Faction Help?

[Arizhel]

After wasting far too much time on backstory, creation, stats, and planning my growth, I am pleased to announce I am nearly done creating my PFS character for packing along to cons! Yay team!

My last creation item is selecting a Faction.

My character is a Gnome Wildblooded Sorcerer (Sylvan) with an unhealthy fascination with flight, and the heavens in general.

The skills I have chosen to focus on are, in no particular order, other than alphabetical,

Diplomacy, Handle Animal, all Knowledge skills that become class skills, Perception, Ride, and Spellcraft.

I have chosen the Green Faith as my religion.

My problem comes in lining up the values and abilities of my character v. the required tasks of the factions.

I have ruled out the Sczarni and Cheliax as possibilities. Dancing to close to the pure evil.

Likewise, as a neutral, I have eliminated the Silver Crusade for the opposite reason, although I would rather play someone going good for the sake of doing good than the opposite.

That leaves Andoran, Grand Lodge, Lantern Lodge, Shadow Lodge, Osirion, Qadira, and Taldor.

I am tempted to eliminate Taldor just because it is far too politicized, Qadira and Osirion because they are not proper for regions I would have been to or been in contact with.

The Andoran, Shadow Lodge and Lantern Lodge seem on the face to make the most sense as options for a character such as mine.

Well, that is enough babbling. I am looking for a faction I would fit well into. Thoughts?

[Dylos]

Are you Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, or Chaotic Neutral, if you are chaotic, Andoran is the logical choice as it embodies freedom.

Grand Lodge is effectively the default however.

I personally had a similar issue with a Lawful Neutral human sorcerer of the same bloodline (whose also a Priest of Razmir), and ultimately I chose Shadow Lodge - though it may not ultimately be the best fit.

Also, I'd like to point out that Cheliax is more Lawful then Evil, in most occasions.

[Arizhel]

I am going True Neutral.

[ElyasRavenwood]

Grand lodge i guess is the default for those who don't want to have a secondary loyalty.
you only have to deal with the Pathfinder society

[Dylos]

I think Grand Lodge or Taldor work best for True Neutral, of course as you have said, Taldor is very political. Also, Lantern Lodge is the Asian faction, it's very suitable for Asian themed characters (Monks, Ninjas, and Samurai namely) and not much else.

[Arizhel]

I am sure that a 20 charisma character would do well in the political faction, just not sure that a true neutral, green faith, sylvan themed gnome would ever have a reason to join such an organization.

[Starglim]

Andoran has some notably sylvan forests and even Taldor has well-known druidic circles.

You could also reconsider the Sczarni as they're much into wandering the greenwood in caravans and such. Some of their missions are more as a Varisian cultural association than pure thuggery.

[Mortifier]

It is true a neutral druid has some difficult finding a place to fit in with the factions.

Lantern Lodge always struck me as the most neutral faction and I think it represents more then just Monks, Ninjas, and Samurai. It is an entire culture and way of life, which extends far beyond just three classes. Furthermore when you consider all the different races in Golorian it completely changes the dynamic of what we would normally consider ethnicity.

Would an elf from Tian Xia be an Asian elf? Or still just an elf that happens to live in Tian Xia? They of course could be if that is how someone envisions it, but when I think of an Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, etc. I envision them as a culture on their own despite where they live.

Grand Lodge is a close second for neutrality for me, however being loyal to the Decemvirate strikes me as leaning toward Lawfulness.

[Alexander_Damocles]

Osirion works nicely for any character truly interested in knowledge. Their goal is the preservation of the past, and recovering magics that may have been lost.

[Derek Boobyer]

Mortifier wrote:

Would an elf from Tian Xia be an Asian elf? Or still just an elf that happens to live in Tian Xia? They of course could be if that is how someone envisions it, but when I think of an Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, etc. I envision them as a culture on their own despite where they live.

I believe that the Elf is listed as a foreigner race in the Dragon Empires Gazetteer, so the would probably be an Elf that lives in Tian Xia.

[Tangaroa]

I might consider the Grand lodge. You could style yourself as a student or friend of the Osprey, druid errand boy of the society.

[Victor Zajic]

Derek Boobyer wrote:

Mortifier wrote:

Would an elf from Tian Xia be an Asian elf? Or still just an elf that happens to live in Tian Xia? They of course could be if that is how someone envisions it, but when I think of an Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, etc. I envision them as a culture on their own despite where they live.

I believe that the Elf is listed as a foreigner race in the Dragon Empires Gazetteer, so the would probably be an Elf that lives in Tian Xia.

There is an entire Elven nation in Tian Xi.

[Paz]

Victor Zajic wrote:

There is an entire Elven nation in Tian Xi.

Indeed there is...

[Fromper]

The Vurduran Forest on the border of Andoran and Taldor has a lot of druids, gnomes, and other fey. If your gnome was born there, perhaps leaving the forest and befriending the humans of one of those two countries might be reason enough to ally with them. Given your character's nature and freedom loving themes, I'd say Andoran would be the better fit.

That's what I did with my gnome sorcerer character. He's a little less nature themed than yours, and I actively play up the wacky, chaotic, ADHD gnome personality. He left the forest and discovered the human sections of Taldor. When he saw all the political intrigue and infighting among the Taldan nobles, he found it highly entertaining. It's like reality TV to him! So he joined the Pathfinders to go explore the rest of the world, but swore loyalty to Taldor so he could keep up with all the entertaining politics. He plays along with the faction missions, despite not really caring about the fate of the nation of Taldor, just so he can get in the good graces of everyone there and continue to keep up with all the entertaining gossip. He even officially earned a noble title (Taldor faction boon that you can get for 1 prestige point when you get up to 20 Fame).