Pray for Mercy
The empyreal lords watch over the infinite expanses of the multiverse to ensure that good can flourish and that evil, no matter its form, can be vanquished. But even these powers cannot stem the tide of evil by themselves, and they must often rely on their celestial servants—noble angels, wise agathions, unrelenting archons, and free-spirited azatas—to lead the charge against the forces of corruption. Together, these virtuous forces wage an unending war against the blasphemous and the profane, all the while lifting worthy mortals to stations of ever-greater glory among the boundless celestial spheres.
Inside this book, you’ll find:
A thorough exploration of over 50 empyreal lords, including details on their minions, the divine powers they bestow upon mortal worshipers, and the celestial realms from which they hail.
Rules for the mystery cultist prestige class and details on the various types of mystery cults.
Methods to bolster mortal spellcasters’ efforts while summoning all the different types of celestials.
New spells for spellcasters to hurl at their wicked foes and new magic items to aid adventurers in their battles against evil.
Rules for rituals of self-mortification and the divine powers that can be gleaned by such acts of devotion.
A bestiary of five new celestials to assist or oppose player characters, including the keen-eyed spyglass archon and the veranallia, azata master of seasons, growth, and decay.
Chronicle of the Righteous is about the servants, worshippers, and homes of a group of beings in Golarion (Pathfinder's campaign setting) called "Empyreal Lords." Empyreal Lords are hard to define exactly; they're divine beings that inspire small groups of worshippers (called Mystery Cults), but they're not major deities that attract thousands of worshippers and the building of major temples. They might be best thought of as demigods, because they're below deities but above normal "celestial" races like angels. That's my best guess anyway, as I'm still a little bit fuzzy on the role of Empyreal Lords in Golarion. But put that to one side: Chronicle of the Righteous is a fascinating book that has inspired me to want to integrate Empyreal Lords, Mystery Cults, and more into my campaigns. The book is a 64-page entry in the Campaign Setting line. The inside front cover is a list of approximately fifty Empyreal Lords, their alignment, areas of concern (portfolios), domains (that they grant to clerical worshippers), and favored weapons. The inside back cover is a full-page reproduction of the cover art, which is quite impressive in its own right. Between the the covers are nine sections.
1. "Tabris's Return to Heaven" (two pages): This is a dense account, written in a "handwritten" font, that tells the tale of a warrior-scholar angel named Tabris who was obsessed with fully exploring and detailing the heights and depths of the heavenly and fiendish realms. Tabris disappeared for decades before returning with his Chronicle of the Righteous, and the book contained secrets that even the celestial realms would have rather been suppressed! It's quite evocative and well-written, and surprisingly effective. It's definitely a flavourful way to start the book off.
2. " Lords of the Empyrean" (29 pages): Each of the major Empyreal Lords receives at least a half-page entry that describes them and their particular interests, along with a drawing of their holy symbol and information on what types of people worship them, where their shrines might be located, and what sorts of celestial beings act as their minions. I would say that every third or fourth Empyreal Lord receives a full-colour picture, and these are done quite well. Perhaps the most important thing in this section is the introduction of the concept of "Celestial Obedience" and "Boons." Celestial Obedience is a feat that can be taken by worshippers of Empyreal Lords and provides them with an immediate +4 sacred bonus to something like (depending on the particular Emypreal Lord worshipped) a certain type of saving throw, combat maneuver check, AC against a particular type of enemy, etc. The benefit is narrow in scope and certainly not game-breaking, but additional powers ("boons") are gained at character levels 12, 16, and 20--and some of these are pretty cool. The best part of the Celestial Obedience concept is that, although it can certainly be taken by clerics, paladins, and other divinely-focussed classes, it doesn't have to be. If your Cavalier is a worshipper of the Ragathiel, the Empyreal Lord of chivalry or your Bard is a worshipper of Seramaydiel, the Empyreal Lord of communication and music, they can gain the benefits of Celestial Obedience. It's a great way to make the gods (or demigods) meaningful to more than just clerics in a campaign.
3. "Celestrial Realms" (2 pages): This is a description of the major geographical features of the celestial realms: Elysium, Heaven, and Nirvana. I have to admit I've never had characters adventure in celestial realms, and I have no idea what it would be like to GM or role-play such a place. I suppose it's good to have something more concrete to heaven than fluffy clouds. I did like how there was mention of where mortals who plane shift to each realm are most likely to appear.
4. "Celestialkind" (6 pages): After an introduction to celestial races and a sidebar about what happens to mortal souls who reach the celestial realms ("petitioners"), each of the following varieties of good-aligned denizens of the celestial planes receives a full page description: Agathions, Angels, Archons, and Azatas. I think this would be especially useful for those pesky spellcasters who are prone to summoning celestial beings willy-nilly.
5. "Concordance" (2 pages): Although only two pages long, this is one of my favorite sections of the book. The premise is that "once an eon, and only in times of great danger or turmoil" all of the divine powers of the celestial planes gather together to reach an accord on what should be done. There's material here about the death of Aroden, Lamashtu's rise to power, hints about a deity interested in time-travel, and, most intriguing of all, "The Seventh Accord", a Concordance never spoken of in the centuries or millennia since it happened and considered so blasphemous and dangerous that no mention of it is permitted to exist. Great fodder for creative GMs!
6. "Empyreal Worship" (14 pages): This section is a grab-bag of material, but it's useful. There's a page on how the different divine classes relate to Empyreal Lords, two pages on different types of Mystery Cults (drawn broadly among themes, but useful), and two pages on "secret offerings" that can be made to improve one's chance in summoning a particular type of celestial being. Two pages are also devoted to Rituals of Mortification, which requires a character to invest a certain number of days going without food, water or sleep in order to gain both an affliction and a benefit. The actual rituals listed are said to be examples only and GMs should feel free to add more. The Ritual of Appetite, for example, requires two days' fasting, afflicts the character with a -2 penalty on Constitution checks and saves vs. disease and poison, but grants the character a +2 sacred bonus on concentration checks and Will saving throws. Other rituals are far more powerful, with one providing a +4 sacred bonus on attack rolls against evil creatures and a +4 bonus on caster level checks to overcome their spell resistance! I haven't used these rituals in play, and I'm not sure whether they would be balanced or not, especially because part of the mechanism is the infliction of nonlethal damage once a day, but nonlethal damage heals quite easy. So the idea is interesting, but I'd have to test this concept out more before I'd be confident it's a good addition to the game. Next, there's an important new prestige class introduced here: the Mystery Cultist. A Mystery Cultist gains spells at the same speed as their prior class and several celestial-themed abilities, but a big reason for playing one is that they can receive the "boons" of the Celestial Obedience feat a few levels earlier than a regular character. I'd be very tempted to try this class out, as it seems to both fit the flavour of Empyreal Lord worship and be mechanically sound. After this, here are two pages of new spells (6 in all), with specific mention that these are not restricted to worshippers of Mystery Cults (and a couple of the spells are arcane in nature). I would love to see "Charitable Impulse" in a game, as it forces someone to help others and gradually give away all of their possessions instead of committing acts of violence. Last, there are two pages of celestial-themed magic items.
7. "Lesser Empyreal Lords" (1 page): About two dozen Empyreal Lords that were, for whatever reason, not significant enough to be included in the first section receive a brief, one-sentence description here.
8. "Fallen Celestials" (1 page): Intriguing description of those celestial beings who have turned their back on the heavens, many of whom have joined the infernal realms.
9. "The Celestial Hosts" (8 pages): This is basically a bestiary. It helpfully puts into table format all of the Agathions, Angels, Archons, and Azatas introduced in other Pathfinder materials, and then describes five new ones: Cervinal Agathions, Balisse Angels, Choral Angels, Spyglass Archons, and Vernallia Azatas. I found the new creatures interesting and potentially useful (except for the Choral Angels, which were a bit too cliche for me).
In sum, there's a lot of material here and it's almost all great. I picked this book up by chance (it was half-price) and have never done much with the celestial realms in a game, but I can now definitely see why I might want to in the future; and if I do, I'm confident that Chronicle of the Righteous would be the first place I'd turn.
Few of the books in RP that I never wanted to end. The flavor and stats in this book are awesome and highly useful for people that find that they are not fitting into the 'standard gods' but your not a deviant into the other alignments.
There is something for almost everyone good aligned, investigators have two options of Emperial Lords who they can follow and seem perfectly inline with their 'deity's' viewpoints. Spies and artisans have options, crusaders have more than just Iomedae's views. Good aligned nature gods - sure you don't have to be purely neutral.
There are many options and the mechanics are useful but are more geared towards games that would end up in higher level range (12+) but would add a lot of good flavor without being overpowered.
Everyman Product Reviews: Chronicles of the Righteous
Final Score & Thoughts Crunch: 5/5 Stars
Flavor: 5/5 Stars
Layout: 4/5 Stars
Final Score: 14/15 Stars, or 4.5 Stars, rounded up for it’s flavor.
Chronicles of the Righteous is a must-own book if you do absolutely anything with good outsiders in your campaign. This book provides a much needed insight into the nature of the celestial races and provides plenty of fodder for potential gods and entities in your campaign setting. This product is a rich tapestry of righteousness that your Pathfinder collection is incomplete without.
Overall, Chronicle of the Righteous is an excellent book, particularly due to its extensive list of Empyreal Lords. It helps to balance out the playing field between the forces of evil and the forces of good. While gamemasters may have less call for information on celestials than they do information on fiends, the do have some call for that information, and this book fills that niche splendidly.
It is up there with Lords of Madness, Book of Fiends and Demonomicon of Iggwilv in the amount and quality of information it provides on the various Empyreal Lords and the other celestials. The author should be proud of this creation!
As for the material, there is an awesome list of new sources for divine casters as well as other information on new celestial creatures. I especially like the inclusion of Tabriss, the Celestial Realms, Concordance and the Fallen Celestials.
Do yourself and your players a favor, go out and pick up this book now!
However, the description of the spell places it as a 5th level spell, only its inclusion in the 8th level list hints at an 8th level spell. I am positive we will be using the spell description, but figured this should be an easy fix...although please let us know if the spell is supposed to be 8th level.
However, the description of the spell places it as a 5th level spell, only its inclusion in the 8th level list hints at an 8th level spell. I am positive we will be using the spell description, but figured this should be an easy fix...although please let us know if the spell is supposed to be 8th level.
However, the description of the spell places it as a 5th level spell, only its inclusion in the 8th level list hints at an 8th level spell. I am positive we will be using the spell description, but figured this should be an easy fix...although please let us know if the spell is supposed to be 8th level.
They do post the link to the errata, but the spell is still in the Cleric/Oracle 8th level list (link in OP). If I am a 9th level cleric, I'm not looking in the 8th level lists for spells, I still have 6 levels to go before even noting Vinetrap exists.
The errata touches more on the mechanics of the spell.
So, they haven't...and to be completely unambiguous, they haven't corrected the placement of the spell on the SRD, where it is included as an 8th level Cleric/Oracle spell even though the description has been updated to include Patrick Reine's errata, and - I believe correctly - places the spell at 5th level.
However, the description of the spell places it as a 5th level spell, only its inclusion in the 8th level list hints at an 8th level spell. I am positive we will be using the spell description, but figured this should be an easy fix...although please let us know if the spell is supposed to be 8th level.
They do post the link to the errata, but the spell is still in the Cleric/Oracle 8th level list (link in OP). If I am a 9th level cleric, I'm not looking in the 8th level lists for spells, I still have 6 levels to go before even noting Vinetrap exists.
The errata touches more on the mechanics of the spell.
So, they haven't...and to be completely unambiguous, they haven't corrected the placement of the spell on the SRD, where it is included as an 8th level Cleric/Oracle spell even though the description has been updated to include Patrick Reine's errata, and - I believe correctly - places the spell at 5th level.
...um, are you aware that the d20 Pathfinder System Reference Document has nothing to do with Paizo, and is run by a completely different group? Paizo is certainly in no position to correct errors on a site they don't run except, perhaps, in exactly the same way you might...by reporting an error on their website.
So uh, I don't have seen many people discuss this, but... Excerpts from the Chronicles of Righteous from Tabris regarding Empyreal Lords are really spiteful and hateful(the chapter opening excerpts are positive enough, but the in universe pages with curator notes and such are really harsh) O_o; Like he seems to think they are big hypocrites and mentions its many many times.
In retrospect, no wonder guy got booted off Heaven .-. I mean, geez, even the good book out of three three book he wrote keeps calling them jerks
