She's been taking sun orchid elixers to prevent herself from aging. It was felt that maintaining a single ruler for the duration of the conflict would help the war effort run more smoothly (the old changing horses midstream argument). Nobody realized how long this conflict would drag on, and the pressure is starting to... affect the queen's judgement.
Creative Director
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It's not a typo.
Her church doesn't want to lose a great leader, and has been buying her a dose of the Sun Orchid Elixir now and then to keep her young and keep her institutional knowledge of the war.
Further details on her will appear in Wrath of the Righteous #4, "The Midnight Isles."
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Agh. I'm going to be starting to run the AP sooner than that, so I need to make a decision sooner (as I understand she comes onstage in part 2, yes?).
Well, you saw my proposed tweak for my campaign in the post above -- will it explode any load-bearing part of the AP if I do that, or do I need to change it back?
The AP will still work fine... although you'll need to rebuild/revise a lot of Galfrey's personality and character. One of the elements of her character is that she's VERY tired of the war, but her devotion and faith prevent her from stepping down. She wants to end the war not only so that the pain and suffering caused by the demons stops, but because she's becoming increasingly despondent herself at the possibility of living forever as a general of a never-ending war.
If you don't want to involve the Sun Orchid Elixir, my recommendation is to simply say that Queen Galfrey took the throne only recently... as in within the last decade, and then just assume a bunch of other rulers of Mendev have ruled the place over the past century. The lineage of Mendev's rulers plays pretty much no role in the AP, so you can tinker with that as much as you want.
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Ironically, that personality choice actually fits with what I was going to do anyway, but I know my players will respond far better to the lineage thing than the eternal sad queen thing.
I think I know why, too. They're going into this AP expecting to become the mythic heroes of the age, peers to the great. Having the queen be 100 years older than them kinda knocks that on the head, however many class levels they obtain. It still feels like a patron-and-client situation.
Making her their age, and actually levelling along with them (or, rather, she's in high single-digit levels when they're 1st level, and then proceeds to semi keep pace with them to the point she's 15 or so when they're 18+) will make it feel to them a lot more like that they really are peers, that they are heroes fighting /with/ the queen instead of units fighting /for/ the queen. Even if she does still wear a crown.
So, glad to hear I can use the other thing and have it still work. Thanks!
I see it a different way. The fact that the PCs quickly outpace the abilities of a 100+ year old queen is PROOF of their mythic stature. The fact that the PCs are surrounded by legendary and apparently immortal allies and enemies, yet rise above them in power, is one way that they can feel mythic.
But obviously you should make the choices that are right for your game. You know your players better than me! :-)
Doubtful. Thuvia is a long ways away from Sarkoris & has much more immediate concerns...
Like the fact that the entire economy is effectively based on the sale of the Elixir. The possibility that the Crusader Council's agent was able to negotiate a lesser price, by say offering the loan of a unit of crusaders for that city's next turn responsible for the security of the Elixir is significantly more likely.
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I wonder if Mendev tried to negotiate with Thuvia for free sun orchid elixir doses for as long as the Crusades continue on the grounds that they're fighting to keep demons from overrunning all of Golarion (including Thuvia).
Nah.
The church of Iomedae is plenty rich enough to afford to buy the queen a new elixir every 3–4 decades or so.
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James, with the advent of the Mythic Rules instead of having Queen Galfrey rely on Sun Orchid elixir why not have her become Mythic in some fashion and take the universal path power longevity?
It would kind of make since to have a Mythic ruler for such an important country. Perhaps you could even have the Society recover an artifact and the society gift it to Queen Glafrey to cement the queens favor to the 10.
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James, with the advent of the Mythic Rules instead of having Queen Galfrey rely on Sun Orchid elixir why not have her become Mythic in some fashion and take the universal path power longevity?
It would kind of make since to have a Mythic ruler for such an important country. Perhaps you could even have the Society recover an artifact and the society gift it to Queen Glafrey to cement the queens favor to the 10.
1) The fact that Mythic Adventures now exists does not mean I want to use it for every solution. I want mythic elements in Golarion to remain rare and unique when they appear, and making an established NPC mythic when I've not intended that from the start breaks that.
2) The Sun Orchid Elixir exists in our setting, and as such it makes sense that it'd be used in a manner like this. It's the most plausible and obvious way to extend a person's life, and therefore it makes the most sense.
3) Elements of Galfrey's use of the elixir are already in volumes of the AP that have long since been sent to the printer, so it's too late to change anything even if I wanted to. Which I do not.
My god, could you imagine how cranky she's got to be by now? And is their any news of her having a husband? Or previous husbands? And children?
My god, the Sun Orchid Elixir is bound to royally (no pun intended) mess with a person's head...
Alright, but why/how did she come to the throne of Mendev 5 years BEFORE the Worldwound opened and before "The last prince of [Mendev] died when the portal to the Abyss was opened."
Will that be covered in the 4th module? I'm burning to know.
Making her their age, and actually levelling along with them (or, rather, she's in high single-digit levels when they're 1st level, and then proceeds to semi keep pace with them to the point she's 15 or so when they're 18+) will make it feel to them a lot more like that they really are peers, that they are heroes fighting /with/ the queen instead of units fighting /for/ the queen. Even if she does still wear a crown.
Once thing you can do if you're making this change, is to have her tiredness/sadness a result of seeing what the war did to her parents.
She could have taken the throne before the prince died.
Queen Galfrey prolonged existence could be a very dangerous element for the reputation of Iomeda's church if we consider the existence of entities and groups from other non good aligned church dedicated to get adepts. I can see devils, kythons, even demons, using Queen Galfrey as a good example the goddess is not fair.
"Did the church of Iomedae bought your family a Sun Elixir Orchid for your father when he was dying of cancer?"