vyshan's page

Arkat wrote:

Some of you guys seem to think the Thrunes losing is a done deal.

I wouldn't bet on that if I were you.

I think Cheliax the nation is slated for some reversals, but I bet Abrogail II is going to get something she wants - apotheosis, maybe?

If she becomes a deity, where would she fit into Hell's Hiearchy, and what would her edicts, anathamas, domains, weapon, etc be.

Question: if Hellbreakers and Hell's destiny are the 2027 books, what are the 2026 books?

Question: When the AP first came out, the tian xia world and character guide were not yet out. Since it is now out, will there be changes to account for that both player side and GM side? I don't know if there would be an updated Player's guide or not.

vyshan wrote:

zimmerwald1915 wrote:

Veltharis wrote:

Not too much to go on, but the general premise seems to be the PCs starting uprisings along Cheliax's western coastline

Oh, is Pezzack's dual power situation finally getting resolved?

What is the dual power situtation going on there?

Same one that's been ongoing for a good. . . fourteen years at this point?

I mean what is going on. explain this whole dual power structure going on as I am not familar with Pezzack.

I really want to know more about the greater Empire. the 1e book Qadira Jewel of the east really added a whole lot of details and fleshed out that satrapy and details on the Kelishites. Notably the Kelishite ethnicity is a delibertly constructed identity to bring about unity to the empire. There are six major ethnicities(Aishmayars, Althameri, Khattibi, Mideans, Susianams, Tzorehiyi) Each is associated with a virtue , and the kelishite identity as a whole is associated with Unity.

The book also mentions a host of other human ethnicities: Amai Birtim, Beshzens, Jalunahs, Karas, Mishyrians, Ninshaburians, Qalahs, Yenchaburians. Plus various Garundi, Tian, and Vudruni people. They get like a brief paragraph but some of them seem really cool for plot seeds like the ancestral divide between the Beshzens and Mishyrians. As they were once one people but when a spawn of Rovugug escaped the pit of Gormuz they turned to the archduke of Hell Moloch for aid. However many did not agree with that and left, and they became known as the Mishyrians and they venerate various empyreal lords, with Falayna as their most important patron. which if I am counting right means the empire of Kalesh has 14 human ethncities specific to the empire itself.

The details on the non-humans was far shorter and apparently non-humans are not considered citizens in the empire, not sure if that would change in 2e or not. There are plenty of ancestries that I feel would be really cool to get some new heritages or have some for here. We know there is a culture of dwarves in Qadira that venerate sarenrae; maybe a heritage to reflect that? This could be a decent spot to toss in Tumbleweed Leshies(we know they exist via npc core), Could be good to have a desert catfolk hertitage, stuff for Centaurs would be good as we know they exist throughout Casmeron. Obviously there should be stuff for the Genie-kin of all elemental planes.

There was some things in the book that could become archetypes. for example Sunsinger and the Sun Totem(for Barbarians) could be fun things for Bards and Barbarians in 2e.

Now when it comes to faith, we don't have afaik details for 2e on a lot of the faiths there. Sure we know about the deites that exist elsewhere but the book mentions a lot of unique religious traditions and deities that we just don't know about. They are: Atarshamayyin, The cult of the Hawk, Dust Speakers, Lugalisimaru, Nightseers, Oathos, Qedeshatam, Roidira, Shahar, Temple of Law, White Feather, Yahaiya.

Divine Mysteries didn't touch on them afaik.

The temple of Law I got to imagine will be reimagined or at least the deities there will be changed as they worship Asmodeus(lord of Hell) and Abadar, and Zohls(The empyreal lord of Investigators basically, they often unreaval the plots of devils).

I also imagine Oathos might get changed. See the book states that Oathos is a moon god who was a lover of a jealous goddess who poisoned him. But after the formation of the Padishah empire of Kalesh, he is seen as the consort of Sarenrae who is suffering from a divine wasting disease and is prayed to by the sick. Now I like the whole syncretism elements here except for the fact that for an empire that is devoted to the worship of Sarenrae is in a polycule with Shelyn and Desna, two other ancient deities who I got to imagine considering how important Sarenrae is to the Kelishite empire that they would know of her two lovers.

And speaking of Sarenrae. I do wonder How the faith will be explored there. I know they have basically retconned the Cult of the Dawnflower out of existance for being slaving jihadist. That said I do like the split between more inward and outward. Where you have more pacifistic ones(the book mentions that most sarenrites are this here) and more agressive going out and fighting evil(Sarenrae charges her faithful to fight Rovugug and his spawn after all) basically the split between cloistered clerics and battle priests or even Battle Habringer. With how central Sarenrae's faith is to the empire we should hopefully see it explored more in detail, with various internal factions that make sense for the faith.

vyshan wrote:

From the stream today it sounds like we are getting more of Casmeron in the future as Erik Mona said he was working on stuff for the region.

He also mentioned the idea of an AP about the collapse of the Padishah empire and the civil war that enfolded that would be like the bronze age collapse. Note this isn't an ap that will happen as this was them being put on the spot to make one up then and there, but it is curious to see where his mind is at.

Properly introducing us to Casmaron with the explosive end of the empire could be a really interesting way to do it.

One idea I thought of was something similar to 1e War for the Crown but set in the Padishah empire of Kalesh. With you traveling from one satrapy to another. Starting in Qadira as that part of the empire has the most detail and traveling eastward.

Veltharis wrote:

Not too much to go on, but the general premise seems to be the PCs starting uprisings along Cheliax's western coastline

Oh, is Pezzack's dual power situation finally getting resolved?

What is the dual power situtation going on there?

From the stream today it sounds like we are getting more of Casmeron in the future as Erik Mona said he was working on stuff for the region.

He also mentioned the idea of an AP about the collapse of the Padishah empire and the civil war that enfolded that would be like the bronze age collapse. Note this isn't an ap that will happen as this was them being put on the spot to make one up then and there, but it is curious to see where his mind is at.

So at this month's paizo live on twitch, paizo announced that they are changing from monthly releases to quarterly releases. and instead of 3, 4, or 6 books for an AP they will be 1 single volume together.

I honestly quite like this change.

In the stream today they mentioned we are getting a hardcover complimation next year!

I wonder what shall replace Cheliax as big bad evil faction aside from Tar baphon?

So something I have noticed looking at the artwork for Thassilonian cities is that they have an Asian style of design to the buildings. Considering that they are not in the Asia expy of Tian-Xia I wonder why? Was this the style of Azlant? Did Xin just really like the style?

And how do Thassilonians of New Thassilon relate to modern Varisian Architecture? are they sending their architects to Minkai or other Tian Xia nations to get builders and planners who know how to build in that style. Or are they abadoning the ancient style of old Thassilon?

Since as far as I understand the cities of Varisia don't look anything like the Asian influenced Thasslonian Architecture or is that assumption wrong and they do look like asian villages?

To a lesser degree I think this applies to fashion too but I am not sure. The Rune giants had samurai looking armor. But the runelords themselves had all sorts of personal style and I am not sure what the style of their mages were like.

vyshan wrote:

I wonder if Sorshen will stop being the Runelord of Lust and return to being the runelord of Love before the virtues were corrupted into vices?

She's already abandoned that title and now goes by "Queen Sorshen." She no longer identifies as a runelord (although she still follows the themes and NPC-facing rules for her stats). (She was also NEVER a runelord of love—no runelords of the virtues ever existed, as they came into being only after the corruption of those elements into the sinful versions during the early days of Thassilon.)

I thought that they were appointed the runelords of those virtues but then corrupted it into the sins. But cool. I am looking forward to learning more about her and new Thasilion in revenge of the Runelords.

I wonder if Sorshen will stop being the Runelord of Lust and return to being the runelord of Love before the virtues were corrupted into vices?

Arazni's story is 100% NOT a redemption story, but a story about betrayal and then escape and regaining one's dignity and agency and perhaps eventually getting revenge.

I wonder why people think it is a redemption story then?

What was the issue with Sorshen to begin with?

to be fair the actual iconic necromancers are either Geb or Tar-baphon. Those two are the most powerful and most famous necromancers though I doubt either will be the iconic.

So if we are to assume paizo won't create their own new character. I think it is either Nyctessa or Zenda Modic. Modic was made for Rival Academies as one of the people attending the Convocation of magical schools and the repersentive on behalf of Synostosis Academy her focus is on Osteology so bone magic.

It was confirmed that Earth and Golarion exist in the same universe in different galaxies.

Is there any lore that explains why both Earth and Golarion have some similar fauna (blue whale, great white shark, woolly mammoth, tiger, lion, bison, etc).

Because it is fantasy and Paizo wants to use things we are familiar with. Yea, they exist as Paizo probably didn't want to have to make up new but similar creatures.

Souls At War wrote:

Castilliano wrote:

And why couldn't you have? (Especially unwittingly.)

What would (expected) cannibalism add to an AP?

For II, would help with resources.

And part of the point being that not all Evil acts are selfish and/or destructive.

Those answers don't seem to match my questions.

You'd lamented not being able to cannibalize, so I asked why couldn't you have? I don't think Paizo put any guardrails on that. What's to stop you from running the whole AP w/ evil PCs? Maybe the PCs prefer one side, go where the money is, or are savvy enough to pretend they're good (much like heroes on The Boys TV show). That AP seems a solid example of how there's already room for tables to play evil if they want to, without making it necessary for tables that prefer heroic play (albeit still muddied in that AP).

And when I asked what would (expected) cannibalism add to an AP it's a follow up to asking what evil acts you felt you wanted to do with your PCs. You said cannibalism. So I ask again, what would cannibalism add to an AP? As in Paizo setting up a situation where cannibalism was a normal choice for PCs to make or solution to a dilemma during an AP.

And if giving up on cannibalism, what other evil act is missing so that you want an evil AP? Seems like an impossible question to me since so many APs allow so much, and the most heinous acts are unmarketable.

There was a PFS1 scenario where PCs kinda were coerced into eating an unholy meal (part of a ritual I think). PCs tied to being non-evil had to Atone afterward, including my PC. Controversial indeed, and can't say it augmented the story on bit, only made some players bitter. We almost began battling right there, but were undercover and I'm unsure that would've worked. Given that the main baddie had escape as a goal, I think we kinda did need to indulge (though I believe one PC faked eating if I recall).

I could see Cannibalism playing a role as a horror element, or in exploring Kholo and Mother Vulture worship. However the way Kholo handle cannibalism is rather distinct from horror monster stuff but it is a sign of respect and part of funneral rites; likewise for mother vulture worship. When it comes to say horror elements, the point often in horror is either being forced to or learning after the fact.

All this is to say is that I agree with you. I don't really see a point in an evil campaign. Heck I don't think they should have a pro-cheliax ap, I do want Cheliax to have some sort of victory, and remain in the setting. Why because cheliax's government is pretty much fantasy nazis and I don't see appealing to fascists and nazis as a good selling point.

My main reason I want cheliax to have a victory or not be destroyed is simple, I want to punch fantasy nazis. and if cheliax is destroyed I can't punch fantasy nazis.

I was definitely a little sad to not see any sort of names/terms for the regional Kholo in the Impossible Lands book.

I would imagine that the regional terms are all tribal, as in they refer to themselves based on their tribe first and foremost.

That said I do agree with you and hope that a Golden Road book will have plenty of details on the Kholo.

I wonder does Battlecry have anything on Geb v Nex or Taldor v Qadira?

Question: is it the player core or the gm core that will have the rules for implementing pathfinder classes in starfinder. A fair number seem like they would fit the sci-fi setting of starfinder.

the only two areas where I don't think it would be black and white is:

taldor v Qadira/Kelesh: This is more in grey v white or grey v grey or white v white. Neither nation is really an evil nation and in fact both have plenty of people who do not want to see a war happen.

Geb v Nex: this is more evil v evil as both lands are unethical evil wizard lands. Each seems to try and up one another in terms of evil unethical magical experiments.

the answer to me is simple both can be dukes of thunder. I don't see a problem with it.

I wonder what ancestry is best for the Satyr?

If one wanted to use the Darklight sisterhood with the current lore, I wouldn't have them be rivals to the Pathfinders even if they probably would cross paths with them. No I would use the lore tidbit from War of Immortals.

Where following Gorum's death, Queen Abrogail made decrees to gather as much of the shards as possible. She did use that decree to re-enforce her power and authoritarian rule.

However, the darklight sisterhood could be one of the organizations that goes out into the world to find shards not in cheliax to bring back to their Queen.

Who were the darklight sisterhood again?

Question: It mentions on page 8 that the enigma or virtuoso muse are appropate for bards, but where is the virtuoso muse from?

I wonder what 1st edition APs and Adventures would be good to use for 2e for those new to starfinder? :)

Another one. The elemental Lord Sairazul is a friend of the Dwarves and while not related to Torag and his family is counted among their freinds and often visits them. And its not uncommon for the dwarves to include her in their worship, especially druids and primal casters.

She just feels perfect to include with dwarves to me.

Morhek wrote:

vyshan wrote:

zimmerwald1915 wrote:

Zoken44 wrote:

The recognition of the Irisseni immigrants from that other place their current queen comes from has caused many questions of how the Osirion gods came to be on this plane. and a name has been whispered during storms in the far north. the name of another god who may have come through, his wing beats like thunder, they whisper the name "Perun"

Surely no one can have missed that the Russian diaspora in Irrisen is very conspicuously Christian?

I wonder what domains Jesus would give? and how they handle being christian in a land where gods are very much real?

People were unhappy about the inclusion of IRL gods like Cernunnos or the gods of Osirion. I'm not sure Jesus H. Christ himself is a third rail that Paizo want to touch.

If they didn't, they could have just not included a Russian diaspora in the Lost Omens Campaign Setting. This would even, in many ways, have left the setting much improved.

I kind of agree. Not to mention Anastasia is IIRC literally canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. It would have been neater IMO if instead of Anastasia it was Vasilia the Beautiful, which ties to the Slavic Folklore and Baba Yaga without being. So the christian thing kind feels like it has to be addressed somehow when we get an Irrisen book.

Zoken44 wrote:

The recognition of the Irisseni immigrants from that other place their current queen comes from has caused many questions of how the Osirion gods came to be on this plane. and a name has been whispered during storms in the far north. the name of another god who may have come through, his wing beats like thunder, they whisper the name "Perun"

Surely no one can have missed that the Russian diaspora in Irrisen is very conspicuously Christian?

I wonder what domains Jesus would give? and how they handle being christian in a land where gods are very much real?

So a fan theory that I have basically made canon for my setting is that Casandalee is basically Brigh's daughter, and they have a mother-daughter relationship. This is born out of the fact that her final renewal began at a monastary of Brigh in the Mana Wastes where she trained and learned of brigh and once she ascended to divinity, she was adopted by Brigh.

Casandalee is a young goddess that Brigh is helping to teach, to care for, like a mother teaching her daughter. And if you disrespect Casandalee then Brigh will be irate at you, ie expect curses. Likewise if you insult Brigh for Casandalee.

Consequently in temples devoted to One you will find a shrine to the other, and that it is basically unheard of for one to pray to one and never pray to the other.

Also in Alkenstar and the mana wastes while rather rare, you can find pilgrims going to the holy sites.

Souls At War wrote:

While Good vs Evil is one thing, it can be useful to remember the whole Law vs Chaos part, and maybe avoid conflating Good with Law and Evil with Chaos.

Also, Robin Hood as a "good thief"

That one I want clarify, Robin Hood was a Thief out of Necessity. If everything went well, he would have happily just remained a noble and kept running his estate well.

But he couldn't, it was desperate Times

And circumstances can be explained, even excused

But if your base approach is "PLunder and Raid" in every situation, no matter if poor or Rich, that is diffrent for me. Piracy for Piracy sake, is a vile act for me.

That depends on the source you are using. The character of Robin Hood is a folkloric character and has a number of versions. the Noble origin is a latter addition to Robin Hood, heck even Maid Marion wasn't in some of the earlist Ballads. Also in the original Ballads, it wasn't just a desperate thing, I don't know when he got his rob from the rich to give to the poor thing but it wasn't there in the early ballads, though some of them did have him with a code of conduct.

Prejudices don't need to make sense. they are inherently based on falsehoods. In other words, Chelaxians believe this crap because they are terrible people, not be cause there is any sort of sense. They justify it with whatever they need to, the justification comes AFTER the hatred, it does not breed the hatred.

Yea this.

vyshan wrote:

So I have noticed that in several books there are actual recipes and thus it makes me curious if we could ever get a pathfinder cookbook.

Lost Omens Culinary Guide!

Some of those "licenced property theme" cookbooks are surprisingly good. I have the Final Fantasy XIV one and there are some tasty, fun to make recipies in there. But they also did an amazing job of actually making it feel like something from the game, with recipies appropriate to locations and flavor text to tie the book together. (The hardest recipie in it is for crossants, and it actually gets treated as if it was a trial boss encounter from the game.)

Some recipies from across Golarian showcasing the cultures that influence the setting would be really interesting.

I have the witcher cookbook and I really like it which is one of the things that made me think such a cookbook would be nice. I have heard good things about other fiction inspired cookbooks like the elder scrolls one.

So I have noticed that in several books there are actual recipes and thus it makes me curious if we could ever get a pathfinder cookbook.

Morhek wrote:

Knowing absolutely nothing about Sarkoris other than it's a formerly demon-infested realm once populated by the vaguely-Celtic kellids[...]

It's worth saying that they've been pretty significantly PNW Native-coded in a lot of PF2 material.

Yea that was something I noticed as well. I thought that the kellids were more celtic inspired at least that is what I got from WOTR.

Either something is wrong on my end or something I said was a step too far and my previous post was sent to the Boneyard.

But I'll just reiterate that the books I would die for are anything about Numeria or a Lost Omens book covering current events in the solar system.

Isn't Starfinder getting books on the star system of Golarion?

I hope that when starfinder comes out we can get something for numeria and a spiritual sequel to Iron Gods, as it would be a fun bit of crossover.

Kavlor wrote:

Third: I love dark fantasy, and so I literally have zero problems with the world having injustice in it, especially since there were plenty of them in real history. I like to immerse myself in the mentality and atmosphere of an ancient society, and not play as a modern person with modern morals.

Golarion has arcade games and trains in certain parts of the world. You can meet aliens and androids from other planets. Queer rights seem normalized essentially everywhere. Slavery bas been outlawed across the Inner Sea, seen as abhorrent by most and a liability even to the tyrannical regimes. You can be a magical girl who drinks boba tea, a cowboy who loves airship travel, or a mermaid who gets around on land with a magical wheelchair.

Whatever you're projecting onto the setting, it's not the grimdark, backwards fantasy you make it out to be in any of the 2e texts I've read. Injustice still exists, there are problems for heroes to solve, but everything about the handling of Arcadia for over a decade now suggests the writers have no interest in the path you want - and I'm thankful for that.

EDIT: There's also the argument to be made for novelty. I've seen Fantasy Conquistadors before plenty of times, especially in Maztica and Ixalan. You know what I've never seen in fantasy? Thriving Indigenous cultures that *aren't* under the gun from imaginary white people. Not only do I not want to revel in recreating historical ethnic cleansing, I'd also just genuinely like to see other inspirations get their chance to shine standing alone.

Yea Pathfinder isn't meant to be a historical game, nor has it ever been. Sure there are references, but it is a heroic fantasy game. Sure I like looking to history if there are details that can be done to improve things because I just love history but Pathfinder isn't a historical game nor would I want it to be.

Moreover Arcadia isn't just drawing from pre-columbia americas but stuff after it too. there are luchadors in Arcadia after all. It is drawing from fantasy of all types from the Americas and that is cool.

Speaking of other regions. Something I would adore are more books like the travel guide but for other regions like Tian Xia, Casmeron, Arcadia, etc. It was such a fun book to just get flavor details of how people live in the world.

I also would like some more books for other areas of the world like the Grand Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is such a fun book for making shops actual places and not just list of goods to buy.

From the Abasalom book:

Water supplies are handled simply by a combination of cisterns, underground reservoirs, and a large number of water towers and rain barrels.

Trip.H wrote:

Rahadoum being a fascist theocratic state would be unacceptable because it's putting the (downright cartoonish) evils of that nation at the blame of a real minority group's unique beliefs.

Rahadoum's dogma doesn't really map to any real world minority group though.

He is claiming that the minority is atheism and that it maps to and that this is anti-atheist propaganda like evanglical christians would say that atheists are atheists just because they hate the Christian God.

I had a player who, due to a spiritual experience, truly believed in an Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet perhaps, but maybe the other one. I wish I could ask him (RIP) how he feels about Egyptian religious representation in Osirion. And then there are some of the other Earth-like pantheons too. Would we subtract them too? There's too much wealth of Earth lore, much of it unplumbed, to rob ourselves of it all.

I also wonder if many of those kinda-from-Earth deities are getting killed in the Godsrain to remove more such connections, much like removing other lore/monsters/items linked to specific Earth-only, non-Golarion cultures. A similar removal happened in Forgotten Realms, where in the deep past Baldur's Gate was named after the Earth god kinda trapped on Faerun, not some in-world hero. Lots of miscellaneous Earth lore had merged there, but that disappeared as Forgotten Realms became a formal setting.
Tricky area, wanting to feature lore, but not step on toes. Glad Paizo listens, and tries to hire people from the cultures which have corollaries on Golarion. I guess if Paizo does launch a Rahadoum AP they should hire us atheists. :-) (And OMG, as a consequence of the Godsrain seems the most appropriate time!)

I know a few Kemetics, a bunch of Heathens, and a good number of Hellenists in my discord servers I am part of as I am a polytheist specifically I am a hellenist and venerate principally the Greek deities, though I also venerate various Hindu deities. And I specifically use venerate over believe because believe is a bit odd for me. I believe that all gods and goddesses exist, be it greek, norse, egyptian, hindu, various indgenious and so on. But I worship the Greek deities, they are who I build reciprocity with, who I make offerings to, the holy days I follow are around holy days for them.

As for how pop-culture tends to cover them? eh, they can be fun for entertainment but I haven't really found a game that really captures how I see the Theoi. That said I am still excited for Iblydos, it seems to be one of the few pop culture to cover hero-cults as a concept.

Moreover there is so much from realworld mythologies that taking away would just be bad. To use my religion(Hellenism) Centaurs, Minotaurs, Sirens, Harpies, Cyclopes, Eriynes, and so on. Not to mention for Pathfinder all the Daemons that play a major role in Pathfinder. Even if many of these aren't like in my religion, the Eryines for example are beings I have venerated and given offerings to.

Anyways rambling aside my point is that removing elements from real world religions would weaken things. One of the things that I think many love about the Tian Xia world and character books is how they integrate and use various asian folklore and mythologies to have a fun setting with fun creatures, items, spells, gods, and so on.

Hello, question from a player: How much will the backgrounds from the Player's Guide come up? Like, is it worth it for a Cleric to pick the "Banished Brighite" background? Will there be interaction with Brigh-centric themes, or is it just flavor? Will I miss out if I just take Sarenrae or something?

There are brigh themes, particularly in Book two. Though it does depend on your DM. I am going to play up the church of Brigh when I run it but I am biased as I like Brigh. This is IMO something though to bring up with your GM during a session 0.

The important things with the backgrounds are giving you a reason why you were outlawed and why you hate either/and Loveless and mugland.

In regards to atheism. there have been state atheist countries on Earth, like the soviet union, north korea, china. Furthermore I see a lot of anti-theist rhetoric being colonialist whereby indeginious beliefs aren't respectable and should be eradicated to get rid of all religion. Of course Antitheism by its nature is not pluralistic, other forms of atheism absolutely are pluralistic. If you are enforcing atheism it is just as bad as enforcing another religion.

Atheism can and has been used for harm just as much as religions like Christianity or Islam. and just like how not all Christianity is like fundamentalist evangelicalism not all atheism is like antitheism.

Moreover I strongly disagree with your statement that religion == harm always. sure can religions lead people to harm, yes but so can anything with enough fanaticism. Moreover there are numerous different spiritual traditions both on earth and on golarion. Not all of them are religious exclusive or shaped in the way Christianity and Islam are.

and I am pretty sure James Jacobs or another Paizo Developer can say that Rahadoum was not a "look at how bad atheism is we think atheists suck and here is some propaganda aimed at them." Heck I am pretty sure that they have atheists among there team.

Rahadoum does have other things then just being anti-theist. even the Laws of Mortality which are aggressive for it include this line in the edicts: provide a peaceful and autonomous society in which the people are cared for through social infrastructure.

That is something that they actively encourage, they encourge mutual aid, social welfare and taking care of one another. There is also the fact that Kassi Aziril is one of the greatest doctors in the setting.

Moreover atheists can be found throughout golarion, yes Rahadoum is the main area but its not the only. The problem with any land being the atheist country is it has to be enforced in a world like Golarion where the gods very much are real and people would be free to choose their religion.

While the Golden road hasn't gotten the treatment it deserves, much to my dismay. The land holds potential. and while the oppression by the pure legion is absolutly there, so is the social welfare and advances in medicine.

pH unbalanced wrote:

moosher12 wrote:

One of my players is practically begging for a Lost Omens: Arcadia.

As for me, I want the Pathfinder Technology Guide equivalent that dives deep into Numerian and Earthling/Stasian technology on Golarion, and that also gives Pathfinder classes expansions to give them some futuristic options in a Starfinder game, as well as giving heavier Fantasy themed options for Starfinder classes.

Of course, I'm looking forward to Secrets of Magic and Dark Archive getting their replacement. Still standing by my Impossible Playtest theory.

There's some Stasian Tech content in Rival Academies, including a Doctor Frankenstein archetype.

I'm aware, but what I mean is a DEEP dive. More earth tech. Bring us the stats for the looted Russian weapons as well as more 1920s-30s earth conveniences, hopefully with a few European and American items as well. I wanna see the Nagant Revolver and the Nagant Rifle, the Maxim machine gun, stuff like that. On the side of appliances, maybe a theater projector, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, radios, phonographs, etc, etc. Take a peak into the alien technologies Princess Anastasia grew up with.

I want a Guns and Gears sized book that is 2/5th Numerian scifi, 2/5th exported Earthling 1920s-30s tech, and 1/5th Starfinder/Pathfinder merging guidelines to cover Starfinder's GM Core's rules from the Pathfinder side.

A lost Omen Irrisen would be good to cover that as IIRC Anastasia is importing stuff from Earth. Also to cover what religion is in Irrisen, and to answer how a devoted orthodox princess now Queen is handling religion(and one who the Russian Orthodox Church canonized as a saint) but also what sort of neat ice deities would be there.

Irrisen is a fun land and there is a lot of potential there IMO. :)

Give me a Casmeron book! give me a gold road book!

Rahadoum wants no religion. This isn't just about the state churches but about all religious people. This includes a kindly priestess of Shelyn who is preaching on the virtues of love and mercy, a wandering desna priestess guiding people through the desert, A priest of Cayden Caillan who operats a caravansea taverna for people to get some drinks and a respite through the desert. Someone who is telling the stories inspired by Grandmother Spider is bad because of harm.

There are many deities whose "church" is highly disorganized if one can even call it organized to begin with. Desna and Shelyn and Cayden Caillian come to mind right away but also many empyreal lords, a fair number of the mwangi and tian xia gods.

You seem to think religion == oppression, but faith is not. That religions by their nature are harmful. of course there is no actual definition of religion that can be defined, it is a know it when one sees it. One of the frameworks that Religion for breakfast taught me was that when looking at religious traditions remember the Three Bs, Belief, Behaviors, and Belonging. Not all traditions put emphasis on Belief, some focus much more on behaviors and belonging though all three are emphasized to some degree it is just a matter of where the focus is. Ethnoreligious groups exist in real life and in Golarion. There are a number of cultural deities that are associated with ancestries like the Anadi and Grandmother spider, or the Kitsune and Daikitsu, Just to name a two, should their cultural practices be removed tied to these deities.

Moreover in Golorian deities and other divine beings are real. It is not a matter of belief. No amount of belief in if Pharasma is real or not, or if she is just a strong mage will change the fact that when you die she and her ushers are presiding judgement over your soul. Sarenrae exists, Desna exists, Asmodeus exists.

Moreover it isn't the only land that is atheistic or doesn't focus on the worship of deities.

There is druma with the prophecies of Kallistrade which while they do have religious members, many don't follow any deity. Though one can make a very good argument that the Kalistocrats are practioners of a non-theistic religion.

Abaslom famously has the Grey Cloaks who are atheistic and there probably are many who are atheistic.

Plenty of Atheists exist in the riverlands, but of course that is a land of wannabe rulers and tyrants but hey a ruler can be as nice as they want to be in the land that they carve for themselves there.

There is the land of Bachunan which complicated. It is an oppressive government that came about following a revolution, but as Grandmother Pei gets older younger revolutionaries are changing things for the better. More religious freedom has been allowed which means traditional deities are seeing a resurgence but many are still atheists. You got people like the nine stripe tigers and their leader Suokasu who has closed down labor camps, freed political prisoners, and so on. So things are improving.

Finally the Laws of Mortality and Atheism in Divine Mysteries are in different pages and more over they have different edicts and anathamas. Atheism has none for both edicts and anathamas while the Laws of Mortality have:

Edicts challenge religious power and the spread of religion, expose and eradicate hidden worship, provide a peaceful and autonomous society in which the people are cared for through social infrastructure
Anathema worship or swear an oath by a deity or religion, solicit or receive divine or religious aid, take a side in conflicts between religions

The Raven Black wrote:

PF1 Oracle is a Rahadoumi who had to flee the country after receiving her powers.

That is honestly super disappointing, and might be in the "yikes" category.

The more I sit with it, the worse it sounds.

Out of all the infinity of possibility, the pf hero representing the entire country is a victim of unjust religious persecution.

Like, holy shit, what were they thinking. It puts a lot of paint toward the picture of the whole country being little more than a bunch of anti-theist witch cleric hunters.

.

It's also just super lame. The character being an Oracle makes them an unwilling user of divine magic. This maximizes the "injustice" of their backstory, but it also robs it of all nuance and interesting room for conflict.

If they were a willing cleric to a god, that would add so many more questions and complexity to the situation.

But nope. It is instead the maximal "bad anti-theist country, grr" as is possible.

.

The surface level backstory to Rahadoum is that they had such a bad and traumatic period of "untold devastation" of capital W War between the religions of Nethys, Norgorber, and Sarenrae, that the country picked door number 4 and declared "no more religions."

Like, the Laws of Mortality are canonically born out of *war* trauma, and the whole nation knows life would be easier if they allowed gods and their magic.

Their backstory is the peasants kicking out the warring Catholic *and* Protestant churches to do their own thing, yet somehow they decided the nation's representative hero to all players/readers is that.

That is a major oof, and major yikes from me dawg.

How is this Yikes? Is it Yikes that Cheliax and Nidal are Oppressive? The Iconics from Cheliax are either the villian iconics from Hells Vegenance(Lazzero Dalvera*, and Linxia Benzekri) born into slavery(both Lem and Meligaster), or a non-villian token evil regular iconic(Seltyiel) is that yikes?

*He came from Molthune but then joined up with Cheliax.