Main Hub of Activity on Golarion

[Taffer]

I have a Forgotten Realms campaign I would like to convert over to Golarion. It had the characters using Waterdeep as their main base of operations/adventure launching point.

I am wondering what the Golarion equivalent of Waterdeep is? Not necessarily by the way the city is set up, but more what is considered the world's "main city". (Forgotten Realms has Waterdeep, Greyhawk has the City of Greyhawk, etc.)

Thanks in advance!

---
Taffer

[Mairkurion {tm}]

I'd go with Absalom.

[Studpuffin]

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

I'd go with Absalom.

I'd go with the same choice as Mairkurion {tm}. Absalom is what you're looking for.

Katapesh is probably a close second, but the pathfinder society is based in Absalom. They used to have a second headquarters in Westcrown, but that city lost it's lodge at the ascension of Thrune more or less.

[Erik Freund]

Depends on what you mean by "main city." If you mean "largest metropolis in the world" then yea, Absalom, of course. But if you mean "backwater hamlet that is of great omen and portent and that every character ends up coming from" then we gotta go with Sandpoint (or elsewhere in Varisia). :-)

[Sidthesquish]

Not sure i would say waterdeep is the main city of forgotten realms. Its big, sure, but its no where near the main civilized area of toril. The sea of fallen stars takes that cake. Sure waterdeep has all kinds of book and adventure love but its a very frontier city, so im not sure your looking for the 'hub' of golarion, but rather a major city near the frontier to properly match waterdeeps feel. Absolom and Katapesh are certainly the major cities of civilized golarion. I often consider Absolom the Sigil of golarion if you know anything about that city.

I would recomend Kaer Maga as its reasonably well developed and is a large crazy city on the edge of frontier wilderness. But im still getting familiar with golarion, so i could be wrong.

[Quandary]

I would say Absalom is what you want.
Created by the risen God who patronised the last age of human civilization (now ended with his death/disappearance),
a neutral meeting grounds between the various civilizations of the Inner Sea and beyond.

It by no means seems to have any GLOBAL signifigance on Golarion as a whole,
(though given the patch-work approach Paizo is taking, allowing them to fit in many flavors which don`t disturb each other to a large degree, I doubt ANY city has `GLOBAL` signifigance)

and by all accounts we can be certain there are MUCH larger cities in other parts of Golarion,
the Inner Sea isn`t particularly the most developed region of Golarion (in-world),
it just happens to be the region Paizo has most developed in terms of what they`ve published so far.

Absalom most epitomizes the Inner Sea civilizations as a whole,
while not being overly swayed into one of their specific dynamics / political roles.

[B0sh1]

Taffer wrote:

I have a Forgotten Realms campaign I would like to convert over to Golarion. It had the characters using Waterdeep as their main base of operations/adventure launching point.

I am wondering what the Golarion equivalent of Waterdeep is? Not necessarily by the way the city is set up, but more what is considered the world's "main city". (Forgotten Realms has Waterdeep, Greyhawk has the City of Greyhawk, etc.)

Thanks in advance!

---
Taffer

Korvosa in Varisa, Westcrown in Cheliax or Augustana/Almas in Andoran may work.

[Digitalelf]

I think what the original poster means (and I know I could be wrong), is what is Golarion's (i.e. read Paizo's) "Flag-ship" city?

Waterdeep was certainly FR's "flag-ship" city...

The Free City of Greyhawk for WoGH...

Sigil for Planescape...

Palanthas for Dragonlance...

Rock of Bral for Spelljammer...

etc...

Sure, each of these settings had bigger (and sometimes more important) cities, but most of the setting's attention was given over to these particular cities by TSR (and then later, by WotC in the case of Waterdeep)...

But the one thing each of those cities had in common was that each city was supposed to be THE place (within each of the respective settings) everyone knew about...

So, if that is indeed what the OP meant, then Absalom is that place on Golarion...

YMMV...

-That One Digitalelf Fellow-

[Quandary]

Digital Elf is pretty much saying the same thing...

Except I would clarify that ´GOlarion´ as a whole is more of a patch-work entity,
and Absalom is more the Flag-Ship City for the ¨Inner Sea Region¨ (which extends beyond Inner Sea per se, but conforms to the Guide to the Inner Sea Companion Product)
But nobody really knows all that much about anything in Golarion beyond the Inner Sea region yet.

Likewise, Zakhara was ´technically´ part of the Forgotten Realms world,
but Water-deep was not really on the radar of anybody in Zakhara (or Maztica I think)
(i don´t really think Zakhara has a flagship city in the same way as these other settings or even absalom, Huzuz was the capitol and everybody knew about it, but it wasn´t really set up as a crucial hub in terms of adventuring action, all the regions were really given equal play there)

[Steelfiredragon]

any port city.
sure Absalom comes up first, but you must remembeer, the city at the center of the wrold is supposed to be huge, and getting in by ship (depending on the size and crew of the vessel) is costly and thats not even to mention what happens if you wreck it on the coast.(assuming that the pcs own a boat)

Id choose one of the two other cites around absalom and not the main city itself.

other wise, I'd have to ask what part of Golarion as any Port city is a trade Hub.