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I'm working on a homebrew Pathfinder setting and thought I'd share my process a little bit. Right now I'm looking at broad brushstrokes.
Part of my goal with the setting is to lend flavor and prominence to some unusual classes.
I'm working on this from a player's guide style to give players an idea about what's true in the world.
As I update and redraft I might keep this updated, but at this point if you read this what class race combo might you want to play?
Great job staying away from Tolkien-based races.
Is the cosmology appropriate for Aasimar and Tiefling characters? Or do you have your own take on how those races are created?
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Looks good so far, although I thought it was slightly odd that you have a Druidarchy but no (playable) druids. Might be an interesting story there; maybe the so-called druids are some sort of rogue/sorcerer cabal pulling a con (to do... something). Actually, will you have any Divine casters at all?
I have a bit of a soft spot for the planar races you've picked, so I might lean towards a sylph alchemist, or a fetchling... something.
To start with I want the campaign to focus on Karden, where Druidism never really took off in the region as the elemental tribes use kineticism to keep natures balance. The Druids of Ardo are real, but their power is a closely guarded secret. I just wanted a neighbouring nation in crisis.
The only hard rule I have is no Clerics, Paladins, Inquisitors, Warpriests or Oracles. There is religion in the world, but it's not expressed via divine magic.
However there are Unchained Summoners, who are usually adherents of philosophies and summon Eidolons as expressions of those philosophies.
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Great job staying away from Tolkien-based races.
Is the cosmology appropriate for Aasimar and Tiefling characters? Or do you have your own take on how those races are created?
Planar shenanigans are a pretty big theme in Karden, since Sorcerer bloodlines are based on outsider interbreeding. As such you're most likely to find an Aasimar or Tiefling as a member of a Blooded family.
The good, evil, lawful and chaotic planes aren't quite what you'd find in the core assumption of the rules. I'll detail mortal understanding of those planes in a later update.
But put simply imagine the multiverse is a tower. The higher up the tower you go, the more lawful things become systems become more and more ordered until they reach stasis, the lower in the tower you go things become less and less ordered until they reach destruction.
The material Plane is on the middle floor of that tower. Precariously balanced between law and chaos. If the material Plane falls lower, systems such as Magic and physics become less predictable and yield more destructive results. If it rises up the tower these systems become more fixed but will lose innovation and become resistant to change.
At this point Karden mostly interacts with the floors closest to it analogous to celestial and fiendish realms.
However while this model of reality is quite popular in Karden, it is not the only paradigm, and the truth may be even stranger.
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Great job staying away from Tolkien-based races.
Is the cosmology appropriate for Aasimar and Tiefling characters? Or do you have your own take on how those races are created?Planar shenanigans are a pretty big theme in Karden, since Sorcerer bloodlines are based on outsider interbreeding. As such you're most likely to find an Aasimar or Tiefling as a member of a Blooded family.
The good, evil, lawful and chaotic planes aren't quite what you'd find in the core assumption of the rules. I'll detail mortal understanding of those planes in a later update.
But put simply imagine the multiverse is a tower. The higher up the tower you go, the more lawful things become systems become more and more ordered until they reach stasis, the lower in the tower you go things become less and less ordered until they reach destruction.
The material Plane is on the middle floor of that tower. Precariously balanced between law and chaos. If the material Plane falls lower, systems such as Magic and physics become less predictable and yield more destructive results. If it rises up the tower these systems become more fixed but will lose innovation and become resistant to change.
At this point Karden mostly interacts with the floors closest to it analogous to celestial and fiendish realms.
However while this model of reality is quite popular in Karden, it is not the only paradigm, and the truth may be even stranger.
Fantastic analogy with a callback to Michael Moorcock in the law/chaos axis being prevalent in their thinking.
Having the Material Plane being unfixed and able to fluctuate along the axis can facilitate great storylines to play out in the world (i.e. epic world-changing consequences)Nice job pointing out that it's just the working theory and the reality might be even more bizarre. I'll be going over what you have with a fine toothed comb later on. I'll see if anything else jumps out at me.