Pathfinder Lost Omens: Impossible Lands

PaizoCon 2022 keynote showed off the final cover art, a whole bunch of interior art, and gave us some details.

For ancestries, we have ghorans, vanaras, vishkanyas, nagaji (!) and the rhino-headed kashrishis who were teased in the Vudra backmatter way back.

I think the art also showed a samsaran, but I'm unsure.

Also, the art? Probably some of the most positively over the top stuff in all of Pathfinder. Oenopion (and the other Nex locale, could be either Quantium or Ecanus) is real mythic-looking.

I'm so excited.

Some spoilers from the Keybote:

** spoiler omitted **

Pleasantly surprised Nagaji made the cut here!

I am as well. I cannot wait to see more art of them. I'm assuming the cobra headed person is either a reimagining of the Nagaji or a more bestial true form of Vishkanya.

That said, they showed off what I think was a Vishkanya next to the Kashrishi, which was almost indistinguishable from a Human, except for its fangs. So I'm interested to see more art of them as well.

I believe the person Mesa is referring to was an Undine, not a Samsaran. She had fins on her head. I am highly curious if the sort of fish looking person next to her is a Ratajin. In which case, they strike me as possible replacement for Deep One/Deep One Hybrids.

The Ghoran and Vanara they showed looked amazing as well.

EDIT: Almost forgot, there is also art of the 1e Psychic, Rivani, which I am happy to see.

Oh please oh please, wyvarens!!

I am as well. I cannot wait to see more art of them. I'm assuming the cobra headed person is either a reimagining of the Nagaji or a more bestial true form of Vishkanya.

That said, they showed off what I think was a Vishkanya next to the Kashrishi, which was almost indistinguishable from a Human, except for its fangs. So I'm interested to see more art of them as well.

I believe the person Mesa is referring to was an Undine, not a Samsaran. She had fins on her head. I am highly curious if the sort of fish looking person next to her is a Ratajin. In which case, they strike me as possible replacement for Deep One/Deep One Hybrids.

I think the cobra-headed person was a nagaji, likely a particular heritage of them. I highly doubt it is a more bestial version of the vishkanya. The vishkanya have been presented as, "Thanks to their largely human appearance, vishkanyas have gradually moved throughout Avistan and Garund with few being any wiser." Furthermore, in the 1E Inner Sea Races book (where I got that quote) they have been described as having faint scales, pupil-less eyes, and are often confused for dragon-blooded sorcerers, tieflings, or other such individuals.

Also, I think Eric Mona called out the names of the those ancestries in the same order from left to right one slide after the other starting with the Vanara. I agree regarding your assessment of the potential Ratajin fish/snail-like person and Undine/Samsaran, though I do hope Samsarans are in this book. Eric may not have read off all of the associated ancestries in the book to us, just most of them (probably just calling out the names of the ancestries he had images of on the slide, if I'm right about him naming them in the same order they appeared in on the slide).

Oh please oh please, wyvarens!!

Someone on the Reddit (Luis Loza, I think) who's from the Paizo team said the five ancestries revealed in the stream are the only new ones in the book. So not in this book at least.

WWHsmackdown wrote:

Oh please oh please, wyvarens!!

Someone on the Reddit (Luis Loza, I think) who's from the Paizo team said the five ancestries revealed in the stream are the only new ones in the book. So not in this book at least.

Yeah, Luis locked it in as Ghoran, Kashrishi, Nagaji, Vanara, and Vishkanya. I’m stoked we got Nagaji here! They’re pretty niche, but I like them a lot.

Strange. I can't seem to find it now, but I can swear someone from Paizo confirmed there were 6 new Ancestries in this book; and there was seemingly a new Ancestry shown in the first slide that looks like some kind of fish that I think may be a Ratajin. Only other thing I can think of is that the Ratajin are perhaps a Versatile Heritage.

Also, it's possible Wyvaran's are a Heritage for Kobolds.

And you are correct Ashanderai, he did in fact seem to list them in order. There have been some instances of things changing between 1e and 2e, so I was throwing an assumption out, as there seem to be quite a few Ancestries in Golarion with the ability to take on more mundane Humanoid forms (Anadi, Kitsune,Tengu).

I wonder if the person in white is some kind of Versatile Heritage as well? Maybe an Aasimar or Dhampir?

Thank you for sharing this!

Figured some might be curious about the ability score modifiers from 1e for the pre-existing Ancestries! There’s obviously a chance these are changed for 2e, but it’s better than nothing.

Ghoran: +Con +Cha -Int
Nagaji: +Str +Cha -Int
Vanara: +Dex +Wis -Cha
Vishkanya: +Dex +Cha -Int

And then we obviously don’t know about the Kashrishis, but they seem pretty beefy (Str? Con?) and have been described as psychic by Luis (+Int or Cha, presumably), so there’s some hints.

Vanara: +Dex +Wis -Cha

Going to assume that will be changed; that seems a bit too strong.

Wis Free maybe?

** IMPOSSIBLE LANDS DEITIES: **

I understand this is just a guess list but I would be ecstatic if Cixyron were to get a write up in this book, he's honestly one of my favorite deities in the whole setting despite how little we know about him (While the wiki says his gender's unknown, they're stated to be male in Starfinder), so him appearing favorite place in the whole setting would be a dream come true. And I mean, who doesn't like an electric metal skeleton with a raven head & a gun who wants the complete omnicidal destruction of everything? It's so comically metal in every way.

Interesting development: there apparently aren't any new Heritages in this book, only expansions on existing ones. So my idea on Ratajin possibly being a Heritage. That said, there is potentially "something like" a Heritage apparently. First thought, an Archetype in the vein of the Undead Archetypes, essentially turning you into a different creature.

This, of course, is me still operating off the assertion that the Ratajin will be in here. Lol

I am really excited for the new Rhinofolk, though I can't honestly place where the true cover art is taking place in the kingdoms. Nex I suppose.

I am really excited for the new Rhinofolk, though I can't honestly place where the true cover art is taking place in the kingdoms. Nex I suppose.

First order of business: Kashrishi Vigilante Barbarian who wears Vestments of Humanoid Form to assume the shape of a Human and reverts to his natural form during combat. Reverse Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino.

keftiu wrote:

Vanara: +Dex +Wis -Cha

Going to assume that will be changed; that seems a bit too strong.

Wis Free maybe?

Hm, maybe, there are existing Dex/Wis Ancestries, though the two I pulled up (Halflings and Grippli) come with a strength flaw that limits their utility for most melee builds.

Has someone made an archive of the extra art they showed for this book in PaizoCon?

AnimatedPaper wrote:

keftiu wrote:

Vanara: +Dex +Wis -Cha

Going to assume that will be changed; that seems a bit too strong.

Wis Free maybe?

Hm, maybe, there are existing Dex/Wis Ancestries, though the two I pulled up (Halflings and Grippli) come with a strength flaw that limits their utility for most melee builds.

Amd Anadi, who have a Con flaw. Both Grippli and Halflings are also slightly less powerful if you do not factor in their boosts (with said boosts they're fine of course), though that may just be a coincidence as Anadi seem right in line with other post-core ancestries.

I suppose a better way to phrase this would be I hope that gets changed, so that there is enough room in the budget for prehensile tail.

Oh, this looks great. LOTME was great already, and it had an arachnid race as its only negative! This is certain to be awesome, and I'll definitely need to put in a preorder at my FLBS.

I’m incredibly excited for whatever Pantheons this book might hold! Nex and Geb have a lot of options to feature Neutral and Evil gods we don’t often see in something player-facing, though the current lack of good Neutral divine character support does hurt it some.

I’m incredibly excited for whatever Pantheons this book might hold! Nex and Geb have a lot of options to feature Neutral and Evil gods we don’t often see in something player-facing, though the current lack of good Neutral divine character support does hurt it some.

I'm hoping to see Suyuddha covered here, as I have a concept utilizing her. Janasini and Ravithra would be nice to see as well. Would be surprised if we didn't see entries on Irori and Gruhastha and how they relate to Vudran culture in particular. Dhalavei seems like a safe bet as well. Actually, we will probably get full page spreads for all the Vuran Pantheon mentioned in LO: G&M. Some others singular Deities I'd love eternally to see are Gaelata, Ragdya, Moorya, Sudachala, Topimanu, Viritash, and a Kashrishi Deity. And that's only the Vudran Deities! I'd love for a few undead centric ones, particularly something for good or neutral characters.

As far as new Pantheons, I'm curious if the Cloud Sisters will be a Pantheon or treated as one Deity.

I really want to see if Zon-Kuthon and any of his velstrac buddies get a writeup here. He has a presence in Geb (undead play nice with shadows, and the nation is arguably built on cruelty), while I feel like Fharass and some of the other demagogues might have a place in Nex’s cities.

Some love for Brigh is inevitable, but do you think Casandalee has reached anyone this far south yet?

Hmm, potentially? It has been about 8 years. I'm sure her faith has spread, if even marginally. With the technological advances found in the likes of Alkenstar and Ustalav, to name a few, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a small following of worshipers in those regions.

Old Zonny and his local metal band, the Demagogues, would be nice to see.

Almost forgot, a few Asura Rana, Rakshasa Immortals, and Ahriman seem likely to maybe get a writeup, which would be nice to see here as well.

I wonder if the Mana Wastes have any unique Deities the local Mutants might follow?

Yes!! I know we had more geniekin options confirmed, but I hope Asura-spawn Tieflings can get some love here. And I would be all over some weirdo wasteland gods. I’ve got my fingers crossed for player-facing Gnoll info.

I would love to see some Div specific Geniekin Heritages, or some means of combining them with Tieflings. But yea, Spitespawn and Faultspawn seem like shoe-ins here. As does expanded Beastbrood options. I really enjoy the idea of Lineage specific Feats, like Rakshasa Magic, and would like to see more.

Rakshasa remind me - I hope we get some Askedhaki Amurrun in this. The tiger fangs capped in gold is just /such/ a killer visual.

From another interview, Luis Loza mentioned these deities as making an appearance here:
- local depictions of Shelyn and Urgathoa (possibly in art, even)
- Ragdya, god of humor, lessons and monkeys (perfect for vanara)
- a god of "primordial potential" and ooze called Akriti the Evershifting

Ragdya was in 1e and had a brief writeup in the Gods & Magic appendix, but Akriti is brand new I'm pretty sure.

Fingers crossed for rakshasa and tiefling heritages!

So I checked to see how many Deities we've seen in LO: Mwangi Expanse and LO: Knights of Lastwall, if for no other reason then to maybe get an idea of how many Deities we could see here. LO: ME featured 12 entries with full page spreads and an additinal 5 Deities with short entries, for a total of 17. LO: KoL had 14 full page spreads and also covered 4 Pantheons as well.

So I'd suggest maybe somewhere around 15 full page entries seems likely. For Deities like Urgathoa and Shelyn, they may only need minimal entries for how their worship influences the region, but could have full spreads as well. Likely to see a few Pantheons as well.

I'd be surprised if the Vudran Deities from LO: Gods & Magic didn't make the cut, so that's at least 10 of the bat; with Akriti making it 11. I'm going to assume Shelyn and old Urgy will get short entries, as I don't feel they need much; but could be wrong.

Granted, could be wrong about all of this. Lol.

(Dou-Bral post)

Also took the liberty of listing all identified Vudran Deities we know of to date. They can all be found on the Wiki alongside their original source; but I've included a bit of a key to point out those Deities who have been mentioned in a 2e product. Any without marks are those who haven't yet been mentioned by name in 2e. At least, not that I could find anyways. I also didn't put marks by those that are obvious, like Irori and Gruhastha. Also didn't include Ahriman, nor any of the Asura Rana or Rakshasa Immortals, which technically fall into the Vudran Pantheon. Finally, I left out the Child-Goddess of Kaer Maga, who is believed to have originated from Vudra, but whose status as an actual Deity is unsubstantiated. If I missed any, let me know. I really only checked those two books, since they are the ones that come to me immediately.

Key: New Deity
---: ÷ LO: G&M
---: × AP#158 - AoE: Six Feet Under

I wonder if there will be any new backgrounds. I know LOME didn't have any, but I though it could have benefited from some more mechanics.

I wonder if there will be any new backgrounds. I know LOME didn't have any, but I though it could have benefited from some more mechanics.

I was super bummed LOME didn’t have any.

Man, I can't wait for this book! I started making a monk PC, then decided to wait for the book, as he's from Jalmaray. Come on, October!

I know this is a fair bit away, but I have an expectations management question - is there anything player-facing on the Gnolls of the region here? I don’t expect any new mechanical options, but I’d love if we got to see the Mana Wastes gnolls’ perspective at all.

(My first ever PC was a Gnoll, back in the early 4e days - I’ve got a soft spot for them!)

I know this is a fair bit away, but I have an expectations management question - is there anything player-facing on the Gnolls of the region here? I don’t expect any new mechanical options, but I’d love if we got to see the Mana Wastes gnolls’ perspective at all.

(My first ever PC was a Gnoll, back in the early 4e days - I’ve got a soft spot for them!)

I demand the return of the Flind and their awesome Flindbar!

That aside, seem plausible. More examples of Ancestry cultures would be great. The Shattered Range Shisks. The Dongun and Kulenett Dwarves. The Ratfolk of Jalmeray. The many Planar Scions that can be found in the region. Maybe even give a bit of info on how Vudran Nagaji differ from those found in Tian-Xia's nation of Nagajor.

A lot of potential here.

Flinds are not open gaming content.

Awwwww :(

Flinds are not open gaming content.

They already exist in Golarion, added in the Monster Codex.

I mean, can't you already play Flinds by taking the Tiefling versatile heritage on a Gnoll?

Flinds aren’t fiendish gnolls (they may be in a specific edition but it’s not a universal thing).

Yea, they arent Fiendish Gnolls. But i can see the thought process, since they are thought to be blessed by Lamashtu and defiently sounds like an fun idea. That said, you can easily play one by taking the Great Gnoll Heritage, imo. But what I'm looking for is updated lore within the setting and , maybe, a particular Flind Heritage for Gnolls with some subsequent Feats. As well as the Flindbar, which IS just an Oversized Nunchaku really. But yea.

It's possible they may have been phased out. But I've always had an interest in them.

The new batch of Ancestries within has me super stoked. I can't wait to get a peek into Nagaji society more properly, and both Vishkanya and Ghorans are really exciting.

Kind of sad we didn't get to learn the ability boosts and flaws for the new ancestries in this book during GenCon. Hopefully we can learn these as a way to keep the hype up before the book is released!

Kind of sad we didn't get to learn the ability boosts and flaws for the new ancestries in this book during GenCon. Hopefully we can learn these as a way to keep the hype up before the book is released!

I was so surprised that LOIL had so little presence at Gen Con; no new info, and no new artwork shown off, either.

Ezekieru wrote:

Kind of sad we didn't get to learn the ability boosts and flaws for the new ancestries in this book during GenCon. Hopefully we can learn these as a way to keep the hype up before the book is released!

I was so surprised that LOIL had so little presence at Gen Con; no new info, and no new artwork shown off, either.

Yeah. The book is supposed to come out in about 3 months, so surely it should be done and at the printers well before now. Not getting to see anything about it is a little disappointing.

Hopefully the next few Paizo Live streams will get the chance to show off some new art or details.

I'm also disappointed we did not learn more. This is easily my most anticipated book for this year and has been since we learned of it from the accidental leak prior to the official announcement. No book on the schedule that has come out since then or that has been announced for the future has had me as excited for its release as this one with the only exception being Rage of Elements.

I know we have been told all the ancestries coming out in this book, but I am still holding out hope that we might get some heritages, versatile or otherwise. In particular, I am hoping that Samsaran will end up being in this book as a Versatile Heritage. I was always somewhat disappointed that Samsarans were limited to being essentially reincarnated humans. It would be nice if they are a versatile heritage now, but retain much of their culture from 1E, making them a society of integrated ancestries with a united heritage/ethnicity. I think that could make them even more interesting than they were before. I know we already have reincarnated blue people, but Duskwalkers don't have cities and nations with a culture of their own. I want to see what the Samsarans look like as a culture in 2E so much! It is a hope I will hold onto until Paizo staff shoot down my hopes before release or until I can see the book for myself.

I'm also disappointed we did not learn more. This is easily my most anticipated book for this year and has been since we learned of it from the accidental leak prior to the official announcement. No book on the schedule that has come out since then or that has been announced for the future has had me as excited for its release as this one with the only exception being Rage of Elements.

I know we have been told all the ancestries coming out in this book, but I am still holding out hope that we might get some heritages, versatile or otherwise. In particular, I am hoping that Samsaran will end up being in this book as a Versatile Heritage. I was always somewhat disappointed that Samsarans were limited to being essentially reincarnated humans. It would be nice if they are a versatile heritage now, but retain much of their culture from 1E, making them a society of integrated ancestries with a united heritage/ethnicity. I think that could make them even more interesting than they were before. I know we already have reincarnated blue people, but Duskwalkers don't have cities and nations with a culture of their own. I want to see what the Samsarans look like as a culture in 2E so much! It is a hope I will hold onto until Paizo staff shoot down my hopes before release or until I can see the book for myself.

They've said this book has no new Heritages in it, I believe.

I don't know any secrets, but my strong instinct is that 2023 has a Tian Xia book coming for the Lost Omens line, and that's likely to have Samsarans and Wayangs in it as new Ancestries. I'm still stunned we're getting the Nagaji back in this, but it makes more sense if Nagajor is potentially in play soon after.

I'm also disappointed we did not learn more. This is easily my most anticipated book for this year and has been since we learned of it from the accidental leak prior to the official announcement. No book on the schedule that has come out since then or that has been announced for the future has had me as excited for its release as this one with the only exception being Rage of Elements.

I know we have been told all the ancestries coming out in this book, but I am still holding out hope that we might get some heritages, versatile or otherwise. In particular, I am hoping that Samsaran will end up being in this book as a Versatile Heritage. I was always somewhat disappointed that Samsarans were limited to being essentially reincarnated humans. It would be nice if they are a versatile heritage now, but retain much of their culture from 1E, making them a society of integrated ancestries with a united heritage/ethnicity. I think that could make them even more interesting than they were before. I know we already have reincarnated blue people, but Duskwalkers don't have cities and nations with a culture of their own. I want to see what the Samsarans look like as a culture in 2E so much! It is a hope I will hold onto until Paizo staff shoot down my hopes before release or until I can see the book for myself.

I might be wrong, but didn't one of the previews talk about there being something "akin to a versatile heritage" in Impossible Lands? And one of the images looked vaguely like a Samsaran as well, as noted by Alex Augunas on Know Direction.

Wild Mass Guessing Moment: What if Samsaran was an archetype to take, ala the Undead Archetypes from Book of the Dead? That would open up Samsarans to being any ancestry, while also offering possible more powerful options for them. Stuff relating to their past lives could lend well with that sort of higher power budget, honestly.

Ashanderai wrote:

I'm also disappointed we did not learn more. This is easily my most anticipated book for this year and has been since we learned of it from the accidental leak prior to the official announcement. No book on the schedule that has come out since then or that has been announced for the future has had me as excited for its release as this one with the only exception being Rage of Elements.

I know we have been told all the ancestries coming out in this book, but I am still holding out hope that we might get some heritages, versatile or otherwise. In particular, I am hoping that Samsaran will end up being in this book as a Versatile Heritage. I was always somewhat disappointed that Samsarans were limited to being essentially reincarnated humans. It would be nice if they are a versatile heritage now, but retain much of their culture from 1E, making them a society of integrated ancestries with a united heritage/ethnicity. I think that could make them even more interesting than they were before. I know we already have reincarnated blue people, but Duskwalkers don't have cities and nations with a culture of their own. I want to see what the Samsarans look like as a culture in 2E so much! It is a hope I will hold onto until Paizo staff shoot down my hopes before release or until I can see the book for myself.

I might be wrong, but didn't one of the previews talk about there being something "akin to a versatile heritage" in Impossible Lands? And one of the images looked vaguely like a Samsaran as well, as noted by Alex Augunas on Know Direction.

Wild Mass Guessing Moment: What if Samsaran was an archetype to take, ala the Undead Archetypes from Book of the Dead? That would open up Samsarans to being any ancestry, while also offering possible more powerful options for them. Stuff relating to their past lives could lend well with that sort of higher power budget, honestly.

That was an Undine that was shown. They had fins on their head.

I believe the Ratajin are likely what they are talking about.

That was an Undine that was shown. They had fins on their head.

I believe the Ratajin are likely what they are talking about.

Actually, I asked Luis about the Ratajin in his AMA thread after PaizoCon, since I was curious they weren't mentioned as being playable. Here's what was said:

Luis, since PaizoCon is over, can you help clear up whether or not the Ratajin are in the Lost Omens: Impossible Lands? We know they aren't one of the new ancestries, but are they in there still as a part of the book's bestiary? As a non-ancestry option? Or were they deemed needed to be in another book?

They are included in the book's bestiary. We only have so many "slots" for ancestries when a book includes them and unfortunately they didn't make the cut. Part of that is due to the fact that there's so little information on them. Mwangi Expanse taught us that working with a single sentence and expanding on it to create a full ancestry, like we did with conrasus and golomas and shisks, is pretty difficult! Rather than do that again with Impossible Lands, it was better for us to focus on one of the "one line" name drops and give them more love as we design and develop the new ancestry. We actually worked internally quite a bit to develop concepts ahead of time, create concept art, and more for kahrishis so we would have an easier time during the writing and development phases of the book. Since we could only focus on one, ratajin was moved into the bestiary.

If and when we get a chance to look at Vudra, return to the Impossible Lands, or have another ancestry-focused book, there's a good chance to see them become playable. With the monster entry in IL, they've now entered the "ancestry ready" status like stheno. The entry gives us details on the ancestry's physical features, some background info, at least one piece of art, and a stat block that we can use to build a mechanical foundation for the ancestry. All that we need now is the right book for them. If enough people bang the drum for ratajin, I'm sure we can convince other people on the team to make that happen sooner than later.

So unfortunately, Ratajins will only has a bestiary entry in LO:IL, with a possible playable ancestry option coming later. Maybe.

And in regards to the Samsaran theory, if it were done like an archetype akin to the Undead ones in BotD, then it'd be possible to have an Undine heritage ancestry with a Samsaran archetype on top as well. So while I am skeptical, I'm not gonna rule the possibility out just yet.