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Note: This information is being developed for use in a 1-20 PFRPG campaign using the 1st 2 volumes of Legacy of Fire as a jumping off point. The information about the Legions of Geb was created by Set, some of the naming conventions were assimilated from Hamunaptra, and much of the remaining information is adapted from real world information about the Pharoahs of Meroe and the known history of ancient Egypt. The core conceit of the nation is that of a society frozen socially by undeath and rooted in the ideal of Egypt's Old Kingdom. I welcome feedback on this so I can deepen and develop it further and perhaps even help the Paizonauts in making Geb as glorious a Necropolis as possible.
Geb was founded immediately prior to Osirion's Age of the Black Sphinx, in -1550 AR. After the unification of Osirion's large empire under the Four Pharaohs of Ascension, Geb became a valuable breadbasket for the empire and a peaceful and verdant colony. It was said of Geb that neither conflict nor storm ever disturbed the peace of her amber fields. The Mwangi Expanse was kept safely isolated by the Barrier Mountains, raised up to immense beauty by the powerful magics of the Pharoah Djederet IV, who sent the first colony south to Geb. The land was colonized as the southernmost outpost of empire, sending food north through the grasslands of what are now Nex and Katapesh. The 'Drive to the South' was the program of the Djederet Dynasty, in direct contrast to the work of the An Dynasty which reached to the North and West and in response to the rising power of Taldor, successor state to Azlant. The Djederet Dynasty eventually collapsed under Djederet V 'The Pharoah of 3 Moons', who produced no heirs and whose dissolute ways caused Osirion to fragment into competing lines of self-proclaimed Pharoahs after a reign lasting only 3 months in -1515.
In -1498 AR, the Four Pharaohs of Ascension consolidated their rule of Osirion, bringing about the kingdom's second age. Their forces defeat the Tekritanin League in -1452 AR, incorporating a number of their city-states while destroying others. With the alliance complete, Osirion prospered, fueling its wealth with an enslaved underclass, sourced from its conquered neighbors. Each year the four pharaohs return inside a hidden pyramid known as Ahn’Selota and renew their mystic pact using an artifact known as the Pact Stone. Their pact caused the simultaneous death of the Four Pharoahs of Ascension in -1451 AR. In Geb, the locals believed that the visible pyramid of Ahn'Selota in Tumen was merely a gateway to the actual retreat of the Four Pharoahs of Ascension hidden somewhere in their peaceful land, far from the prying eyes of priests and aristocrats.
Osirion begin to decline around -1431 AR but remained the dominant power of Garund and fiercely independent of foreign influence.
Geb became independent of Osirion in -1206 AR, proclaiming a kingdom recognizing the Pharoah in Sothis as the source of his authority. An annual tribute of grain satisfied the Pharoah, whose power continued to recede to the North.
The necromancer now known as Geb was exiled from Osirion in -1189 and moved to Geb, installing himself as king after a brief period of struggle with the native nobility. He consolidated his power and took on the name Geb, proclaiming himself God-King in the Osirian tradition in -1180.
Geb and Nex first went to war in -892 AR.
Geb won the war of almost 1500 years in 576 AR when Nex disappeared during a magical attack on his capital of Quantium.
In 637 AR, Geb returned as a ghost to resume control over the land.
In 3890 AR, Geb stole the corpse of Arazni from the Knights of Ozem, and reanimated her as a lich. Nowadays, Geb rarely appears before his people. Arazni, the Harlot Queen of Geb, rules in his stead.
In 4606 AR, Aroden died and the Age of Lost Omens began. In Geb, Arazni proclaimed a year-long celebration of the end of Aroden. At the end of the festival year, trade resumed with Nex (for Onyx in exchange for food) and an ambassador was sent to Absalom for the first time in recorded history. The living ambassador has taken up residence but has sent no emissaries nor attended any functions. He has, however, been cultivating information about Osirion and the Pathfinder Society.
4710 AR, current year.
Current Summary:
Geb was once a beautiful verdant colony of a great nation called Osirion. Geb was eventually given over to a powerful wizard to protect and defend on behalf of the 4 Pharoahs. This wizard took on the name of this colony and his power was unquestioned. Eventually, however, a rival wizard called Nex took over the land dividing Geb from Osirion and a centuries-long conflict ensued between the two wizard-kings. The land was devastated and Geb resorted to using huge armies of undead, animated from his own subjects, to carry the fight to Nex. Geb fell into shadow and evil and became completely obsessed with killing Nex. When Nex ultimately disappeared, Geb went completely insane and committed ritual suicide because he was denied his ability to triumph over Nex. His death did not end his existence and his spirit arose as a ghost, continuing to rule over the ashes of Geb. Now, centuries later, the land is still governed by the ghost of Geb and his undead aristocracy. Your party of living adventurers have been raised in this land and seen the fate that awaits you when Geb's fleshforges take your corpses. One of you has been told that there is hope for Geb, that his ghost can be destroyed once and for all and the others of you have decided (out of belief, desperation, or resignation) to take up the path of the adventurer in the hopes of destroying the undead master of your land. To the West, the vast jungle of the Mwangi Expanse holds untold dangers and wealth. To the North, the Mana Wastes where magic does not function and the ironworks of Alkenstar turn out curious weapons and mechanical monstrosities and beyond that Nex, kingdom of magic, and Osirion, original home of Geb's people. Rumors abound of hidden pockets of othe resisters against Geb's tyranny within Geb and perhaps they would be inclined to work with you in your quest.
Warm winds from the Obari Ocean creates lush grassland in Geb, allowing crops to prosper. The fields are mainly worked by mindless undead, and foodstuffs is Geb’s major export. They trade food to Nex in return for rare components and luxury goods. They also trade food to Alkenstar, in return for the city state’s ice wine, which is a favourite of Geb’s nobility. The Axan Wood suffered badly in the war between Nex and Geb. The trees of this twisted forest are all either dead or undead, and it is home to many strange creatures. Some, such as deadwood dryads, nightwolves and twilight unicorns, are unique to this location. The Axanir river network rises in the Shattered Range in the Mwangi Expanse (where in some cases it forms a natural boundary with Geb). The various major tributaries meet up and flow south of the Axan Wood into the Obari Ocean. The ancient mountains of the Shattered Range in southeastern Garund stretch from the uninhabited lands south of Geb to the center of Nex's western border with the Mwangi Expanse. Between these nations, the city-state of Alkenstar stands tall atop the Hellfallen Cliffs on the banks of the Ustradi River, whose own headwaters are found in the mountains within the desolate Mana Wastes. Mysterious ruins of long-abandoned Mwangi cities lie strewn throughout the jungles of the forlorn mountains as well as at least one ruined flying city of legendary Shory.
Provinces of Geb and Osirion are known as Sepats. Names involve components like Meren 'beloved of', Mose 'son of', Neter 'god', Neb 'Lord', Ka 'spirt of life', Ba 'soul', and Aha 'fighter/warrior'. Gebbite vocabulary: Pir-Aa (Pharoah), Kandare (King), Sirdar (Count), Bashar (General), Pesedjer (Human), Anpur (Gnoll), Asari (Halfling), Esetiri (Elf), Peseshet (Half-Elf), Ptahmenu (Dwarf), Sutekhra (Gnome), Bahati (Monk), Beqenu (Fighter), Ghaffir (Paladin), Hekai (Sorceror), Kama'at (Druid), Khasti (Barbarian), Khebenti (Rogue), Kheri-Heb (Wizard), Shenu (Bard), Priest (Cleric), Heka (Magic).
In Geb, most of the citizenry are Pesedjer (80%). Esetiri (1%), Ptahmenu (1%), and Asari (1%) are exceedingly rare and almost exclusively slaves of Geb's undead aristocracy. Peseshet (2%) are very valuable slave stock, but are also never free citizens. Sutekhra (5%) are the most favored of demihumans, being the original servitors of Geb in his initial exile from Osirion. Today Sutekhra alone have direct contact with Geb's ghost and serve almost exclusively as his spies and covert agents. Anpur are not officially accorded citizen status in Geb but do acknowledge the power of Geb and do not raid the lands as they do in other realms. All the rest of the kingdomn are organized under the Blood Lords with Arazni as Queen.
The armies of Geb are divided into four Legions, the Legion of Ash, which is the only one composed of living warriors, the Crimson Legion, composed of zombies, ghouls, ghasts, wights and vampires, the Pale Legion, composed of shadows, wraiths, specters and ghosts, and the Ivory Legion, composed primarily of skeletons and liches.
At least, this is what is known to outsiders. In truth, the skeletons and liches represent only the two extremes of the ‘Ivory Legion,’ called in Geb the Ineb-Hedj, or ‘the White Wall.’ In between these mindless drudges and extraordinary skilled archwizards and high priests lies an entire rank of skeletal dead not commonly known outside of Geb, the ruthlessly efficient Bone Soldiers of the Ivory Legion.
A Bone Soldier is awakened into unlife through the use of create undead cast by an 11th level or higher level caster. Deep within the Mortuarium of Yled is an altar of obsidian and rusted iron, dedicated to Urgathoa, which casts this spell multiple times per night upon those who die slowly, impaled upon its six gruesome iron spikes, so long as it is attended by an 11th level or higher Cleric of Urgathoa. The animated corpses of sacred flesh-devouring beetles pour from hidden lairs within the altar itself to strip the dying sacrifices of their flesh, with the assistance of ghoul acolytes, while the magic of the altar keeps their skeletons intact as it fills them with necromantic energy. In eight hours time, the ritual is complete, and the six selected victims lift their now fleshless frames from the altars spikes to take up service in the Ivory Legion. Even without the power of this relic, the city of Yled has several necromancers and clergymen capable of creating new Bone Soldiers, and can easily field a dozen replacements in a single night.
The soldiers of the Ivory Legion are specialized skeletons, that retain some semblance of intellect, although, as with the shadows of memory left behind that can be contacted via speak with dead, the actual souls of the skeletons former living selves are not retained. Still, these kaybet, or ‘shadows on the soul,’ as they are called in Orisirion and Geb, can retain intellect and even some memories of the person that once walked in those bones. More importantly, from a military perspective, these shadow-souls retain enough intellectual capacity to be able to access some of the feats and skills of the original person, although PC class abilities are not retained.
Settlements: (Paaleq, Swenet, Pa-Sebek, Djeba, Nekhen, Djerty, Waset, Nebyet, Gebtu, Abedjou, Tjeny, Shashotep, Yenyet, Zawty, Hebenu, Hardai, Shedyet, Khem, Tanta, Avaris, Imet, Meroe)
Axan is at the headwaters of the Axanir River's northernmost arm, surrounded by the mountains of the Shattered Range. The small village of 500 is dominated by Lord Knucklebones, a ghast who was given this post by the Blood Lords 40 years ago after a long career as a living spy inside Nex. The valley village has one inn, run by a fat human Keleshite named Jonas and is the trade hub for caravans going into the Shattered Range and Alkenstar. Hidden somewhere in the mountains near Axan is a secret colony of halflings called Asar. Asar is the only known source of 'Desnaberries', a fruit that carries the power of gentle repose and is reputedly invisible except under certain mystical circumstances. Every 6 months, a caravan from Asar appears in Axan and unloads a shipment of Desnaberries in tribute to Geb and thereby obtaining their continued anonymity.
Greydirge is in the foothills of the Shattered Range, in the land of Geb. The normal custom of Geb is to re-animate its citizens as undead once they die. Greydirge is built out of the bones of those Gebbites who were unwilling or unable to be reanimated. Its inhabitants no doubt have their own reasons for living in a city-sized ossuary. Its one notable feature is the Empty Threshold, a temple of Zon-Kuthon.
Mechitar (pronounced meh-KEE-tar)[1] is the capital of the undead realm of Geb, and its second-largest city. The necromancer Geb, now a ghost, remains the head of state. He rarely manifests before the people, so the acting ruler is the lich Arazni, Harlot Queen of Geb. The country’s day-to-day affairs are managed by the Blood Lords, an aristocracy of powerful living and undead necromancers. The chief Blood Lord is the vampire Kemnebi, who holds the office of chancellor. Other Blood Lords include Kamose, Merenptah, Sinuhe, Ammit, Menkaure, Seti, and Horemheb.
Yled (pronounced EH-lehd) is the largest city in the land of Geb and also home to most of its undead legions. It can be found in the north-eastern part of the country, near the border with the Mana Wastes. The city is surrounded by the Bonewall, a curtain wall made entirely of bleached bones. In times of need, the Bonewall can be animated by one of the Blood Lords to defend the city. Yled is also home to a number of important necromantic colleges, the most well-known being the Mortuarium. The school's central tower sticks up like a withered claw, dominating the city's skyline.
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Awesome stuff, and inspired use of Hamunaptra!
The Axan Wood suffered badly in the war between Nex and Geb. The trees of this twisted forest are all either dead or undead, and it is home to many strange creatures. Some, such as deadwood dryads, nightwolves and twilight unicorns, are unique to this location.
Ooh, 'deadwood dryads' sounds very evocative. The Scarred Lands setting has twisted dryads and unicorns (sundered woman, a dryad still bearing stigmata resembling the marks of the axe that felled her tree, and hornsaw unicorns, with a jagged horn designed for bloodletting) that might fit this concept.
Sutekhra (5%) are the most favored of demihumans, being the original servitors of Geb in his initial exile from Osirion. Today Sutekhra alone have direct contact with Geb's ghost and serve almost exclusively as his spies and covert agents.
A few sentences earlier, I was thinking, 'Hmm, I'm not sure that Gnomes would be usable in the same way, here' and you went and proved me wrong. Very, very cool.
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I am working up Arazni, Harlot Queen of Geb, for the campaign. She is a bit of a challenge since her official writings point toward an odd creation.
Officially, she was a Goddess, the Herald of Aroden, killed by Tar-Baphon during the Shining Crusade. She was buried by her followers and her corpse was stolen by Geb and reanimated to serve as his Harlot Queen.
So far, so good. Chilling story that brings together two of the greatest undead menaces of Golarion--the Whispering Tyrant and Geb the Ghost-King and the long saga of Aroden and his heralds (for whom immortality seems to be no cure for death). It is a great arc and really makes divinity in Golarion seem to be the true 'Epic' stage of adventuring.
But then we consider her reanimation and the rules. Officially, Arazni is a lich. In a disavowed description (from Classic Horrors Revisited), she is a mummy. I think her being a mummy makes sense according to the rules and the story but I want to get input from the community before I declare it so in my version of Golarion. Lets examine the rules:
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“Lich” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature), provided it can create the required phylactery. A lich retains all the base creature's statistics and special abilities except as noted here. Each lich must create its own phylactery by using the Craft Wondrous Item feat. The character must be able to cast spells and have a caster level of 11th or higher. The pinnacle of necromantic art, the lich is a spellcaster who has chosen to shed his life as a method to cheat death by becoming undead. While many who reach such heights of power stop at nothing to achieve immortality, the idea of becoming a lich is abhorrent to most creatures. The process involves the extraction of the spellcaster's life-force and its imprisonment in a specially prepared phylactery—the spellcaster gives up life, but in trapping life he also traps his death, and as long as his phylactery remains intact he can continue on in his research and work without fear of the passage of time.
The quest to become a lich is a lengthy one. While construction of the magical phylactery to contain the spellcaster's soul is a critical component, a prospective lich must also learn the secrets of transferring his soul into the receptacle and of preparing his body for the transformation into undeath, neither of which are simple tasks. Further complicating the ritual is the fact that no two bodies or souls are exactly alike—a ritual that works for one spellcaster might simply kill another or drive him insane. The exact methods for each spellcaster's transformation are left to the GM's discretion, but should involve expenditures of hundreds of thousands of gold pieces, numerous deadly adventures, and a large number of difficult skill checks over the course of months, years, or decades.
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Mummies are created through a rather lengthy and gruesome embalming process, during which all of the body's major organs are removed and replaced with dried herbs and flowers. After this process, the flesh is anointed with sacred oils and wrapped in purified linens. The creator then finishes the ritual with a create undead spell.
Although most mummies are created merely as guardians and remain loyal to their charge until their destruction, certain powerful mummies have much more free will. The majority are at least 10th-level clerics, and are often kings or pharaohs who have called upon dark gods or sinister necromancers to bind their souls to their bodies after death—usually as a means to extend their rule beyond the grave, but at times simply to escape what they fear will be an eternity of torment in their own afterlife.
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Comparing the two, it sure looks like Arazni would have had to have been resurrected BEFORE Geb could make her into a lich. A resurrected Arazni would be a neat trick, assuming that the process of bringing a dead god back to life is at least as demanding as that which killed the god. Geb, we assume, has that much power since he is on par with Tar-Baphon and even more ancient. But why would he do such a thing?
Isn't it simpler and more consistent to say that Geb would use Arazni's body and animate her as a mummy to guard his nation while he seeks out Nex?
Consider this flavor text on the mummy:
Not just any corpse can spontaneously manifest as a mummy. GMs interested in creating mummies resurrected “naturally” (rather than by spells like create undead) should consider the passion and force of will of the would-be mummy. By and large, a corpse should be of a creature with a Charisma of 15 or higher and possessing at least 8 Hit Dice. In addition, it should have a reason for caring about the eternal sanctity of its remains in excess of normal mortal concern. As such, priests of deities with the Death or Repose domains, heroes expecting a champion’s burial, lords of cultures preoccupied with the afterlife, or individuals otherwise obsessed with death or their worldly possessions all make suitable candidates for resurrection as mummies—though countless other potential reasons for resurrection exist.
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With that as an inspiration, what being could be more preoccuppied with the afterlife than the slain body of a God? Surely the flesh itself has the spark of eternal life in it still and since Arazni was the warrior-herald of Aroden her focus on the power of life and death had to be significant. Hitting the Charisma and HD minimum is a snap for the body of a Demigoddess, especially one charismatic enough to lead a crusade against the greatest evil Avistan saw during the time of Aroden.
It just makes more sense that Arazni would be a mummy, animated and tasked by Geb with the protection of his kingdom. Her debasement (to warrant the title Harlot Queen) could have been that Geb used all sorts of vile rituals to inject the negative energy of undeath into her properly buried and sanctified corpse. Her nature would therefore be that which Geb gave her and not her own spirit, which is tormented and trapped in the form.
Lichdom, on the other hand, seems to require real willfullnes and intention. The desire to live forever and continue acquiring power is the obsession of a lich. Arazni already had eternal life as a god, what possible corruption could drive her resurrected self to become a lich in Geb while her crusad continued to the North?
On the other hand, as a mummy her corpse would be bound to the task set for it by the Ghost of Geb and her true spirit would not have chosen to participate in this. The Knights of Ozem failed to guard her body and thus have a quest to redeem themselves rather than a quest that could only reveal that their patron goddess abandoned them and betrayed their ideals. Arazni would not have betrayed her nature, her spirit would instead be tormented by the foul uses to which the Ghost of Geb put her corpse.
Finally, the powers of Mummy-Harlot Queen Arazni seem much more fitting for her role than the powers of a Lich-Harlot Queen Arazni. As a mummy, we can employ this variant of mummy rot:
Phantom Infestation: The victim of this form of mummy rot bears the marks of one whose flesh is beset by worms or parasitic vermin. Though the skin breaks with scars, verminous trails, and minute bites, no infestation is ever witnessed, at least until the body bursts in an eruption of scarab beetles upon the victim’s death.
Her corpse could be given advanced powers through Geb's significant necromantic experience, perhaps even including her being able to access her divine powers directly. The aura of despair upon seeing her is entirely consistent with what one would feel upon seeing a divine figure horrifically corrupted into an undead servant of evil.
As a lich, we gain the rejuvenation ability of the phylactery but we also have to accept that huge Achilles-heel. We gain a paralyzing touch and fear aura and, perhaps most importantly, keep all her spellcasting abilities (minimum 11th level). But that begs an important question: would Arazni, warrior-herald of Aroden have a caster level of 11 or better? If she were a paladin in life, perhaps. But Arazni strikes me as more warrior than paladin. She was defeated by Tar-Baphon and a paladin-goddess would surely have been using every one of the tricks and powers of paladin-hood to overcome the lich. A fighter-goddess, on the other hand, might not have had a smite/channel/holy spell to reach for and found herself overcome by the lich's spells when her sword proved unable to breach his defenses. Arazni as a fighter-goddess also makes sense of Iomedae's nature as a paladin-goddess. After all, if Aroden lost a herald because she lacked the extra punch of paladinhood, perhaps he selected his next herald with more concern for magical power?
Just some musings, please help me by offering your thoughts on Arazni and what makes sense for her origin.
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James has recently clarified that Arazni was a wizard, in life, which has all sorts of funky overtones, since she was also a crusading war-goddess. Tactical battle-magics? Flashy evocations? Strategic use of divinations? Troops movements through conjuration? Sun Tzu-esque misdirection through illusion? Who knows what her specific area of focus was, or if she was a generalist and liked all the toys...
The discrepancy between her being called a lich and a mummy seems to have been resolved in the direction of 'lich, who was wrapped up in bandages and 'mummified'.'
The thought that she would have been resurrected, to become suitable for lich-i-fication, is intriguing, but I think it would make more sense for Geb to simply have waved away that restriction (as he did that pesky rule saying you can't cast Flesh to Stone on several hundred warrior-women at the same time...) and researched his own unique process to make her into a lich without bringing her back to life.
Maybe he tore her soul out of the underworld, in the process.
More likely, IMO, her soul was still bound to this plane (in a gem? in her corpse?), by the cruel whim of Tar-Baphon, who didn't want his favorite toy to 'get away' just because her body finally ran out of hit points. Geb would have liberated whatever receptacle held her soul (a process made easier if it happened to be her corpse, or stored with said corpse) and used whatever magic he used to make her into a lich to turn the soul receptacle into a phylactery (or just make a phylactery, if her soul had been locked in her old bones).
The soul-trapped-in-a-rock-after-being-tortured-to-death-by-Tar-Baphon might serve as a suitable reason why she went screeching around the bend, and was more amenable to being brought back as a lich for a return engagement. If her prison had been her corpse, she might have been even more appropriately messed-up, and after some decades of being a doormat for her killer, proven willing to upgrade her status to *ambulatory* corpse (and, deathless queen of an entire country, just for extra incentive).
The real question I'd have is whether or not she was willing.
It would seem ridiculously dangerous for Geb to have resurrected a fallen former goddess (who, in life, was probably a ridiculously potent wizard, and, as part of her qualifications to become a war-goddess, fairly handy with blowin' stuff up), against her express wishes. And yet, if part of the process made her obedient to him, as long as he held her phylactery, Geb seems like he's just crazy (and suicidal) enough to do something that mind-bogglingly bad of an idea.
If she was willing, that suggests that he talked to her about it before hand. Perhaps he held the soul receptacle into which she'd been stuck by her killer for decades, chatting with her every year or so, telling her about the world outside, and all the changes that had occured, and then telling her that he was going to put her back in her box again, and *maybe* take her out for an update next year, if he felt like it, or if he remembered... This sort of deprivation, of a person who has already been tortured to death by a necromancer capable of killing a god, goes so far past 'Helsinki syndrome' as not to even have a real-world analogue. After a certain amount of time, knowing that she could be trapped in there forever, with only her memories of pain, she might have suggested being raised up as an undead of her own volition, to have *any* sort of existence, apart from the years of endless nothingness in her soul prison!
After what she went through, my money is on, 'she went willingly.'
Although there's still the possibility that her soul escaped Tar-Baphon's cruelty at the moment of her death, and Geb dragged it screaming out of the afterlife to reunite with her purloined body. That seems insanely dangerous, 'though, for Geb.
On the other hand, Geb hasn't really been seen much since he raised up Arazni, so maybe it *was* insanely dangerous for Geb...
Creative Director
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The mention of Arazni being a mummy was 100% an error that slipped through the editorial process.
We first mentioned Arazni as being a wizard lich in Pathfinder #2. She's one of the very first NPCs we mentioned in Pathfinder.
The idea of a crusading paladin or cleric is fine... but cliche to a certain extent. By making Arazni a crusading wizard, that gives her a REALLY neat hook for her backstory... which is why we developed her backstory the way we did.
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The mention of Arazni being a mummy was 100% an error that slipped through the editorial process.
We first mentioned Arazni as being a wizard lich in Pathfinder #2. She's one of the very first NPCs we mentioned in Pathfinder.
The idea of a crusading paladin or cleric is fine... but cliche to a certain extent. By making Arazni a crusading wizard, that gives her a REALLY neat hook for her backstory... which is why we developed her backstory the way we did.
So what does that make Arazni like now?
What does she think of her life as a crusading wizard, goddess Herald of Aroden, who fell by the hand of a mortal lich?
What does she think of ruling a nation run by liches and vampires in an endless mockery of the culture of Osirion serving a ghost of a necromancer obssessed with a vanished arch-nemesis?
What makes her a 'Harlot Queen'? One suspects the the ghost of Geb the necromancer engaged in foul perversity with her corpse making the term necromancy more necrophiliac than we usually portray in the gaming convention as part of corrupting her. Putting that idea together with Set's very helpful insights into the possible means of obtaining Arazni's participation in becoming a lich makes for a dark tale of corruption that feels Lovecraftian.
What does Arazni think of the death of Aroden and the rise of Iomedae? As a lich, Arazni seems a kind of distaff Mark Antony, corrupted by the decadence of Geb but longing always to claim the throne of the departed Aroden (Julius Caesar) and being thwarted by Iomedae (Augustus).
As a mummy, many of these questions become moot because her body is prisoner to the curse imposed on it by the ghost of Geb. The person that was Arazni is hostage, somewhere inside, of the monster that was created by the ghost's work. The curse of the ghost would define her being, enslaving her to her task of guarding its realm and fulfilling its commands. She would have free will but that free will would be constantly frustrated by her imprisonment in the form of a mummy. Her harlotry would then be, perhaps, the one debased release she has from her enslavement to the ghost's command.
As a lich, however, all of these questions become relevant. Arazni the lich has to have had some thought of the vaccuum created by Aroden's death, the stirring of the Whispering Tyrant, the insanity of the ghost's endless quest for signs of Nex, and so many other things that would interest and concern a lich who once possessed such incredible power.
As a DM, I am determined to choose the conception of Arazni that makes her most 'real'. I welcome your thoughts on how to choose and what, if a lich, Arazni would be like.
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Creative Director
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Arazni is now pretty much 100% committed to being evil. Her god is dead, her followers failed to save her, and she lost her divinity only to see that upstart Iomedae basically steal it from her. Now, Arazni's a co-ruler of one of the most powerful nations in the Inner Sea, has a form of immortality that doesn't rely on keeping the favor of a fickle (and, as it turns out, mortal) god's favor, and has access to the wizardly secrets of one of the Inner Sea's most powerful spellcasters, her king and husband Geb.
She has a lot of anger and bitterness and rage toward the Knights of Ozem, Iomedae and her faith, and Aroden and humanity as a whole. She's got a lot for Tar-Baphon too... but this is not a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" at all. More a case of "the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy!"
She quite enjoys helping to rule a nation of liches and vampires and all that as a result. She never got to rule a nation as a human or a god. But as a powerful lich... yay!
She's called the "Harlot Queen" because a lot of people outside of Geb, particularly Iomedae's faith, see her actions as having sold out to the enemy. Once a crusader against a powerful evil lich, she basically whored herself out to Geb in order to BECOME a lich. And a queen. Hence, the name "Harlot Queen." And Arazni has sort of taken that moniker as her own, embracing it as a welcome badge of hatred and throwing it back at her now-enemies faces. And yes... the implication is that her personal method of becoming a lich did involve some distasteful necrophiliac type actions (every person has a somewhat different route to becoming a lich—hers was particularly vile). We haven't delved TOO deeply into the details there because of obvious reasons, I hope.
Arazni is very jealous of Iomedae's rise in power, and probably harbors a desire and goals to kill her, sending her into the afterlife just like her dead patron. And Arazni's powerful enough that she probably COULD kill a god, given the time and research. She takes a great deal of pleasure out of Aroden's death, and particularly enjoyed tormenting captured Arodinites back in the day about it. Now that actual worshipers of Aroden are mostly gone... she kinda wishes she'd kept a few of them alive on life-support just to be able to torture them a bit more.
In a nutshell... Arazni is meant to be a once powerful and vibrant woman and heroic paragon of law (not necessarily good!) who has fallen completely to evil and corruption. She's one of the Inner Sea's greatest tragic villains; a bad gal who ended up becoming evil because her support and her god and her allies couldn't save her, and who has realized that being bad is really fun indeed.
Poor Jarod, the half mad, half senile old coot that lives down the road. Always would shout about the return of Aroden. Mayhap the last believer of the old faith, on account of his Ma and Pa havin' been faithful.
Last night, his home was broken into. No sign of him to be found, but there still is a smell of rot in the air.
Looks like some minions found a rare toy to send back to HQ.
Greg
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Thanks James, that's some pretty juicy info there!
Agreed, and it does make the analogue to Marc Antony a lot more clear. Corruption as a result of perceived abandonment makes a lot of sense. It does make one wonder what sort of conflict might arise between the three power groups in Geb:
1. The ghost of Geb, obsessed with Nex and tracking down the 'proof' that he still lives. Uncaring about the nation as a whole except insofar as it provides it with the ability to seek out Nex.
2. Arazni, lust-crazed with power and unlife filled with contempt for Iomedae and hatred for the Knights of Ozem (who I just remembered, summoned her to lead the crusade, a far cry from my initial thought that it was Arazni herself who started the Shining Crusade) and seeking always their destruction from far-off Geb.
3. The necromantic cabal of spellcasters and intelligent undead who constitute the aristocracy of Geb, scheming to advance themselves at the cost of their companions.
I also wonder how the fact that Geb is a 'society under glass' from Osirion impacts the quest for the past that the current Ruby Prince in Sothis has undertaken. Proving his legtimacy might be a big part of reclaiming the title of Pharoah and Geb seems like the most likely repository of that kind of proof since it was part and parcel of the empire during the days of the God-Kings and never fell to Qadira.
First off... she should never have been mentioned in the mummy chapter in the first place, unfortunately. There's some weird continuity issues there that we should have cleared up, and the World Guide DOES make it clearer how and what she was.
But basically: When she was alive, she was the Herald of Aroden, a human who was ascended to be, essentially, a powerful outsider, by a god. From there, she went on to gain more power, and ended up in the CR 23–24 range or therabouts—the same range as nascent demon lords and infernal dukes. She could grant spells—she was essentially a minor demigod (Greyhawk called these "hero gods").
Then she got killed. She stopped being a god then.
THEN she got turned into a lich. She "woke up," but did not regain her divinity, since that had been granted by Aroden and he had since retracted that and was preparing to make Iomedae the "replacement."
Arazni never took the test of the Starstone. She probably WOULD have, had she survived the crusade against Tar-Baphon. She never got the chance, though.
crossposted from this thread
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An Update from Geb:
Since I always intended to run the LoF adventure path in Geb with Pharoah and other Egyptian-themed classic adventures, I am delighted to report that I FINALLY found a way to make sense of the 'release the efreeti, ruin the world' premise set up in the opening of Pharoah. With the LoF 'genie war' backstory, I have a great way to release Jhavul. Now, instead of trying to impress a efreeti overlady with his Rovagug prowess, Jhavul was a bound servant of Nex's in the long war with Geb. He was ultimately imprisoned by a lich in Geb's service after years of battling the Nefeshti and the Templars across Northwestern Geb. Our heroes released Jhavul thinking he would help them overthrow Geb, and they might be right: Jhavul, after all, can find Nex and if Nex can be found and killed the the ghost of Geb will die.
Thank you Ravenloft for providing enough fun creepy Egyptian themed crypts (Touch of Death, for example) to up the necromantic ante and capture the feeling of Geb by the way. I really hope the good folks at Paizo will mine this trove when they get around to writing up Geb officially. I know I am having a blast using these resources to make my Geb as horrifyingly terrific as possible.
Excellent bio on Arazni.
Any chance we'll see a version of that in a future Pathfinder? It would be fun to see her bio in one of the books, especially if accompanied by a signature spell or two or magical device which she researched personally.
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...Arazni is now pretty much 100% committed to being evil. Her god is dead, her followers failed to save her, and she lost her divinity only to see that upstart Iomedae basically steal it from her. Now, Arazni's a co-ruler of one of the most powerful nations in the Inner Sea, has a form of immortality that doesn't rely on keeping the favor of a fickle (and, as it turns out, mortal) god's favor, and has access to the wizardly secrets of one of the Inner Sea's most powerful spellcasters, her king and husband Geb.
She has a lot of anger and bitterness and rage toward the Knights of Ozem, Iomedae and her faith, and Aroden and humanity as a whole. She's got a lot for Tar-Baphon too... but this is not a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" at all. More a case of "the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy!"
She quite enjoys helping to rule a nation of liches and vampires and all that as a result. She never got to rule a nation as a human or a god. But as a powerful lich... yay!
She's called the "Harlot Queen" because a lot of people outside of Geb, particularly Iomedae's faith, see her actions as having sold out to the enemy. Once a crusader against a powerful evil lich, she basically whored herself out to Geb in order to BECOME a lich. And a queen. Hence, the name "Harlot Queen." And Arazni has sort of taken that moniker as her own, embracing it as a welcome badge of hatred and throwing it back at her now-enemies faces. And yes... the implication is that her personal method of becoming a lich did involve some distasteful necrophiliac type actions (every person has a somewhat different route to becoming a lich—hers was particularly vile). We haven't delved TOO deeply into the details there because of obvious reasons, I hope.
Arazni is very jealous of Iomedae's rise in power, and probably harbors a desire and goals to kill her, sending her into the afterlife just like her dead patron. And Arazni's powerful enough that she probably COULD kill a god, given the time and research. She
Adding to the legend of Arazni......
Arazni was the Herald of Aroden and she was summoned by the Knights of Ozem to lead the Crusade against the Whispering Tyrant. She was killed by Tar-Baphon and her corpse was stolen and raised to lichdom by the Ghost of Geb to serve as his Queen.
For their part, the Knights of Ozem were to continue the Crusade, being lead by Iomedae, a gallant champion who would take Arazni's place as Aroden's Herald.
This much is known.
But who founded the Knights of Ozem and how did they win the support of the Herald of Aroden? Why would Geb's Ghost choose to steal Arazni, dead a continent away with her service to Aroden focused on his worshippers and his causes on Avistan?
In my version of Golarion the answer is that the Knights of Ozem are the followers of a legendary warrior of Geb who battled, and temporarily held back, the onslaught of necromantic evil represented by the eponymous lord of that dark land. Ozem the wise defeated the exile from Osirion who would one day take the name Geb and rule. His wisdom and skill at fighting undead were so legendary that Aroden himself brought this great warrior to his city of Absalom to teach the warriors of the North his techniques. The Knights of Ozem were founded in that long-off past to fight the evil of undeath wherever it arose and Ozem himself served as the mentor of Arazni when she ascended to serve Aroden. Ozem died a natural death and was taken by Aroden to the Celestial Planes, frustrating the exiled necromancer, whose own power waxed again and ultimately overtook the southern land of Geb. The new King of Geb denied his old identity and scoured Golarion for signs of his nemesis. In his obsession he found the Knights of Ozem and learned of Arazni.
Subtle and evil, he encouraged the Knights of Ozem into their Crusade against the Whispering Tyrant. It was he, through agents and minions, sowed the seed of summoning Arazni to do battle with Tar-Baphon. When she fell, as Geb knew she would, it was with images of Ozem and his land that he seduced her spirit to serve as his Queen. Through Ozem, Arazni came to fight, and die. Through Ozem's image, Geb did corrupt her and make her a lich and his Queen.
For these corruptions, the Knights of Ozem harbor an eternal hatred of Geb, the ghost that rules the lands of their founder through the corpse of their divine patron.
Nice work on the setting Sutekh, well thought out and written. I look forward to more.
Have you ever checked out White Wolf's old Hallowfaust setting? If not you might want to have a look, as it also details a nation (city-state) ruled by undead, though as a Lawful Neutral entity rather than Lawful or Chaotic Evil.
Also, regarding Arazni, why didn't Aroden raise her from the dead himself? He certainly should have been able to do something for her rather than just sticking her in a tomb and hiring her replacement right off. Was he acting in fulfillment of some prophecy? Did she have some hidden flaw, some seed of corruption that made her eventual fall easier, so he began to find her unsuitable as a Herald? Or does Iomadae just look that good in uniform?
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Nice work on the setting Sutekh, well thought out and written. I look forward to more.
Have you ever checked out White Wolf's old Hallowfaust setting? If not you might want to have a look, as it also details a nation (city-state) ruled by undead, though as a Lawful Neutral entity rather than Lawful or Chaotic Evil.
Also, regarding Arazni, why didn't Aroden raise her from the dead himself? He certainly should have been able to do something for her rather than just sticking her in a tomb and hiring her replacement right off. Was he acting in fulfillment of some prophecy? Did she have some hidden flaw, some seed of corruption that made her eventual fall easier, so he began to find her unsuitable as a Herald? Or does Iomadae just look that good in uniform?
Yes, Aroden's decision to leave Arazni dead is one of the really interesting mysteries in her story. Iomedae wasn't on the scene yet, but was Aroden aware of her and grooming her to be the 'Inheritor' even then?
Aroden's dogma seems to include an element of competition warranting the discard of failed ideas/followers. After all, his faith started in Taldor but moved to Cheliax when the leaders of Taldor failed to show enough vigor to continue to broaden the empire. Maybe Aroden's decision was that if Arazni couldn't defeat a lich she wasn't worth saving? If so, that conclusion might have been one that Geb could use in seducing Arazni to return as a member of the eternal undead.
It is a fascinating story to tease out for sure.
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Aroden's dogma seems to include an element of competition warranting the discard of failed ideas / followers. After all, his faith started in Taldor but moved to Cheliax when the leaders of Taldor failed to show enough vigor to continue to broaden the empire.
Aroden was a god of history, but also of innovation. That's not the intuitive sort of combination one would expect of a purely Lawful divinity, but an interesting one. His own people became something of a failed experiment, after Earthfall, and he moved on to the races of men that 'inherited' his Azlanti kinsman's role in the world.
He seems less of a stodgy traditionalist sort of 'history god,' and more of a 'let's remember this, so that we don't make this mistake again...'