What role do the Vanara (monkey people from Bestiary III) play in Golarion? Where are they from? How do others perceive them? What kind of culture do they possess?
I have a player who wants to play a Vanara monk in my up and coming Skull and Shackles game (obviously, he's metagaming), but I don't know how the NPCs and other PCs would react to such a character.
Mwangi Expanse maybe? The SRD says they live in jungles and deep forests, so I'd say anywhere you could normally find elves, you can replace them with monkeyfolk. Sounds like a good trade to me.
Skull and Shackles is all about pirates and other seafaring folk, right? Not exactly people known for having high standards. Vanaras are said to be covered in hair, so I'd expect some fun/ demeaning nickname related to that, but not much else. Someone with a climb speed would be invaluable on a sailing ship- climbing the nets/ mast, swinging like a monkey in the trees.
Vudra is what I'm thinking too.
Therefore, they would make sense around Jalmeray (probably) and from there they could have sailing ships going around Southern Garund, to some-how end up around the Shackles.
They were originally from Oriental Adventures so perhaps somewhere in tian-zia (or whatever its called I'm a Golarian noob)
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Vanaras live in Vudra. This is actually established in The Icebound Outpost (PFS 3-19) - which is... my work.
However, I didn't make that up; Vanaras being Vudran was established in the outline Paizo had in mind.
There are Vudran pirates living in the Shackles - in Rampore. Vanaras aren't mentioned, but they would make a natural addition to that settlement.
As others have stated, Vudra. In fact I think I vaguely recall one of the Paizo people saying that Vanaras do not occur, or at least are not native, to the Mwangi expanse.
Not generally, that would be the territory of the Charau-Ka, Golarion's other Simian people.
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What role do the Vanara (monkey people from Bestiary III) play in Golarion? Where are they from? How do others perceive them? What kind of culture do they possess?
I have a player who wants to play a Vanara monk in my up and coming Skull and Shackles game (obviously, he's metagaming), but I don't know how the NPCs and other PCs would react to such a character.
hey hey hey dont assume hes metagaming, i love venara. i play a monkey man in every game i can get away with it. anyway, they are able to be found in any dense forrest where they can make canopy houses. i havent seen anything that tells where they are from originally
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Now I have another player who wants to be a catfolk gunslinger...
Anyone know how prevalent they are in the Shackles? I need to know if the NPC pirates will just shrug their shoulders and get back to work, or if they will force the cursed one to walk the plank on sight.
NPC pirates will just shrug their shoulders and get back to work, or if they will force the cursed one to walk the plank on sight.
Somewhere in between, most likely. They're native to far-southern Garund, so we've been told, so while a catfolk in the Shackles would be rare enough to garner second looks, I imagine that many if not most sailors in the region will have heard of them.
Sailors are a superstitious lot. A cat on board will be bad enough, but if the character is female that'll be a double whammy.
Sailors are a superstitious lot. A cat on board will be bad enough, but if the character is female that'll be a double whammy.
I heard that cats bring good luck according to sailors.
NPC pirates will just shrug their shoulders and get back to work, or if they will force the cursed one to walk the plank on sight.Somewhere in between, most likely. They're native to far-southern Garund, so we've been told, so while a catfolk in the Shackles would be rare enough to garner second looks, I imagine that many if not most sailors in the region will have heard of them.
That and these ARE pirates after all. I figure they've seen their share of oddball races and characters in the crew. Hey, as long as that ogrekin and his tiefling buddy don't plan to eat anyone in the crew, who cares?
That and these ARE pirates after all. I figure they've seen their share of oddball races and characters in the crew. Hey, as long as that ogrekin and his tiefling buddy don't plan to eat anyone in the crew, who cares?
I feel the same way. Were I running this AP, I'd tell my players that this is one where just about anything goes when it comes to PC race options.
Sailors are a superstitious lot. A cat on board will be bad enough, but if the character is female that'll be a double whammy.I heard that cats bring good luck according to sailors.
Oh, I hadn't heard that, makes sense keeping vermin off the ship...
Like many folks mention up-thread, the vanara of the Pathfinder campaign setting hail from Vudra, though we're not ready to say much more about them than that.
Mythologically, vanara feature prominently in one of India's major cultural epics, the Ramayana. The vanara Hanuman plays a central role as not only a friend to the hero, Rama, but a faithful devotee of the divinity and clever general in his campaign against the evil rakshasa lord Ravana. Even in modern times, Hanuman remains a deity worshiped by members of the Hindu faith. One of China's major cultural epics, Journey Into the West also features the formidable and mischievous Sun Wukong, widely known as the Monkey King.
Folkloric parallels can easily be drawn between Hanuman and Sun Wukong, and inspired my addition of the vanara to our hit list for Bestiary 3, which draws heavily upon world mythology as a - hopefully obvious - sub-theme.
Readers interested in more should check out these links for more on VANARA, the RAMAYANA, HANUMAN, and SUN WUKONG.
So here's the roster so far.
- One catfolk gunslinger (kidnapped from Garund as a kitten and raised by a dwarven gunslinging pirate)
- One half-elf rogue (who wants to mutliclass into fighter and eventually go red mantis assassin)
- One tengu bard (at least we know their role in the Shackles)
- One vanara monk (pirated a path all the way from Vudra to Rampore to Port Peril)
So we've covered the tiger, mantis, crane, and baboon from KungFu Panda...
*twitch*
And I may have a 5th-player coming in as well. $10 says he'll end up playing a Vishkanya and I'm going to be stuck with the Furious Five.
Ha! Aren't you glad the Thri-Kreen weren't published under the OGL?