Golarion with 4th Ed Cosmology - Help Needed


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


Hi everybody!

I've just recently acquired the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and I've loved it so far. However, I too loved what WotC did with the planes and the general cosmology of the game (mind I've never read the former cosmology thoroughly). I particularly love the introduction of the Feywild and the Shadowfell as places-in-between, parallel realities where the natural laws are warped and fundamentally different from those of the normal, 'middle' world. Exalted has something similar too, and I think Golarion should benefit with such a cosmology.

My problem is, ¿could anyone suggest me ways for introducing the new planes in Golarion? I already know I want Asmodeus as a former devil turned into an usurper god, I want Feywild-born elves ('Eladrin' is just a fluffy term to me), I want titans in the dwarven origin and I want bleak lands of the dead for my characters to fall into.

Also, I was thinking specifically in which ways are the FW/SF planes distinct from the middle realm. Can a human live indefinitely there? What sort of civilizations have arisen in said planes? How much their inhabitants know about the middle realm? What is the nature of the relationship between those realms with the middle realm? Do they overlap occasionally? What reason could have an inhabitant of one real for crossing over, if any?

Finally, I understand there are other supplements that deal with fey creatures (Guide to Darkmoon Vale, I believe). How it portrays them and how could I convert them to this new cosmology?

Any help is welcome, really. Thank you all in advance.

Regards,

ZOOROOS

Sovereign Court

Golarion has the "First-World", a place where all of the Fey come from, which is still out there.

I don't really know what the Shadowfell is, but there was a Plane of Shadows in 3e and there is in PathfinderRPG too (read about Nidal, The Planes and Zon-Kuthon for references).

Asmodeus' profile is on page 160 and gives you (i think) everything you want.

There's also a land of the dead - don't know about Titans yet - but everything else is there in the PFCS.

Grand Lodge

Zooroos X wrote:

Hi everybody!

I've just recently acquired the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, and I've loved it so far. However, I too loved what WotC did with the planes and the general cosmology of the game (mind I've never read the former cosmology thoroughly). I particularly love the introduction of the Feywild and the Shadowfell as places-in-between, parallel realities where the natural laws are warped and fundamentally different from those of the normal, 'middle' world. Exalted has something similar too, and I think Golarion should benefit with such a cosmology.

I think that the basic building blocks already exist in Golarion. The Plane of Shadow could easily be renamed Shadowfell. It is already a realm that exists parallell to the Material plane and is warped, twisted and dangerous. The only thing I see that is really different is the name.

The Feywild is similar to Golarion's First-World. Unfortunately there was nothing I could find in the Campaign Setting to elaborate upon it. It was not even in the diagram of how the Planes connect. I do not know if the developers ahve dropped the idea or not. Regardless, since it has not been developed it is easy for you to drop Feywild into the setting. Perhaps it is linked only via the Astral of Etherial planes.

Quote:
My problem is, ¿could anyone suggest me ways for introducing the new planes in Golarion? I already know I want Asmodeus as a former devil turned into an usurper god, I want Feywild-born elves ('Eladrin' is just a fluffy term to me), I want titans in the dwarven origin and I want bleak lands of the dead for my characters to fall into.

Asmodeus is already written up, but with some minor changes can easily be defined as an usurper god. If nothing else, there could be the perception that Asmodeus was behind the death of Aroden, and that Asmodeus' powers grew only because of the demise of that god. Perhaps prior to the fall of Aroden, Asmodeus was, at beast a demigod, but he stole the Divine Spark from Aroden and enhanced his own granting him full divinity.

As far as the Titans and dwarves, there is little detailed about the history of the dwarves or their origins story. Personally, I would make them brother races that confilct. The Titans are CN and the Dwarves are LG. Perhaps throw in a CE race as well and you have a nice balance of alignments for creation that can be used to explain conflicts. Or you can have the Titans be the instrument of creation for the Dwarves, and in their creation the were placed deep within Golarion and urged to search for the land of Open Sky. At the same time, the chaotic Titans creates orcs and placed them deep with Golarion to plague the dwarves.

Quote:
Also, I was thinking specifically in which ways are the FW/SF planes distinct from the middle realm. Can a human live indefinitely there? What sort of civilizations have arisen in said planes? How much their inhabitants know about the middle realm? What is the nature of the relationship between those realms with the middle realm? Do they overlap occasionally? What reason could have an inhabitant of one real for crossing over, if any?

I would think that these two lands are ruled by chaos, so they are shiftable and mutable. Humans would not do well in such a plane, but could survive. For Feywild I would alter time so that it affects inhabitants much slower than the material plane does. One year aged in the Feywild for every 10 years aged in the Material. But when someone returns to the Material from the Feywild time catches up. This explains the stories of people living for centuries in the Feywild but rapidly aging when returning to the Material. It also makes the Feywild rather "hostile" to Material plane residents.

For the Shadowfell, I would make it a place of gothic nightmares. Undead exist around every decaying corner. The very nature of the Shadowfell seeks to convert the living into the unliving. Positive Energy spells fail to work almost entirely or have horrible side effects. The land itself mirrors the Material like a horible nightmare. Loved ones are decaying fould beast of lust and flesh hunger, walls weep blood, the very earth you stand upon hates you and actively seeks to hold you, or entomb you in its icy death grip. The very air of the Shadowfell could seek to suck the life warmth from you.

Most of these things are simply fluff changes or enhancements.


Krome wrote:

I think that the basic building blocks already exist in Golarion. The Plane of Shadow could easily be renamed Shadowfell. It is already a realm that exists parallel to the Material plane and is warped, twisted and dangerous. The only thing I see that is really

different is the name.

The Feywild is similar to Golarion's First-World. Unfortunately there was nothing I could find in the Campaign Setting to elaborate upon it. It was not even in the diagram of how the Planes connect. I do not know if the developers ahve dropped the idea or not. Regardless, since it has not been developed it is easy for you to drop Feywild into the setting. Perhaps it is linked only via the Astral of Etherial planes.

Well, since it seems to be a continuity gap, then it's a gap easily filled with the Feywild then. I rather prefered it to be a coterminous plane, one easily accesible through gates and secret passages, either naturally formed or by way of arcane portals.

I was thinking the feywild would only be loosely ruled by the normal laws of time and space. There are some places (and times, why not) where time inside a fey glen would run idly while weeks pass on the normal world, and some other places where an adventurer tired of a long journey into the feydales return into the normal world mere moments after he left. Magic would a potent force also, with a lot of spontaneous magical phenomena happening from time to time, mercurial creatures formed out of thin air in response to some arcane law of the hedge mazes, or even the landscape subtly reacting to the mood of sentient beings passing by (could you imagine a forest that grows spookier the more frightened you get?).

The shadowfell, on the other hand, has a different feel to it. Time and space don't feel different, though the geography of the place may change. Hunger and thirst are no worries in such a shadowland, yet the body still yearns for mortal food and water, and an adventurer could collapse from the deprivation upon returning from a long journey into the shadowfell. There, it's hard to tell the difference between shades and the quick, for all they do is toil and suffer under the cruel deathlords' hands. There are fellswamps were formless shades can lure an adventurer into the murky, damp waters and usurp their identities, copying everything but the vital disposition of a living soul. Sickness and poisons of all sorts grow more pervasive and persistent in the shadowfell than in the mortal world, since the entropic energies of the place hinders the healing processes of people and animals.

Now, where could I locate in Golarion's map a necropolis or a fey citadel? I haven't read it yet, but I think maybe some of the elven kingdoms could be actually deep in the feywild. I was thinking also it'd be cool having a necropolis somewhere far up north in the Limnorn Kings' land. What do you think?

Krome wrote:
Asmodeus is already written up, but with some minor changes can easily be defined as an usurper god. If nothing else, there could be the perception that Asmodeus was behind the death of Aroden, and that Asmodeus' powers grew only because of the demise of that god. Perhaps prior to the fall of Aroden, Asmodeus was, at beast a demigod, but he stole the Divine Spark from Aroden and...

That's one amazing idea, Krome, thank you! I'll squeeze my creative juices developing your idea a bit more.

Thank you all for the great input. Keep your good ideas coming please!

Regards,

ZOOROOS

Contributor

Krome wrote:


The Feywild is similar to Golarion's First-World. Unfortunately there was nothing I could find in the Campaign Setting to elaborate upon it. It was not even in the diagram of how the Planes connect. I do not know if the developers ahve dropped the idea or not.

Oh, it's still around. Trust me. :) More to come in the PF cosmology sourcebook.

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