So we know that, in the future represented by Starfinder, Golarion is missing. What about the Plane of Shadow version of Golarion? Is that missing as well, or is it still present?
My guess would be missing as well - I'm sure we'll find out eventually!
The weird thing would be if Shadow Golarion was still there, all warped and blurry, but there was no way to easily penetrate from the shadow plane of Golarion and follow it back to 'wherever it went'. Travelers to the shadow world might observe some weirdness going on from inside the shadow plane, but anyone who did manage to pierce the barrier gets stuck over there and can't get back. We can assume some may try to take their own lives, or succumb to injury or disease, but in any case their spirits don't show up in the afterlife to 'tattle' on what's going on over there and Pharasma remains silent on the issue.
Second question: regardless of whether there is a Shadow Golarion or not, is there a Shadow Absalom Station? :D
Second question: regardless of whether there is a Shadow Golarion or not, is there a Shadow Absalom Station? :D
It has been noted that structures on the material plane have analogues on the shadow plane, however these structures like most of the plane of shadow, are warped versions. The answer is probably yes. If nothing odd has happened with the cosmology of the multiverse during The Gap, which could easily be the case, there would likely be a shadow analogue of Absalom Station.
Maybe Shadow Golarion is a few drifting ruins in a vast and empty space, shredded remnants of the world that was.
Some of its inhabitants have connected together these 'islands' of shadow reality together with long ropes and chains to keep them from drifting too far.
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@Umbral Reaver: maybe split the difference. Anyone who goes to Shadow Golarion finds that bits and pieces of the shadow planet are still there, but parts are missing--in some places a few cubic miles are simply gone, in others an entire a city or or province of a nation-state just isn't there anymore. In some places this might create entrances to the Darklands that previously did not exist. Although even the Darklands may find vast chunks carved out of it, subterranean valleys and gorges where only narrow tunnels existed before.
There might be enormous voids of complete nothingness surrounded by bedrock where the planet _should_ be, and islands of stone floating as if anchored. A 3D unfinished jigsaw puzzle, where every piece you _do_ have is in the correct place.
Over time Shadow visitors have coped with these new obstacles. Bridge building has become a fine art and a profitable profession. Chain walkways connect many islands between the voids, and new settlements have developed in places where none existed before. The unique geography of this 'alternate world' permits geothermal energy to flourish as it never had before.
The weirdness of "there/not there" even applies to coastal and maritime areas...the water from rivers and the ocean simply doesn't spill out or terminate as a waterfall to the naked mantle down below; somehow it is held back by an unseen wall--Shadow plane visitors can still pass through it and fall down into the abyssal magma, so swim or sail at your own risk! In a handful of places, isolated pockets of shallow ocean have allowed floating towns to develop as waypoints between areas of dry land, where shadow-water is drawn directly from the surface and purified of its salt and sediment.
No contact has ever been reestablished with any Golarion natives who might still be alive on the other side of the shadow-wall. This is just as well, perhaps, for any Aboleth civilization that might have been left behind would surely use the patchwork situation to its advantage.
@matthew shelton and umbral reaver That's kind of where my head was at. Could a Shadow Golarion- or remnants thereof- provide a starting point to discovering what happened to the real Golarion?
I doubt they would do or say anything about what happened to Golarion in the Gap, except to set up a teaser for some future AP. :) but I'd probably run a Shadow-only Golarion of that style, in my own homebrew campaign, even if they decided to not yoink it.
So we know that, in the future represented by Starfinder, Golarion is missing. What about the Plane of Shadow version of Golarion? Is that missing as well, or is it still present?
If the primal Golarion was destroyed or taken, that would be reflected in it's Shadow as well. So if Golarion is elsewhere, so is it's Shadow.
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That's as may be, but is that truly as cool and weird as having a planet that is sort of there but not really, so close but you can't really touch it? Think of what you could do spin off the classical lands. Reflections of silhouettes in moonlight, caught in a mirror, echoes of the past and might have beens always ringing silently in your ears.
So we know that, in the future represented by Starfinder, Golarion is missing. What about the Plane of Shadow version of Golarion? Is that missing as well, or is it still present?
I would guess that the shadow planes updated just like all the rest. After all the theory is it is a 'shadow' of reality just like the shadows of people in sunlight. If the persons or objects shape changes in the sun then it's shadow changes as well.
So the current shadow plane in the Golarion area would be a shadow of the current real world in the Golarion area.
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Idea of the distorted, not all quite there shadow Golarion is way too cool and creepy. Not knowing how the planet vanished, there could very well be something to make a shadow of. Just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's truely a void either. Weird things are at play. Since the Drift wasn't detectable by magic there is certainly a possibility that there's another dimension or aspect to the material plane that is not yet detectable by magic or technology. It's only hints are in the distortions of the shadows. Muahahah!
So koodos to all of you, fresh and inspiring idea! Now this is the AP I want to play....
Cool ideas. Reminds me a bit of Tir-na Nog'th, the moonlight reflection of the city of Amber in the Zelazny novels. Visions of what could or might be, glimpses of possible pasts, and terrifying creatures waiting on the edges, preying upon those who try to mine the shadows for the answers.
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Thank you for mentioning Zelazny Cthulhudrew, the Amber Chronicles rock! I would also love to see a Lord of Light situation going down in the Starfinder Universe. All those preyed upon inhabitants thinking they're divine casters when really they're the toys of some Mythic jerk.