I've been working on an adventure for Golarion based on the Cretan Labyrinth I visited a few weeks ago (including Daedalus and Ariadne, who seem to be ignored by most gaming versions).
But what I'm trying to work out are a few significant issues.
1. Where is Tulo, the birthplace of the Minotaurs (from Classic Monsters)? I want to use Tulo as a Knossos/Gortyna analogue, but first have to have a starting point. We know it was a Azlanti settlement before Earthfall, but beyond that we don't know whether it was on the continent, or if it was a colony. There seems to be a link between the Minotaurs and Kortos (see the Guide to Absalom, where one legend mentioned is that Aroden had to conquer the island from a Minotaur, and they seem to be well established on Kortos), and one possible solution is that Tulo was on a pre-Kortos island or on Erran (where Azlanti ruins exist, suggesting it existed prior to Kortos). If it's in Azlant, I have to justify a Mediterranean island in the quasi-Atlantic. (There seems to be little reason for the Minotaurs to escape the destruction of Azlant, not being seafarers, unless they were established somehow in a Avistani or Garundi colony).
My initial take is to go with Tulo as a precursor to Kortos and suggest some sort of link between Aroden's deed, the apotheosis of Lamashtu, and the Labyrinth to the Test of the Starstone.
2. Lamashtu's pre-Earthfall curse on Tulo in Classic Monsters seems to be based on her command of beasts and divinity, yet her devouring of Curchanus and rise in status was post-Earthfall (cf. City of the Seven Spears). This seems inconsistent.
Perhaps we can clear these issues up or come up with some ideas...
Not much response...
Hmm... I'll just talk to myself for a little while. I'm inclined to leave the Tulo-Kortos mystery unresolved or linked into a space-time warping artifact that provides the rationale for the final segment (a tesseract).
Fun times. Perhaps I need a Qlippoth, too.
In any case, is anyone as curious as I am how Aroden became a god? How he survived Earthfall? Too much Call of Cthulhu makes me suspicious of rocks falling from the sky that make people into gods...
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Doesn't Absalom have one of the largest labyrinths in the Inner Sea Region? Underneath the city that is, rather than that around the Starstone. I've been taking it for granted that it did, but if so that could make for a strong case for the Tulo -> Kortos theory.
Who knows what got dragged back up when Aroden pulled that island out of the sea...
Good catch on the Curchanus timeline. I thought it was pre-Earthfall all the way.
Doesn't Absalom have one of the largest labyrinths in the Inner Sea Region? Underneath the city that is, rather than that around the Starstone. I've been taking it for granted that it did, but if so that could make for a strong case for the Tulo -> Kortos theory.
Who knows what got dragged back up when Aroden pulled that island out of the sea...
Good catch on the Curchanus timeline. I thought it was pre-Earthfall all the way.
If you (or another PF fan) can find me the ref for the Labyrinth under Absalom, that would make me very happy.
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Doesn't Absalom have one of the largest labyrinths in the Inner Sea Region? Underneath the city that is, rather than that around the Starstone. I've been taking it for granted that it did, but if so that could make for a strong case for the Tulo -> Kortos theory.
Who knows what got dragged back up when Aroden pulled that island out of the sea...
Good catch on the Curchanus timeline. I thought it was pre-Earthfall all the way.
If you (or another PF fan) can find me the ref for the Labyrinth under Absalom, that would make me very happy.
I can't recall exactly where the notion came from, but if I had to narrow it down I picked it up from Classic Monsters Revisited(and it sounds like you've checked that source up and down already), Guide to Absalom, or some random thread here.
I'm not near my books at the moment....anybody have any ideas on this?
A significant amount of the backstory for minotaurs is probably gonna be ret-conned some day, since minotaurs SHOULD come from Iblydos. Along with the rest of the Greecian mythology monsters. Which would put Tulo several hundred miles southeast of the Isle of Kortos.
Thanks, James. This helps me situate things...
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Yeah, I don't like the idea of Minotaurs originally from Kortos, either.
It seems that somewhere off the ancient Azlanti coast makes more sense.
Then, sure, sometime after Aroden raised The Isle some Minotaurs came, made a Labyrinth and set up their "new home."
It could very well be that this "new home" underneath Kortos is so old that it's not really new anymore, but still...
Creative Director
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Yeah, I don't like the idea of Minotaurs originally from Kortos, either.
It seems that somewhere off the ancient Azlanti coast makes more sense.
Then, sure, sometime after Aroden raised The Isle some Minotaurs came, made a Labyrinth and set up their "new home."
It could very well be that this "new home" underneath Kortos is so old that it's not really new anymore, but still...
Note that Iblydos is off the southern coast of Casmaron, not Azlanti. That's part of the retcon.
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Creative Director
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since minotaurs SHOULD come from Iblydos. Along with the rest of the Greecian mythology monsters.Although the Minotaur, at least, is originally a Minoan Cretan derivation from the Phoenecian Baal-Moloch, so Minotaurs should originally come from somewhere a bit more Semitic than Iblydos.
Iblydos isn't meant to be THAT chained to real-world geography and tradition and history and mythology. No more so than Osirion is to Egypt, the Linnorm Kingdoms are to Norway, or Minkai is to Japan.
And since we've already used Baal and Moloch as devils in the game, those words are used up already anyway so it doesn't really matter.
You have no idea how cool this is...
I have a homebrew AP I'm working on based on the Sindbad stories and film. Episodes from the Odyssey happen in the original texts in the Indian Ocean (the oral storytellers of the Middle East were not ones to pass over a good story), making Iblydos exactly in the right position en route to India (Vudra) and the Spice Isles.
Now I've spent a couple years researching India for d20 and just got back from Greece...