No idea but this is relevant to my interests.
Ditto. To my knowledge there is nothing in any product that details the family in depth. You might have to do what a few others and myself have done and make stuff up.
Ever read Fall of the House of Usher? I'm drawing heavily from that. Nice and tragic with Adivion playing the part of Roderick as his house falls apart around him. Probably the last scion and, like his inspiration, is swiftly on the path of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Just in case anyone's looking at me for info, I don't have anything other than what Shadows of Gallowspire presents, and am not aware of anything published beyond that. With any luck Wes will chime in with some of his thoughts on this enigmatic family, but Mr. Luther hits pretty close to the mark, as far as I'm concerned.
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We know that he's from Ardeal. So I'm reading that chapter and basically making him the stereotypical Ardealian noble who moved to Caliphas.
He's got a "summer home" back in the old capital (sprawling mansion grounds falling into rot), which is really the traditional family estate, and lives most of his time in a fancy condo in Caliphas.
I'm working on a module that takes place between Broken Moon and Wake of the Watcher that goes into Adivon's Father's story a little bit. I'll share what I got once I get that thing hammered out (will take a month or more though).
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working on a module that takes place between Broken Moon and Wake of the Watcher that goes into Adivon's Father's story a little bit. I'll share what I got once I get that thing hammered out (will take a month or more though).
Looking forward to that Erik! Hopefully you can share that by January.
In my campaign he is Viscount Adrissant, a gifted former protégé and later friendly rival to the late Professor.
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Alright. This is going to take a few posts... Lets start this off with a disclaimer. Only what is in Rule of Fear and the Carrion Crown Adventure Path is canon content. What follows is taken from my dusty memories, notes as the author of Rule of Fear, the outline I wrote for the Carrion Crown AP. It is also the result of driving to the office just now in my pajamas and scandalizing Rob as he diligently continued his work on the Skull & Shackles AP through the weekend. In other words, horror compounding upon horror. But this, should not be taken as "extra canon." Often the decision as to whether or not elements make it into a printed product has nothing to do with an idea's quality, but often more to do with lack of space upon printed pages, avoidance of repetitive ideas, desire not to overly restrict or complicate GM options, or any of thousands of other behind the scenes publishing goals or business objectives. As such, what saw print should be considered the definitive work. This, however intimately related, helped create that work, but was not published for any one of a zillion good reasons, and might not mesh perfectly (or at all) with the final effort. If you find anything contradictory to established Golarion canon, beneath Paizo's editorial standards, offensive, or otherwise unsatisfactory, know that these are notes that were never meant for publication and are being shared only because an academic interest has been expressed.
With that gigantic caveat in mind, check it out:
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Possible apocrypha, unconfirmed events, and outright lies follow.
From the time of his birth to his departure from public life, Adivion Adrissant wanted for nothing. Born in the former Ustalavic capital city of Ardis, the young nobleman dwelled in the lap of luxury, his family being well-regarded members of the local aristocracy with holdings throughout Ardeal county. An only child, both his wealthy parents and an army of servants attended to the youth with slavish attention and absolute devotion. His tutors were the finest in Ustalav, his playmates all came from noble stock, his playthings valued a small fortune, had Adivion been heir to the royal throne he could not have been dotted on more.
While in most youths such attentions would likely have spoiled the child into a life of idleness and debauchery, Adivion ever proved the exception. While never anything but a charming, gracious child, the boy ever proved more interested in the growth of plants, the migration of fowl, and the habits of insects than the gifts of his family or the attention of his peers. Such antisocial behavior concerned his parents, but they were able to dismiss each other’s worry with reassurances of their son’s obviously burgeoning intelligence and gifting him ever more extravagant presents.
By the time Adivion began attending the prestigious Quartrefaux Academy he had matured into an intelligent, well cultured, and handsome young gentleman, though withdrawn and dispassionate. In his varied studies he mastered every subject with a bored ease, finding nothing that inspired or challenged him. To him, academia proved nothing more than rote trivia, romance a foolish distraction, and religion the height of nonsense. By age 20, Adivion had weighed all that the world had presented of value, and found it wanting. Bored with Ustalav, he traveled for several years, expending a small fortune in the pursuit of anything meaningful—including research into the arcane arts—yet by age 26 returned to his family’s holdings in disappointment.
An utterly passionless genius, Adivion grew rightfully arrogant and ever more withdrawn, immersing himself in the nihilistic poetry of Krait, Perry, and Vhaags. From such grew an interest in death and an idealistic morbidity that such might be the only adventure life makes worth having. His fancies turning ever more morose, Adivion spent seasons investigating death, séances, theories of necromancy, obituaries, and the histories of fallen empires. A particular favorite of his soon became accounts of the rise, fall, resurrection, and conquest of the Whispering Tyrant. In Ustalav’s one-time undead ruler Adivion began to imagine a kindred soul, a genius burdened by the weight of a worthless world, one whose supreme intellect and ambition allowed him to defy even death in the pursuit of reshaping Golarion into an existence worth experiencing.
Adivion’s research into the Whispering Tyrant’s deeds and histories consumed the majority of his family’s wealth, the excesses of which he had never had much use for. Records of the lich’s rule, histories of the ages in which he was active, and relics related to the villain came to fill Adivion’s apartments, possessing his entire life. It was only by the scholar’s astute reasoning and eidetic memory that he eventually made an astonishing discovery. With his access to the imposing libraries of the Quartrefaux Academy, the county’s once royal record halls, and his own collections, Adivion discovered that the Whispering Tyrant, while alive, had sired at least one child, and through the years, his bloodline had survived. Even more remarkably, the thin but ever-descending roots of the archmage’s family ancestry reached all the way to modern Ustalav. In fact, the living Count Lucinean Galdana was the most noteworthy living inheritor of the Whispering Tyrant’s bloodline.
Shocked and inspired in a way he had never known, Adivion journeyed to the county of Amaans and arranged an audience with the count at his home, Willowmourn. Yet the meeting proved an utter disappointment, with Galdana appearing as nothing more than a lecherous lout to Adivion’s critical eye, an aging fop displaying none of his world-shaping ancestor’s vision or drive. Adivion had desperately desired some connection to the source of his morbid adulation, but here he found none, the potential for greatness obscured by centuries of forgetfulness and polluted blood. In dejection, Adivion returned to Ardis.
It was on the return trip that the seeds of inspiration—or madness—took root in Adivions mind. Witnessing a rite of metaphorical rebirth outside the Kavapesta Cathedral, he struck upon the idea for a grand experiment. History had already shown that, when exposed to certain ideas, events, settings, and magics, one with the blood Galadana harbored possessed the potential to reshape the world. What then should occur if a modern possessor of that same blood were subjected to the exact same ideas, events, and magics? Would it not follow that the heir would produce the same result as the ancestor? What if he himself could recreate the Whispering Tyrant, and in so doing gaze into the mind of a force that rivaled even the gods. With such a dark muse—one indebted to him for its very existence—could he not emulate that same path to world-shaping might?
Adivion had already dismissed the idea of embracing the path of mad necromancers by seeking to free the Whispering Tyrant though direct means—as went the accounts of many a storied failure. But if liberation was not an option, what of such a theoretical recreation? Could it be done? The knowledge he possessed; he was already perhaps the single most eminent scholar on the Whispering Tyrant’s past life, and though arcane modification could recreate such information into another’s memories with ease. The blood too he had identified and by manipulations could doubtlessly obtain. Even the location could be of aid, the nearby tower of Gallowspire, the Tyrant’s very prison, might be employed to impart a measure—if not the whole—of the archmage’s spirit into a selfsame host. But what of the singular most defining trait? That defiant mystery coveted by mages both insane and ambitious. What of lichdom?
In the next several years Adivion launched fully into his experiment, courting contacts within the nefarious cult known as the Whispering Way, a society of the death obsessed surely willing to share his goal and easily turned to his objectives. At the same time, he delved into the blasphemous secrets of lichdom, taking the unheard of and difficult path of researching not his own individual path to undeath, but another’s. After years of investigation, his delving, both scholarly and arcane, bore strange fruit: whispers from beyond death, a verse spoken from the spaces between death and the afterworld. This glimpse into what would reshape a man into a state unbound by mortality, the formula to an undying apotheosis, the ultimate proof of control over the world, Adivion dubbed the Carrion Crown.
With this knowledge, objectives gleaned through an age of research, and grim allies to mete it out, Adivion Adrissant set his plan in motion, a plot to transform one of the lords of Ustalav, an heir to a profane legacy, into a resurrection of the Whispering Tyrant himself. And through the archlich reborn, recreate a world worth having a place in.
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Possible apocrypha, unconfirmed events, and outright lies follow.
In 3828 the Shining Crusade came to an end with the defeat of the Whispering Tyrant, the lich archmage whose rule of terror had claimed countless lives and many of the lands surrounding Lake Encarthan and beyond. With the undead overlord imprisoned within his fortress tower of Gallowspire, the populace of the surrounding lands slowly reclaimed their ancestral homes or forged new countries. To the west, the Taldan protector state of Lastwall emerged from lands once held by the princes of Ustalav and the orc-ravaged frontier of Belkzen, the new country dedicating itself to scouring the world of the Tyrant’s remaining armies and later to guarding against his return. To the east, the fractious land of Ustalav, enslaved to the lich and his undead servants for an age, tasted freedom for the first time in 620 years. Their cities in ruins, haunted by centuries of tragedy, genocide, and the remaining undead servants of the defeated lich, the survivors of the Tyrant’s rule strove to resurrect a new country from the corpse of a once proud principality they knew of only in legends of the distant past. Drawing upon aged decrees, records of law, and the histories of long fallen families, the Immortal Principality of Ustalav emerged from the fallen Kingdom of Ustalav, a generation of traumatized slaves looking to the past to shape a future none had ever expected to come.
Ustalav’s reemergence proved more than difficult, and despite its new freedom scores more died in desperate skirmishes against the Whispering Tyrant’s lingering undead, leaderless bands of orcs, and ambitious Kellid raiders from Sarkoris to the north. Leaders proved few, desperate, and largely unreliable. The revelation that all the heirs of Soividia Ustav’s line—descendants of the country’s founder—had fallen during the Tyrant’s occupation dealt an additional blow few expected the disheartened people to be able to bear.
A measure of salvation finally emerged from the endless squabbling and corpse picking of the Ustalavic capital at Ardis. Historically characterized as either an opportunistic looter or ingenious scholar, Ilmhost Vheist announced a discovery among the sub-libraries hidden beneath the ruined Palace Tower, traditional seat of Ustalav’s rulers. Bringing forth a vast collection of titles, deeds, recorded ancestries, and other documents pertinent to ruling the nation’s counties before their fall, Vheist proposed a countrywide census and search for any true scions of the land’s ruling families, searching for a link between the legendary counts of the past and the faltering modern age. The census took more than two years to conduct and was rife with falsehood and accusations of deceit. Ultimately, though, Vheist and those supposed patriots who surrounded him cared little for finding true descendants of Ustalav’s rulers, rather seeking plausible figureheads behind which a new government might unite before outside threats overwhelmed the land.
To Vheist’s surprise—and later vexation—two, by all accounts legitimate, noble heirs stepped forth: the youthful Andredos Ordranti, heir to the county of Odranto’s rule, and the plain Sesasgia Caliphvaso, scion of Caliphas’s line of counts. Of the two, Ordranti’s youth, decent looks, and—most importantly—masculinity made him a more useful marionette than Caliphvaso. In short order, Ordranti ascended to a hastily made throne as Ustalav’s newly restored prince, while Caliphvaso was granted control in title of the fractured lands held by her forefathers.
Soon control over the rest of Ustalav’s counties were divided among those claiming doubtful distant relation to past counts, supporters of Vheist’s new government, and Vheist himself—who oversaw the rule of Ardeal for a time. To Vheist’s surprise, Ordranti proved more than a figurehead and grew from a field slave crippled by nightmares into an able, if not inspirational, ruler. Caliphvaso too proved a talented administrator in the south, turning her bitterness at the county’s new prince and court of lackeys to spiteful independence, founding the city of Caliphas as a stronghold against the roving dangers of the land and a port through which to court support and wealth from abroad. As the years passed, people began to hold Caliphas and the industry of the south as epitomes of what the new nation should be, while criticizing the issues endemic to Ardis and the central government.
With Countess Caliphvaso’s activity and public support on the rise,
Vheist acted to prevent a schism between the country’s rulers. Quietly at first, he manipulated Prince Ordranti into levying crippling demands upon the most prosperous counties, always including Caliphas. Campaigns of slander followed, breeding baseless rumors such as Caliphas’s planned secession to Taldor. Viciously decrying such claims, both personally and through the voices of her outraged people, Caliphvaso attempted to defend herself , but such served only to reinforce appearances of rebelliousness and soon suggestions of armed reprisal began snaking their way through the salons and galleries of Ardis. With unexpected boldness, eveidencing either deft political insight or an able network of informants, Caliphvaso sent word to the prince that any act of the fledgling royal army in her county would be perceived as an unlawful attack on her ancestral holdings and met with violence in turn. Ordranti was incensed.
As the months of tensions mounted, Vheist saw Caliphvaso refuse to back down, as he had expected she ultimately would, and rather the prince and countess’s rising tempers spiraling toward a civil war that could only end in the country’s destruction. Changing his colors, he personally took on the role of peacemaker, traveling to parlay with Caliphvaso on behalf of the prince and seeking her capitulation to royal rule in return for the lifting of several of the more egregious demands upon her county. In person, Vheist found the life of a leader—even of a rugged but growing backwater—had agreed with Caliphvaso, transforming her from a pinch-faced spinster to a charismatic matron. Over the course of the council Vheist came to believe he had chosen the wrong line to take up the country’s crown. Upon returning to Ardis, the councilor announced a compromise between Caliphas and the throne, and in the shadows began scheming a way to assassinate the childless Ordranti, to replace him with the more capable Caliphaso.
Caliphvaso was no longer a pawn to be manipulated, and had weighed Vheist during his stay in Caliphas as well. Seeing in him the burrowing, bloodthirstiness of a true parasite, she sent word to her agents in Ardis. The countess’s supporters gradually drew out evidence of Vheist’s plot to kill the prince and elevate her to the throne. Though tempted to let the advisor’s plot run its course and harvest the bounty of his treachery, the countess ultimately balked at the prospect of being the schemer’s puppet. In a night of deadly shadows, her agents disappeared several of Vheist’s most trusted men and co-conspirators, and brought evidence of the advisor’s plot, along with the man himself, before the prince.
In the days following, Vheist was tried and hanged as a traitor and several counts who had been close to the councilor, fearing royal reprisal, relinquished their lands and fled the country. Ordranti offered a private thanks to Caliphvaso for her hand in revealing the conspiracy against him, but was sternly rebuked. Although Caliphvaso had no taste for attaining the throne through another’s treachery, she felt no love for the half-competent prince and retained her bitterness both at being snubbed for rulership due largely to a trick of her sex and for the ease with which the prince had shown his vulnerability to manipulation. Thus, she promised to improve her land and aid the country as fitting to her station, but made clear that for all time her families loyalty would lie with the crown, not the unfit family who bore it.
This early dissension has colored the relationship between the crown and counties of Ustalav ever since the earliest days of its rebirth, with the nobility remaining loyal to the country, wary—if not outright dismissive—of their regent, and belligerently independent. Ever concerned with titles and bloodlines, the nobility widely believes the Ordranti line to be weak and only passably capable of rule, but are compelled by law and, even more binding, tradition to serve—though they have long proven skilled at drowning the more distasteful aspects of obedience in mires of courtly protocol and circular debate. In no other relationship are these odds exposed more clearly in the modern houses of Ordranti and Caliphvaso, who harbor a centuries old grudge, exacerbated as recent events see the crown slipping ever nearer Caliphvaso hands.
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Possible apocrypha, unconfirmed events, and outright lies follow.
2361 Soividia Ustav unites the Varisian wanderers north of Lake Encarthan, founding the country of Ustalav.
3203 The Whispering Tyrant returns to life and unites the ravenous orc tribes of Belkzen.
3204 Prince Ardurras II, son of King Ardurras Virholt, ventures forth to combat the risen lich and falls at the Tyrant’s hands. His undead-destroying blade, Corpselight, is lost.
3205 Ustalav besieged by the hordes of the Whsipering Tyrant. Ustalav’s armies, supported by the church of Pharasma, launch a crusade against the lich. The Pharasmin bishop Prince Adamondais Virholt, bearing the holy mace Raven’s Head, leads the crusaders to Gallowspire. The holy warriors fall to the undead archmage’s magic. The bastard Prince Andriadus Virholt is royally acknowledged by the crown, but flees his responsibility to directly battle the Tyrant. Andriadus recruits lycanthropic Sczarni in a shadow war against the lich.
3206 The fractious counties of Ustalav fall to the Whispering Tyrant. King Ardurras, the Last King of Ustalav, is slain at the Battle of Dawnmarsh. The fallen king, reanimated as the grim jongleur called the Shrieking Sovereign, precedes the Tyrant’s legions into Ardis and hangs himself from the Palace Tower.
3206–3800 594 years of uncontested rule by the Whispering Tyrant.
3801 The Shining Crusade secures a beachhead in Ustalav at the modern day community of Vauntil.
3827 The Whispering Tyrant imprisoned in Gallowspire by the Shining Crusade. Ustalav returned to its people.
3832 Ilmhost Vheist initiates a countrywide census and search for surviving noble lines.
3834 Census ends with the discovery of heirs to the Ordranti and Caliphvaso lines. Andredos Ordranti ascends as the first prince of the newly restored Immortal Principality of Ustalav.
3836 Sesasgia Caliphvaso founds Caliphas.
3859 Orc tribes begin regular raids of western Ustalav.
3882 The Pharasmin hermitage, the Monastery of the Veil, founded in Ulcazar.
3988 Aldus Aldon Canter, future count of Vieland, returns form explorations in Osirion and deep Garund. Upon returning home, he begins lecturing on foreign philosophies and mystical paths to magic power. Within the year, Canter and his followers found the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye.
3999 A mob of angry citizens in Vieland disrupt a midnight orgiastic rite amid the monolithic structure called the Spiral Cromlech just moments before the new year. Count Canter is revealed among the captured “witches” and is forcibly coerced into resigning is title. His cousin Aubren Immarin becomes the new count.
4028 Aldus Canter is removed as head of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, allegedly due to ever increasing erraticism and dementia. The Esoteric Order opens membership to any with the wealth to pay its yearly dues, attracting young nobles from across the country. Canter vanishes later that year.
4042 Count Andachi of Tamrivena, desperate in the face of mounting orc threats, entreats Zon-Kuthon for aid. The mercenary Kazavon arrives in response.
4043 General Kazavon drives orcs from western Ustalav.
4051 Count Andachi leads an army against the despotic Kazavon. Andachi defeated and murdered.
4063 Arcanists affiliated with the Palatine Eye aid the hero Mandraivus in besieging Scarwall. Kazavon falls. Mandravius slain by orcs.
4144 In revenge for the death of her children, assisted by the monks’ inaction, Countess Robeskea of Ulcazar has the residents of the Monastery of the Veil quietly slaughtered in the name of Norgorbor, sequestering the library of ancient secrets held there. The cult dedicates itself to keeping and collecting varied secrets, forming the order of assassins known as the Anaphexia.
4208 Castle Maiserene in Varno falls to a mysterious curse and is colloquially renamed Bastardhall.
4308 A black coach from Bastardhall abducts villagers from the surrounding lands.
4408 Again the black coach of Bastardhall seizes villagers from nearby villages. Local heroes besiege the castle and succeed in burning it to the ground.
4508 Bastardhall reappears, fully reconstructed. The black coach claims nearly a dozen victims before disappearing.
4521 Count Ristomaur Tiriac and his fiancé Iltanya Arsbeta attacked near Corvischior. Iltanya is murdered, and Tiriac beaten near to death. Radaia, a loyal by misguided servant, saves the count by infecting him with vampirism. Tiriac, overcome by grief at the death of Iltanya, the loss of her corpse, and his own transformation slays the residents of his family home at Korsinoria Palace and goes into isolation.
4536 Hiding his vampirism, Count Tiriac reestablishes control of Varno and travels from Ustalav, beginning his search for a cure for vampirism.
4608 The black coach again emerges from Bastardhall. Attempts to again burn the castle end in the slaughter of an entire peasant mob.
4670 Weakness and mismanagement lead to upheaval and bloodless rebellion in western Ustalav. The counties of Lozeri, Tamrivena, and Vieland abandon hereditary rule and adopt a cross-county parliamentary democracy, still loyal to the crown, known as the Palatinates.
4674 Ustalavic capital moved from Ardis to Caliphas. Prince Valislav Odranti dies of persistent but unnamed illness soon after.
4675 Prince Aduard III ascends the throne. Millaera Caliphvaso, long-time consort of the fallen prince, gives birth to a child she claims to be Valislav’s son, naming him Reneis Ordranti. Millaera disappears. Reneis adopted by his aunt Countess Carmilla Caliphvaso.
4687 Count Aericnein Neska of Barstoi accuses Count Olomon Venacdahlia of criminal squandering of country resources in the fallow yet potentially bountiful Furcina region of the Dragosvet Plains. Troops from Barstoi occupy eastern Ardeal. Appeals from Ardeal for justice and royal censure against Barstoi become mired in political squabbling.
4689 Taking matters into their own hands, Ardeal’s nobility with support from Varno wanderers, attack Barstoi soldiers. The invaders prove stubborn defenders and fields transform into trenches.
4692 An attempt by Sisandra Livgrace, 16-year-old daughter of Count Birmienon Livgrace, to run away from her boarding at the Karcau Opera leads to her kidnapping by a shadowy abductor. Searchers find her, unharmed, amid the city’s labyrinthine sewers three months later.
4693 After years of protracted combat, Count Neska recalls his troops and cedes Furcina back to Ardeal, but not before burning and salting hundreds of square miles of farmland. The fire-scarred, trench-riddled land is renamed the Furrows.
4698 The first murder in Lozeri attributed to the Devil in Gray occurs.
4706 Count Manfray Muralt dies of old age, leaving his title and holdings to his adopted son Conwrest.
4708 Current Year
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I just found it strange that "Rule of Fear" has nothing about the Adrissant family at all and figured it was in some other product.
Why have pages and pages in ROF about all the noble families in Ustalav and their importance to the country only to go ahead and invent a new one with no details as the motivating force behind an entire Ustalav AP. Odd no?
I can give you quite a few reasons - that just so happen to be the exact reasons - the name Adrissant both unintentionally and purposefully doesn't show up in Rule of Fear.
First of all, Rule of Fear was written months and months before the Carrion Crown outline and the name Adivion Adrissant ever appeared. So the character and his family simply didn't exist when that book was in production.
That said, when I came up with him I could have seen him added to the Big Book of Ustalav, but I didn't, for a few reasons.
First, is a matter of space. Numerous noble families are mentioned in Rule of Fear, but for the most part those are counts who rule whole regions. Really, there's only 1 spread that discusses noble families in the nation - pages 54 and 55: Bloodlines. There's roughly a column on rulers, a column on commoners, and a column on nobles. Currently everyone of those families ties back to some other location, continuing plot, still secret plan, or - in the case of the Kindler family - a dozen prior namedrops, the Pathfinder's Journal that runs through the course of the Carrion Crown AP, and my character Styrian from the NPC Guide and James's Shadow Under Sandpoint campaign. So, if I were to add the Adrissant family, one of these others would have to go so I could write something to the effect of:
Adrissant: A declining family of landowners in Ardeal with concerns in cereal farming, timber, and dyes. The senile Lord Tibormaine Adrissant's dwindling holdings promise to soon pass to his estranged brother Wvaldmor and bookish adult son Adivion.
The Adrissants haven't done anything at this point after all. Such a thing works if all you want is a name drop, but that doesn't really satisfy me. There's not an adventure there. But there is an adventure in six volumes of Carrion Crown. Why, then, spend the space on a family - actually, only one character - that's going to get tons of detail in six companion projects that relates to them directly? So I opted for leaving the snippets on the other families, so GMs not running Carrion Crown would have more adventure hooks (that what these are after all) for their Ustalav games, figuring that GMs running Carrion Crown would be well served (as they are) with the contents of the Adventure Path.
Another reason is to avoid "canon shackles." If I had come out and said in a product that Adivion and his family are X, Y, and Z, there's a certain number of GMs who would feel restrained by that even while running their Carrion Crown campaign. Running a published campaign effectively requires the author, developer, and GM to work together, and requires a certain flexibility on all of their parts. Knowing that some GMs might want to adjust Carrion Crown's big bad end guy to better fit into their visions of the world or better challenge their PCs, I didn't want to lock the Adrissants down with a lot of back story, especially back story in a product Carrion Crown GMs might not own or a product that could carry spoilers for the AP.
On page 54 Rule of Fear says "Dozens of Ustalavic nobles cling to petty titles and moldy heritages, often unaware to what extent their dead ancestors control their lives." I felt that this adequately expressed that the families presented in the book were not an all-inclusive list, and that other nobles might plot in the country - thus opening the door for the sinister deeds of Adivion Adrissant in Carrion Crown although they aren't presages. (A vital pillar of horror is surprise, after all.)
As much as I like tie-in products and hope that our various product lines can riff off of and support one another, I never want any reader to feel like they HAVE to purchase book X or Y to get full use out of product Z. Pathfinder Adventure Path is meant to provide a complete campaign, and Pathfinder Campaign Setting books are meant to endure and inspire ideas even beyond the Adventure Path dujour. In the case of Rule of Fear and Carrion Crown, I think both support one another quite nicely, with one feeding into the other, but also stand alone quite well without spending precious space on redundancies.
This is part of what makes running a home campaign and publishing campaigns so different. One person is never working on all the projects, related projects are sometimes created with gulfs of time between them even if they release at the same time, and a wide range of audiences need to be considered. While I could have written Rule of Fear to be more of a guide to the Carrion Crown campaign, it's my hope that GMs will still be adventuring is Ustalav years and years after that AP completes, and I want to make sure that those GMs are just as well served even long after most groups have put the Adrissant family to rest.
Ultimately, we're talking about maybe a paragraph of attention here (one recreated above with pages more detail in the Carrion Crown Adventure Path), so one way or the other I wouldn't worry about this too terribly much. Sometimes, though, it just helps to know that this topic was considered and there was a reason for the way things worked out - it wasn't just some oversight.
There's also one more possible explanation as to why I didn't advocate for throwing the Adrissants in to Rule of Fear: maybe I knew that if anyone got interested enough in the villain that they wanted to know even more about him than the pages got published in the AP, that they could always just leap on here and ask me. ;)
Uh... mostly gray and navy blue. 'Cause it's cold out here in the Wild West.
I'm working on a module that takes place between Broken Moon and Wake of the Watcher that goes into Adivon's Father's story a little bit. I'll share what I got once I get that thing hammered out (will take a month or more though).
SUPER EAGER to hear more about this Erik! Be sure to post what you're willing to share when you're done!
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Two questions (for anyone, not specifically targeted at Wes):
1. Why is the Andredos Ordranti considered a "Prince" and not a "King". He does rule (at least on paper) all of Ustalav.
When the Kingdom of Ustalav was reestablished after the defeat of the Whispering Tyrant it was christened the Immortal Principality of Ustalav. The Whispering Tyrant's atrocities had ended the Ustav royal line - as far as anyone in that age knew or modern Ustalav know. The Caliphvaso and Ordranti families were, supposedly, the only noble bloodlines to survive through the lich's reign, and - as detailed above - there was some conflict between them over the throne. When finally the Ordranti family rose as the new ruling family, presuming to the title of king when they were well known to not be of the Ustav line was a step too hypocritical even amid the politicking of the age. Thus, the country was reestablished not as a kingdom, but as a principality, making the title of prince or princess its highest office (just as in real world principalities). The tradition and line of Ordranti princes has continued ever since.
2. Is "Tar-Baphon" a full proper name (like "John Smith")? A title (like "John Smith, Tar-Baphon of the Greenlands")? A last name (like John Tar-Bapon")?
We've got plenty of plots for Tar-Baphon, but none we're ready to reveal yet. When his background is revealed, I promise it'll be hard to miss. For now, think of his name as all of those things above, like Homer, Montezuma, or Cher.
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Another question on peerage for our dear F. Wesley Schneider:
Sturnidae is part of the County of Barstoi, which is ruled by Count Aericnein Neska (I love the write up about this Count by the way); yet a Margrave (such as Cilas Graydon) outranks a Count in peerage. In fact in the Holy Roman Empire, Margaves were strictly given to lords responsible for strategic border and frontier territories and were given much more independence than a Count; and the title was never given to nobles outside Imperial lands; unlike say Imperial Counts who were allowed to rule in Italy. Is the title a hold over from older times, but if so, why would that line not be considered even 'more noble' than the newer Counts?
I am well aware that Golarion's nobility does not adhere to our wolrd's nobility but I was wondering if there is any backstory there ... or that 'breech in peerage etiquette' just managed to slip through.
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Another question on peerage for our dear F. Wesley Schneider:
** spoiler omitted **
I am well aware that Golarion's nobility does not adhere to our wolrd's nobility but I was wondering if there is any backstory there ... or that 'breech in peerage etiquette' just managed to slip through.
There's not much of a story here. The (incestuous, convoluted, backward, broken) governmental hierarchy of Ustalav starts with the Prince at the top, counts right below, and a @#$%-ton of squabbling lesser nobles all of about the same social standing beneath that. Currently, there is no canon listing of this lower hierarchy, and actually I kind of like that, as that makes me think it has the potential to differ from county to county, opens the door for a wide variety of titles, and can lead to some great squabbles over who holds higher esteem ("You're an earl? Well I'm a graf." FIGHT!). We even see this among the counts themselves, with Tiriac's preferred title being "Conte."
In this specific case, since we don't have margravates being a big thing in Ustalav, I'd take the title Margrave - in the context of Barstoi - to be largely a military title (as much in Barstoi is related to the military) and as likely meaning that the character in question has land in the county (which he might even call a margravate) and has a responsibility to defend it from the county's enemies. With Count Neska's martial interest, I actually quite like the idea of the nobles under him having this more martial bent, and would suggest Ritter as another common title in Barstoi.
But, as far as this being the standard for all of Ustalav or being a topic that's been quantified elsewhere, that's not the case. For the most part with all Ustalavic titles besides the big two (Prince and Count) try to roll with it and understand that the county is about as fractured as you can get, leading to some interesting disparities like this.
You should totally have some character or other noble question him on his title and have him get real offended. ;)
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Lovely stuff
Oh I LIKE that very much Wes!
First off I like it when nobles play musical chairs and jockey for position! Adds to the background verisimiltude of the setting.
And that line of reasoning regarding Count Aericnein Neska is SPOT on! The Count is the very model of a Prussian nobleman who would strive for nothing but military excellence and superiority above all else. Great fit there, and Ritter would indeed be a perfect title for Barstoi!
Wes you are master of affairs vegetable, animal, and mineral!
Yay! Thanks guys. Glad to help!
I know that this is a very late-after-the-fact post, but anyway....Wes, you are the ABSOLUTE cat's pajamas!! Thank you for the fun and elucidating posts!!
Very much appreciated, my good sir! =)
this thread is the best, thanks to all.
Wow! Great expansion of the character and environment, Wes. Just another reminder why your work on Ustalav is my favorite thing about Golarion.
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I'll just chime in and thank you good sir for the posts detailing Adivion Adrissant and Ustalav in general. As a GM who's currently running the module in which Adivion's name is dropped, I'm very pleased to have more to work with.
I'm working on a module that takes place between Broken Moon and Wake of the Watcher that goes into Adivon's Father's story a little bit. I'll share what I got once I get that thing hammered out (will take a month or more though).SUPER EAGER to hear more about this Erik! Be sure to post what you're willing to share when you're done!
Is there an update on the progress of this module? I'd be very interested to see what you come up with.
I would love to see it right now I'm planning on running a powered up carrion hill in between the third and fourth books
IT LIVES!!!!!!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!
Wes is THE MAN.
And super-eager to see that module idea!