Is the multiverse Inner-Sea-centered?


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion

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Also note that Hell runs on mortal souls.

What would happen if there were no mortal souls?

Suddenly, the lower planes would be without currency. He who hath the gold maketh the rules. Asmodeus has to go out and get those mortal souls because he NEEDS them...for sake of pride (I've got more then you, hah! posers), Greed (souls are like gold), Gluttony (you can't have enough souls), Sloth (more souls mean more minions to do the work), and what have you.

Asmodeus may have power in a lot of worlds, but remember that his power is also spread over all those worlds, and it doesn't mean he has any more power available to concentrate on one place then any other deity. If he lets up in one place to concentrate elsewhere, something is going to take advantage of it.

He's a LE Tyrant running a metaphysical Empire. there's always barbarians at the gates, scheming internal schisms waiting to explode, and so forth. Asmodeus is engaged in limitless schemes to hold onto his own power, try to expand it...and he can't do it unless he gets more mortal souls.

He's got no choice but to be interested in the prime, and every inch of the Prime he cedes to his rivals is a blow to his Pride and a notch up for their power.

Just because he's Judeo-Christian doesn't mean he's more powerful then a god we don't have here on Earth, and it doesn't mean he's older then other gods, or more powerful then newer gods. Some gods are beyond worship and beyond his strength...like Rovagug. Other gods are extremely localized and very influential in particular arenas, and others have unknowable origins, like Desna.

It's all part of the cosmology.

=+Aelryinth

==+Aelryinth


Astral Wanderer wrote:
That may be true for Gods, but if we talk about Outsider lords, it's often mentioned what their true form is like, and with the exception of Qlippoth, the occasional Demon lord (I think of Juiblex) and few others, 70% of them (I was prone to say 90%, but wanted to leave much more room open) either look very humanoid, have a humanoid general shape (arms, legs, head and all) or have at least some humanoid feature (like beasts with humanlike heads and that sort of things).

Humanoid but not necessarily human. You'll notice that the majority of alien species described in Distant Worlds are likewise humanoid. Elves and Gnomes are both from alternate dimensions, and they are both humanoid.

It's not "Inner Sea centric" if the most prevalent form of intelligent life on the majority of habitable planets and planes is humanoid. If anything, it merely implies that the humanoid form is somehow special, to explain how so many disparate creatures developed that way-- whether by some natural process or by the will of the myriad humanoid-shaped deities.

Sovereign Court

This thread makes me think back to the changes to the Forgotten Realms setting during the Time of Troubles and the Spellplague. A few gods lording over one-fourth of a mortal world screw up and the whole multi-verse is affected. Of course, there are differences that I won't go into here.

Just saying, if you want to rewrite how stuff works in your game, it's prudent to keep in mind the limitations of your pantheon.


Viktyr Korimir wrote:
Astral Wanderer wrote:
That may be true for Gods, but if we talk about Outsider lords, it's often mentioned what their true form is like, and with the exception of Qlippoth, the occasional Demon lord (I think of Juiblex) and few others, 70% of them (I was prone to say 90%, but wanted to leave much more room open) either look very humanoid, have a humanoid general shape (arms, legs, head and all) or have at least some humanoid feature (like beasts with humanlike heads and that sort of things).

Humanoid but not necessarily human. You'll notice that the majority of alien species described in Distant Worlds are likewise humanoid. Elves and Gnomes are both from alternate dimensions, and they are both humanoid.

It's not "Inner Sea centric" if the most prevalent form of intelligent life on the majority of habitable planets and planes is humanoid. If anything, it merely implies that the humanoid form is somehow special, to explain how so many disparate creatures developed that way-- whether by some natural process or by the will of the myriad humanoid-shaped deities.

For precision's sake, I'll specify that I usually capitalize game terms, and in fact, in the above message I used "humanoid" uncapitalized because I intended it not in game terms. I intended it in the "normal" way, and I mean... Tengus are of the Humanoid type, right? But if you see some beast with a ravenlike head you say that it has a raven (or avian) feature, not a humanoid one. I suppose prior to reading this very message, no one would ever think of saying "it has humanoid features" (intended in the way where it has a raven head and Tengus are ravenlike creatures of the Humanoid type).

After all, "humanoid" comes from "human".
That is to say that while an Elf, a Dwarf, a Gnome, and many others do look a lot (or at least enough) like a Human, a species on another planet (and not only there), despite being, game-wise, of the Humanoid subtype, could even be the most widely spread throughout the cosmos and yet lack any humanoid semblance of the kind that makes them say "I'm similar enough to those Gods" (or those Outsiders of sort who have humanoid features).

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Aelryinth wrote:


Just because he's Judeo-Christian

To be more accurate, he's an import from Zoroastrianism. His appearance in the Talmud varies. He's either a bastard son of King David and a succubus, and as such father of demons or He's a demon so intent on a particular woman that he slays seven of her husbands just before they are about to consummate on their wedding nights.

In the Talmud, he collaborates with King Solomon on building the Temple. and then takes his place after throwing the worthy over 400 leagues. Despite this feat, he apparently flees instantly when Solomon returns.

His other origin lists him as the child of Adam and the Angel of Prostitution, the latter herself, a daughter of Lilith, Adam's first wife.

Catholic mythology puts him as a general under Lucifer and overseer of all of Hell's gambling houses.

In a more modern tale, he is rescued from a sealed bottle by a spanish student and takes him on series of adventures. On one he lifts the roof off of houses to show his protege the secrets mortals keep within. This novel gave rise to the word "detection" as it's original root word, de-tegere means to "un-roof".

In the rpg In'Nominee he is master of the Game, as the opposite of the Archangel Dominic of Judgement. he is charged with hunting down renegades from Hell. He sometimes works with Dominic on doing so as the latter is similarly engaged in rooting out corruption within the Angelic Host.


The Inner-Sea is Inner-Sea centered. Most of the supplements have focussed on the Inner-Sea. Ergo, the multiverse seems Inner-Sea centered.

Also, the Starstone is in the Inner-Sea, a method by which mortals can ascend to divinity. That's not nothing, and is a somewhat legitimate reason for fates to look in the direction of this corner of the cosmos.


Remember, the only planes in the Golarion setting that are possibly infinite are the Abyss and the Maelstrom. Every other plane (Heaven, Hell, Nirvana, Axis, Abaddon, the Elemental Planes, Astral/Ethereal Planes, etc.) are finite. Granted they are incomprehensibly large, such that the entire universe of the Material Plane would fit neatly inside each, but these planes are not unlimited in size.


Isn't all Science Fiction and Fantasy, centric to a setting? When the heroes come from Earth, the stories are all Earth-centric. (Hell, in Star Trek there are endless parallel dimensions, but they call ours "Prime.")

Tales about Middle-Earth are Middle-Earth-centric.

Etc.

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