throws on persistant conditions and/or bonus to future saves, while their tranq imposes clumsy OR Enfeebled

an Herbalist would get a stim to immediately counter persistant damage, and a Tranq to apply persistant damage

a Geneticist could give a Stim that provides temporary resistance to a damage type, and a Tranq that imposes a weakness or supresses a resistence.

Cyberneticist can get a Stim that gives a boost to saving throws, while a Tranq that can impose glitching even in non-construct/technological creatures.

First: Lore as Written, Urgathoa is a terrible, selfish goddess who cares not for her followers beyond how they agrandize and sate her needs and wants. I KNOW that.

What I'm saying is that in the real world THAT characterization smacks of retconning of lore done by Christian Scholars who dislike the values she stood for or the idea of a woman defying her "Natural place". the entire insistence of Pharasma as "Neutral" and correct about the cycle of souls is what I'm talking about.

This rigid explanaition of the divine cosmology restricts a lot of people's perspectives, and entrenchs a lot of western ideas. Like the idea of holy vs. unholy, that's a western mono-theistic idea.

In the Greek/Roman tradition, it wasn't so much "Good vs. Evil" as simply a succession of rulers trying to hold power. it wasn't "Titans bad, Gods good" they were all just powerful rules trying to keep and hold power. In the Japanese shinto tradition again, not good vs. Evil, more often it is about purification, and nobility.

I'm just saying I'd like a structure of cosmology that doesn't give an easy simplistic "These gods are good, these gods are bad"

That was my thought too Kaid, in regard to both classes. So ultimately, what is the class fantasy (lore and/or mechanical) of the Bio Hacker? maybe we can imagine some ways it could be brought in?

First, thank you for recognizing this sort of Satanism as a American Myth and not some actual cult.

And I am all for getting into the lore and justifying.

FOR INSTANCE
Zon-Kuthon: I can very much see worship of him and his anathema to relieving or easing pain as a "Accept pain, and it will inure you to the pain of living". Relieving pain, by essentially growing too used to pain to acknowledge it.

Lamashtu, I absolutely agree does offer community. and as we recognize the, for lack of better word, humanity of the non-humanoid species that are her traditional followers, I think a redemption of her must take place. a recognition that she was a goddess of oppressed people, and the oppressors made her into something heinous.

The same can be said of Urgathoa, she was a mortal who escaped Death and spread that knowledge to other mortals, and became a goddess. And for this, she is slandered and preached against by the followers of Pharasma, arguably the goddess with the largest following currently.

further I want this kind of redemption for undeath. We say that stepping outside of the cycle of life and death is "Wrong" and damaging to the universe... unless you do it without undeath. such as passing the test of the star stone, or Alchemy, or other COUNTLESS methods to achieve immortality in Golarion that don't involve undeath.

So there are still four other missing classes, technically.

Vanguard: the armored and unarmed warrior utilizing entropy itself

Bio-Hacker: inject your enemies, inject your friends, do it all at drugs are cool!

Nanocyte: we are legion... we are the swarm... we are... working out where our cloud is

Evolutionist: a class all about grafting, and transcending what you were born as.

precog was rolled into the witchwarper in this edition.

does anyone else sort of chafe at the idea of "Evil Gods" and people following them? Like gods confirmed to be on the side of the hells, who will not reward you in the afterlife, and are known to be untrustworthy... but still get followers?

I feel like this is the conflict between the modern (western) idea of monotheistic worship of God and pagan worship of pantheons and multiple gods.

Like, if Lamashtu or Urgathoa was a pagan goddess in the real world, with all the lore we currently have of her, I feel like a half-way decent researcher would find out that "Oh, most of that evil and cruel stuff was added by Christian scholars later on who didn't like the idea of a powerful maternal deity worshiped by this "lesser" races.

In actual Pagan mythologies there were destructive deities who were destructive and aggressive, but the worship was seen as a means to keep them placated. Apocalypse worship and courting is more of a Christian doctrine. Gods like Sekhmet were worshiped as ways to placate and calm them.

And, as I've petitioned in other places the "Confirmed" hard and fast nature of the river of souls makes players who want to explore necromancy get treated as always bad guys since it's always evil.

Just some thoughts I've had does anyone else have thoughts regarding this stuff?

Vogons

abomination traits
20 ft movement speed
10 starting HP
elevated nose: you gain scent as an imprecise sense.

Sheer Bloody-mindedness: You have advantage on will saves against mental and emotion effects as you're just too set in your ways to really pay attention to things trying to distract you... even if you should pay attention.

Possible feats
Rubbery Skin: your thick rubbery gray Green skin is resistant to damage, you gain a resistence to piercing and slashing damage equal to half your level.

Vogon Poetry: your poetry is so bad, it physically hurts. physically twisting your lips into the right methods is what you focus on, thus this is based on dexterity, not your (lacking) charisma. You gain an ranged unarmed attack that deals 1d6 psychic damage that has the auditory, and mental traits. This is non-magical, and can benefit from handwraps of mighty blows.

kind of wishing they'd drop hints like they did with the War of Immortals Play test, where they were teasing the iconics, talking about letters in the name.

I'm going to float the idea, what if it's another SF2e playtest? Evolutionist and Nanocyte!

For PF2e: Maybe Shifter and displacer (a class focused on teleporting)

Yay! thank you!

So we have an automaton rune smith and an Iruxi necromancer. Due to his experience, I want to nominate Benedict Cumberbatch to mo-cap and voice the Iruxi Necromancer.

as for the automaton Rune Smith... hmm... Alan Tudyk is a good idea, again lots of experience with this sort of work, but I don't know if I wouldn't rather him for Qwirp and the Inventor.

Though, it strikes me, they are both missing humanoid gender markers, so my male assumption could be way off. In which case, for as female, I'll suggest for AmaLee for the Iruxi and Erika Ishii for the runesmith

Did they mention new playtests? I didn't watch the stream.

second edition, thank you!

Sailing ships and vessels from various cultures throughout Golarion (more than just European age of discovery style galleons)

I want to posit a different casting for Zo!

Bruce Campbell!

and Jefferey Donovan for Iseph (bonus points for those who know why)

Ah... weirdly, I'd see Nex as on the side of Cheliax. The nation of Nex's idea of Knowledge is worth anything at any cost. There being no taboo regarding demon summoning/binding.

That's a really good point, How are the Pahtra handling their new hard won independence, especially with the knowledge that the Vesk are likely only giving up on them until the threat of the Swarm or the ASE is passed.

How are Pahtra in Veskarium service being treated?

Is this inspiring more passive-aggressive resistence in the skittermander?

How is the Pulonis recovering from it's occupation. what has been irrecoverably lost to Vesk occupation?