| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Because THE ANGRY RED PLANET. :D Okay it's probably no more angry than most other worlds in the system. (Does the sun have a name? Because calling this "the solar system" makes me twitchy.)
So first let's talk about Elder Things. And how they warred with the aboleths on Golarion to decide who'd get to create life and control its evolution, according to the Jameses.
On Golarion? The Elder Things lost. Aboleths have been influencing life on the Cage for a long time.
Akiton, though... it's not a planet where any self-respecting aboleth would want to live, now is it? But let's move that comma and say "would want to live now," because the Red World had oceans once.
Did the Elder Things freeze the seas of Akiton in a desperate bid to prevent aboleths from doing something they just couldn't allow? Something to consider. And have a look at the adventure hooks on page 19 to see that Akiton's own scholars have also considered something similar.
Races: we've got Ysoki rat-men, red-scaled desert iguanafolk, the Contemplatives of Ashok (and what is Ashok? A place, a philosophy?), and of course the big two: the Red Men and the Gray, humans and shobhad. The reds are called out as being "more of a different ethnicity" from Golarion humans, able to interbreed -- for the sake of sanity, I'll assume they're not egg-layers until someone official says otherwise.
Some degree of technology is present on Akiton, but how much? They have guns, we know that -- not radium pistols so far as we know. The only statted example is a simple rifle built for low gravity, but "flechette rifles" are mentioned in passing. They have solar collectors -- for what purpose? Simple heating of a chill desert? Electrical power? And airships, oh yes airships, although they're called "magical" here.
Fun fact: there's a portal to Akiton in the Hold of Belkzen (the Pillars of Kreth, "Skeletons of Scarwall" page 62). Only one orc (Kreth) is known to have vanished through it -- what became of him? Could he have found a new life as the orcish John Carter of Akiton?
...And what if that portal works both ways? Hypothesis: Gorum is actually an ancient Akitonian war god, whose worship was brought to Golarion by missionary warrior-priests who found themselves in Belkzen during the first major battle between orcs and humans.
Some questions:
What conflict drove the Shobhad city-dwellers of the north pole to move to Golarion and become the Pactmasters of Katapesh? (This is in fact canon.)
What social forces have encouraged the people of the city of Arl to still consider themselves a client state of Azlant, despite ten thousand Golarion-years with no contact at all? (I know Arl was visited in a PFS adventure, but I have no idea what happens there.)
Dot
Didnt we actually have one of these or something similar? It was by N'wah and I remember giving quite a bit of input.
Somewhere on here, I think someone theorized on whether or not Orcs are actually native to Akiton, but in some ancient interchange ended up populating the upper levels of the Darklands. I think this was based on the green skin and apparent "tharkness" of orcs. I have to say I find this idea awesome
...based on the green skin and apparent "tharkness" of orcs...
Tharkness?
I was going to post that the Pactmasters aren't Shobhad, but Witchwyrds. A quick search through Distant Worlds later, though... Please, if we're renaming races, try to do it less sneakily, eh? ;)
...based on the green skin and apparent "tharkness" of orcs...Tharkness?
The green men of Mars in Edgar Rice Burroughs's planetary romances are called "Tharks."
|
Some quick thoughts;
Fun fact: there's a portal to Akiton in the Hold of Belkzen (the Pillars of Kreth, "Skeletons of Scarwall" page 62). Only one orc (Kreth) is known to have vanished through it -- what became of him? Could he have found a new life as the orcish John Carter of Akiton?
Awesome!
...And what if that portal works both ways? Hypothesis: Gorum is actually an ancient Akitonian war god, whose worship was brought to Golarion by missionary warrior-priests who found themselves in Belkzen during the first major battle between orcs and humans.
Awesome-er!
I love this idea, particularly with the 'Mars / Ares / god of war' theme!
The green men of Mars in Edgar Rice Burroughs's planetary romances are called "Tharks."...based on the green skin and apparent "tharkness" of orcs...Tharkness?
Ah. I haven't read much of Burrough's stuff(although I have read quite a bit of Ray Bradbury).
The idea of orcs being native to Akiton is very interesting. I've made some homebrew good-aligned orcs but was having trouble putting them into empty areas in Golarion. But one thing I find off-putting about Akiton is the atmosphere. In Distant Worlds, it says it's thin atmosphere 'leaves most native Golarions gasping for breath'. Wouldn't you eventually fall unconsious?
It's thin but not nonexistent, and since there are human beings there, things should be fine. Whenever I return to Laramie from someplace at lower elevation, like Michigan, It always takes me a few weeks to re-adapt to the dryer, somewhat lower oxygen conditions present at 7000 feet. Walking fast a day or two after getting back is enough to put me out of breath. I would imagine that the "lowlands" of Akiton are probably equivalent to the the thin air you encounter at like 10,000 or so feet here on earth.
|
The green men of Mars in Edgar Rice Burroughs's planetary romances are called "Tharks."...based on the green skin and apparent "tharkness" of orcs...Tharkness?Ah. I haven't read much of Burrough's stuff(although I have read quite a bit of Ray Bradbury).
The idea of orcs being native to Akiton is very interesting. I've made some homebrew good-aligned orcs but was having trouble putting them into empty areas in Golarion.
Dear God please yes
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
That said, the obvious place on Golarion for good-aligned Orcs would be left behind in hidden pockets of the Darklands. It would make a nice contrast too: A race with the evil sub-race on the surface and the good ones living in the darkness.
Oooh, good Orc aligned aberration hunters!
How about a tribe of Saranae worshipers, pledged to never see her face (the sun) in their lives but to guard the ways to Rovarug's prison.
"We tried to keep the elfs out of the darkness, but they would not listen to our words of peace. Our open hearts were pierced by their arrows, our tongues tore out by their curved blades. What they unleashed in their fear has shadowed their souls, and those of their kin, whether they know it or not."
|
|
That said, the obvious place on Golarion for good-aligned Orcs would be left behind in hidden pockets of the Darklands. It would make a nice contrast too: A race with the evil sub-race on the surface and the good ones living in the darkness.
Oooh, good Orc aligned aberration hunters!
How about a tribe of Saranae worshipers, pledged to never see her face (the sun) in their lives but to guard the ways to Rovarug's prison.
"We tried to keep the elfs out of the darkness, but they would not listen to our words of peace. Our open hearts were pierced by their arrows, our tongues tore out by their curved blades. What they unleashed in their fear has shadowed their souls, and those of their kin, whether they know it or not."
I really want to continue this line of thought. :) Mind if I transplant this and bump another thread so we don't derail this one too much?
|
|
By all means. Here's a ponder. what if the "quest for sky" is propaganda? Say the orcs and dwarves were running from something?
[random thought]
Neither dwarf nor orc will admit that they once labored side by side, servant creatures to the Builder race that forged them both to construct their great darklands empire.Both dwarf and orc, if pressed on the subject, might mumble something about a great revolt that threw down the Builders, and led to the quest for sky, a symbolic attempt to escape the place they still equate with servitude and shame.
In truth, the Builders simply abandoned them, leaving of their own volition, escaping to new worlds, to continue shaping now only stone, but flesh, creating new monuments, and new races, on distant worlds. The dwarves and orcs, lacking the strong hand of the Builders, fell into chaos and conflict, and have continued such to this day, with only the most learned of scholars having any idea that they were once a single people, united in the chains of long-departed masters.
[/random thought]
This is all kinda conflicting with, y'know, Torag actually existing and actually having promoted the Quest...
Spotted something of interest while rereading Council of Thieves part 3 page 36: a "huge golem" that fell to Lirgen from Akiton thousands of years ago, that is quite clearly a Martian Tripod from The War of the Worlds. It had the standard Heat Ray, and could become invisible.
Whose project was that, I wonder? Warmongering faction of the Contemplatives? No-kidding Wells Martians/Sarmaks?