Former Fiend - Wes has started a new thread for all of your questions about Hell right over here :)Are their any interactions/relationships you can elaborate on between Asmodeus and the following deities?
Lamashtu- Pathfinder doesn't have the same demon/devil conflict that standard d&d has, but I'm curious about what conflicts(beyond her stealing from his kennels) these two have had. She's on the short list of deities he won't deal with, for obvious reasons, but have they ever had any personal interaction or meaningful conflict?
Charon- I've always imagined their relationship, however antagonistic, to be one of mutual respect, even if Asmodeus considers himself above Charon due to the daemon's status as a demigod. How far off base am I on this?
Dahak and/or Tiamat- One doesn't see Asmodeus having much influence on draconic affairs. Does he have any history with these deities and does he have many/any draconic worshipers at all?
The gods of the dark tapestry in general- Does he see them more as a threat on par with Rovagug; something that may require uniting with the other gods in order to combat? Does he see them more as rivals competing for wicked souls? Or does he see them as an asset he can use(Barbatos had to come from somewhere...)? Or a combination of the above?
Treerazer- How much would Asmodeus appreciate Treerazer's head being presented to him by one of his worshipers? Or would he prefer Treerazer bound and alive? Would he care, either way?
Funny thing; I actually tried asking them in that thread originally- twice, in fact- and both times it wouldn't accept my post(I have the good sense to copy each post I write before I click submit). Though I will try again.
If one were to be playing in your Bastardhall game this year, what kind of characters would allow for the most enjoyment?
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Could you maybe share a little about how you picture the people of Ustalav dressing, or maybe some ideas of films or regions/eras to draw inspiration from? It'd be greatly appreciated!
Alright! Sorry this took a bit to put together. What do people in Ustalav dress like? At the link below are more than 150 examples of things I might consider Ustalavic fashion. I'll continue to expand this as I come across stuff, but hopefully you'll find some inspirational ideas in there and at least see the direction and variety I'm thinking.
Best of luck with the dieting too! What an awesome goal!
Could you maybe share a little about how you picture the people of Ustalav dressing, or maybe some ideas of films or regions/eras to draw inspiration from? It'd be greatly appreciated!Alright! Sorry this took a bit to put together. What do people in Ustalav dress like? At the link below are more than 150 examples of things I might consider Ustalavic fashion. I'll continue to expand this as I come across stuff, but hopefully you'll find some inspirational ideas in there and at least see the direction and variety I'm thinking.
Best of luck with the dieting too! What an awesome goal!
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What is favorite monster or monsters in the...
Bestiary I?
Bestiary II?
Bestiary III?
Ooooh, it's like a designer Rorschach test. Humm....
Vargouille, close with liches, vampires, wraiths, ice devils, and blue dragons.
Scylla, followed by zuvembie, worm that walks, and kyton auger.
Contract devil, though carbuncle and graveknight are close behind.
Obviuosly my tastes run toward the undead and irredeemably evil, but a few are on here just because of our audacity that the we even did that (auger and zuvembie, for example), or because they're our takes on creatures born from fantasy RPGs' own unique mythology (like vargouilles).
And then there's the carbuncle... because it would probably be my familiar of choice. ;)
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How about This or this?
Ustalavic Fashion on Pintrest
Yoink!
Do the planes of hell have a plane wide sun or numerous smaller suns for illumination?
With the exception of Avernus, which is actually exposed to the wider planes, I don't think there's much in the way of single light sources hanging in the skies over Hell's layers.
Dis I always imagine being in a constant red dusk.
Erebus is eternally dark.
Phlegethon has no sun, but dark clouds that constantly burn, blacken, and rain ash.
Stygia probably has this drowned night level of light.
Malebolge probably varies from bolgia to bolgia.
Cocytus I envision as being endless sunny, creating a constant painful glare.
Endless gray clouds endlessly race through Cania's skies. It's probably quite nauseating to look at. There might be rare gaps, where strange red lights stare through.
Nessus I imagine being lit as if by a constant solar eclipse.
Those are just kind of my knee-jerk ideas on these, so there might be more variations. But I do like the idea of static light sources, as it the loss of sense of time could really unnerve visitors and new arrivals.
Ustalavic Fashion on PintrestThat's awesome!
Yay! Thanks.
I've already added a bunch more, so check back. I'll probably keep playing with this regularly for the next few days.
Additionally... if folks want, we could make this a separate thread and if you come across more out there, we can put it up on the thread, at the very least share some character ideas, and if I think it works for Ustalav, I'll add it to the board.
If anyone decides to do that, post here and let me know!
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Well then, to keep with the thread, how was your holiday?
Strangely productive. >_>
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How is it exactly, from a world view, not a statistic/rule view, that vampires can be destroyed while their asleep in their coffins? Is something wholly different with their bodies while their in rest mode as opposed to while their up and about?
I'd say it has something to do with being slain when they're at their most dead. They're vulnerable when they're resting, no only because this is the point they are most like a normal corpse, but they're also in their sanctuary, their coffins representing the place that they're closest to death and to an extent the source of their powers. If they're destroyed in the place that they're supposed to be safe, embroiled in dark energies and powers of death (literal or figurative) they have no place else to go.
Think of when a child gets scared, screams, and starts running. If the fear were to persist for more than a dozen steps, if no one were to call him back, where would the kid optimally run to? Probably all the way to his bed to hide under the sheets--because you're safest in bed, it's warm, soft, behind doors, you can't hurt yourself there, and it's the place that you're least likely to be hurt (that's why you choose to be unconscious there after all). But if the child is terrified there, where does he go? What if the monster is under the sheets? Then there's no recourse.
If we get attacked in our beds, where do we have to go? And if a vampire is attacked in its coffin, where could it go? No where. That's the end.
That's at least one way to think about it.
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Wes, I'm not sure if you entirely had a hand in it or if it's more of a "James" question, but who came up with the concept of the Axiomites forming a gestalt "Godmind" to govern their people?
Secondly: What are your thoughts on the concept of an axiomite Godmind collective from eons past that was in some ways "corrupted" (like bad data on a hard drive) by an outside source/influence and had to be excised by the Axiomites. The excision leaving behind fragmentary "corrupted" axiomites that, if they ever reunited, would reform the corrupted Godmind?
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Your fashion piece reminded me how much I love Ustalav. Such a cheery place.
Of course, I think sometimes I'd make it an island if I borrowed it for homebrew, so it wouldn't sit so apart and yet so near such disparate neighbors. It does seem a bit insular, at least psychologically.
The costumes are very 17th century, which is fun, because I am more fond of early modern fantasy than medieval these days. This article has some interesting fashions (scroll down a wee bit). The red Dior evening dress (bigger pic) is awesome, very vampiric.
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Of course, I think sometimes I'd make it an island if I borrowed it for homebrew, so it wouldn't sit so apart and yet so near such disparate neighbors. It does seem a bit insular, at least psychologically.
You could surround it with these mi... er, fogs. Yes, fogs. And call them The Fogs, and say that it's hard to actually get out of Ustalav, because people tend to get lost in The Fogs and get turned around and end up never making it out of the Fog-shrouded mountain passes and bogs and stuff.
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Of course, I think sometimes I'd make it an island if I borrowed it for homebrew, so it wouldn't sit so apart and yet so near such disparate neighbors. It does seem a bit insular, at least psychologically.You could surround it with these mi... er, fogs. Yes, fogs. And call them The Fogs, and say that it's hard to actually get out of Ustalav, because people tend to get lost in The Fogs and get turned around and end up never making it out of the Fog-shrouded mountain passes and bogs and stuff.
When I first read this I saw "frogs."
*cough* a bit tired.
But, rather, that would work, almost as if it was meant to...
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Alright! Sorry this took a bit to put together. What do people in Ustalav dress like? At the link below are more than 150 examples of things I might consider Ustalavic fashion. I'll continue to expand this as I come across stuff, but hopefully you'll find some inspirational ideas in there and at least see the direction and variety I'm thinking.Best of luck with the dieting too! What an awesome goal!
Has anyone told you lately how awesome you are? Thank you SOOOOO much!!!!! That's above and beyond anything I could have expected...the CLOTHES! I love everything on that board. *goes to drool over the pretties some more*
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Skipping ahead to an easy one...
Wes, I'm not sure if you entirely had a hand in it or if it's more of a "James" question, but who came up with the concept of the Axiomites forming a gestalt "Godmind" to govern their people?
A ridiculous amount of The Great Beyond came from Todd Stewart. That book's Bestiary especially is very much a hit list of things Todd likes. So that's all him.
You can Ask Todd Stewart Anything on his thread of the same name. ;)
Secondly: What are your thoughts on the concept of an axiomite Godmind collective from eons past that was in some ways "corrupted" (like bad data on a hard drive) by an outside source/influence and had to be excised by the Axiomites. The excision leaving behind fragmentary "corrupted" axiomites that, if they ever reunited, would reform the corrupted Godmind?
I. Think. That. Is. AWESOME!
And I might file it away for future theft. Because that's an awesome idea. Very similar to the plot of the Great Modron March too.
Neat!
You get a point.
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Better than the usual expected result.
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Could you maybe share a little about how you picture the people of Ustalav dressing, or maybe some ideas of films or regions/eras to draw inspiration from? It'd be greatly appreciated!Alright! Sorry this took a bit to put together. What do people in Ustalav dress like? At the link below are more than 150 examples of things I might consider Ustalavic fashion. I'll continue to expand this as I come across stuff, but hopefully you'll find some inspirational ideas in there and at least see the direction and variety I'm thinking.
Best of luck with the dieting too! What an awesome goal!
Duuuuuuude. Thank you for making my favorite nation in Golarian even better! This is exactly how I imagined and wanted Ustalav to look; thank you for inadvertently catering to me :DDD
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I have a question about Ragathiel:
In order to practice Ragathiel's obedience and gain his boons, you are required to slay a wrongdoer every single day. I find this obedience...problematic. How would a devout follower of Ragathiel meet this commitment in, say, an urban-based campaign like Curse of the Crimson Throne or Council of Thieves, without being treated like a serial killer? Every day, someone in the city is killed to appease a wrathful celestial being. I imagine in places like these (especially since they're strongly aligned with devil-worshiping Cheliax), the law would come down pretty hard. Not to mention that for a Lawful Good faith, this sounds a lot like human sacrifice, something that most paladin-types object to. While its true that the Adventure Paths have no shortage of unrepentant villains to slay, this obedience requires you kill an evil person every. Single. Day. How does this account for stretches of downtime where a PC might not be out for villain slaying? What if you're in a place where villainous people are hard to find (especially if you're cleaning up the town anyway)? Are you required to run an extra encounter where you track down and kill an evildoer every day? Most of the other Empyreal Lords aren't nearly as demanding in terms of their obediences, even if some DO seem equally strange or excessive (Arshea demands you have sex every day, for example, but that's nowhere near as demanding as Ragathiel, who asks you to kill people).
They let Paizo staff out unsupervised?
O.o
Right?!
While UE and Shattered Star helped with an itch I had for more materials, my need for Planar Materials is still gnawing at me something fierce, so this I ask of you.
What attributes would you assign to Iron or other materials from Hell?
Hum. I like the idea of there being different materials on the planes (anyone remember Baatorian Green Steel?), but I honestly haven't put a lot of thought into this.
If I were to fake it, I'd probably use the base rules for existing materials and add various immunities and damage reductions. The idea that wood/iron/glass from Hell, has DR 5/good or is immune to fire or whatever have you is probably a pretty decent place to start.
Then you could start adding special abilities if you really wanted to be nasty. Like every time you hack into a tree in Avernus's Promised Land it erupts in splinters that force you to save or take 1 point of bleed damage or it weeps acid/poison/blood/rot grubs etc. A number of devils cause infernal wounds, so maybe you pick up that for something.
Check out the various materials and minerals we stat up in Into the Darklands, there's some twisted stuff there. That's also all essentially natural stuff. If you use those to set your design trajectory for what mundane-ish materials can do then you can start moving in the direction of what truly magical materials might.
Good luck!
Artifacts & Legends was a great read; thank you for writing that.
The string of incidents involving the Cudgel of St. Cuthbert - are any of those shout-outs to prior campaigns?
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What is it that truly separates demons and devils? Specifically what are their separate end games?
I have been reading "The Book Of The Damned" series (in fact, I just got "Princes Of Darkness" last week and I'm enjoying, well, the Hell out of it), but some of the methods and motives of the two kinds of fiends seems really similar.
In your write up of Asmodeus you mention that almost every other god comes seeking his advice. Does that include Lamashtu?
(Incidentally, I loved this write-up. It instantly made Asmodeus my favorite evil deity.)
Phew! This is a big question. I'm going to try and keep it simple by breaking the differences between devils and demons and daemons up into three distinct topics.
Form
Infernal forms are specialized for a particular purpose, are meant to be elaborations or evolutions of existing forms (whether mortal or immortal), and/or are meant to be impressive. The most archetypical devils are reverse angels. Where many angels are beautiful, comforting, familiar, devils--having a more antagonistic relationship with mortals--are meant to evoke feelings of fear, intimidation, and separateness. Their forms make them better at what they do, hold them above mortals, terrify, empower, make them greater.
Demonic forms usually represent a particular sin, their forms often suggesting the corruption of that sin. Bestial aspects are regularly drawn into their shapes, making them living metaphors suggestive of their savagery and types of corruption and ruin they spread.
Daemonic forms are based on types of murder, as daemons are uniquely obsessed with murder, nihilism, and the end of life. Their forms often show the scars of the type of murder/destruction they prefer to inflict and make them more adept at carrying it out.
Method
While the methods of these races are distinct in the same ways that any villains of three different alignments would be, they also have their own unique goals. These are thoroughly elaborated on in the various Books of the Damned. In a word or two, devils are interested in manipulation and subjugation, daemons in despair and death, and demons in destruction and corruption. There are, of course, countless ways these goals are expressed and few methods are uniquely the dominion of one race or the other (every race has its seducers, for example), but focusing on the ends should help you distinguish them in your head and in the plots of your game.
Goal
So what do these races want? If they win, what does the multiverse look like?
For devils, it's absolute, endless order--an eternal, static, homegenous system that will never end and will always serve a single will. It's Asmodeus up a throne at the center of the multiverse, with everything that survives willingly bowing.
For daemons, it's dark, lifeless eternity. It's their race having wiped out every other vibrant atom in reality, and when that last vicious impulse is the only thing left, it devours even itself. Its the peace of oblivion.
For demons, its more chaotic, war, strife, corruption, the multiverse become the Abyss, with countless depraved fiefdoms forcing the Outer Rifts into ever wider cracks, eventually tearing the planes asunder. Ultimately, the strongest and most profane will rule the rubble of existence, sating their endless passions amid the ashes of countless worlds.
For more, again, be sure to check out the three Books of the Damned: [url]http://paizo.com/products/btpy8a6f]Princes of Darkness[/url], Lords of Chaos, and Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Secondly: What are your thoughts on the concept of an axiomite Godmind collective from eons past that was in some ways "corrupted" (like bad data on a hard drive) by an outside source/influence and had to be excised by the Axiomites. The excision leaving behind fragmentary "corrupted" axiomites that, if they ever reunited, would reform the corrupted Godmind?
I too approve of this idea! :D
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I have a question about Ragathiel:
In order to practice Ragathiel's obedience and gain his boons, you are required to slay a wrongdoer every single day. I find this obedience...problematic. How would a devout follower of Ragathiel meet this commitment in, say, an urban-based campaign like Curse of the Crimson Throne or Council of Thieves, without being treated like a serial killer? Every day, someone in the city is killed to appease a wrathful celestial being. I imagine in places like these (especially since they're strongly aligned with devil-worshiping Cheliax), the law would come down pretty hard. Not to mention that for a Lawful Good faith, this sounds a lot like human sacrifice, something that most paladin-types object to. While its true that the Adventure Paths have no shortage of unrepentant villains to slay, this obedience requires you kill an evil person every. Single. Day. How does this account for stretches of downtime where a PC might not be out for villain slaying? What if you're in a place where villainous people are hard to find (especially if you're cleaning up the town anyway)? Are you required to run an extra encounter where you track down and kill an evildoer every day? Most of the other Empyreal Lords aren't nearly as demanding in terms of their obediences, even if some DO seem equally strange or excessive (Arshea demands you have sex every day, for example, but that's nowhere near as demanding as Ragathiel, who asks you to kill people).
I'm not Wes, but as the developer of Chronicle of the Righteous, I can weigh in on this topic, which has already been touched upon by both other readers in this thread and myself in this one.
Ragathiel's obedience was meant to be pretty intense, to be sure, but it shouldn't be an outright obstruction to players who want to be a worshiper of him and collect on his boons every day. Before I get into logistics, however, I'd like to provide some reasoning for my decision to leave this obedience in during development:
Reasoning
One of the big ideas behind Ragathiel's obedience was that since you worship Ragathiel, you'll probably be out on the field slaying evildoers pretty often, since that's what Ragathiel would want of you. Ragathiel doesn't want his worshipers to work at the soup kitchen for extended periods of time, even though that's definitely a good deed; he wants them to go out on the field of war non-stop and wrestle a giant serpent for 16 years straight, just like he did. Just like Arshea doesn't really care if you're slaying archdevils, Ragathiel is pretty single-minded in what he rewards his followers for.
Another aspect of the reasoning behind his obedience was that his boons are almost solely combat-related, so if you're in town doing investigation or espionage, a bonus with slashing weapons isn't going to do you much good (or, if it would, you're likely slashing some evildoers anyway, so you'll get your boons soon as long as you slay said evildoers in the name of Ragathiel). The humble wandering cleric who goes into town every now and then and hangs with the laity for a couple days probably wouldn't be a follower of Ragathiel—or at least she wouldn't put a lot of stock in the combat boons he grants his worshipers. An evil-hunting, butt-kicking demon stomper traveling into the heart of the Worldwound, however, could probably do worse than to worship Ragathiel and perform his obedience as often as possible.
Using the Obedience as Written
I don't want this to sound like a zero-sum game for players who want to play a Ragathiel worshiper in an urban or low-combat campaign, though. No doubt there are still plenty of creative and evocative ways to worship Ragathiel in such settings. I've been toying with one possible way to play this just in my head the past couple days:
- Take up a side-job as the town executioner. Obviously the criminals you're executing are technically "proven wrongdoers". In the instance that you accidentally execute a wrongly accused criminal, you'd probably know right away that something isn't right when you don't receive your boons for that day (which could open up all sorts of cool plot hooks).
If you plan to run the Ragathiel obedience as written, any player that takes the Celestial Obedience feat/mystery cultist prestige class with the intention of following Ragathiel should be made expressly aware of the implications of this choice, including how difficult it might be during certain segments of the game. Of course, a GM so willing might do well to work with the player/adjust the campaign to come up with a viable way for said PC to achieve her boons at least when she would most need them.
Adjusting the Obedience
I'm also of the opinion that you can absolutely change Ragathiel's obedience to more suit the style of your game/campaign. Other posters have suggested switching it out for Dammerich's obedience, which I believe is a more than fair compromise. Some other possible alternatives to running the obedience as written:
- Montage/Behind-the-Scenes: At higher levels and in larger settlements, the obedience could be handwaived as much as any of the other obediences are. After all, there's not really a point in running a combat encounter between a 1st-level warrior NPC who's been murdering innocent townsfolk and a 7th-level paladin PC of Ragathiel; it's pretty clear who's going to win, and it would be a pretty cool display of the paladin's powers/character/background if he went out at the crack of dawn every day to stop some local evildoer in the sewers/outskirts of the city/bad side of town. How cool would it be if while everyone else is picking up camp in the morning, the Ragathiel worshiper is just coming back and solemnly cleaning his sword?
- Powers Earned During Battle: As others (including the author of the book, Amber Scott) have postulated/mentioned, the intent of this obedience was not to be "ritual sacrifice." Rather, the idea behind it was that as long as you perform the necessary hour-long prayers to Ragathiel in the morning, you'll automatically "unlock" your boons for the day the first time that day you slay a proven evildoer in the name of Ragathiel. This is a more-than-appropriate way to play a character who relies on performing the obedience to gain his boons/powers.
- The Grittiest Good: For groups seeking a darker, grittier style of play, actually treating Ragathiel's obedience as a necessary ritual sacrifice could be pretty sweet. While it's probably the darkest way to play good ever, I can definitely see a stoic crusader of Ragathiel keeping a band of unrepentant demons caged up to sacrifice as the days go by on the frontlines of the Mendevian war effort. Maybe the heroes are awaiting much-needed reinforcements before they march back into the throbbing heart of evil that is the Worldwound; they're haggard and worn down, and most can only look away as the crusader carries out his unsavory but necessary task so that he may use his god-given powers to keep the ramshackle border camp safe in the meantime. (As a side-note, can anyone guess that I'm really excited for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path?)
I'm sure Wes will have an opinion on this subject, but hopefully this post will help explain the reasoning and thought process behind Ragathiel's obedience and provide some solutions to some possible issues that arise because of it.
tl;dr Ragathiel's intense!
The Grittiest Good: For groups seeking a darker, grittier style of play, actually treating Ragathiel's obedience as a necessary ritual sacrifice could be pretty sweet. While it's probably the darkest way to play good ever, I can definitely see a stoic crusader of Ragathiel keeping a band of unrepentant demons caged up to sacrifice as the days go by on the frontlines of the Mendevian war effort. Maybe the heroes are awaiting much-needed reinforcements before they march back into the throbbing heart of evil that is the Worldwound; they're haggard and worn down, and most can only look away as the crusader carries out his unsavory but necessary task so that he may use his god-given powers to keep the ramshackle border camp safe in the meantime. (As a side-note, can anyone guess that I'm really excited for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path?)
I kind of thought the whole intent of the trifecta o good related publications (Champions of Purity, Righteousness, the Worldwound AP) was to put out some stuff that didn't really for their stretch truck in that whole dark and gritty, good is a grodily brutal murderous hypocrisy ouvre. Or as Wes put it in another thread, to avoid the whole being too cool for school thing vis a vis good related stuff.
The Grittiest Good: For groups seeking a darker, grittier style of play, actually treating Ragathiel's obedience as a necessary ritual sacrifice could be pretty sweet. While it's probably the darkest way to play good ever, I can definitely see a stoic crusader of Ragathiel keeping a band of unrepentant demons caged up to sacrifice as the days go by on the frontlines of the Mendevian war effort. Maybe the heroes are awaiting much-needed reinforcements before they march back into the throbbing heart of evil that is the Worldwound; they're haggard and worn down, and most can only look away as the crusader carries out his unsavory but necessary task so that he may use his god-given powers to keep the ramshackle border camp safe in the meantime. (As a side-note, can anyone guess that I'm really excited for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path?)I kind of thought the whole intent of the trifecta o good related publications (Champions of Purity, Righteousness, the Worldwound AP) was to put out some stuff that didn't really for their stretch truck in that whole dark and gritty, good is a grodily brutal murderous hypocrisy ouvre. Or as Wes put it in another thread, to avoid the whole being too cool for school thing vis a vis good related stuff.
Yep! That was indeed one of the design decisions behind these products. The portion of my post quoted above is merely a reflection of my own thoughts and ideas regarding possible ways to play a worshiper of Ragathiel.
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Wes,
The scepter of ages from Artifacts and Legends is probably my favorite artifact in the whole book, mostly because it opens the door to fantastic adventures in time. I'm actually already using it in a home campaign, having it currently serving as the eldritch power source for an entire castle that shifts through history.
My question, thusly, is what was the inspiration for the scepter?
Wes,
The Bestiaries provide eclectic content, which is awesome for the homebrewing GM.
Do you ever wish to see under-utilized creatures used in adventures more? Do creatures ever inspire the story? Or does the story almost always determine the creatures used?
I'm playing both of these and have been really enjoying them! I will always be wanting more material on them. Speaking of which: Blood of the Night never went into this but I was curious what might happen if a Dhampir was turned into a Vampire or Vampire spawn. Is there a unique flavor or mechanical aspect to this happeningin your mind?
Oh that's interesting. There certainly could be, but nothing immediately comes to mind. Like, I don't see them becoming Double-Vampires or anything. They're already tainted by vampire blood, so making the change to being full-blooded vampire probably isn't that great of a switch.
I also wouln't want to create a precedent for members of this race turning into that special kind of vampire, and these guys turn into those.
So yeah. When we inevitably do something more with vampires and dhampirs, we'll have to explore this more, but for now, there's not anything brewing.
1: What is your favorite monster from Greek Mythology?
I thought about going obscure with this, but ultimately it's the hydra. That guy has been my favorite probably since grade school and the idea of a giant poisonous, regenerating, multi-headed snake-dragon with cool immunities and weaknesses is pretty awesome.
2: What is your favorite monster from Irish/Scottish/English folklore?
I'm going to go more modern with this one: Spring Heeled Jack. I'm not even especially sure why, except that maybe because Monster in my Pocket had a cool miniature for him (and I had probably a dozen copies). I think he was one of the first monsters/urban legends that really caused me to realize that urban legends aren't just about finding a hook on your car door or finding out that the stranger's inside the house. Today's urban legends, should the gain enough traction, are tomorrow's actual legends. This evolution really interests me and Spring Heeled Jack is part of an interesting group somewhere between modern inventions and folklore.
It's going to be interesting what people still say about the Slender Man in fifty years. I expect him to be as trite as giant ants and radioactive horrors--I just don't think the fears he represents will be as prominent on the zeitgeist's mind after another half-century's maturation. But that's still an awesome monster!
3: What is your favorite monster from Inuit mythology?
I really like the Qalupalik, but that might have more to do with the art we got for it in Pathfinder #51 then anything else. But a monster that breaks through the ice and snags your kids in pretty cool.
The whole of arctic mythology is really a topic I'd like to explore more. Typically a themed Adventure Path gives me the opportunity to spend half a year immersed in a culture's stories (and forces me to if I'm going to find six volumes of thematically relevant stories). The Hungry Storm only gave me one volume to play with those ideas, which certainly only gave me enough time to cherry pick a few interesting creatures (one of whom even got cut for space).
Since taking charge of half of Pathfinder, Adam has been able to explore this a bit more--especially in Reign of Winter--but there's still lots of cool stuff out there. So we'll keep digging.
4: What is your favorite monster from Slavic Folklore/Mythology?
Easily my favorite vampire myths come out of Slavic regions. I love the elaborations and distinctions that get made between the various types of vampires you get from the region, practically one for every why you could live or die. Also great ways for combating and exorcizing them, like how "running backwards uphill with a lit candle and a turtle would ward off a stalking vampire." Good stuff there!
5: What is your favorite cryptid?
Jersey Devil. That's why Pathfinder #1 has the Sandpoint Devil. Mothman is a close second, as that was the first cryptid I ever learned about. But the Jersey Devil is a much cooler monster and (even though it was probably just a heron or egret) is one of the rare modern American monsters that's truly distinctive and isn't an alien, a stick in a lake "sea monster," or a pallet swap from some other culture's legends.
6: What is your favorite African Monster (egypt also counts, everything african)
Popobawa, easily. Because it's modern, it's terrifying looking, it's distinctive, and it exists as a result of its creative culture processing an ongoing social trauma. Utterly fascinating.
7: What is your favorite monster from Norse mythology?
I think I always had a thing for Sleipnir because he's a dumb idea they made awesome. That they gave him eight legs and he never came off as spidery, and almost always seems to look cool--that's pretty strong.
8: What is your favorite deity/monster from Aztecmythology?
Tzitzimitls were easily my favorite find of 2011. Sun eating monsters from thousands of years old mythology: yes please!
9: What is your favorite monster from Asian/Japanese mythology?
Ghosts. That might be a cop out, but Japan especially has such a rich tradition of ghost stories. I read Kwaidan a few years back and have been planning to host my own Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai for over a year now--even got an appropriate lantern. So I really enjoy all of that.
If I had to pick a particular one, I'd probably go with Umibozu. Because it just looks at you. And is giant. And creepy. And looks. And if you ignore it, it goes away. But if you don't... O_O
I also really like pipefoxes. (Which should satisfy an ulterior motive)
10: What is your favorite movie monster?
The Thing is pretty high up there. So is Satan from Prince of Darkness. Gigan from the Godzilla series.
I also really like monsters that come off as horrifying, but still stylish. I say stylish because I explicitly don't mean erotic. The cenobites (in Barker's original work and to a lesser extent in the movies) play in that erotic arena. Despite the BDSM trappings, Pinhead in the movies comes across as more styled then sexualized. Femto from the Berserk series falls into this world, damn near everything in Brotherhood of the Wolf had this vibe, The Cell lived this idea (but not much else), Resident Evil reaches for this but never really gets there, though the monsters in Silent Hill sometimes pull it off. These are the monsters that are trying to be Dracula (when Dracula is at his best)--a suave, dominant, intelligent, powerful, elegant mastermind. The sort of villian that you just see and think "Oh. I'm a fool for opposing this."
Love that.
I'm going to add an other category here:
11: What is your favorite video game monster?
I think video games more regularly achieve the creation of styled villains than any other media. This is probably because the art and artists drive the medium so much more than any other. I say more, because even with a film, we're talking two-hours of engagement tops, where with most games every interaction you have for perhaps dozens of hours is viewed through the lens of the game's particular atheistic.
Doing hundreds of art orders has also taught me there are certain things writers just can't express as concretely as artists--especially when constrained to only a couple sentences of description. It's like that artistic exercise where you describe something and let a dozen artists draw what they imagine it is. The result is almost always a dozen distinctly different interpretations, and rarely the giraffe you actually described.
Take a monster like Cthulhu even. Media has settled on an established look for that character, but from Lovecraft's description you could end up with countless different interpretations. Its not until a powerful image nails it and is emulated that a look for a character takes concrete shape. And sometimes it takes dozens and dozens of images to nail that one awesome look.
That's one of the reasons why you rarely see creatures in Pathfinder that look like Final Fantasy end bosses or elaborate and wholly unique beings. Every now and then we get a powerful image right out of the gate and it's awesome (take keketar proteans or astradaemons for example), sometimes it takes multiple attempts (which we rarely have the opportunity for or interest in, nothing kills interest in even the coolest idea like bad art; take Daughters of Urgathoa and trolls for example, there's an evolution of looks in our products for these), and sometimes the experiment fails (take the azruverda for example).
We'd love to have a distinctively awesome look for all of our monsters and characters, but that largely needs to come from an artist doing amazing work. Most of our artists do great work, but we also have artists that do consistently jaw dropping work. Sadly, your A-listers can't do everything.
So! There's a few series I love expressly for their monster and character design. Castlevania is a big one for me, because it does all of this and ties in like everything else I love--Dracula, Death, succubi, Legion, Baalzebub, Scylla, and dozens more all look amazing in this series. Final Fantasy bosses often have this sort of look too, damn near everything from the Shin Megami Tensei series, Suikoden did great, Mass Effect has some awesome designs, Diablo, Starcraft. Lots of hot stuff in all of those, and designs that leave distinct impressions.
I also really like a lot of little, "level 1" monsters, like goombas, or octorocks, or, the king of all of them, the slimes from Dragon Quest. (Once Sarah and I even had a year long race to see who could amass the most slimes, so both of our offices have numerous slime magnets, tiny plushes, stickers, etc.) My thing for the little guys is one of the reasons you always see a number of new familiar-level monsters in our Bestiaries. Monsters are awesome, and shouldn't just be toys for GMs after all--and who doesn't want to be a pokemon master? :P
Does the Skinwalker have things in common with the D&D Shifter or is it really very different from it? I hope its different!
D&D's Shifter is distinctly D&D's Shifter. We are purposefully not emulating it.
Awesome things about Ragathiel!
YAY! Thanks man!
Thanks for that very long and cool answer!!
Another question from your answer:
Is the Azruverda now officialy dead (so we never see it again, not in AP's and not in other products) or does it just get another artwork if it makes a appearance somewhere?
I actually really like the Azruverda's idea (tho I would have liked it more evil) I just think it needs another face, something less human and more alien maybe.
Also does it have a story why I still showed up in bestiary 3? With the strange art thing and all...
Thanks for that very long and cool answer!!
Another question from your answer:
Is the Azruverda now officialy dead (so we never see it again, not in AP's and not in other products) or does it just get another artwork if it makes a appearance somewhere?
I actually really like the Azruverda's idea (tho I would have liked it more evil) I just think it needs another face, something less human and more alien maybe.
Also does it have a story why I still showed up in bestiary 3? With the strange art thing and all...
No man, it's just got crap art and a niche gimmick. That and being a good guy means that it's not only difficult to work into an adventure, it's hardly on the sexy list when the opportunity comes up.
If I have a choice between a flail snail and an azruverda for my... underworld... ascetic adventure (?) I'm probably going to... not do that adventure.
As for why it is what it is, it's the sort of thing that happens all the time when you're making books. When you're designing a Bestiary you plan what you want on every page--we'll call these ideals value "W."
Then you assign that content to artists and authors.
You hope to get W every time, but often artists provide you with value X and authors with value Y. That doesn't mean its wrong or bad or, in some cases, even worth changing. You have to choose your battles when you have deadlines. A lot of the time you get value "@," and that's nothing like value W, so it needs way more attention than value X or Y, which are at least close to W.
So if X + Y = Z, that's not always bad, sometimes that's even WAY better than what you asked for. But sometimes it's not.
Ultimately, it's okay to be a bit experimental, and they don't all have to be winners, but it does mean some monsters see more use then others.
Whoa, those things are based on mythology? I actually loathed that race because to me, its stats seemed like a direct herald back to 3.5 when races would be tailor-made for a specific class. (Virtually every aspect of their racial biography is designed to make an optimal ninja.) I had no idea that they were actually from something ....
Awesome. This is part of the point. We don't just draw in monsters from real world folklore and mythology because that makes it somehow easier, but because world folklore is fascinating and diverse. If we don't learn through our entertainment, when do we learn anything?
So you heard it here, kids: Play Pathfinder. Learn Cool Things.
I think we now need a Wesley's List of the Top 10 Quirkiest Races:
This is totally from the perspective of characters I probably won't be playing, not from any desire to blackball them in our published works. I fully acknowledge that what I like isn't what everyone else likes and that there are folks out there who do awesome things with concepts I think are dumb. I even like some of these races, but I don't see myself playing them.
That said, 10 races you probably won't catch me playing (from most possible to least)
10 Dwarf
9 Halfling
8 Tengu
7 Catfolk
6 Kobold
5 Vanara
4 Goblin
3 Ratfolk
2 Gnome
1 Grippli
Are blue dragons, on the whole, aware that at any time at all, almost any of them in the entire universe could be enslaved to the whims of Hell?
If so, what do they (and other dragons, for that matter) plan to do about it?
What are some of your top video games?
Also, do you ever use music in your games for mood or even for combat?
What are your thoughts on Garundi vampires? I know there was a terkow vampire (adapted from the Nyambe book) in one of the Serpent's Skull volumes, so I was a little disappointed the terkow didn't make it into Blood of Night. Was this a conscious decision or were these poor gents just overlooked? What other types of vampire would have a strong presence in Garund? (I'm guessing nosferatu). Thanks!
Eh, regional variants are cool, but I think you can go too far. Like, I don't think you need a vampire for every biome. I'm much more interested in those that come from specific mythologies, which the terkow might be--but all the Google hit's I've seen for it suggest it's an invention of RPGs.
In Blood of the Night, we focused on the vampires that appeared in some our most prominent sources and didn't get into every vampire variant and cousin. When ever you do a book you have to make the call on how wide to cast your net, and in this one, we focuses on those four which have prominent places in our offerings. We could have certainly went farther and may well in the future, but for Blood of the Night that wasn't the case. And I don't think many would argue that the book needed a more diffuse focus.
As for what vampires work in Garund, I do think terkow are a good choice--we obviously we have a precedent for them. Nosferatu are certainly cool. Something more primal like the vrykolakas from Pathfinder #29 could also be good. Just flat out vampires could be cool too, especially if you want to use some of the abilities from Blood of the Night (or just GM fiat) to adjust the animals they have control over and maybe some other powers. Classic Horrors also has some fun options.
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I'm not sure of the name, but skinless vampires are a real part of African lore; specifically the obayifo in West Africa (which means "witch"), and the "higue" in the Caribbean (which is just a creole word for hag). Since witches as far south as the Zulu do this (steal skins) I suspect it may be a pan-Bantu thing.
What suggestions do you have for someone who has to outwit a contract devil?