I'm a fan of psionics, and with the release of Dreamscarred Press's excellent Psionics Unleashed, I've been thinking of ways to integrate psionic fluff into the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. These are my ideas - please share your thoughts! I'm especially interested to hear if anyone else has tried anything similar with their campaign.
Blues
Blues are easy - they live wherever goblins do. Psionics Handbook portrayed the blues as a genetic mutation among goblins, while Psionics Unleashed plays them as a separate race from goblins who infiltrate their tribes, spread their genes, and slowly supplant them. Either way, they're easy to implement anywhere in Golarion.
Dromites
These insect-like people feel out of place in a fantasy setting like Golarion with their alien appearance and psionically-saturated culture. I have them as natives of Castrovel, living alongside the lashunta. Perhaps they've established a beachhead colony on Golarion to explain dromite adventurers; given the elves' association with interplanetary travel, Kyonin or the surrounding areas seems like a natural location (maybe in the mountains to the south).
Duergar
The gray dwarves are already established in Golarion. I like to think that the embittered dwarves who were left behind in the Darklands awakened their psionic powers to survive with their drastically reduced numbers.
Elans
Because they are basically altered humans, elans can conceivably be found anywhere in the world. But where did their secret society come from? Castrovel seems the easiest answer, but it could just as easily have originated among the humans of Vudra. Maybe Vudran psions who stole lore from Castrovel?
Half-giants
The half-giants' human heritage makes a Golarion-based origin most likely. I place them in the Windswept Wastes of central Casmaron. In my campaign, they are an offshoot of the Keleshites who intermingled with giants. Their fire resistance is a blessing from Sarenrae, while their psionic abilities are the result of centuries of introspection to unlock their psychic potential.
Maenads
In my campaign, maenads are a subrace of humans and have the (human) subtype. They are native to Vudra and are famed sailors. Their patron deity is Gozreh. The maenads' rage is the result of a curse from a god they had offended, and their divergent evolution from humans comes from ages of physical and psionic rituals to stave it off, centering around the crystal particles embedded in their skin that help regulate their psychic surges. They pioneered the path of the wilder, which was picked up and spread by the Vudrans.
Mind Flayers
Officially, mind flayers don't exist in Golarion; intellect devourers take their place as the iconic brain-eaters. In my campaign, though, they have had a presence in the setting since ancient times. Arriving from the Dark Tapestry in their nautilus ships, the illithids settled in Sekamina and began building their civilization, using orcs and dwarves from Nar-Voth as food and breeding stock.
However, as we know, larval flayers that fail to metamorphose into illithids grow to become neothelids. Perhaps a mind flayer colony was destroyed but its spawning pool was untouched, allowing the larvae to mature into neothelids. Realizing that they were the true form of their species, the neothelids launched a vicious war against the mind flayers, wiping out their civilization. They then psionically altered their genetics to give birth to single, full-grown neothelids rather than litters of larvae that could become illithids and traveled down to Orv for solitude. The few surviving illithids fled through space to Castrovel, where they now have a smaller, much more cautious society, feeding off the lashunta. However, rumors among the drow suggest that some illithids may have remained behind and are planning a comeback...
Ophiduans
Like the dromites, I place the ophiduans (from Psionics Unleashed) on Castrovel, because their expansionist culture would have destabilized Golarion if they existed there. Their culture is also radically different from Golarion's native reptilians (lizardfolk and troglodytes), who are usually highly primitive. They have at least one nation or empire that is in conflict with the lashunta. They may have a connection to Golarion's serpentfolk.
Synads
The synads, from 3.5's Complete Psionic, are an aberrant race who resemble humans but whose brains each host three separate minds who work in concert. I place them on Castrovel. Perhaps the elans were first created from humans who wanted to emulate the synads.
Thri-Kreen
Another WotC-owned creature, the mantis warriors cannot be used in the Pathfinder Chronicles. In my game, though, they are another native race of Castrovel, where they inhabit equatorial deserts as nomadic raiders. Taking a cue from Dark Sun, these marauders may be the primitive tribal outlanders of a larger empire of civilized kreen who live far from the lashunta nations.
Xephs
Given their appearance and great dexterity, I like to think of xephs as distant relations of the goblinoids (but not close enough to have the goblinoid subtype - more like humans and halflings). Their civilization is centered in a great forested canyon in the vicinity of Vudra, where they fill a similar niche to elves in Golarion. Xephs are a common sight throughout Casmaron and southeastern Avistan. As a race of travelers who value artistic expression, Desna and Shelyn are important gods to them.
Yuan-ti
Like the mind flayers, yuan-ti are WotC's intellectual property and can't officially be used in Golarion, where they are replaced by the serpentfolk. In my house campaign, however, yuan-ti are descendants of a secret society of Tian humans, possibly related to Nagajor's Order of the Poisoned Fang. Using psionic lore pilfered from both the serpentfolk and ophiduans, they combined their genetics with those of snakes. They are seen as abominations by the nagas and ruthlessly hunted. The yuan-ti are worshipers of entropy and may have had a hand in Lung Wa's collapse.
The Quori of the Del Quor (not sure if I am spelling it write as I am going from memory) made it from the dreaming to Eberron and bonded with a group of Monks to make the Kaleshtar... well one of the original Quori went missing, so maybe she ended up in Vudra with a different group of quori and a similar group of monks and started
a new group of Kaleshtar... Monks, Psions and Psiwarriors :) With Irori, Zuoken and the Light as their fovored Deities :)
Vudra has lots of Gods so this is doable and they have lots of Psi...
Also Halfelves are said to be quite Psi endowed on Golarion...
I had completely forgotten about the quori and kalashtar. From what I can tell, Pathfinder's Dimension of Dreams isn't too different from Dal Quor, so there's a hook for the quori right there. I also like your idea about the kalashtar's origin and may steal it. >:)
Odly enough the Kalashtar society are very similar to the Varisians except they are not mobile ;)
The special organizations in the complete psionic handbook could have major chapterhouses in Absalom and some of the guilds could have started in Vudra or Tien. Some could have been started by Half Elves...
The Psi Families could have come from Humans that were Azlanti or even from one of the other planets in the solar system... Perhaps Azlanti that colonized the Psiworld... :)
Cool, and they are encapsulated in their stone cities underground so they could conceivabley live right beside Drow or whatever even just a few feet behind the rock wall and no one be the wiser...
Mind Flayers could be New to Golarion. They could be a new arival as of the past few months... Comming in from Castroval or even from across the rift... hmmm fresh brains...
I just realized I totally forgot about the gith races - but since their history and culture doesn't depend on Golarion at all, they can just be used as-is. Slap the githyanki in the Astral Plane and the githzerai in the Maelstrom and they're good to go.
The special organizations in the complete psionic handbook could have major chapterhouses in Absalom and some of the guilds could have started in Vudra or Tien. Some could have been started by Half Elves...
The Psi Families could have come from Humans that were Azlanti or even from one of the other planets in the solar system... Perhaps Azlanti that colonized the Psiworld... :)
Ah! Maybe there's a whole nation of Azlanti-descended humans on Castrovel, and the six psionic houses are scouts and/or outcasts on Golarion.
Dromites I could see being from down south in the jungles or further down south. James has said things get more and more strange the further south one goes. So that seems like a good area.
I hadn't even considered that. Come to think of it, dromites, ophiduans, and thri-kreen could all work in the savannas of southern Garund (though I'd like to keep the extraterrestrial origin for elans and synads).
True... I just thought thats how some of that might fit...
Elans might be because of some ritual found in some book "man was not meant to know about"... I know, because of one of those ET groups that have landed for their own purposes and showed Humanity a better way in the forgotten past... and now there is a secret group of Elans that "Choose" who gets to be one every once in a while... "Help I .. Hey :)"
We dont have to use any of the Eberron stuff... but the "core" Psi races and things are way too much fun to play with... (Because they are so generic they can fit)...
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my Elaborations...
Blue - pretty much as given in Psionics unleashed. I actually had a group of blues in my short lived RotRL game, the 'dungswimmer' clan (their name was reallly more alitterive than the boards would allow) easy to retcon them into a tribe of blues.
Dromites - Natives of Castrovel, rarely seen on Goalrion.
Duergar (psionic) - pretty much unchanged from their arcane counterparts. Still slaving to Droskar, but also infected with derro like madness.
Elan - Survivors of earthfall who teleported/gated to Castrovel. There they adapted to psionics and became Elan. They're rare on Goalrion as they (NPCs) are often on missions for the elders on Castrovel, and the newer Elan (PCs) are often exploring Castrovel, helping the elders whether they realize it or not.
Half Giants - Made of escapees from the Runelords and their experiments, they settled/were enslaved in Ancient Osirion.
Maenad - rumoured to be descendants of Azlanti survivors who were out to sea when the Starstone struck, these corsairs are uncomfortable on land. Whether they come from Azlant or not, their hatred or gillmen is often shown.
Ophiduan - a slave race of the serpent people, they are rarely seen. (Though with the events of Serpent's Skull, they may become more visible from their hidden environs)
Xeph - Like the Dromites, natives of Castrovel. They live in the jungles, where between the jungle cover and Castrovel's own atmosphere, they've developed darkvision, using their burst ability to enhance their jumping. Stories say that they, like the gnomes, are from the First World, and that they fled whatever force created the malevolant quicklings.
Hmm, that Xeph thing just came off the top of my head. I might have to play with that a little.
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Elans were added to the LSJ Campaign setting... and the execution left a bad taste in my mouth.
We dont have to use any of the Eberron stuff... but the "core" Psi races and things are way too much fun to play with... (Because they are so generic they can fit)...
LSJ? Living SpellJammer? Sorry, I don't know the acronym.
I am not familliar... Lsj...
I like your ideas LazarX, I think that my Frosty Ulfen Halfgiants, will be the survivors of those Thassilonian Experiments that fled North...
The Elan do seem more like Azlant survivors who are desperately trying to both preserve some kind of perceived cultural perfection (thus making all members of a group near identical), and stave off the ravages of a normally unsustainable breeding population. Possibly using modified Arboleth techniques? Placing them on Castrovel works, as does possibly on the remnant islands of their old homeland. One could also build in a deep hatred for Skum.
In such an assumption I would see Skum as their unnatural antithesis, the corruption by arboleths of true Azlantian ways.
Makes sense, those high minded Azlantians would hate Skum...
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The Elan do seem more like Azlant survivors who are desperately trying to both preserve some kind of perceived cultural perfection (thus making all members of a group near identical), and stave off the ravages of a normally unsustainable breeding population. Possibly using modified Arboleth techniques? Placing them on Castrovel works, as does possibly on the remnant islands of their old homeland. One could also build in a deep hatred for Skum.
In such an assumption I would see Skum as their unnatural antithesis, the corruption by arboleths of true Azlantian ways.
I was thinking much the same with the Maenad/Gillmen.
Really need to re-read gnomes of Golarion, the idea of the Xephs being refugees/escapees from First World really struck me when I typed it. Hmm, maybe link them to quicklings like gnomes/spriggans?
Seems like a good idea... they are odd enough looking. Definately not human... And the maenad would definately not like the gillmen, and they would not like the aquatic Azlantians, Quotoa, and such... and they would like Aquatic Elves and Mermen...
LOL Maenads... Psionic Pirats in Riddleport... or Freeport...
Lol, yeah, Mr. X Taught me...