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I'll be running an adventure in Xin-Edasseril soon, taking place about 8 months after Return of the Runelords. How widely is Taldane spoken there? I assume Thassilonian is still the main language.Not widely at all. Thassilonian is the primary language there.
How would you describe the sound of spoken Thassilonian?
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How would you describe the sound of spoken Thassilonian?I'll be running an adventure in Xin-Edasseril soon, taking place about 8 months after Return of the Runelords. How widely is Taldane spoken there? I assume Thassilonian is still the main language.Not widely at all. Thassilonian is the primary language there.
Complex sounding with lots of syllables that perhaps involve a fair amount of incidental spittle flying from lips. It sounds best when yelled.
Complex sounding with lots of syllables that perhaps involve a fair amount of incidental spittle flying from lips. It sounds best when yelled.How would you describe the sound of spoken Thassilonian?I'll be running an adventure in Xin-Edasseril soon, taking place about 8 months after Return of the Runelords. How widely is Taldane spoken there? I assume Thassilonian is still the main language.Not widely at all. Thassilonian is the primary language there.
So like German or Japanese?
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So like German or Japanese?Complex sounding with lots of syllables that perhaps involve a fair amount of incidental spittle flying from lips. It sounds best when yelled.How would you describe the sound of spoken Thassilonian?I'll be running an adventure in Xin-Edasseril soon, taking place about 8 months after Return of the Runelords. How widely is Taldane spoken there? I assume Thassilonian is still the main language.Not widely at all. Thassilonian is the primary language there.
Maybe! Although I've always been wary of saying a fantasy language sounds like a real-world language, since that starts people down the road of making the wrong assumptions about things or clutters up the game with stuff that's not really necessary.
If we get to a point where we have someone actually speaking Thassilonian in a movie or show or something like that, I'll have to think harder about it, I guess. We've come close before already with the audio dramas... THAT was a strange experience, figuring out what sort of accent Merisiel might have, or what accent someone from Cheliax might have...
I know “who would win” questions are very dependant on circumstance, but generally speaking, who is more powerful, the Whispering Tyrant, or Geb (the person not the place)
When is Paizo going to hire a technical writer to make sure rule interactions are actually clear and concise?
So like German or Japanese?Complex sounding with lots of syllables that perhaps involve a fair amount of incidental spittle flying from lips. It sounds best when yelled.How would you describe the sound of spoken Thassilonian?I'll be running an adventure in Xin-Edasseril soon, taking place about 8 months after Return of the Runelords. How widely is Taldane spoken there? I assume Thassilonian is still the main language.Not widely at all. Thassilonian is the primary language there.Maybe! Although I've always been wary of saying a fantasy language sounds like a real-world language, since that starts people down the road of making the wrong assumptions about things or clutters up the game with stuff that's not really necessary.
If we get to a point where we have someone actually speaking Thassilonian in a movie or show or something like that, I'll have to think harder about it, I guess. We've come close before already with the audio dramas... THAT was a strange experience, figuring out what sort of accent Merisiel might have, or what accent someone from Cheliax might have...
Where can I find out more about these audio dramas you speak of?!? O_O
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When is Paizo going to hire a technical writer to make sure rule interactions are actually clear and concise?
Please try asking again without sounding like a jerk and without insulting myself and my coworkers.
Or better yet, don't try and take your insults elsewhere.
What happened to the Hellknight Order of the Coil after Sargava was overthrown?
It’s kind of amazing looking at how many storytelling forms Pathfinder has ventured into: novels, radio dramas, video games, card games, choose your own adventures, etc. Even a few fan-produced stage performances. It seems like you’ve had a guiding hand in at least most of these projects, James. If (or when) Pathfinder makes the jump to animation, what would you want to do with that? Would it cover an AP, something original, or perhaps follow your own group’s campaign, like Legend of Vox Machina is doing with Critical Role? Would Shensen show up?
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It’s kind of amazing looking at how many storytelling forms Pathfinder has ventured into: novels, radio dramas, video games, card games, choose your own adventures, etc. Even a few fan-produced stage performances. It seems like you’ve had a guiding hand in at least most of these projects, James. If (or when) Pathfinder makes the jump to animation, what would you want to do with that? Would it cover an AP, something original, or perhaps follow your own group’s campaign, like Legend of Vox Machina is doing with Critical Role? Would Shensen show up?
I'd love to see an adaptation of an adventure path if it were a long form thing like an ongoing series. If it were just a movie, I'd rather see something that adapts one of our novels or perhaps even better does something on its own—a long-form story like an entire campaign is an awful thing to try to adapt to a 2 hour movie.
While it'd certainly be fun to see Shensen show up in that way, it'd be much more likely that the show would focus on some of the iconics.
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Earlier in the thread (sometime in 2018) you said that Pharasma sends souls to almost every plane and to a number of demiplanes.
You've also said that a worshiper of Ng would be sent to the First World.
In the First World, Realm, of the Fey book, it says that souls from the plane don't exit (they're absorbed instead) and new souls can't enter.
Your post was about 5 years after First World was published.
Was this a product of "James answers questions to the best of his immediate knowledge and personal preference at time of posting and doesn't check every single book every time someone posts" or a product of "what we've said in this book is no longer the case or was the result of a design misunderstanding at the time"?
If Pharasma judges a soul, they're sent on to wherever. They aren't souls when they arrive—they become petitioners.
The First World doesn't have petitioners, so when a soul is judged and sent there, that soul pretty much instantly just becomes a fey creature or just gets absorbed into the fundamental nature of the plane.
So technically, there aren't any souls sent into the First World—but also, there's an element of not everything we publish is something that I read, and not everyone who writes or develops for Pathfinder runs all of their ideas past me for approval. That's not something that is really possible to do considering the amount of content we produce and the fact that I'm only one person who essentially has two day jobs (Creative Director and developer). There'll be variations like this, but in most cases they're just different ways of saying things.
To me, "No petitioners on the First World" and "souls from that plane don't exist and new souls can't enter" are two ways of saying what is essentially the same thing.
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If the answer to my last question is that souls are sent to the first world, what would they become if or when they ascend from petitioner status or would they be absorbed similar the the 'native' souls?
They're sent there but don't become petitioners ever. They instantly reincarnate as fey, if they're not just absorbed.
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Thank you very much.
Do you sometimes feel that questions asking if something you said before is a contradiction of published content is an attempt to catch you, or a GM, or somebody else out?
(I promise, that's not the case in this instance)
Yes, in no small part due to the fact that folks have specifically done that before and then used my responses to stoke discord and confusion among the customers; it's even happened with coworkers (who I can only hope aren't doing it intentionally).
It's this reason that I avoid answering rules questions so often on this thread, in fact.
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Last question, because it's late here:
I know you like dark fantasy. Have you read much Glen Cook, and what did you think if so?
(I'm currently about a year behind in a binge of this thread...)
I started reading "The Black Company" a while back but I had a hard time getting into it... not sure why. I have to assume it was his writing style, since what it was ABOUT was certainly interesting to me. When I look at my favorite fantasy series—things like the Dark Tower, Song of Ice and Fire, Weaveworld, Clark Ashton Smith's "Zothique" tales, Robert E Howard's "Conan" stories, Leiber's "Lankhmar" stories, Ramsey Campell's relatively obscure "Ryre the Swordsman" stories, they certainly all share a lot of things in common even with the very different authorial voices... but Glen Cook never did it for me.
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This has resulted in discourse between me and my friend for some time now: Alignment.
Since 2e, Lawful is balance, consistency and stability. Should that not make Pharasma a Lawful Neutral deity? Her goal is to judge all souls fairly and be *consistent* in her judgement, always find the right answer for any given soul. The Aeons have been changed from True Neutral to Lawful Neutral, will we see the same with Pharasma? Or why would she stay as a True Neutral deity?
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This has resulted in discourse between me and my friend for some time now: Alignment.
Since 2e, Lawful is balance, consistency and stability. Should that not make Pharasma a Lawful Neutral deity? Her goal is to judge all souls fairly and be *consistent* in her judgement, always find the right answer for any given soul. The Aeons have been changed from True Neutral to Lawful Neutral, will we see the same with Pharasma? Or why would she stay as a True Neutral deity?
No, because Pharasma is not a deity about balance, consistency, and stability. She's the goddess of death and birth and fate, all very different concepts/themes than balance and consistency and stability.
She's still true Neutral.
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Hi, Mr. Jacobs! I'm Nirvon's friend. So then is a deity's alignment determined by their portfolio rather than their actions? Your answer references the former rather than the latter. If not, then how does Pharasma judge souls? The descriptions of alignment in the CRB describe Neutrality on the Law/Chaos Axis as "obeying the law or following a code of conduct in many situations, but bending the rules when the situation requires." Does she bend the rules or are her standards "consistent"? Is it maybe more of a deific intuition? I get that the Gods know and understand things we don't, but she *is* still aligned.This has resulted in discourse between me and my friend for some time now: Alignment.
Since 2e, Lawful is balance, consistency and stability. Should that not make Pharasma a Lawful Neutral deity? Her goal is to judge all souls fairly and be *consistent* in her judgement, always find the right answer for any given soul. The Aeons have been changed from True Neutral to Lawful Neutral, will we see the same with Pharasma? Or why would she stay as a True Neutral deity?No, because Pharasma is not a deity about balance, consistency, and stability. She's the goddess of death and birth and fate, all very different concepts/themes than balance and consistency and stability.
She's still true Neutral.
A deity's alignment determines their portfoilo and actions, not the other way around. Deities are as powerful a personality as can exist in the setting, and as such, they are not bound by their actions. Their actions define reality.
Pharasma judges souls because she's probably as close as any of the Pathfinder gods get to omniscience. When a soul stands before her, she can see in both directions—what it has done in the past and what it will become in the future. Whether or not she actually has agency in deciding where a soul goes, or has no agency at all and is merely the embodiment of fate who reveals a predetermined destination is left to interpretation by us mortals.
That said, the perception of her bending rules would happen plenty. Most often in the fact that she allows resurrection magic to exist and doesn't send her agents out to destroy those who would "disrupt the cycle of life and death" by inserting life after death.
One way to look at neutrality, remember, is that it's a LACK of alignment. That's why animals and creatures without minds at all are neutral. It's not that they've got specific philosophical agendas to pursue and ethics and morals or lack thereof as much as they don't get these things at all.
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See, that makes a lot of sense to me. I'd still be curious to hear about how being Unaligned works in relation to being Neutral, especially at the deity scale (thinking Potentiality and the Maelstrom here)! Thank you very much for your answer and for this wonderful pastime that has brought my friends and me such joy. :)A deity's alignment determines their portfoilo and actions, not the other way around. Deities are as powerful a personality as can exist in the setting, and as such, they are not bound by their actions. Their actions define reality.
Pharasma judges souls because she's probably as close as any of the Pathfinder gods get to omniscience. When a soul stands before her, she can see in both directions—what it has done in the past and what it will become in the future. Whether or not she actually has agency in deciding where a soul goes, or has no agency at all and is merely the embodiment of fate who reveals a...
There is no "unaligned alignment" in Pathfinder, really. That's what "true Neutral" is.
And thank you for having fun with the game! :)
Hi James, I suspect Aduaitam is referring to the Iblydan Hero-God Pharimia, who is given “unaligned” as her alignment where she’s presented in “midwives of death”.
I’m getting the feeling that this is a lore oversight much like the old reference to Paladins of Asmodeus?
What is your favourite kind of dragon? Either within Pathfinder or in general.
Edit: sorry if that came off like a “gotcha”, I just meant to clarify, not to try and “catch you out” or anything :)
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Hi James, I suspect Aduaitam is referring to the Iblydan Hero-God Pharimia, who is given “unaligned” as her alignment where she’s presented in “midwives of death”.
I’m getting the feeling that this is a lore oversight much like the old reference to Paladins of Asmodeus?
What is your favourite kind of dragon? Either within Pathfinder or in general.
Edit: sorry if that came off like a “gotcha”, I just meant to clarify, not to try and “catch you out” or anything :)
Aduaitam sounds like either an error or something that slipped by without my input. She should be neutral.
The "Paladins of Asmodeus" was also an error.
Bronze.
I'm done talking about the whole paladins of Asmodeus thing, apart from the following few final words. It's illogical and annoying. Let's just drop it. It's an error, it's been fixed. Time to move on.
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If you could get any illustrator to do the cover of a novel you wrote who would you pick?
If I managed to actually produce a novel and it got to the point where someone was illustrating it, I kinda wouldn't care! :-P
But! Probably... hmm. Junji Ito.
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What is something fun you found out about recently?You can't "hold a charge" on touch spells anymore, now that the way touch spells work don't require attack rolls.How is this fun? It completely destroys a massive number of interesting possible tactics, such as casting the spell before entering a room then once inside make like you are introducing yourself but when you shake hands... zap! What an excellent way to start a combat. Or to cast the spell behind cover or concealment so it doesn't get counterspelled before moving up within view of the target.
But without holding the charge, you are now restricted to acting like this is a computer game, only able to use the spell while next to the target.
How is removing a fascinatingly wide array of options more fun?
What's fun is a matter of opinion. It's more fun for me because it's simpler and more elegant and doesn't disrupt play like the previous version tended to. Removing a "fascinatingly wide array of options" takes complication out of the game, and lets the entire story progress rather than focusing all that energy on one corner case after another.
If you prefer the old way, chat with your GM about changing the way it works at your table.
I'm not looking to continue the conversation, though, just as a heads up. Please move on to other questions, otherwise it starts to feel like you're trying to debate me. And I'm not interested in debates here.
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Given that their numbers are not that high, did they never Rule the World, or did they just never recover from the Age of Darkness? (Or something else.)Were dinosaurs alive during age of serpents?
What killed Golarions dinosaurs?Yes.
Nothing. They're still there.
Unrevealed... but... Magic and the power of plot, combined with the fact that we're building a world meant to tickle the imagination, not accurately model the real world's actual evolutionary history, is what resulted in there being dinosaurs in the modern era of Goalrion, whether or not there was ever an age where dinosaurs ruled this particular fictional world.
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What was the reasoning behind barghests' alignment shift from LE to CE in 2E?
That maps to our version of barghests much better, since we use them as agents of Lamashtu after she abducted Hell's most powerful barghests as her pets, and it brings their alignment in line with the standard goblin alignment, and it helps to differentiate our take on these mythological creatuers from D&D's take.
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So something that seems to keep coming up in one or two discord servers I'm in - some people keep referring to the new Firebrands faction as "the gun faction" since they share a name with a Gunslinger archetype from 1e.
Now I've seen nothing about the Firebrands suggesting any notable use of firearms (at least not beyond individual personal preference). So is it just a case of "same name, no relation" here?
Same name, no relation.
With this group, we're using the real-world word "firebrand" in its real-world established definition of:
...a person who kindles strife or encourages unrest; an agitator; troublemaker.
This came about in large part form my observation while we were looking at factions to focus on in 2nd edition and my frustration that we never really did a "chaotic" faction with as much focus and cache as, say, the Hellknights (lawful), Pathfinder Society (neutral), Red Mantis (evil), or Magambya (good). We also didn't have a great organizaiton that caters to PCs who are flamboyant, somewhat whimsical, passionate, and irreverent.
In effect, we needed a place for chaotic good PCs to be able to band up with. My original suggestion was to have the group be the expanded Silver Ravens, but Luis and others made a strong case for it to be larger, and having it be a loosely-confederated group of chaotic good characters who "want to do good for the world but also LOOK good while doing it" made a lot of sense.
There are absolutely gun-associated characters in the Firebrands, but that's because character tropes like you see ranging from the Three Musketeers to John Wick all fit in well to the "do good for the world while looking good doing it" category.
What you ARE seeing, perhaps, is the fact that the gunslinger archetype's name from 1st edition was poorly chosen.
I cannot imagine Iomedae be satisfied with sitting on a divine throne. Beside taking over Aroden's mantle as the Inheritor, what would be her most significant deeds since her ascension?
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If you and I were roommates in a flat in Absolom, and I had an affinity for using Daylight spells in the middle of the night so I could practice playing my trumpet so I could fulfill my dream of performing at the famed Wounded Wisp tavern, and you could use one level 6 or lower spell to fix the situation, which spell would you choose?
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I cannot imagine Iomedae be satisfied with sitting on a divine throne. Beside taking over Aroden's mantle as the Inheritor, what would be her most significant deeds since her ascension?
Once someone ascends to a deity, they pretty much stop being directly involved in mortal things. That means they don't do "deeds" anymore. They don't need to; they have nothing more to prove.
As I replied in another thread, I imagine that what the gods "do" with their time is to maintain their influence over things they influence. Whatever it is she does with her time (and it's probably not something us mortals would understand anyway), it helps to keep nations from falling into anarchy, helps to inspire folks to be honorable and brave, and helps justice to prevail.
Since the game doesn't include rules for what deities do or how they function, the exact details stay mysterious on purpose.
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If you and I were roommates in a flat in Absolom, and I had an affinity for using Daylight spells in the middle of the night so I could practice playing my trumpet so I could fulfill my dream of performing at the famed Wounded Wisp tavern, and you could use one level 6 or lower spell to fix the situation, which spell would you choose?
Teleport.