I know an outline of the order of the chapters for the revised Campaign Setting has already been mentioned at least once in the Chats, but unfortunately I don't appear to have any notes pertaining to it.
If it wasn't already scheduled that way, could I please make a case for opening up with the history of the world/timeline and some of the big events, or at least getting that information in early? It gives some context to things which get referenced in other places (national entries, religions, lost kingdoms).
I think it would also be helpful for any 'history of the world' entry to highlight (and give sub-entries to) three historical events in particular:
1) Earthfall
Information on this is currently somewhat fragmented, and some of the fragments give the impression that the Starstone was the primary event and means of Azlant's destruction, when the Starstone came down nowhere near Azlant.
Some of the information pertaining to Earthfall and the means of operation of it from the Second Darkness adventure path might be worked in here, too.
2) Start of the Age of Enthronement
This is a very lightly covered topic. (Possibly because it involves the Starstone?)
Nevertheless it involved a geological upheaval of some scale, and the current 'western' calendar of much of Avistan and Garund counts the years from this event.
3) Start of the Age of Lost Omens
Again, information on this topic is somewhat fragmented, and it might be useful to collect the principle points of it which are 'generally known' in Avistan and Garund together in one place.
Looking at this list, it strikes me that these are all key events which draw the line between one age and another. If there are equally significant and clear lines at the boundaries between other ages, it might be useful to have events surrounding them summarised too.
On the subject of the start of the Age of Enthronement, just how much did Aroden rearrange the topography of the Inner Sea generally? The text in the Campaign Setting indicates he caused the whole Isle of Kortos (not just the small coastal bit Absalom sits on) to rise from the Inner Sea, which given the peaks the Isle has must have involved quite a lot of work.
As far as I can see there are two ways he could have done this (yes, I know he 'did it by magic', but I assume he still operated to some extent within physical processes and the laws of physics in the doing so, unless the Isle of Kortos is in fact some sort of weird spell-created demiplane):
1) Aroden pushed Garund (one distinct plate) towards Avistan (another distinct plate) creating the Isle of Kortos in one spot where the plate margins crumpled and folded, and almost certainly affecting an area way beyond the Isle of Kortos. (This is millions of years worth of geological processes being given a 'helping hand' by him.)
2) Aroden messed around with the geology just around the Isle of Kortos, causing just this small section to rise. Presumably in this case the Isle of Kortos is surround by faultlines and either underpinned by some very big Azlanti hydraulic jacks, some sort of very wide area 'levitate' spell or a magic-induced upwelling of magma in the underlying mantle. Unfortunately, as whatever means to uplift the Isle of Kortos that Aroden emplaced runs down, the Isle of Kortos will tend to drop back beneath the sea. (In this case the minor earthquake that is responsible for the current situation of the Precipice Quarter might be an early warning that the Isle of Kortos generally is about to take a plunge... :D)
Off-topic, it would have been a lot simpler if the Isle of Kortos was already there, and whilst experimenting with the Starstone Aroden caused a few local earthquakes which resulted in a shallow area off the (then) coast to pop above sea-level, but at this point I take it that it is too late to revise the whole Aroden raised the entire Isle background. :-?
Edit:
I appreciate this may go beyond what Paizo would like to say for the present, even in a revised Campaign Setting, but I hoped it would be helpful to post some of my thoughts on this particular subject to get some thinking going if it had not already been in motion.
Aroden only created the Isle itself. he didn't mess with the surrounding coastline much at all; the Inner Sea was mostly created by Starfall.
P. 240
Trade, The North Tack wrote: ...the Taldorian Imperial Navy...
...that Taldorian nobles go to war...
...the best way to stop a Taldorian nobleman...
Whilst it seems possible to me that at least with regard to the navy (as it makes for a bigger better more bombastic name) 'Taldorian' might be the correct usage, should 'Taldorian' otherwise be 'Taldan'?
Hmm. The Guide to Absalom does indicate that the Kortos Mounts have some volcanic peaks...
Where did the centaurs and minotaurs in the Kortos Mounts (Campaign Setting, Page 57) come from if the island was a bare rock on the seabed before Aroden raised it? The harpies and dragons, being fliers, could have migrated in naturally; could the centaurs and minotaurs have arrived with various armies which at one time or another have laid siege to the city of Absalom?
(The Guide to Absalom isn't very helpful on this topic, mentioning a couple of vague foundation legends (one involving a god of minotaurs), and stating that the centaurs regard their own race as the original owners of the island but not providing much by way of useful data.)
The Guide to Absalom did have some mention of the ins and outs of Absalom's trading, some of which might be useful if the Trade entry is to be expanded (although extra page count could also be devoted to a map indicating major trade routes which some people had requested).
P. 240
Trade, The North Tack wrote: ...Andoran still does a brisk trade in softwood lumber, brass and copper fittings for ship parts, fish, lentils, glassworks... P. 241
Trade, The North Tack (regarding Cheliax) wrote: ...Its size and thirst for material goods as well as its massive exports of gems, ores, fine cloth, tapestries, gilded luxuries, and glassworks... 'glassworks' should be 'glassware' in both the above quotes?
Trade, The South Tack wrote: ...smuggled out of Osirion to foreign ports continues to rapidly grow and, by some estimates... Minor Nitpick:
'to rapidly grow' is a split infinitive and in this case I find it reads noticeably awkwardly. Would 'to grow rapidly' be possible instead?
Trade, The South Tack wrote: ...Rumors that some of the mummies come to life and devour their new owners are attributed to illegal mummy smugglers; the Osiriani merchant guilds vehemently decry these allegations as falsehoods... If someone makes their livelihood out of smuggling and selling mummies on the black market, then why would they spread rumors that the very goods that they're selling are dangerous - indeed potentially lethal? I can't currently see any obvious sense in this section at all, unless the illegals mummy smugglers are touting their wares as some sort of assassination weapons? ('Buy a mummy from us guv, we'll ship it anonymously to a hated business rival, and in very short order they'll cease to bother you...')
On the subject of the start of the Age of Lost Omens, the current Campaign Setting states that Aroden's death caused worldwide storms.
P. 157
Tian Xia, Successor States wrote: ...When Aroden's death choked Golarion with devestating storms a century ago, mighty Imperial Lung Wa collapsed... If information on the events at the start of the Age of Lost Omens is being summarised in the revised Campaign Setting, it would seem to me that this would make sense to mention in that summary (and to perhaps edit down the reference to it in the Tian Xia, Successor States subentry).
I'm not sure that the situation outlined at the Arch of Aroden in the Trade entry makes sense. The entry states that Cheliax controls both ends of the Arch and frequently blockades ships heading in and out, whilst Chelish privateers also hang around to attack ships sailing through the Arch. It also seems to imply that Rahadoum shipping is sufficiently heavily armed to be able to force any blockades or to deal with privateers. So far, so good. The entry then gets bizarre:
P. 241 Trade, The South Tack" wrote: ...Some of the independent merchant fleets of the Inner Sea unload their goods in Manaket, transferring them to armed Rahadoum merchant vessels, then traveling overland to Azir where they meet their protected cargo and load them onto new ships bound for Sargava or Varisia, just to avoid Chelaxian entanglements near the Arch of Aroden... First of all I'm not clear what is travelling overland. The entry could be read as saying that the actual ships of the Inner sea merchant fleet are being dragged overland to meet the cargo at Azir, although given the 'new ships' mention I suspect it is individuals, rather than vessels.
Why would ships' crews be travelling overland though? That would mean that they are leaving the ships which they know behind, completely abandoned, at Manaket, and picking up completely new and different ships at Azir. Senior officers I would have thought, at any rate, would tend to stick with ships which they know the workings of and not be changing vessels willy-nilly every few months.
If just a few guards or occasional merchants accompanying their cargos are travelling from Manaket to Azir, why are they abandoning their cargoes altogether at Manaket? Why don't they squash aboard the Rahadoum vessels to actually travel with their cargoes which would presumably be faster and more pleasant than taking an overland route between the two ports? (Unless with regard to speed Rahadoum vessels have to wait and gather in Manaket for sufficient numbers to travel in convoy, but even so, personages are stuck either waiting in Manaket to depart with a convoy, or waiting in Azir for a convoy to have assembled, set off, and then arrived in Azir?)
If there is a sufficiently good highway between Manaket and Azir (and since Cheliax has controlled both sides of the Arch for several centuries, there has been time to have had a decent one built by now) then it would seem to me that cargoes and anyone accompanying them would either *both* go by Rahadoum ship from Manaket to Azir, or *both* go (by caravan?) overland from Manaket to Azir, in the latter case maybe if it was storm season or the Chelish navy was carrying out extra-large patrols or something.
I'm not sure why people and cargoes would split up, unless a person accompanying a cargo actually had business of some sort in the interior of Rahadoum, or shipping on Rahadoum vessels - whilst relatively cheaper than shipping overland and relatively safer for shipping than on other vessels - still carried a substantial risk of death for the crew and those otherwise on board.
When the region maps are being redrawn, could the border between Cheliax and Rahadoum be accordingly indicated please on the Garundi landmass to mark the extent of the Chelish control of northwestern Garund? If a trade routes map is drawn up, could the Chelish blockade at the Arch of Aroden also please be indicated in some manner, since the effect on trade is apparently so substantial as to make alternative arrangements for most merchants to bypass it so desirable?
Hmm. Here's an interesting conspiracy therory:
Rahadoum isn't interested in regaining the territory Cheliax took from it, on the south side of the Arch of Aroden, because Chelish control of the Arch of Aroden forces other nations to use Rahadoum's merchant vessels or to travel overland across Rahadoum, to get around any Chelish blockades. In other words, Chelish control of the Arch makes money for Rahadoum.
It might explain why Rahadoum didn't make a concerted effort to retake the territory whilst Cheliax was distracted by the civil war during the first part of the 47th century...
Hmm. Spotted this earlier post:
James Jacobs wrote: Dalvyn wrote: Is there a precise difference between Taldan and Taldorian?
At first glance, Taldan seems to be the adjective related to the ethnicity and Taldorian, the nation/kingdom/empire. Yet, in the "Taldan" section on page 30, "Taldan" seems to be used for both meanings.
There is.
Taldan is the adjective form, and Taldorian is kind of a made-up word that we're probably gonna phase out of use. So, uses of 'Taldorian':
P. 136
Taldor wrote: ...Ancient Taldorian legends...
...Taldorian explorers charted...
...Taldorian society is shortsighted...
...characterize Taldorian politics...
P. 137
Taldor wrote: ...but loyal Taldorian cataphracts...
...stagnation of Taldorian society...
...Taldorian navy is stationed...
The feat in the sidebar on page 137 is also called 'Taldorian duelist', and under 'Special' for the feat it says '...A fighter may select Taldorian Duelist...'
And a use of 'Taldoran':
P. 136
Taldor wrote: ...and the Taldorans became increasingly obsessed...
On the subject of Rahadoum's role in bypassing occasional blockades on the Arch of Aroden and its heavily armed merchant ships, it might be worth developing it in the Rahadoum entry, if material for the expansion of the Rahadoum entry is still needed. (If it can be done in a manner sympathetic to the Trade entry, that is, without duplicating too much detail.)
P. 136
Taldor wrote: ....departments of the nation's Byzantine bureaucracy... Since 'Byzantine'is not being used as an adjective to describe something from Byzantium, should it be 'byzantine' instead?
P. 241
Trade, The North Tack wrote: ...that ply the waters from the Arch of Aroden to the Isle of Jameray... 'Jameray' should be 'Jalmeray'?
P. 201
Timeline wrote: ...-5293 Earthfall. The Starstone tumbles to Golarion, creating the Inner Sea and kicking off a thousand years of darkness. Azlant and Thassilon destroyed. Elves depart Golarion...
...-4294 The veil of dust and darkness lifts from Golarion. Primitive peoples grasp and claw for power in a broken world...
Questions:
Was the dust actually up there for one thousand years? If so, what magic was keeping it up there? Under normal physics I would expect it to thin out, bringing a gradual end much earlier than a thousand years.
Was there an ice age with so much sunlight being blocked out and reflected back into space? If not, why not? Greatly increased volcanic activity (flood basalts?) with massive heat outputs perhaps?
(NB Some forms of volcanic activity could to a limited extent perpetuate the initial meteorite impact veil of dust, augmenting it with volcanic ash, but I have doubts that such outpourings capable of putting the ash high enough into the atmosphere to maintain the effect for the whole thousand years could have lasted that long naturally, and these would be highly explosive eruptions unsuited to warding off an ice age.)
How did plants and animals adapt to the low-light conditions? Are there any relic flora and fauna around from that era still? (Possibly plants and animals which adapted to low-light on the surface may have retreated into the Darklands as surface conditions brightened once again.)
Did wizards develop suites of spells to assist with crop growing? (I assume here that something beyond just daylight would be required to produce the full spectrum of light/radiation that crops might need.) If not, why not? If so, what current day versions of these spells are in circulation amongst arcane casters?
The dust wasn't actually up there for a thousand years, but for a long time nonetheless. Long enough to cause civilization to collapse into caveman times or whatever, so that the remainder of the age was under a metaphorical darkness.
The -4294 line might need an edit then, since as it currently reads it implies to me that the literal physical effects were around the whole thousand years.
Were there Azlanti colonists hanging around on demiplanes or in bubbles on the sea-floor during the Age of Darkness? Given Aroden five thousand years later is being described as the 'Last Azlanti', it seems to me that whole groups or settlements of Azlanti may have survived the initial impact of Earthfall in some places.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote: The dust wasn't actually up there for a thousand years, but for a long time nonetheless. Long enough to cause civilization to collapse into caveman times or whatever, so that the remainder of the age was under a metaphorical darkness. Funny you mention that, I was just pondering Earthfall as it pertains to my campaign. I got to wondering why Sarenrae didn't prevent it (either she couldn't -- LAME -- or she chose not to -- possible). My decision, dovetailing into part of my campaign backstory, is that she allowed it to occur in order to destroy something REALLY NASTY near the point of impact, then wielded her sun portfolio afterwards to prevent the ejecta from plunging the planet into a lengthy ice age, destroying all higher life forms.
Page 243 (Weather and Climate entry):
A sidebar lists seasons and planting, but there seem to be several important absences from the crops listed.
Even though they may take several years to reach the point where they produce, what about vines? Grape vines are a source of fruit extensively used for wine-production, and hops provide important flavouring for beers and ales. (At least in Britain - I'm unsure if hops figure in US beer and ale production, but anyway, hops should perhaps figure in a few Golarion countries.)
More significantly, what about the planting seasons for rice and maize?
With the 'Indian' flavour, I would have thought that rice would at least figure significantly on Jalmeray, and whilst in the real world maize may have been an exotic import to medieval/renaissance europe, so were potatoes which are there in the seasons and planting sidebar.
(If maize has been covered with an 'American' name, there being several crops listed I do not recognise, my apologies.)
delabarre wrote: James Jacobs wrote: The dust wasn't actually up there for a thousand years, but for a long time nonetheless. Long enough to cause civilization to collapse into caveman times or whatever, so that the remainder of the age was under a metaphorical darkness. Funny you mention that, I was just pondering Earthfall as it pertains to my campaign. I got to wondering why Sarenrae didn't prevent it (either she couldn't -- LAME -- or she chose not to -- possible). My decision, dovetailing into part of my campaign backstory, is that she allowed it to occur in order to destroy something REALLY NASTY near the point of impact, then wielded her sun portfolio afterwards to prevent the ejecta from plunging the planet into a lengthy ice age, destroying all higher life forms. The gods generally don't intercede like that in the world is the reason Sarenrae (or any other god) didn't step in to stop Earthfall. Because if Sarenrae were to jump in and save the world, there'd be nothing stopping one of the evil gods from jumping in to stop her. The gods avoid becoming directly involved in the Material Plane simply because that escalates quickly into a divine war, and the inevitable result would be greater loss than if they just stood back and let things unfold as they may.
(The war against Rovagug is a great example of what happens when the Gods get all uppity in the Material Plane... but again, THAT event happened a LOOOOONG time ago.)
In Nex, the Eye of the Arclord (p109) has a pre-req of 4 ranks in Concentration. In Pathfinder, Concentration is no longer a skill and therefore cannot be assigned ranks... or am I missing something?
Enquiring minds want to know...
stormraven wrote: In Nex, the Eye of the Arclord (p109) has a pre-req of 4 ranks in Concentration. In Pathfinder, Concentration is no longer a skill and therefore cannot be assigned ranks... or am I missing something?
Enquiring minds want to know...
You're missing nothing. The current CS is a 3.5 book, therefore Concentration still exists. The New and Improved (and now with more pages!) CS is being written (has been written?) for PfRPG, and such things will be addressed, certainly.
;)
stormraven wrote: In Nex, the Eye of the Arclord (p109) has a pre-req of 4 ranks in Concentration. In Pathfinder, Concentration is no longer a skill and therefore cannot be assigned ranks... or am I missing something?
Enquiring minds want to know...
The book was written a year or two before we released the Pathfinder RPG, and thus uses the 3.5 mechanics. We'll be releasing a revised version of the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, and many of the feats will be updated to the new rules then. (Some of the feats are going to be picked up by the Advanced Player's Guide, but we'll probably do an online "conversion index" so that folks who want to convert their crunch from the 3.5 PCCS to the Pathfinder RPG PCCS will know where to look for this stuff.)
For now, though, go ahead and substitute 4 ranks in Spellcraft for the Eye of the Arclord's old Concentration requirement.
Thanks for the quick responses, guys. I was beginning to think I had missed something key in the PF rules. :)
I think that this one has been mentioned on other threads, but further to my earlier post (for if/when it is updated to a web enhancement) on this thread regarding the Pronunciation Guide on pages 246-247, it also appears to be missing details for how to pronounce 'Golarion'.
P. 242
Weather and Climate wrote: ...Spider Storms: This term for a torrential downpour lasting several hours originated in Korvosa, where arachnid menaces known as drain spiders infest the sewers. After a sudden and violent rainstorm, the water level in the sewers rises enough to drive the drain spiders to street level - resulting in an eruption of spiders pouring from the gutters, outhouses, and aqueducts of the city... I'm not sure as to the American usage of the word 'aqueduct' here, but this passage confuses me since from a UK perspective, I think of aqueducts in the sense of massive overhead water-delivery systems, in the Roman style*, and I wasn't aware that Korvosa had any such structures.
Would a different word from 'aqueduct' be possible here?
Edit:
*Like this: *Wikipedia link*
P. 80
Irrisen wrote: ...Few of the superstitious Ulfend warriors...
...which closely resemble the queen of Witch's chicken-legged hut...
'Ulfend' should be 'Ulfen'?
'queen' should be 'Queen'?
P. 81
Irrisen wrote: …crows are seen as bad luck and are hunted and killed on sight… Minor concern/reminder:
Whilst not a problem as of the final playtest for the APHB, where the crow is not listed as a familiar option for a witch, if the actual print version of the APHB introduces crow familiars it won't make much sense for crows to be randomly killed in a land full of witches who could get quite annoyed at their familiars being attacked.
Apologies for commenting on a likely non-problem here; I have occasionally come upon witches with crow familiars in fantasy, and thought it best to mention this just in case the scope of the playtest familiar list were being expanded.
Irrisen, Whitethrone wrote: ...slain by the queen of Witches and her minions during the Winter War... 'queen' should be 'Queen'?
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We actually had quite a lively discussion about Irisen's anti-crow policy at work a few days ago, in that witches with big black bird familiars are a pretty common trope in fantasy literature. Fortunately, there's a really cool way to keep both flavors that requires no errata at all! Because crows are not ravens.
Note that no familiar lists crow as a choice. Raven, on the other hand, IS a choice. While ravens and crows are technically closely related, they're NOT the same type of creature. A crow is much smaller than a raven, and more prone to live in urban areas, eat garbage, and thus be more of a nuisance to civilized folks. Ravens, on the other hand, tend to live in the deeper wild areas and are more hunters than they are scavengers.
In Irisen, crows are actually seen as "pretenders" and "false ravens." Ravens are popular choices among the witches there as familiars, and are seen as more proud and noble than their smaller cousins, who are mocked and ridiculed. Over generations, this has developed into today's beliefs of crows being bad luck and being hunted and killed on sight. And sets up some fun opportunities for the unfortunate idiot who accidentally kills a raven when he thinks he's killing a crow...
James Jacobs wrote: In Irisen, crows are actually seen as "pretenders" and "false ravens." Ravens are popular choices among the witches there as familiars, and are seen as more proud and noble than their smaller cousins, who are mocked and ridiculed. Over generations, this has developed into today's beliefs of crows being bad luck and being hunted and killed on sight. And sets up some fun opportunities for the unfortunate idiot who accidentally kills a raven when he thinks he's killing a crow... So cool!
Lamashan Dalastonor wrote: James Jacobs wrote: In Irisen, crows are actually seen as "pretenders" and "false ravens." Ravens are popular choices among the witches there as familiars, and are seen as more proud and noble than their smaller cousins, who are mocked and ridiculed. Over generations, this has developed into today's beliefs of crows being bad luck and being hunted and killed on sight. And sets up some fun opportunities for the unfortunate idiot who accidentally kills a raven when he thinks he's killing a crow... So cool! And he will be even cooler if he's pissed off an Ice Witch
P. 242
Weather and Climate, Mistgales wrote: ...These clouds of fog form mainly in the ancient forests of northern Avistan...
...Fog rises from the ground at nightfall and forms swirling storms...
...the unusual, but ultimately harmless, storms. Soft breezes sometimes accompany mistgales and cause the storms to move...
I don't know if this is a cultural thing, but I'm somewhat confused to find mistgales referred to several times as 'storms'. I have an expectation that storms will be violent, and involve extreme weather, usually of wind and rain/hail/sleet/snow but in the case of some types such as sandstorms at least extreme wind.
Mistgales seem to involve extreme fog but don't seem to really do much. I can see that they might make some terrain (such as mountains) marginally more dangerous than it might be otherwise, but at the moment the repeated use of the word 'storm' in the entry to describe a mistgale seems to me to be a bit overdoing it.
Edit:
Comment:
With regard to the artwork on Page 243, I was somewhat surprised to find what appeared to be at first glance a pair of bizarre tennis rackets, a broad-brimmed hat, and a pair of tinted glasses illustrated in the 'Weather and Climate' section, without any equipment sidebar or other explanation. It took me a while to work out that these were supposed to be a pair of snowshoes, a sun hat and sun glasses, and are thus sort of weather connected, at which point I discovered that there aren't actually any special 'weather gear' items listed in the Equipment section (as it currently stands) either.
P. 83
Isger, Hamatulatsu (sidebar) wrote: ...Prerequisites: Intimidate 5 ranks, Improved Unarmed Attack... 'Improved Unarmed Attack' should be 'Improved Unarmed Strike'?
Should have got this one the first time... Ah well, got it this time round.
Hmm. With regard to some of the observations I made on the previous page with regard to the Red Mantis prestige class, it appears that whilst PFRPG got rid of 0 spell progressions for the Bard and for the assassin (in fact PFRPG altogether scrapped the assassin's casting capability) it retained 0 spell progressions for the paladin and ranger (both martial classes).
Should a ten level prestige class such as the Red Mantis with a 3/4 BAB progression have a 0 spell progression where characters with a high stat get spells earlier than otherwise? I don't know...
James Jacobs:
Did the Darklight Sisterhood get any development in the faction book?
If not I think it might be possible to make something of the fact that they're an organisation of mostly Chelish origin and that Asmodeus tends to be misogynistic. Either they could be something the Church of Asmodeus arranges 'to keep the little girls out of the way and give them something to play with' or they could be a specifically all female organisation in theory loyal exclusively to the majestrix intended to keep the church of Asmodeus from getting out of hand and maybe for running espionage related errands.
Hmm. Catherine de Medici had a 'flying squad' of beautiful women spies, I think, although I might be misremembering.
P. 242
Weather and Climate, Cracklenights wrote: ...The northern lands use the term "cracklenight" to refer to the first days of winter. During the night, the temperatures drop below freezing and in the morning, a thin layer of hard but brittle ice covers trees, plants, houses, and any other exposed surfaces... '"cracklenight"' is singular and does not seem to me to agree with 'the first days of winter' which is plural.
Also, as a minor quibble tying in to cracklenights:
P. 243
Weather and Climate, Seasons and Planting (Sidebar) wrote: ...Winter
Patron: Zon-Kuthon
Months: Kuthona, Abadius, Calistril...
So, winter is defined as being three specific months, and the Cracklenights section implies that the first days of winter always have cracklenight freezing conditions... Now I know it could be explained as 'magic' or divine intervention that the first few days of Kuthona always have cracklenights, but the 'to refer to the first days of winter' could perhaps be rewritten as something like 'to refer to the first hard overnight frosts of winter'. :)
More I missed earlier:
P. 89
Kyonin wrote: ...of these structures still dot the Fireani Forest... As far as I can determine from other sources (Pathfinder #17, chief amongst them) 'Fireani' should be 'Fierani'?
Kyonin, Sniper Shot (sidebar) wrote: ...Precision-based damage includes sneak attacks, a ranger's favored weapon bonus, and the damage bonus from the Focused Shot feat... 'ranger's favored weapon bonus' should be 'ranger's favored enemy bonus'?
PFRPG conversion:
Is a ranger's favored enemy bonus precision damage any more? I can't find anything in my 1st edition copy of the PFRPG under favored enemy on Page 64 to indicate that it is. If it is no longer precision damage, I assume the reference to ranger's favored enemy bonus needs removing from the Sniper Shot feat anyway?
Edit:
Hmm. I'm not even sure if there was a range limit on favored enemy damage in 3.5 having just checked the 3.5 ranger entry. Strange...
Charles Evans 25 wrote: James Jacobs:
Did the Darklight Sisterhood get any development in the faction book?
If not I think it might be possible to make something of the fact that they're an organisation of mostly Chelish origin and that Asmodeus tends to be misogynistic. Either they could be something the Church of Asmodeus arranges 'to keep the little girls out of the way and give them something to play with' or they could be a specifically all female organisation in theory loyal exclusively to the majestrix intended to keep the church of Asmodeus from getting out of hand and maybe for running espionage related errands.
Hmm. Catherine de Medici had a 'flying squad' of beautiful women spies, I think, although I might be misremembering.
The Darklight Sisterhood will not be mentioned in the faction book, and they're going to be dropped from the revised Campaign Setting hardcover. We have no plans or intention to do anything else with this group in the future.
More forest trouble...
P. 8
Elves wrote: ...Beneath the great elven city of Celwynvian, in Varisia's Meiriani Forest... 'Mieriani' should be 'Mierani'?
NB
The placement of Celwynvian on the Varisia map on page 145 does not agree with the placement on the Region map at the back of the Campaign Setting.
Charles Evans 25 wrote: More forest trouble...
P. 8
Elves wrote: ...Beneath the great elven city of Celwynvian, in Varisia's Meiriani Forest... 'Mieriani' should be 'Mierani'?
NB
The placement of Celwynvian on the Varisia map on page 145 does not agree with the placement on the Region map at the back of the Campaign Setting.
The tags and borders on the Region poster map are all messed up. One of many things I'm looking forward to fixing.
James Jacobs wrote: Charles Evans 25 wrote: More forest trouble...
P. 8
Elves wrote: ...Beneath the great elven city of Celwynvian, in Varisia's Meiriani Forest... 'Mieriani' should be 'Mierani'?
NB
The placement of Celwynvian on the Varisia map on page 145 does not agree with the placement on the Region map at the back of the Campaign Setting.
The tags and borders on the Region poster map are all messed up. One of many things I'm looking forward to fixing. Would it be possible to move the Eye of Abendego an inch or so east on the Region map whilst you're at it?
P. 242Weather and Climate, Eye of Abendego wrote: ...A vast and terrible hurricane rages day and night off the coast of the Sodden Lands...
...The Eye constantly spawns storms which roil along the coastline. Over the years, these storms swept away the nations of Lirgen and Yamasa, leaving behind the desolate rain-swept region known as the Sodden Lands...
I know it's said elsewhere in the Weather & Climate section that weather patterns in Avistan tend to flow east (more on this in a subsequent post) but the Eye of Abendego as currently placed on the Region map (and the Mwangi Expanse map too) is still MUCH closer to Mediogalti Island than it is to the Sodden Lands, and yet the Mediogalti Island entry completely fails to mention the Eye of Abendego having any impact on the island, whilst the Sodden Lands entry is all about the devestation and destruction that the hurricane causes to that area.
P. 242
Weather and Climate wrote: ...In general, weather patterns in Avistan flow from west to east, sweeping cold rains across Varisia, Nidal, and northwestern Cheliax...
...The deserts of northern Garund speak to the relatively arid conditions north of the Barrier Wall. South of those imposing mountains, though, heavy rains create the rainforests and jungles of the Mwangi Expanse. Off the western shore of Garund churns the century-old hurricane, the Eye of Abendego, which contributes to the production of driving rains across central and western Garund...
...East of the Shattered Range, the dominant weather flow brings warm rains from the Obari Ocean, creating lush grasslands over most of eastern Garund...
So what direction do the weather patterns move in across northern Garund?
Apparently weather patterns move from west to east across Avistan, just across the Inner Sea from northern Garund, but the Barrier Wall runs on a west-east axis and consequently shouldn't get in the way of weather patterns coming in from the west.
The information about 'East of the Shattered Range' seems to suggest that the dominant weather pattern across northern Garund should be from the east, moving west, but that on the west coast of Garund the Eye of Abendego alters the direction of flows of weather, causing west to east flows.
By the way, do normal hurricanes actually 'push' weather patterns outwards from the centre? If not, I suppose it can be handwaved since this hurricane isn't exactly a normal hurricane or at least not by Earth standards...
Anyway, with weather on the west coast of Garund coming in from the west, and weather on the east coast of Garund coming in from the east, what do the Barrier Mountains have to do with northern Garund being desert, unless the intention is perhaps that these flows coming in from the west and east coast collide over central northern Garun and push out northwards over the Barrier Wall?
Moving on:
Weather and Climate, Eye of Abendego wrote: ...Although the hurricane's strength waxes and wanes with the seasons, it can rip the sails off of ships even at its weakest - at its strongest, it can tear galleons in half.... Do hurricanes actually tear ships in half? With the violent rains and driving winds, ships might occasionally lose masts, or even be driven off course, possibly onto a reef or sandbank which could break them up, but I'm sceptical about the 'tear ships in half' bit.
Is there confusion here with waterspouts?
Edit:
Hmm. I suppose the Eye of Abendego could have waterspouts associated.
Why 'Eye of Abendego' by the way? Who or what was/is/will be 'Abendego'?
P. 80
Irrisen wrote: ...More terrifying still is the legend of the queen of all Witches, Baba Yaga... 'queen' should be 'Queen'?
P. 92
Lands of the Linnorm Kings wrote: ...Further to the east, the land grows increasingly colder, up to the frozen borders of the Witch Queen of Irrisen, who seized the eastern reaches of this domain 1,400 years ago and shows no intention of returning them... I'm slightly muddled here due to the various titles flying around of the ruler(s) of Irrisen. The current ruler of Irrisen (Queen Elvanna) didn't seize the eastern reaches of the Land of the Linnorm Kings 1,400 yeas ago - that was the Queen of (all) Witches, Baba Yaga.
Are Witch Queen and Queen of (all) Witches both interchangeable titles solely for Baba Yaga, have any of her daughters been referred to by the title 'Witch Queen', and is this all just a plot by Irrisen to confuse everyone anyway?
Lands of the Linnorm Kings wrote: ...Every citizen is a Viking at heart... Since it is not a proper noun on Golarion (?), 'Viking' should be 'viking'?
Given that the Berserker's Cry feat on page 93 does not scale with level (except in terms of duration) and given the ease with which morale bonuses can be come by from other sources (particularly bards) is this feat actually where it could be?
Granted the Berserker's Cry is a morale bonus which does not rely on magic for the effect though...
Charles Evans 25 wrote: By the way, do normal hurricanes actually 'push' weather patterns outwards from the centre? If not, I suppose it can be handwaved since this hurricane isn't exactly a normal hurricane or at least not by Earth standards... Tropical storms rotate, and so spin off weather patterns outwards from the centre.
Charles Evans 25 wrote: Do hurricanes actually tear ships in half? With the violent rains and driving winds, ships might occasionally lose masts, or even be driven off course, possibly onto a reef or sandbank which could break them up, but I'm sceptical about the 'tear ships in half' bit.
Is there confusion here with waterspouts?
I couldn't find any examples of hurricanes tearing a ship in half in a 1 minute google search, but I did find mentions of wind shears, tornado spawning grounds within the hurricane, eyewall mesovorticies, and of typhoons/hurricanes/etc generating winds in excess of 250 km/hr. I could easily see such effects tearing a ship apart, and localized wind effects tearing a ship in half.
Caedwyr wrote: I could easily see such effects tearing a ship apart, and localized wind effects tearing a ship in half. ESPECIALLY if the source is a magic hurricane.
Charles Evans 25 wrote: Do hurricanes actually tear ships in half? With the violent rains and driving winds, ships might occasionally lose masts, or even be driven off course, possibly onto a reef or sandbank which could break them up, but I'm sceptical about the 'tear ships in half' bit.
Is there confusion here with waterspouts?
It's important to remember that the wind is only part of the problem in a hurricane. Think of the wave action that gets whipped up in any sort of serious storm, then think about the swells in the middle of a full-fledged hurricane. Without having any citations to back me up, I'm fully willing to believe that swells many times higher than my boat could easily smash it into a million pieces... if not neatly halving it.
As someone who spent a fair amount of time on the water as a child, I'm comfortable saying that the ocean is freakin' terrifying. O_o
Yeah, any episode of "Deadliest Catch" will happily show you the effects of waves on ships. Hurricanes can easily create wind speeds that can knock you off your feet - read more here.
I didn't spend time near the ocean as a child, but I did spend time in Tornado Alley. To this day, high winds scare the bejeebus out of me.
Lilith wrote: Yeah, any episode of "Deadliest Catch" will happily show you the effects of waves on ships. Hurricanes can easily create wind speeds that can knock you off your feet - read more here.
I didn't spend time near the ocean as a child, but I did spend time in Tornado Alley. To this day, high winds scare the bejeebus out of me.
The wikipedia hurricanes article links to *this site* containing information about Virginian hurricanes. As far as I can make out from that, most ship losses during hurricanes derive from ships which are at sea being driven onto shore to be wrecked. Occasional vessels are capsized or take on too much water and founder.
The wikipedia aricle itself also seems to me to indicate that hurricanes at sea are not so much of a problem:
Wikipedia, hurricanes wrote: ...The eyewall is a circle of strong thunderstorms that surrounds the eye; here is where the greatest wind speeds are found, where clouds reach the highest, and precipitation is the heaviest. The heaviest wind damage occurs where a tropical cyclone's eyewall passes over land[3]... Wikipedia, hurricanes wrote: ...Tropical cyclones out at sea cause large waves, heavy rain, and high winds, disrupting international shipping and, at times, causing shipwrecks.[76] Tropical cyclones stir up water, leaving a cool wake behind them, which causes the region to be less favourable for subsequent tropical cyclones.[24] On land, strong winds can damage or destroy vehicles, buildings, bridges, and other outside objects, turning loose debris into deadly flying projectiles. The storm surge, or the increase in sea level due to the cyclone, is typically the worst effect from landfalling tropical cyclones, historically resulting in 90% of tropical cyclone deaths.[77] The broad rotation of a landfalling tropical cyclone, and vertical wind shear at its periphery, spawns tornadoes. Tornadoes can also be spawned as a result of eyewall mesovortices, which persist until landfall.[78]
Over the past two centuries, tropical cyclones have been responsible for the deaths of about 1.9 million people worldwide. Large areas of standing water caused by flooding lead to infection, as well as contributing to mosquito-borne illnesses. Crowded evacuees in shelters increase the risk of disease propagation.[79] Tropical cyclones significantly interrupt infrastructure, leading to power outages, bridge destruction, and the hampering of reconstruction efforts.[79][80]
Although cyclones take an enormous toll in lives and personal property, they may be important factors in the precipitation regimes of places they impact, as they may bring much-needed precipitation to otherwise dry regions.[81] Tropical cyclones also help maintain the global heat balance by moving warm, moist tropical air to the middle latitudes and polar regions.[82] The storm surge and winds of hurricanes may be destructive to human-made structures, but they also stir up the waters of coastal estuaries, which are typically important fish breeding locales. Tropical cyclone destruction spurs redevelopment, greatly increasing local property values.[83]
As far as I can understand the physics of it, the winds and waves in a fluid environment out at sea don't do so much because the environment is fluid, the problems only arising where the hurricane (and accompanying storm surges) hits the much less fluid land environment. Hitting land also seems to disrupt the wind systems and spawn tornados (which otherwise appear to be restricted to the eyewall around the centre of the storm).
Now granted that wikipedia and/or my understanding of it may be faulty but it seems to me that if you are at sea the problems are:
1) If your vessel is not watertight you may take on so much water from rain and waves spraying the deck that you lose buoyancy and go down. (This is where you 'batten down the hatches', to keep the water out.)
2) If your vessel's centre of gravity is too high and/or you are pointing in the wrong direction then you may get capsized.
3) If you are too close to the shore or a reef/sandbank the winds may drive you aground, and out of the fluid environment where you can bob up and down with the waves you are in trouble and may be smashed to pieces (if being driven aground doesn't simply break the ship up in the first place).
4) If you hit the eyewall you may be taken apart by very strong potentially contrary winds there.
5) Damage can occur which may be a problem later (if the structural damage does not otherwise compromise the integrity of your vessel) such as the destruction of objections perpendicular to the windflow (i.e. masts).
The only chance of a ship being torn apart by the Eye of Abendego as far as I can make out is if it hits the eyewall of the hurricane, which is in a permanently fixed location, and thus isn't going to come sweeping across the ocean at ships. Unless there are weird elemental creatures that live in this particular hurricane...
Sort of off-topic, warm water from the ocean's surface seems to play a part in the formation and drive of natural hurricanes. Given the fixed location of the Eye of Abendego, is there by any chance a very warm water source under the middle of it giving the permanent drive?
Again... the Eye of Abendego is NOT a natural occurrence. It's magic.
A normal hurricane probably cannot tear a ship in half, but the Eye of Abendego does. Why and how does it do this? We haven't said yet.
Anyway, the fact that the Eye of Abendego does things normal hurricanes don't (such as tear ships in half, remain stationary, last for over a hundred years, etc.) is why people are so afraid of it.
James Jacobs wrote: Again... the Eye of Abendego is NOT a natural occurrence. It's magic.
A normal hurricane probably cannot tear a ship in half, but the Eye of Abendego does. Why and how does it do this? We haven't said yet.
Anyway, the fact that the Eye of Abendego does things normal hurricanes don't (such as tear ships in half, remain stationary, last for over a hundred years, etc.) is why people are so afraid of it.
Hmm. I'm concerned that the more magical and complicated in operation that it gets, the more it looks like something which Crazy Epic Level Villains have designed and built, powered by super-epic artifacts, and less and less like a freak accident. The more it differs from nature, the more artificial and 'manmade' it becomes. (Although if it's supposed to look manmade fair enough...)
Anyhow, moving on:
What do people in Rahadoum, Thuvia, and Osirion call the things which Varisians call 'Zarasans', and why isn't this mentioned in the piece on Zarasans on page 243?
As far as I can make out travelers brought stories about these occurances to Cheliax, and Varisians heard about them there and decided to call them 'Zarasans', even though those Varisians were going on first or second hand accounts and hadn't actually experienced the occurances themselves. I assume, though, that people who lived in Rahadoum, Thuvia, and Osirion already had their own word for Zarasans.
(Example: The English call Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury, but the Welsh call it Amwythig.)
In fact just to confuse the matter some northerners already used the term 'Zarasan' to refer to an entirely different and unrelated climate condition (warm winds) as opposed to the gentle rains of Rahadoum, Thuvia, and Osirion.
P. 101
Given the Slohr being slated for removal, I have concerns regarding the 'Jutland Wrecks' part of the Mendev entry.
With an inconclusive naval battle and a 'Jellicoe Bay' nearby, is this too easter-eggy with regard to the World War One naval encounter, 'The Battle of Jutland' (where the british admiral was called 'Jellicoe')?
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