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soon soon...
Meanwhile, Inner Sea Races actually has a ton of information scattered in it on Arcadia...I will try to collate at some point for the thread, after I have finished the book.
There's a city in Arcadia called Segada in Distant Shores (the campaign setting book for October). I'll be sure to put up some info on it once it ships and I can download the PDF.
The book just shipped so I downloaded the PDF. Segada is positioned in one of the few mountain passes that lead into the interior of Arcadia. It is situated in the Akrandida Mountains near an area called the Grinding Coast, which is reportedly inhabited by wyrwoods and constructs. It's one of the most important cities in the nation of Degasi. It's mainly inhabited by humans known as the Mahwek, gnomes, halflings, wyrwoods, and skinwalkers, with their amount of population in that order. The chapter has information about Arcadian festivals, and in that it mentions the southern nation of Razatlan and their patron goddess, Kazutal, the goddess of community, liberty, and safety. There's also mention of a city-state called Three Craters, in the Land of Northern Lakes which is described as "a mostly-barren landscape pitted
with crater lakes, strange geological formations, and
specks of monster-infested forests where the residents
dig into the earth to mine precious metals, highly pure
iron, and skymetals."
.... it mentions the southern nation of Razatlan and their patron goddess, Kazutal, the goddess of community, liberty, and safety. ....Minor clarification: Kazutal is a goddess worshiped in Razatlan, but she is not *the* patron deity.
My bad, there wasn't much about it and she was the only goddess mentioned about them. Are Razatlan and Kazutal based off of the Aztecs or the Mayans by any chance?
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All Arcadians humans are Mahwek, or there is plans to have Central Arcadians and South Arcadians ?
Are the Caldaru half MahWek ?
I'd guess that the Mahwek are the dominant group in northern Arcadia, probably the inhabitants of Degasi. The Caldaru might have Mahwek blood but the Mahwek don't seem to be too interested in seafaring, so it's unlikely.
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My bad, there wasn't much about it and she was the only goddess mentioned about them. Are Razatlan and Kazutal based off of the Aztecs or the Mayans by any chance?.... it mentions the southern nation of Razatlan and their patron goddess, Kazutal, the goddess of community, liberty, and safety. ....Minor clarification: Kazutal is a goddess worshiped in Razatlan, but she is not *the* patron deity.
I'm not a big fan of direct analogs, but there is some inspiration there.
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All Arcadians humans are Mahwek, or there is plans to have Central Arcadians and South Arcadians ?
There are as many, if not more, ethnic groups in Arcadia as there are in the Inner Sea. Hopefully we can get into more detail in the future.
Are the Caldaru half Mahwek ?
Unclear.
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There are as many, if not more, ethnic groups in Arcadia as there are in the Inner Sea. Hopefully we can get into more detail in the future.
I see. I hope so. It´s a shame that folklore from the American continent appear so less in fantasy RPG than in others genres. There a lot of legends of colonies from Atlantis (we call Atlantida) in South America that could be translated as Azlant colonies in Arcadia.
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There's also mention of a city-state called Three Craters, in the Land of Northern Lakes which is described as "a mostly-barren landscape pitted
with crater lakes, strange geological formations, and
specks of monster-infested forests where the residents
dig into the earth to mine precious metals, highly pure
iron, and skymetals."
Called it two years ago! :DThere's also mention of a city-state called Three Craters, in the Land of Northern Lakes which is described as "a mostly-barren landscape pitted
with crater lakes, strange geological formations, and
specks of monster-infested forests where the residents
dig into the earth to mine precious metals, highly pure
iron, and skymetals."
It's a little crazy to think that this thread has been going on that long. And also nice job on calling that.
I just noticed that in Inner Sea Races, along with the Mahwek, there are 3 more Arcadian ethicities, the Calani, the Kansari, and the Oeurfasians.
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Save as far as I know...there really weren't any that achieved the heights reached by the Aztecs, Mayans, and Inca or some African tribes for that matter. There are some interesting settlements to be sure, nothing of the expansive and complicated cities of the Maya which rivaled the Romans in their majesty.
Chaco Canyon was home to a burgeoning series of settlements and trade routes that reached as far as the west coast and Mesoamerican towns and cities. While most of them never reached the concept of "city" as we know and understand it (and Pueblo Bonito's true size and population is still contested), the peoples of the southwest nevertheless had a tremendously advanced civilization, albeit one that was more sparse and nomadic than that of some other cultures.
Similarly, the Mound Builders had fairly extensive trade and settlements; Cahokia is estimated to have been around 20,000 souls at its height.
Either of those North American cultures could certainly be a good starting point to advance a similar group of "fantastic" NA analogues in Golarion.
And then there are the various Mesoamerican cultures, of whom the Maya and Aztec are just the most well-known, but who have urban roots going far back before they appeared on the scene.
Similarly, the Inca are just the most well-known of the Andean urban cultures, but they are hardly alone in their accomplishments.
Good to see this topic still alive and kicking. Once things quiet down for me at the homefront (graduating), I plan on running a game in my home brew Arcadia setting. Definitely using this for inspiration!
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Whether or not they did, the Golarion takes on such cultures can go crazy with it. We can take the ideas of mound builders or cliffside pueblos and go to town with them. High fantasy style!
A couple of questions for Adam or anyone that worked on Segada in Distant Shores. What were the inspirations for the architecture and clothing of the artwork in the Segada section? I'm really curious. Also, is Segada in the Northern section or Southern section of Arcadia?
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A couple of questions for Adam or anyone that worked on Segada in Distant Shores. What were the inspirations for the architecture and clothing of the artwork in the Segada section? I'm really curious. Also, is Segada in the Northern section or Southern section of Arcadia?
Didn't work on it, but some influences seem obvious;
Mayor Wanakeena Awasuul image - The dress is very similar to SW pueblo designs and the name is phonetically similar to Dine. I don't recognize the hair-style, but it could be a variation of the 'butterfly' style. Overall the image screams 'corn maiden' to me.
Uanae Deepsky image - Clothing could be pueblo, but seems more mesoamerican to me. The 'common translation' on the name is reminiscent of post European settlement plains culture. Sort of a kokopelli vibe going on.
Priest of Kazutal image - Jewelry seems mesoamerican, but the ball club is a more Iroquois or plains design. Kazutal also sounds more plains than pueblo or mesoamerican to me.
Most of the architecture shown in the city art actually looks late colonial to me... which makes sense for the available building materials, but I don't see any elements corresponding to native cultures (e.g. circular kivas, step mounds or pyramids, et cetera). There are even scattered steeples, which seem anachronistic to me. Nothing in the map layout of buildings jumped out at me as matching any particular style.
As to location, the map on the inside front cover shows it in the north... which makes sense given that it is near the Avistani colonies.
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A few ideas for Gods in the Arcadian Pantheon.
Pharasma: She seems to show up everywhere. Which kind of makes sense, if you think about it; death is a universal constant for all humans.
Desna: The Goddess of the Night Sky also makes sense as a being worshipped around the world, at least to me.
Coyote: This trickster god shows up in the mythologies of so many different Native American tribes that it makes sense to include him. He would be the God of trickery, without a doubt. Beyond that, his portfolio would depend on which of the various legends you want to use for his Pathfinder incarnation.
Tlaloc: The Aztec God of water and weather. In Pathfinder, possibly an incarnation of Gozreh?
Inti: The God of the sun in Incan culture. Incan Emperors were said to be his direct descendents. So there could possibly be a Kingdom ruled by a celestial/aasimar royal family?
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Whether or not they did, the Golarion takes on such cultures can go crazy with it. We can take the ideas of mound builders or cliffside pueblos and go to town with them. High fantasy style!
A couple of questions for Adam or anyone that worked on Segada in Distant Shores. What were the inspirations for the architecture and clothing of the artwork in the Segada section? I'm really curious. Also, is Segada in the Northern section or Southern section of Arcadia?
I'm gonna answer your second question first. Segada is in the northeastern part of Arcadia. It's roughly marked on the inside cover of the book. If it were a perfect analog to North America, it'd be somewhere in New England.
Which leads me to your second question... I'm not a huge fan of direct analogs, and when writing Segada I wanted to have it make sense in regards to things that we've already said about Arcadia and have it make sense in regards to climate and geography. I didn't give the artist a ton of direction for the big city vista illustration other than the type of building materials that would be available and the type of vibe I was going for. The clothing styles are partially inspired by Iroquois designs, but, as I said about analogs, I didn't want to copy anything, but rather use elements to make something new. The hairstyle is an example of that. The priest of Kazutal has some strong Mesoamerican elements by design, but I also wanted to include other elements as she is very far from her homeland and I wanted to show at least a sliver of other Arcadian people since I only had one city to play with. ()
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Southern Arcadia Pantheon:
From the Tupi pantheon.
Tupã: God of thunder, light and creation, married to Jaci.
Jaci: Goddess of the moon, lovers and reproduction, married to Tupã.
Angra: Goddess of fire, strenght, protection, beauty and destruction.
Chandoré: God of jungle, punishment, river fish
Guaraci: Goddess of the sun, healing, medicine.
Rudá: God of love, clouds, pairings.
Whether or not they did, the Golarion takes on such cultures can go crazy with it. We can take the ideas of mound builders or cliffside pueblos and go to town with them. High fantasy style!
A couple of questions for Adam or anyone that worked on Segada in Distant Shores. What were the inspirations for the architecture and clothing of the artwork in the Segada section? I'm really curious. Also, is Segada in the Northern section or Southern section of Arcadia?
I'm gonna answer your second question first. Segada is in the northeastern part of Arcadia. It's roughly marked on the inside cover of the book. If it were a perfect analog to North America, it'd be somewhere in New England.
Which leads me to your second question... I'm not a huge fan of direct analogs, and when writing Segada I wanted to have it make sense in regards to things that we've already said about Arcadia and have it make sense in regards to climate and geography. I didn't give the artist a ton of direction for the big city vista illustration other than the type of building materials that would be available and the type of vibe I was going for. The clothing styles are partially inspired by Iroquois designs, but, as I said about analogs, I didn't want to copy anything, but rather use elements to make something new. The hairstyle is an example of that. The priest of Kazutal has some strong Mesoamerican elements by design, but I also wanted to include other elements as she is very far from her homeland and I wanted to show at least a sliver of other Arcadian people since I only had one city to play with. ()
That's ccool,I can dig that. What were the building materials you decided on?
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Inti: The God of the sun in Incan culture. Incan Emperors were said to be his direct descendents. So there could possibly be a Kingdom ruled by a celestial/aasimar royal family?
Or Ifrit. A 'test of royalty' that involved holding one's hand in a flame and 'proving' that one is made of incorruptible matter by withdrawing it unburnt could be a feature (and lead to cheating by using spells or potions of resist fire, and incorrect-but-encouraged-by-the-royals assumptions that 'incorruptible' refers to the supplicants morals, and not merely their racial resistance to fire...).
An aasimar-run society could have a similar test involving withdrawing a golden symbol of rule from a pool of aqua regia, the 'burning water of kings,' which burns anyone who *isn't* a king...
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I'm not a huge fan of direct analogs, and when writing Segada I wanted to have it make sense in regards to things that we've already said about Arcadia and have it make sense in regards to climate and geography.
None of the Golarion cultures are exact analogs, but all of them blend elements from Earth cultures. It sounds as if we take countries like Andoran and Galt as European/Western on 'low blend', then Tian Xia was Asia on 'medium blend', and Segada is Native America on 'high blend'... traces of all native American cultures mixed together.
I'm curious, what books have you guys been reading for research for Arcadia, Adam?
A few ideas for Gods in the Arcadian Pantheon.
Pharasma: She seems to show up everywhere. Which kind of makes sense, if you think about it; death is a universal constant for all humans.
Desna: The Goddess of the Night Sky also makes sense as a being worshipped around the world, at least to me.
Coyote: This trickster god shows up in the mythologies of so many different Native American tribes that it makes sense to include him. He would be the God of trickery, without a doubt. Beyond that, his portfolio would depend on which of the various legends you want to use for his Pathfinder incarnation.
Tlaloc: The Aztec God of water and weather. In Pathfinder, possibly an incarnation of Gozreh?
Inti: The God of the sun in Incan culture. Incan Emperors were said to be his direct descendents. So there could possibly be a Kingdom ruled by a celestial/aasimar royal family?
Shelyn also seems like she would have a following, being an Azlanti goddess who has spread nearly everywhere.
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Which leads me to your second question... I'm not a huge fan of direct analogs, and when writing Segada I wanted to have it make sense in regards to things that we've already said about Arcadia and have it make sense in regards to climate and geography. I didn't give the artist a ton of direction for the big city vista illustration other than the type of building materials that would be available and the type of vibe I was going for. The clothing styles are partially inspired by Iroquois designs, but, as I said about analogs, I didn't want to copy anything, but rather use elements to make something new. The hairstyle is an example of that. The priest of Kazutal has some strong Mesoamerican elements by design, but I also wanted to include other elements as she is very far from her homeland and I wanted to show at least a sliver of other Arcadian people since I only had one city to play with.
OK that's good to know. The hardest thing to do in these books is to come across with the "feel" of a culture or place. I found that city pic disappointing and to look like "just like everywhere else in pseudo-European Golarion" and it started me off with a hard slog on that chapter as it encouraged me to interpret everything in that light. The person pic does a lot of work to roll that back though. It's tough trying to seed whole cultures with a single city writeup because they have to totally drip with the different culture to not be interpreted according to the "usual" context. And starting with a city is hard for another reason; I assume most of us here think of Arcadia as more lightly populated than the European part but starting with a city makes it seem like "Oh so is there an Inner Sea-like population density there?" etc.
Admittedly, I saw the houses and they reminded me of some houses I've seen in Chile, which is why I thought this was in South Arcadia.
Admittedly, I saw the houses and they reminded me of some houses I've seen in Chile, which is why I thought this was in South Arcadia.
Some of the buildings also look like stepped pyramids, which have been found throughout Mesoamerica. There are also houses that seem to be built in Avistani style, which are probably the houses of Arcadian settlers.
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I found that city pic disappointing and to look like "just like everywhere else in pseudo-European Golarion" and it started me off with a hard slog on that chapter as it encouraged me to interpret everything in that light. The person pic does a lot of work to roll that back though. It's tough trying to seed whole cultures with a single city write up because they have to totally drip with the different culture to not be interpreted according to the "usual" context. And starting with a city is hard for another reason; I assume most of us here think of Arcadia as more lightly populated than the European part but starting with a city makes it seem like "Oh so is there an Inner Sea-like population density there?" etc.
I totally agree. I really wanted to like Segada but it just didn't do much for me as presented. Too much like every other city in Avistan.
And I know it's a really hard question to answer, but I don't buy that the reason Avistanis haven't flooded Arcadia is because the native bureaucracy won't give them permits. That's probably an over-simplification, but it strikes me as Star-Wars-Episode-I-Trade-War!-level exciting. I hope some of the native Arcadian societies are developed enough to have complex laws and governments, but if the first thing I encounter when I get off my boat is bureaucracy...
If not that, then why not? Maybe a play on the whole disease trope, only this time in the other direction. Maybe due to prolonged contact with Avistanis via Valenhall (and maybe Tiens on the west coast), Arcadians have developed resistance to most Old World diseases, but there is some Arcadian bug that devastates Avistani colonies. It responds normally to Cure Disease and other magic, so diplomats, merchants and adventures are fine, but that's not a feasible option for wholesale Avistani colonization efforts.
I found that city pic disappointing and to look like "just like everywhere else in pseudo-European Golarion" and it started me off with a hard slog on that chapter as it encouraged me to interpret everything in that light. The person pic does a lot of work to roll that back though. It's tough trying to seed whole cultures with a single city write up because they have to totally drip with the different culture to not be interpreted according to the "usual" context. And starting with a city is hard for another reason; I assume most of us here think of Arcadia as more lightly populated than the European part but starting with a city makes it seem like "Oh so is there an Inner Sea-like population density there?" etc.I totally agree. I really wanted to like Segada but it just didn't do much for me as presented. Too much like every other city in Avistan.
And I know it's a really hard question to answer, but I don't buy that the reason Avistanis haven't flooded Arcadia is because the native bureaucracy won't give them permits. That's probably an over-simplification, but it strikes me as Star-Wars-Episode-I-Trade-War!-level exciting. I hope some of the native Arcadian societies are developed enough to have complex laws and governments, but if the first thing I encounter when I get off my boat is bureaucracy...
If not that, then why not? Maybe a play on the whole disease trope, only this time in the other direction. Maybe due to prolonged contact with Avistanis via Valenhall (and maybe Tiens on the west coast), Arcadians have developed resistance to most Old World diseases, but there is some Arcadian bug that devastates Avistani colonies. It responds normally to Cure Disease and other magic, so diplomats, merchants and adventures are fine, but that's not a feasible option for wholesale Avistani colonization efforts.
My reading is that there are a ring of mountains largely blocking off westward expansion, other than a few key passes, which are easy to defend. Segada is one such pass. Also those mountains are chock full of hostile Wyrwoods and Syrinx, so it's not likely to be a cakewalk finding another way over.
Than their is the whole "Azlant" problem. Basically there is the shattered remains of an entire continent, probably full of monsters, horrors, and deadly magic, sandwiched between Avistan and Arcadia. That's going to make westward nautical travel much more difficult.
Basically I don't think there is, at least yet, any huge exodus/colonization effort by any Inner Sea Power, certainly not enough to mobilize a large enough force to break Segada and open up the interior.
Sadly Odraude they beat us to the ideas by finishing Distant Shores
Bah, that won't stop us! Segada is only one city :p
Sadly Odraude they beat us to the ideas by finishing Distant ShoresBah, that won't stop us! Segada is only one city :p
So true, if anything, Distant Shores can give inspiration for things to come.
My kingdom for some Yu'pik influence in future examinations of Arcadia...
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My kingdom for some Yu'pik influence in future examinations of Arcadia...
I think they've hinted at that, though I may be reading too much into the current Arcadian (ethnicity) page on the Pathfinder Wiki where it talks about the Kansari encountering the Ulfen: Link.
I suspect a more northern influence can be felt in the Land of Northern Lakes, where Segada got the engineering for its cliff-climbers (I envision the climbers looking like funiculars, but the big city picture didn't show them in the Distant Shores book!)
Also, Yu'pik + high-tech + fantasy makes me think of "Legend of Korra."
What is it with Native American-inspired cultures and giant elevators? Atruaghin Clans in Mystara, Tauren in Warcraft, this... is there some real-world reference of which I'm completely unaware?
I think they've hinted at that, though I may be reading too much into the current Arcadian (ethnicity) page on the Pathfinder Wiki where it talks about the Kansari encountering the Ulfen: Link.
Sounds more Algonquin-style to me...
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What is it with Native American-inspired cultures and giant elevators? Atruaghin Clans in Mystara, Tauren in Warcraft, this... is there some real-world reference of which I'm completely unaware?
There's a Buffalo connection... but that's really, really tenuous given it's just a homonym and doesn't have much to do with actual bison.
This Link includes more about the inventor's connection to Native Americans.|
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I think they've hinted at that, though I may be reading too much into the current Arcadian (ethnicity) page on the Pathfinder Wiki where it talks about the Kansari encountering the Ulfen: Link.Sounds more Algonquin-style to me...
I think you're right. Though it may be asking to much to draw any direct parallels between the Kansari and any real-world culture.
Yeah, but things like tomahawks are waaaaaaay more East coast than Yu'pik...
Does anyone have any more new world monsters they can post here?