Azlant Resources

[W E Ray]

What, and more importantly, from what sources, do we know about the current state of the sundered continent?

What books -- especially APs, Modules & Society Scenarios, have some info on present day Azlant? I've read everything in the Inner Sea Guide but in a couple months I'm gonna be starting a pure sandbox campaign where the PCs, sailing south to Sargava from Cheliax, accidentally get caught in a storm from the Eye of Abendego and are blown a thousand miles west and shipwrecked in Azlant.

I'd just like to read all the stuff on Azlant before hand -- even though it's a sandbox -- especially info on what it's like in the modern day.

Thanks.

[Salt Upon Wounds]

Try Lost Cities of Golarion, it has a section on the Sun Temple Colony, a lost colony founded by Chelish settlers who were driven mad by crazy sun demon ooze things.......yeah, that's a thing. But if I remember correctly, it does describe the ruins and such.

EDIT: the ruins of Azlant, that is.

[SirGeshko]

Other than the Sun Temple Colony which I believe was detailed in the Lost Cities of Golarion, I don't think there's been anything else published by Paizo.

[Anorak]

Though you can take Dead City of Xin too and use as a model for Azalnti-type stuff. Azlant was heavily clockwork-based it seems.

[N'wah]

Lost Cities of Golarion covers one location on Azlant, and has some useful sidebar-type stuff. Aside from that, it's all painfully spread out. There's a lost Azlanti colony in Serpent's Skull, tidbits spread out in most APs or adventures dealing with Thassilon, and sparse details from a few other spots, as I recall.

They really like to hint-drop, those folks at Paizo.

As for Azlant present-day? Well, the continent looks like the post-bull china shop. None of the native Azlanti are hanging out there, at least not in their usual cultural form (though gillmen chill out there in good numbers, and the inbreeding-leads-to-morlocks schtick is well established). The article about the seas and oceans of Golarion (it's in Skull & Shackles; can't recall which, as I'm playing in that AP and don't get to read the volumes obsessively) discusses a bit when it comes to the Arcadian ocean.

From what I understand, though, Azlant as a continent supports nothing resembling a surviving empire, but rather a series of busted-up (or partially busted-up) ruins full of old Azlanti magic/technology, and the requisite, level-appropriate hazards and creatures and such. Sailing through the wide inlets of a broken continent is not bag o' fun, either, and of course the Mordant Spire elves shoot to kill if they spot folks trying to plunder the old landmass.

[W E Ray]

Sounds good.

I'll go back and take another look at Lost Cities. I've read over it a few times in the LGS but never saw enough to make me buy it.

After that I think I've got enough to go ahead and start.

[W E Ray]

LOL

I've actually got Lost Cities on my bookshelf, after all. It's got a couple pages on the Sun Temple Colony including a full page map viewed from above.

[Crustypeanut]

I didn't realize Lost Cities had info on the Sun Temple Colony.. nice!

I'm also looking for as much info as I can about the continent, and gathering tid bits here and there on Azlanti architectural style and history. Its really scattered and not that well documented, but Paizo is specifically being 'mysterious' on the whole subject so its to be expected I suppose.

The Serpent's Skull AP has bits here and there on the Azlanti, but the architectural style of the Azlanti ruins in that AP seem to be at odds from the tidbits I've found elsewhere. In that AP, they're distinctly Aztec/Mayan design, but elsewhere I've read about marble columns, high-cupola architecture, etc, which honestly make it seem more Renaissance/Italian/Greek themed.

I'm actually building a semi-sandbox campaign revolving around the Azlanti continent myself W E.. maybe we should pool our resources :D

[N'wah]

Yeh, I wasn't going to buy Lost Cities myself until I decided that reading it on the sly during PFS at one of the FLGS's wasn't worth getting the stink-eye. Details are scare, but, hey, some bits are gems.

[Thanael]

Might want to check out Brandon Hodge's Sunken Empires from Open Design/Kobold Press. And From Shore to Sea.

Here are a few links to underwater campaign resources. Of course that list excludes/predates the great stuff by Alluria Publishing.

[Brandon Hodge]

I've been lucky enough to write the majority of Paizo's available Azlant content, which includes the aforementioned Sun Colony in Lost Cities of Golarion, the PCs-explore-an-island-of-creepy-Azlanti-ruins adventure From Shore to Sea, and, most recently, depictions of Xin's reconstruction of his high-Azlanti culture in The Dead Heart of Xin. For the high apex Azlanti period of which Xin was outcast (and the period I envisioned for From Shore to Sea's ruins), I usually go for a Skesis-inspired (villains from The Dark Crystal) vibe. The period dress contained layers and layers of overlapping robes and strange coral-like structures, with the architecture drawing inspiration from the same, often being grown in place magically and organically rather than built in a very multifaceted, layered way. This coral theme, of course, leads to the haywire "evergrowing towers" I've depicted twice now in adventures. An obvious bit of idealized lost Atlantis drives the whole strangeness, with a healthy dash of the alien Melinibonean culture thrown into the mix.

A few consistent themes regarding leftover Azlant ruins for those paying close attention:

The previously mentioned organically-grown, coral-like buildings.

The use of gigantic lenses for various purposes, predominantly heating (orbiting lenses align over bathhouses and palaces, for example, and heat the water with the sun's focused rays). The use of these lenses is more nefarious in the Sun Temple Colony to

Spoiler:

feed a proto-godling aspect of Nergal

.

You'll notice lots of ioun-like orbiting things along with the lenses. I've always imagined that the Azlanti didn't much like getting their hands dirty if they could help it, and were adverse to touching things. The "books" in the library in FStS consists entirely of sheaves of brass plates that float and orbit around the user and reorganize at the user's will. The aquarium in the same book had spheres of water holding rare aquatic specimens that would float around the room in beautiful patterns and respond to mental commands. The original draft of Dead Heart of Xin had organic crystal doors and spiral staircases that grew and un-grew for those able to impose their will on them to make them do so (sort of like an opposed Ego check with an intelligent weapon).

Curved streets that spiral out Fibonacci-like from a central point, like the bands of a nautilus.

Not that on my maps in all 3 mentioned products, square/linear/angular-based architecture *always* alternates in spiraling city blocks with non-linear/curved/spherical architecture. Important things often happen at the nexus points or intersections of these conflicting styles. Why? I'm not telling. =-)

There are other consistent themes out there for the sharp-eyed that could be compiled to give cohesive flavor to the exploration of the ruins of Lost Azlant. I'll contribute as they come to me...haven't had my coffee yet.

Of course, I expanded on these same themes and more in the non-IP companion volume of FStS: Open Design's Sunken Empires.

[W E Ray]

Thanks tons, Brandon. I'll go back and reread "From Shore to Sea" and Favorite your post as a resource.

Regarding Dead Heart of Xin, I did not read any of Shattered Star as it came in the mail because I was avoiding 2 Spoilers. One, I'm playing through CotCT now, and I know there are "sequel-like" elements for the first 3 APs in Shattered Star. And two, I kinda want someone to run Shattered Star for me and don't want to take that possibility away. Of course, I may change my mind as the number of campaigns I have that I haven't read is growing: Savage Tide, Council of Thieves, Shattered Star, and soon, Wrath of the Righteous. It took 5 1/2 years before I could get someone to DM CotCT!

Question, are there Azlant parts of Dead Heart of Xin I can read while avoiding spoilers from the adventure?! A page number or two is sufficient. Or an article, perhaps?

I'll check out Open Design's stuff; I have tremendous respect for Baur -- but I usually don't buy 3rd party material as I have SOOO much from Paizo.

[N'wah]

Spoiler-free Dead Heart of Xin content? Hoo boy. 90% of it is the final dungeon, and another 9% is the encounters leading UP to the final dungeon. The rest of the island is... well, pretty scantily discussed, and most of that is optional monster-based encounters.

There is one prominent boss that's been around for a long, long time, though, and if it weren't such a fun part of the adventure to find out who and what it is, I'd tell you to go look it up.

Also, do you have Inner Sea Bestiary? There's a certain super-smart fish monster in that that's been instrumental in Azlanti development. Like, moreso than ordinary aboleths are.

The CoCT spoilers are far less game ruining, but I'll keep mum on all that, too.

[W E Ray]

*grabbing my Inner Sea Bestiary,...

Ah, the Veiled Master.

Thanks.

And I'll continue to avoid Shattered Star.

[W E Ray]

We'll be done with CotCT soon. We're halfway through Vaughan's "Skeletons of Scarwall" and there's only one volume after that.

Then we'll start my Azlanti sandbox campaign.

[Thanael]

The d20 adventure The Tide of Years could also fit well.

Jhaelen on ENWorld wrote:

Well, in the 'Tide of Years' adventure you can help to bring back a pretty advanced extinct civilization (think: Atlantis). The adventure actually discusses some options on handling the impact of such an event for a campaign. If you don't want it to have a great impact on your campaign, it doesn't have to.

It's on sale on paizo, print version for $2. Check out a review here.

[TritonOne]

Could the "lost" continent of Azlant be considered Paizo's homage to the Isle of Dread? Would it work to make the Isle of Dread a fragment of the destroyed continent of Azlant? If you were looking to play Isle of Dread, Torrents of Dread, or The Savage Tide on Golarion, would you locate the Isle of Dread somewhere in the lost continent of Azlant?

[Major_Blackhart]

I never really got that it was Azlant that had a thing for clockworks but rather Xin himself.
Other than that, I'd say, just based on the old 'Black Priests of Atlantis' vibe you get from that ancient country, an ancient greek style of building, with a hint of ziggurat styling depending on what god was worshiped where. For instance, more Aztec/Mayan if that god required human sacrifice.

[Bellona]

It may have been the southern/Garundi/non-Thassilonian/maybe Arcadian colonies that developed a more Aztec/Mayan ziggurat style of architecture, possibly influenced by local factors (deities, other cultures, etc.)

Regarding Savage Tide/Isle of Dread, I would place the island to the south-east of the shattered continent. That puts it "off the map" (as was the intent for that AP), but close enough that one can use Sargava on Garund's western coast as a stand-in for post-colonial Sasserine. Scuttlecove could either be set on an island in an off-map archipelago, or one could substitute a town in the Shackles/Sargava region.

[TritonOne]

I also wonder how much of land of Azlant on the Stolen Map is land that is knee or ankle-deep under the Arcadian Ocean.

[Drock11]

Part of what I wonder about is how monolithic was the old Azlanti culture. I'm glad Brandon gave some of his insights on it, even if that might not be totally offical. I get the feeling they were more uniform than people in the present Inner Sea area in that respect as the few tidbits we have gotten sort of point in that direction, and I would think the more advanced a people become the more likely that would be often just like in real life.

That assumption could be totally wrong. It's possible that the Azlanti people were wildly diverse in culture and outlooks. They did encompass an entire continent after all. In that case almost any type of adventure and any type of building could be found on their ruins.

[Major_Blackhart]

Bellona wrote:

It may have been the southern/Garundi/non-Thassilonian/maybe Arcadian colonies that developed a more Aztec/Mayan ziggurat style of architecture, possibly influenced by local factors (deities, other cultures, etc.)

Regarding Savage Tide/Isle of Dread, I would place the island to the south-east of the shattered continent. That puts it "off the map" (as was the intent for that AP), but close enough that one can use Sargava on Garund's western coast as a stand-in for post-colonial Sasserine. Scuttlecove could either be set on an island in an off-map archipelago, or one could substitute a town in the Shackles/Sargava region.

Those could also have been influenced by the Serpentfolk.

Don't they have a style similar to that?

[W E Ray]

TritonOne wrote:

Could the "lost" continent of Azlant be considered Paizo's homage to the Isle of Dread?

My feeling is that the Isle of Dread is Sarusan ALL THE WAY.

But of course, we don't absolutely know that for sure -- but what else could Sarusan be?... It's like an Australian Isle of Dread.

Lost Azlant is way too "Lost Atlantis" to be filled with dinosaurs, Kopru and such.

[TritonOne]

W E Ray wrote:

TritonOne wrote:

Could the "lost" continent of Azlant be considered Paizo's homage to the Isle of Dread?

My feeling is that the Isle of Dread is Sarusan ALL THE WAY.

But of course, we don't absolutely know that for sure -- but what else could Sarusan be?... It's like an Australian Isle of Dread.

Lost Azlant is way too "Lost Atlantis" to be filled with dinosaurs, Kopru and such.

Sarusan would be an interesting location for the Savage Tide Adventure Path.

[Tacticslion]

b'dot.