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I think that traveling merchants could worship Abadar. He is a god of trade among other things, and one of the concerns of the Abadarites is to keep roads safe, so that commerce can happen.
Many Varisian are wanderers and nomads, traveling the land in caravans and stopping only to put on exotic shows or to swindle and seduce locals. Yet just as many Varisians settle down and form small towns or, in the case of Ustalav, entire cities and nations.
The settled Varisians are far more likely to be worshipers of Abadar.
As Skeld said, the church of Abadar is big in Korvosa, the largest city in Varisia. However, Korvosa is a Chelish majority city, with ethnic Varisians being a large (and visible minority). Most of Korvosa's Varisian population live in the quarters of Thief Camp and Trail's End, both outside the city walls.
If I remember correctly, besides Korvosa, Abadars faith is significant in Kaer Maga too. And it was there way longer than branches that resulted from chelish colonization of Varisia.
So I was doing some research for Rise of the Runelords and was reading about the Varisian ethnicity and found that, surprisingly, one of their commonly worshiped deities was Abadar, of all gods.
So I thought to myself that maybe this was a reflection of how they're the ethnic majority in Ustalav after driving out the Orcs and dominating/driving out the Kellids, but when I went to check the religions of Ustalav, there wasn't a peep about Abadar there.
Which leads me here.
What Varisians worship Abadar? Why do these groups worship him?
Where are they located? Are there some groups of settled Varisians around Magnimar and Korvosa that I'm not aware of that aren't Sczarni crime families? Are Varisian wanderers really given to worship the God of Civilization, when they aren't a part of it, merely existing on the fringes of it and trying to exploit it?
How do they worship him? Is there some kind of belief they have where they break or even go on full-on heretical in comparison with mainstream Abadarites?
Everything so far that I've read about Varisian culture and Abadar suggests that they do not mix well. So what, if anything, am I missing here?
Varisians aren't exclusively, or even mostly, nomadic. Much like their inspirations, cultural depictions and stereotypes latch onto the ones that travel a lot because they come off as unusual and exotic due to the non-typical lifestyle, and tend to overlook that a lot of them live in villages, towns and cities and are just as sedentary as any other people living in the region.
And, as stated above, Abadar is a god of civilizations, not just cities, and a civilization is defined just as much by roads and trade and people willing to settle a frontier as it is on big metropoli and the like.| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, I mean saying non-nomadic Varisians abound in Varisia and did so before Chelish arrived is cool, but the setting material just doesn't back that up much, it emphasizes how Varisia was wild lands where nomadic Varisians roamed before Chelish arrived, and mentions of settled Varisians invariably refer to other realms. Ulfen raiders supposedly bypassed Varisia all those years explicitly because there was lack of settlements to raid.
Now this is ultimately illogical, because the 'nomadic bohemian' lifestyle presupposes civilized settlements to trade with etc, so it isn't clear what masses of Varisian caravans were doing in Varisia all these ages when there wasn't settlements to make a buck off of. I'd also say that another aspect of Varisians, pastoralist cattle herders, is very downplayed despite canon establishing that as significant part of rural Varisia (e.g. Harse and Velashu Uplands albeit Horselords there are Ulfen stock). IMHO a relation to these cattle herders is the best starting point to consider purported pre-Chelish Varisian settlements and urban culture, although that doesn't really help since the Varisian pastoralists are hardly described.
If there was such an urban/settled culture, what are it's cultural particularities? We wouldn't know any, except to blindly guess it might be like Ustalav. If it existed, wouldn't it stand to reason that differences and conflict vs "gypsy" Varisians would exist (historically and present post-Chelish era)? Yet there isn't a hint of any such dynamic. There is no historical information given on encounters between Chelish and settled non-gypsy Varisians, never mind relations with other nations. (Kaer Maga is closest we get, but realisitically it's rather it's own thing, nor especially emphasizing any Varisian-ness although presumably it would have at least specific angle on pre-Chelish Varisian settled culture, we just aren't given any substantiation of that) The explicitly Varisian settlements we know of are all founded during Chelish period, with no historical background preceding that period (even e.g. refounding destroyed town).
Ultimately this is par for course in Paizo's patch-work approach to setting, which is based around "set piece" stereotypes and the parts falling between those patches slide by as un-differentiated "generic fantasy". But Varisia is Paizo's baby, and I'd say it's highly likely we will see more APs returning to the area. Fleshing out the pastoralist and settled/urban indigenous culture (likely in majority vs "gypsies", even if they may have largely acculturated to Chelish) would be GREAT setting background framing to explore. Historic, and present time state politics of Varisians would be innovative and refreshing take on area we think we know about, but maybe not so much. I don't think it needs to necessarily contradict much existing canon, asides from the "Ulfen didn't raid Varisia because there was no settlements" bit, of course.