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So I'm working on coming up with a heavy intrigue campaign, but I'm not sure on what locale to use. I definitely want it to be in a big city, probably capitol city so we can work politics into the campaign. I was thinking of using Egorian in Taldar, and have the start of the campaign take place after a bloody coup by the king's daughter who starts making the local law enforcement seem a lot more LE than neutral, have the noble houses close ranks and starts forming a new Army of Exploration, which drastically reduces availability of food and water and other supplies for the populace and starts making people in the city desperate and in a constant state of civil unrest.
Seems like a pretty good starting point for an intrigue based campaign, big city, unhappy residents, royals clamping down on dissidents and so forth, but does anyone have any better/other ideas for a location for an intrigue based campaign. I had thought of Cheliax but we're already in the middle of Wrath of the Righteous, and going from demons to devils seems a bit much.
There's always New Stetven in Brevoy. The entire kingdom is Game of Thrones-like with noble houses scheming against each other.
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Absalom is solid, being the biggest city in this part of the world with a lot of internal politics.
Brevoy isn't huge, but as noted, is very Game of Thrones inspired.
The River Kingdoms are great for inter-kingdom politicking, since there are so many small ones.
Nex clearly has a lot of internal politics between its mage-lords, as does Geb between its undead nobles.
Magnimar, Riddleport, and Kaer Maga in Varisia are a bit smaller again, but all have some very interesting self-contained politics if you want to keep things more local.
For the Democratic version, Almas in Andoran is a hotbed of politics as well, in its own way, and you can bring the Fey in, which is always interesting. Though less often politics of the sword than many other places.
For a more violent politics, Numeria, with the Technic League and the drug-addled Black Sovereign has politics that could easily turn nasty at any time. As does Irrisen's capital with the internal feuding of the Jadwiga.
And so on. Really, there are lots of places for politics to take center stage if you wish them to.
Of note: Egorian is in Cheliax, not Taldor. Did you mean Oppara? That's the biggest Taldan city, I think.
Westcrown is a great city for intrigue, but it's also in Cheliax.
Absalom is THE huge city of the world, which opens a lot of possibilities for intrigue.
Kaer Maga and Magnimar in Varisia would also work well, and they each have their own campaign setting books. Korvosa would be a good one too.
Katapesh is good too.
Any capital city would work well. I would say choose the city based on the setting that you want. I personally like Sothis, because it's very Egyption, and Osirion is my favorite setting in Golarion. But really any capital city would work. Just make sure you enjoy the setting so that you can build an enjoyable campaign.
Goka (a.k.a., fantasy Hong Kong) would work if you want to do something in the Dragon Empires.
Food shortages? Civil unrest? Royals clamping down on dissidents?
Sounds like Korvosa during Curse of the Crimson Throne.
Korvosa in Curse of the Crimson Throne or Westcrown in Council of Thieves were the first ones I thought of, but it sounds like OP is making their own adventure. Not that they couldn't work in some of those plot elements, if they wanted.
Galt just screams intrigue.
The eponoymous Red Raven of Galt has just been rebuilt as the iconic Vigilante.
White throne would work as well, reign of winter AP basically has a player run coup occur (book 2)
Second kaer maga, maybe not ideal to your setup but a very flavorful city.
The country of ustalav could also work, lots of little baronies with larger cities, plenty of feudal intrigue, succession battles and with Gothic horror backdrop.
Goka (a.k.a., fantasy Hong Kong) would work if you want to do something in the Dragon Empires.
I was thinking Goka too. Not sure if it is "Fantasy Hong Kong", more Shanghai?
I was kind of chalking up Amanandar to Fanta-HK role, though actually more like fantasy Macau and Philippines.
(Amanandar being colony of faded empire of para-Romance-ish culture from across the world, not presented as micro-city-state,
so it's more equivalent to Philippines but on mainland and ethnic-Chinese focus of locals ala Macau)
I suppose the capitol of Kelesh Empire is big on intrigue and big on everything else too.
(I mean, just look at Qadira, on of their satrapies, you have multiple feuding wings of Sarenrae Church, demonic cults, Taldan intrigues, Satrap bent on war, Kelesh Emperor opposed to that, etc. So all of that ports over to Kelesh capitol, multiplied by each of their Satrapies, plus wholely internal Kelesh feuds)
fyi, OP asked for best BIG CITY in Golarion for Intrigue, not just good place for Intrigue.
so all these small time places while great for Intrigue, just don't measure up.
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One of the major themes of Ustalav is that the feuding noble houses A. Hold the real power in the country, and B. Don't help their people with it. Revolt, skullduggery, manipulation, provincialism, aww yes.
The Ustalavic aristocracy are decadent, selfish, and quite possibly disguised nightmarish horrors. Not even being able to trust their supposed species adds a neat level of intrigue.
Caliphas would be the country's "capital" but any of the provincial capitals would have its own scenarios to deal with.