Hi peeps I was wodering if anyone here could help me brainstorm a sister world for Golarian that has been cut off from the multiverse. It is going to be a low magic world of sorts. There will be a remote pocket of surviving Atzlanti and this worlds verison of the Red Mantis will be one of the main villain organisations.
The Red Mantis is responsable for more or less killing off all of the primary spellcasters, similar to the Jedi purge the Sith done in Star Wars. PCs will not be bale to take levels in primary spell casting classes (any class with up to level 9 spells) until they take 2 levels in something else and find a teacher to show them the arcane arts.
The gods are also dead or absent although the world will use the same pantheon as Golarion. Divine spellcasters instead of having to find a mentor have to find a divine power source. The world will be cut off from the multiverse which excludes divine power form outside sources. A god/demon lord/whatever would have to be physically present on the world in order to grant spells.
The Red Mantis having been cut off from Golarion for at least 1000 years have a new role- to kill all spellcasters they deem responsable for killing the gods who they believe are dead. Bards, Magus, Alchemists and other limited spellcasters are fine. Anyone casting a spell not on one of these classes spell lists gains attention to oneself. Anyone casting a level 7+ spell is marked for death by the Red Mantis.
THe overall theme of this world is to find out what happened to the gods and having to challenge the Red Mantis and the powers that be that lurk behind the Red Mantis should anyone desire to be a primary spellcaster. Something similar to Vecna, Asmodeus/Orcus etc has actually put the world in a pocket dimension or plane cutting it off from Golarions multiverse.
Thats the basic idea if anyone has any ideas to help out that would be good. World needs a name, a BBEG to stand behind the mantis guild. Some mechanical changes or subsystems would be fine.
Thoughts?
For a game like this? You should totally call this world Earth... maybe even set it in the modern day.
Edit: Additionally, pick some modern organization you don't like. That is the "public face" of the Red Mantis Assassins that they use to control the world, conspiracy theory style. They have everyone believe that magic can't work, through a combination of propaganda and anti-magic fields, but in true conspiracy fashion they can use magic themselves.
This sounds like quite a fun idea. Since it is cut off from the rest of the multiverse and the gods have you thought about having the leader of the Red Mantis secretly being a high level wizard? He sends out the cult to track down and slay any who might challenge his power and having the Red Mantis bring in all the books and items of power for "safekeeping".
Since there are no gods he has aspirations of divinity himself so he may rule over this world. He is searching for a paticular item/items that will grant him the divine spark and uses the unknowing Red Mantis to do so.
Towards the end of the campaign he achieves his goal to a degree, not quite a full blown god but close. He is too powerful for the party to defeat alone so they are forced to team up with the Red Mantis to bring him down.
Maybe during the the battle the mighty forces being tossed around create a rift that leads back to the multivers and the real gods can again influence this world.
Just some ideas there, as far as the name, thats the hardest part for me when making a campaign world. I'll give it some thought and get back to you.
Benoc not a bad idea and having a high level wizard in charge of or working with the Red Mantis has occured to me. THe big reveal I am thinking of is the souls of the departed do not go onto the outer planes and the sky is actualy a big illusion. The souls circle the planet trapped and unable to depart to the outer planes and there is a swirling maelstrom outside the upper atmosphere (DC 40 will save to see through, effects even creatures normally immune to mind effecting spells.
THe planet was actually planeshifted a few years back, summoning/caling and extra planar spells do not work although the planar blocking effect is only one way. YOu can conjure up a balor if you like but the Balor is now stuck on this world. Probably require a feat to be able to conjure stuff up though, otherwise summon animal is about the best oyu can do. The world is actually a prison. Various demi god and trapped Demon/celestial lords can grant spells to divine casters but the PCs need to find them.
the last Atzlant are somehow involved although the leaders of the Atlant know about the true state of the world. The Red Mantis are ultimately dupes.
The BBEG wizard could be an exiled runelord, atzlantis, or Aboleth dupe or shapeshifted Dragon. He she/it is ultimately responsable for the great purge (think Sith/Jedi). They may or may not be partly (or totally) responsable for Golarion II being where it is.
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If you can get it, read the 'Wanted' comic book, you will find some parrallels to your Red Mantis Idea (ignore the movie, ignore the movie, ignore the movie).
The Red Mantis will need some (a lot of) pretty powerful individuals if they bother to go after spellcasters who cast >7th level spells, you should keep that in mind when designing the group.
Think hard about what to do with absalom and the starstone cathedral. Both were iconic for their reltion to some sort of 'divine spark' at the time the shifz occured, so you should think of some awesome twist for them.
THe purge could have been over several decades/centuries, no hurry there. The BBEG could also have helped out with the purge- a Runelord/Azlanti type figure decided to use them to wie out his rivals. The modern mantis may not even remember the causes anymore just have some devotion to killing all spellcasters once they get powerful enough or at least kill the right type of spellcasters. I went with lvl 7 spells because its a dead give away if the Mantis accept the existence of Alchemists/Bard/Magus
I have thought about this A LOT, mostly due to third party content that I like but don't necessarily want to input into the Golarion as is (Rappan Athuk, Slumbering Tsar, etc.).
So, I have two solutions that I've considered but haven't quite made a decision on yet.
1) Golarion's Age of Darkness. I think time travel works well when you separate the two time periods that the PC's are travelling to and from by a long span of years. The things the PC's do in the Age of Darkness don't necessarily have to effect the events of current Golarion and it let's you play with a Golarion that is fresh and strange and "sisterly."
2) What I have been calling Dead World for a long time and has been my Homebrew world. At one time it was literally called Mirror Golarion, so you can imagine I've had very similar thoughts about a "sister Golarion."
Dead World is an alternate reality Golarion where events went slightly different than in the current Golarion - nothing specific so make your own choices (i.e. Karzoug wins Rise of the Runelords, otherwise known as Karzoug Rises (starring Christian Bale)). A world spanning magical apocalypse has killed most living things on the surface of the world and only now is life beginning to return.
I've been especially excited by the OBSIDIAN TWILIGHT kickstarter because it shares a lot of my thoughts and ideas on a post-apocalyptic Golarion. Go check it out if you get a chance. I'm a backer and can't wait for the release.
Some of the features of my Dead World/Sister Golarion:
*The Sisters of Sundown, a group of Gun Witches that patrol the wastes looking for portals to the REAL Golarion and forcibly closing said portals.
*The Eyes, what used to be Absolom but is now a cyclopean fascist city of smooth black stone and silently hovering monoliths with painted eyes - you may enter and claim citizenship but you cannot leave.
*The Portmanteaux in old Ustalav, a castle ever changing and existing in all times and places. Anything can be found within. (to be quite honest: inspired by Castlevania.)
Both of these places allow me to have HUGE changes and let the PC's wreck the world to their hearts content without changing the overall quality and continuity of the OFFICIAL Golarion.
-Peace
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For a game like this? You should totally call this world Earth... maybe even set it in the modern day.
What a brilliant idea. With D20 Modern, you have easy access to NPCs to drag and drop into a modern setting (perhaps at a CR-1). You can even use non-magic classes in Pathfinder to blend. Throw in Asmodeus and some mysticism and you have a "save the world" situation on your hand - from Golarion with love ... or play a modern character who gets a serious eye opener.
I don't have d20 modern but did consider using a map of the earth but changing things up. Dwarves are in charge of an industrial revolution UK, the Amazon is full of feral halflings and Drow, and the campaign would be set in the Carribean and the Aztec/Inca ruins would be giantr ones a'la Xendrick from Eberron.
Maybe some sort of ottoman/mongol based Hobgoblin empire rules Europe and the humans elves etc are refugees in the new world?