I'm looking at starting an online game and was thinking about using 13th age - but I have all these pathfinder books, and I thought it might be cool to use Golarion and some of my pathfinder adventures as a base.
The one big game element that pathfinder lacks is a set of icons. I played some 13th age at GenCon and I thought the icon relationships really gave some good life to the game, so I'm looking for some suggestions.
The Living God: Razmir.
Devil-Queen: Cheliax Queen.
Ghost-King: Geb.
I was looking at all three of those.
I've been working at this all afternoon and have, hesitantly come up with the following loose equivalents to the Dragon Empire Icons presented in 13th age:
Golarion Icons for 13th Age
Archmage (LG/LN/NG/N)
Crusader (LN/LE) - The Watcher - Lord Ulthun II, Bearer of the Shatered Shield of Arnisant [Leans LG] or The Living God - Razmir [leans LE]
Diabolist (NE/CE) The Queen of Cheliax (Her Infernal Majestrix, Queen Abrogail II of the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune) [Leans LE]
Great Gold Wyrm (LG) - Mengkare, Shepherd of Light (old male gold dragon, ruler of Hermea) [Leans N]
Lich King (LE) - Geb, Ruler of the Domain of the Dead (undead Ghost) [LE]
High Druid (N)
Dwarf King (LN)
Elf Queen (NG/N/CG/CN) - The Witch Queen of the North (the Baba Yaga) - [Leans N/NE] OR Queen Telandia Edasseril, the Viridian Crown [Leans CG]
Emperor (LG/LN) - The Primarch of Absalom (Lord Gyr of House Gixx) [Leans N]
Orc Lord (CE) - currently none, the clans of the Hold of Belkzen are divided. OR Ruthazek, Silverback King of Usaro (Mwangi Expanse) [Leans N]
Priestess (NG)
Prince of Shadows (CN) - Blood Mistress Jakalyn (Head of the Red Mantis Assassins)
The Three (NE) -
There are obviously some gaps and some where I'm undecided.
Currently I don't have anyone for the Archmage (though I was musing over two possibilities for it that I hadn't added to my list yet) The High Druid, the Dwarf King, The Priestess, or the Three. Before I added any more I wanted to sift through the alignment mix for the new icons. I want to be sure there are roughly equal numbers of "good" "neutral" and "evil" icons.
Okay I think I have my list of ICONS for a 13th age Golarion game.
Golarion Icons for 13th Age
THE RUBY PRINCE - Ruby Prince Khemet III [Leans LN] replacing the Archmage
THE WATCHER - Lord Ulthun II, Bearer of the Shattered Shield of Arnisant [Leans LG] replacing the Crusader
THE THRICE DAMNED - Queen of Cheliax (Her Infernal Majestrix, Queen Abrogail II of the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune) [Leans LE] replacing the Diabolist
THE SHEPHERD OF LIGHT - Mengkare, Shepherd of Light (old male gold dragon, ruler of Hermea) [Leans N] Replacing the Great Gold Wyrm
THE GHOST KING - Geb, Ruler of the Domain of the Dead (undead Ghost) [LE] replacing The Lich King
THE OLD MAGE - Old Mage Jatembe [Leans N/NG] replacing the High Druid
THE SOCIETY - Pathfinder Society [Leans N] replacing the Dwarf King
THE VIRIDIAN CROWN - Queen Telandia Edasseril, the Viridian Crown [Leans CG] replacing the Elf Queen
THE PRIMARCH - The Primarch of Absalom (Lord Gyr of House Gixx) [Leans N] replacing the Emperor
THE SILVERBACK KING - Ruthazek, Silverback King of Usaro (Mwangi Expanse) [Leans CE] replacing the Orc Lord
THE LIVING GOD - Razmir [leans LE]
THE SWORD OF IOMEDAE - Crusader Queen Galfrey, Sword of Iomedae [Leans LG] replacing the Priestess
THE BLOODY MISTRESS - Blood Mistress Jakalyn (Head of the Red Mantis Assassins) [Leans CN] replacing the Prince of Shadows
THE WITCH QUEEN - The Witch Queen of the North (the Baba Yaga) - [Leans N/NE] replacing the Three
I like your list. The only thing I wonder about is the absence of Taldor and the inclusion of an Osirion faction. I always figure the Icons are out-and-about in the world, whereas my impression of the Ruby Prince is that he's more focused on his own backyard.
If I were going to include a Taldor-faction/Icon, I think I'd go for Eutropia - operating behind the scenes and maneuvering the empire towards a resurgence on the death of her father.
Of course, it's probably coloured by the fact that I find Taldor's history/current state/future path to be intriguing whereas the Osirion nation has always been a little too much of a real-world stereotype (bordering on parody sometimes, it seems) for my tastes.
It's a hard balancing act. I also considered the Alchemist that makes the elixir of youth in Thuvia and the Pactmasters of Katapesh as well as a few others. But this allowed me to preserve some of the archetypes as well as spread them across Golarion and fairly balanced across alignments.
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I think this is a good list for the Inner Sea in general, but I'd be tempted to fit the list more for a given campaign or region. One of the real strengths of the Inner Sea region is that you can zoom in on any area and not worry a ton about much beyond their immediate neighbors.
So an Ustalav campaign might have several representatives of organizations in Ustalav (like Whispering Way and the Esoteric Order of the Pallantine Eye), the Living God, the Black Sovereign in Numeria, the Watcher-Lord of Lastwall, a literal Orc Lord from Belkzen, and demons from the World Wound. It's a lot easier to see everyone's influence and interactions if you focus in.
Back to your list, though, you probably want the Decemvirate (the masked leaders of the Pathfinders) rather than the society as a whole.
Jatembe is presumed dead, for what it's worth. The most powerful druid that immediately comes to mind is the Master of Gales. He gets you a pirate for the list too, so you can't go wrong :)
Cheers!
Landon
As Landon says, I'd zoom in more on the area you're setting the campaign. If you're going to be globe-hopping, a Golarion-wide list of icons is appropriate. If you were going to set the game in the Kingmaker AP, it wouldn't make as much sense.
The 13th Age base setting is relatively small compared to the Inner Sea. The Midland sea is about 700 miles at it's longest, while the Inner Sea is about 1700 miles. The scope of movers and shakers encompassed is much broader in Golarion.
Any influential NPC over 15th level could be an Icon IMO. They might require a small boost to their "portfolio" as it were, or increasing their influence and power some. But the same goes for monsters, anything over CR 15 that's intelligent and wants to destroy/save the world could be an Icon.
By narrowing focus to a region it's also easier to see how each Icon might relate to at least 2-3 other icons, creating a web that will help push forward stories, similar to what you'll get from 13th Age.