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The way my gaming group works we trade off running adventure paths. Currently we are finishing up Skull and Shackles, then we will run Shattered Star, then it will be my turn to run Wrath of the righteous.
My character in Shattered Star works for the Forever Man, a man named Staunton Vhane who has been in Magnimar for centuries. Is he the same guy in Wrath of the Righteous who led a mercenary force in Mendev and was chased off to Dreven? He seems to have changed allegiance from Norgorber to one of the Demon Lords?
I am sure there is a great story as to how he got from there to here.
No, James Jacobs accidentally named two characters the same thing.
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Well I must say I am a little disappointed. I had started throwing around ideas on how he got from one place to the other. Who knows perhaps in my game world they are the same person and he is working on another means of immortality. Perhaps the same knights ran him out of Magnimar, then ran him out of Mendev.
Not unless they're both dwarfs. :)
But hey, in your campaign you can have them be whoever you want. No real biggie. :)
Creative Director
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Yeah... I keep a list of names that I wanna use in products. Staunton Vhane was a big bad guy in a game I ran back in college, and when I used that name in Magnimar, I messed up and didn't cross his name off the list. Then used it again, accidentally.
If we do something in the future with the Forever Man, I'll have to decide if I want to keep his name, or (most likely) just focus on his name being "The Forever Man" or the like.
If you want to make them the same character, that's fine, but they are VERY different characters overall.
And yeah... if you're a little disappointed, imagine how I feel about it! :-(
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Maybe the name really belongs to some legendary, notorious Golarion villain, but individuals sometimes adopt the moniker and pretend to be him? The Keyser Soze of Golarion, in effect?
Maybe the real Staunton Vhane will one day materialize and decide to get rid of all these upstarts laying claim to his rightful fame?
Or maybe "Staunton Vhane" is the "John Doe" name of Golarion.
Or they're all members of some illicit organization?
It's the Dave Conspiracy! (Narbonic reference)
Maybe the name really belongs to some legendary, notorious Golarion villain, but individuals sometimes adopt the moniker and pretend to be him? The Keyser Soze of Golarion, in effect?
You mean, like the Dread Pirate Roberts?
You mean, like the Dread Pirate Roberts?
Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together?
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Yeah... I keep a list of names that I wanna use in products. Staunton Vhane was a big bad guy in a game I ran back in college, and when I used that name in Magnimar, I messed up and didn't cross his name off the list. Then used it again, accidentally.
If we do something in the future with the Forever Man, I'll have to decide if I want to keep his name, or (most likely) just focus on his name being "The Forever Man" or the like.
If you want to make them the same character, that's fine, but they are VERY different characters overall.
And yeah... if you're a little disappointed, imagine how I feel about it! :-(
Don't feel to bad I am more disappointed that there isn't an awesome adventure where the PCs confront the Forever Man and chase him to the Worldwound. Having the same name is not that big of a deal cause so far everything in the adventure path so far is pretty great.
The One Steve Principle sometimes annoys me. It's downright weird to assume that every single character in a fantasy world has a unique name.
There are plenty of real-world cultures that have so few names, or such an unequal distribution, that nicknames have to become common just so all the Ivans or Jimmys or Kelders in a given town can be told apart. :)
So why can't there be two -- possibly related -- Staunton Vhanes in different parts of the world, or two members of the Pathfinder Society hundreds of years apart who both happen to have been named Koriah Azmeren?
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The One Steve Principle sometimes annoys me. It's downright weird to assume that every single character in a fantasy world has a unique name.
There are plenty of real-world cultures that have so few names, or such an unequal distribution, that nicknames have to become common just so all the Ivans or Jimmys or Kelders in a given town can be told apart. :)
So why can't there be two -- possibly related -- Staunton Vhanes in different parts of the world, or two members of the Pathfinder Society hundreds of years apart who both happen to have been named Koriah Azmeren?
True, it is certainly okay for there to be two Staunton Vhanes. It's still weird for both to be big bad guys though, but not impossible.
That said, there was only ever supposed to be on Koriah, not two separated by time.
Now I'm mildly curious: do you see the career of the "wrong" Koriah as happening to someone with a different name, or not having happened at all?
The One Steve Principle sometimes annoys me. It's downright weird to assume that every single character in a fantasy world has a unique name.
Like I suggested, perhaps "Staunton Vhane" is the "John Doe" of Golarion? Maybe it's a name given to bastard children, or a moniker adopted by those who don't care to be known by their real names for one reason or another?
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Now I'm mildly curious: do you see the career of the "wrong" Koriah as happening to someone with a different name, or not having happened at all?
I'm honestly not even all that sure what you're talking about as regards two Koriahs.
I invented her in "Into the Darklands" as the author of volume 44 of the Pathfinder Journal. The point was I needed someone to be an expert on the Darklands to quote at the start of each chapter, and also because I wanted an NPC of my own creation to fall back on in the future when I wanted a Pathfinder to show up. She was always intended to be a contemporary character.
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The One Steve Principle sometimes annoys me. It's downright weird to assume that every single character in a fantasy world has a unique name.Like I suggested, perhaps "Staunton Vhane" is the "John Doe" of Golarion? Maybe it's a name given to bastard children, or a moniker adopted by those who don't care to be known by their real names for one reason or another?
Staunton Vhane is too unusual a name to be shared by many folks, in my opinion. If it were a "John Doe" it would have shown up far more often already, as well.
Well, the other one IS an anti-paladin. He probably chose it to disguise his real name because he's evil and thought it'd be fun to steal some of the other one's thunder. Initially because he was PRETENDING to be good, so that would sully the other one's name. And then because now he's a big name in the Worldwound. No doubt if the demons won, he'd put his sword into the other Staunton Vhane and laugh in his face. :)
Now I'm mildly curious: do you see the career of the "wrong" Koriah as happening to someone with a different name, or not having happened at all?I'm honestly not even all that sure what you're talking about as regards two Koriahs.
I invented her in "Into the Darklands" as the author of volume 44 of the Pathfinder Journal. The point was I needed someone to be an expert on the Darklands to quote at the start of each chapter, and also because I wanted an NPC of my own creation to fall back on in the future when I wanted a Pathfinder to show up. She was always intended to be a contemporary character.
Okay, I think it's "Seekers of Secrets inventing biographical details and getting them wrong" instead of "two different times." That book had Koriah retiring to the upper story of one of the highest buildings in Absalom and never coming down again.
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Okay, I think it's "Seekers of Secrets inventing biographical details and getting them wrong" instead of "two different times." That book had Koriah retiring to the upper story of one of the highest buildings in Absalom and never coming down again.Now I'm mildly curious: do you see the career of the "wrong" Koriah as happening to someone with a different name, or not having happened at all?I'm honestly not even all that sure what you're talking about as regards two Koriahs.
I invented her in "Into the Darklands" as the author of volume 44 of the Pathfinder Journal. The point was I needed someone to be an expert on the Darklands to quote at the start of each chapter, and also because I wanted an NPC of my own creation to fall back on in the future when I wanted a Pathfinder to show up. She was always intended to be a contemporary character.
Ah... yeah, that was someone running with what I'd started with Koriah and not realizing she was my "pet NPC" and that I had plans for her. That was an error, partially on my part by not making it more clear to the rest of Paizo that, just as Erik has his thumb on Durven Gest and Nex, and as Wes has his thumb on Ailson Kindler, that I had my thumb on Koriah.
Fortunately, that bit in Seekers of Secrets is really easy to ignore.
Glad I did a search on the name "Staunton Vhane" on the messageboards! I was just about to start a similar thread.
I'm starting the process of writing a homebrew adventure series based in Magnimar, and just came across the section on The Forever Man. I was sure I'd seen the name in Wrath of the Righteous...