One of my players wants to run the Heir to the Throne of Galt as a spiritualist PC. The shtick is that her grandma is her phantom, and keeps exhorting her to go retake Galt from the rabble. I know that the soul-sucking Final Blades make it unlikely as a concept, but I'm willing to work with the player on this one. My Golarion lore is failing me though.
As far as I can tell, Galt was ruled in absentia by the Chelaxian queen Abrogail I at the time of its revolution. So my question is this: Is there any canon Galtan noble that would make a good phantom, or that could serve as inspiration for a "true heir of Galt" PC?
Plenty of people who would urge the player to retake Galt from the red revolution in Gralton. The player's grandmother could very well be one of them who escaped the final blades only to die in exile, which caused her to return as a phantom.
If you don't like the river kingdoms you could try Taldor. In the recent Taldor:the first empire, it's mentioned lots of nobled fled Galt and reached Taldor where they now form a class of pennyless nobles.
Well that's freakin' perfect. The campaign is taking place in the River Kingdoms. Cheers!
That, or the simple fear of the final blade might make a person to contemplate suicide. Or perhaps have the blood thirst mobs be a bit too blood thirsty and kill her before she could be taken to the blade.
The main flaw of the final blade is that you actually have to use it to trap the soul- it does not appear to be effect on those that have already died. While it is the pinnacle for security when it comes to soul storage, it lacks the versatility found in soul trap or through cacodaemons (which can be summoned through their own dedicated lvl 2 summon spell available on most 9 caster lists; they are easiest to access for clerics, since they don't have to waste spells known on them). As such, it is ineffective when there are... 'accidents' like this.
Franchise Manager
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Ack, a link to the reviled wikia!
That site has been effectively abandoned by active editors for 7 years or so, but despite this, Wikia's SEO shenanigans keeps pointing people there. It'd be a huge help to the editors working diligently on the active wiki at pathfinderwiki.com if you could try to link people there instead, as every link pointing to the old site is helping wikia steal hits from the active site. And, in the case of the Gralton article, specifically, there's more information on the updated wiki than the outdated wikia site, so you'll find more to work with by checking that out instead.
Ack, a link to the reviled wikia!
That site has been effectively abandoned by active editors for 7 years or so, but despite this, Wikia's SEO shenanigans keeps pointing people there. It'd be a huge help to the editors working diligently on the active wiki at pathfinderwiki.com if you could try to link people there instead, as every link pointing to the old site is helping wikia steal hits from the active site. And, in the case of the Gralton article, specifically, there's more information on the updated wiki than the outdated wikia site, so you'll find more to work with by checking that out instead.
Oh. I was always curious about whether it was appropriate to link to such sites when on these forums (since that has to do with setting stuff rather than open content).
So the active wiki is officially endorsed/allowed/whatever legalese? Cool. I suppose this thread is a prime example why it is allowed- it provides the smaller background info that can allow people to make their characters (and thus get them invested in the setting).
Ack, a link to the reviled wikia!
That site has been effectively abandoned by active editors for 7 years or so, but despite this, Wikia's SEO shenanigans keeps pointing people there. It'd be a huge help to the editors working diligently on the active wiki at pathfinderwiki.com if you could try to link people there instead, as every link pointing to the old site is helping wikia steal hits from the active site. And, in the case of the Gralton article, specifically, there's more information on the updated wiki than the outdated wikia site, so you'll find more to work with by checking that out instead.
I didn't know. Let me remedy that, then.
The link above should be much more exhaustive on the subject of Gralton.
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Since Galt was a nation-level province within the Empire of Cheliax, you could go with some kind of Duke or Archduke for the ancestral claim, but they'd probably have the goal of creating the title of King of Galt.
Unless you want to tweak things and have it be that there was a subservient King of Galt who was a vassal of the Empire of Cheliax.
Mmm
I remember an artifact about the galtian royal carriage, though I may be misremembering.
One problem, as others have noted, it that Galt never existed as a independent nation before it's current incarnation, and thus never had a king. How much you want to revise that is up to you. One option would be rather than a king, someone from the first revolutionary council, wanting to 'fix' what went wrong and restore the revolution to it's initial ideals. There are a couple named members of that council that I am aware of, but I don't believe a full roster has been published, so you have room for artistic license.
The other issue is more meta. How much will this effect the campaign? If it is just 'scenery' and the player has no real plans to have anything happen with it, then it probably isn't a big deal. If it is going to be a major theme of the campaign that will effect the other players, who might not be much interested in this, and might feel that they are have been relegated to the role of sidekicks of the one true heir.
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One problem, as others have noted, it that Galt never existed as a independent nation before it's current incarnation, and thus never had a king. How much you want to revise that is up to you. One option would be rather than a king, someone from the first revolutionary council, wanting to 'fix' what went wrong and restore the revolution to it's initial ideals. There are a couple named members of that council that I am aware of, but I don't believe a full roster has been published, so you have room for artistic license.
Or don't revise the setting, but still claim you are an heir to the non-existent king.
...no one said your character had to be sane. The history of claims to aristocratic heritage is filled with falsehoods, family legends, and delusions.
One problem, as others have noted, it that Galt never existed as a independent nation before it's current incarnation, and thus never had a king. How much you want to revise that is up to you. One option would be rather than a king, someone from the first revolutionary council, wanting to 'fix' what went wrong and restore the revolution to it's initial ideals. There are a couple named members of that council that I am aware of, but I don't believe a full roster has been published, so you have room for artistic license.
The other issue is more meta. How much will this effect the campaign? If it is just 'scenery' and the player has no real plans to have anything happen with it, then it probably isn't a big deal. If it is going to be a major theme of the campaign that will effect the other players, who might not be much interested in this, and might feel that they are have been relegated to the role of sidekicks of the one true heir.
No worries on the sidekick issue. This is a megadungeon campaign set in the River Kingdoms. Her deposed Highness is just dungeon delving to build up the requisite warchest to mount a post-campaign counterinsurgency. At most she may encounter NPCs with an interest in her progress.
I'm curious about something else you mentioned though. What's this business about Galt not existing as an independent nation? Was it a Taldoran province before Cheliax annexed it?
One problem, as others have noted, it that Galt never existed as a independent nation before it's current incarnation, and thus never had a king. How much you want to revise that is up to you. One option would be rather than a king, someone from the first revolutionary council, wanting to 'fix' what went wrong and restore the revolution to it's initial ideals. There are a couple named members of that council that I am aware of, but I don't believe a full roster has been published, so you have room for artistic license.
The other issue is more meta. How much will this effect the campaign? If it is just 'scenery' and the player has no real plans to have anything happen with it, then it probably isn't a big deal. If it is going to be a major theme of the campaign that will effect the other players, who might not be much interested in this, and might feel that they are have been relegated to the role of sidekicks of the one true heir.
No worries on the sidekick issue. This is a megadungeon campaign set in the River Kingdoms. Her deposed Highness is just dungeon delving to build up the requisite warchest to mount a post-campaign counterinsurgency. At most she may encounter NPCs with an interest in her progress.
I'm curious about something else you mentioned though. What's this business about Galt not existing as an independent nation? Was it a Taldoran province before Cheliax annexed it?
Yes, and as a Taldan province it was not independent even under Taldan rule. During that time Galt responded to the Taldan emperor.
Galt was the first province of Taldor to be established in 115ar. It passed under chelish control during the Even-Tongued Conquest (from 4081ar to 4091ar). Galt was conquered "by threat of force" by Cheliax. In 4667ar Galt started the Red Revolution and became independent for the fist time in its history.They had no kings. This does not mean they could not have a governor of some kind though.
Emperor Nortoning it up could have some potential, yeah.One problem, as others have noted, it that Galt never existed as a independent nation before it's current incarnation, and thus never had a king. How much you want to revise that is up to you. One option would be rather than a king, someone from the first revolutionary council, wanting to 'fix' what went wrong and restore the revolution to it's initial ideals. There are a couple named members of that council that I am aware of, but I don't believe a full roster has been published, so you have room for artistic license.Or don't revise the setting, but still claim you are an heir to the non-existent king.
...no one said your character had to be sane. The history of claims to aristocratic heritage is filled with falsehoods, family legends, and delusions.
It can be all the worse because you are dealing with phantoms- the dead that have been separated from bodies for potentially decades. Also, you are dealing with a location that used to be under the control of Cheliax (and Hell's Rebels notes that Cheliax is a nation known for its "ministry of truth" and historical revision).
So it is possible for the PC to rely upon the memories of the Phantom. The phantom that was wandering around without a body- which means that it lost a WHOOOOLE lot of limits to the max amount of insanity (a flesh and blood mortal has to deal with interruptions to its mad thoughts as it is distracted by the need to eat and its thought are cut off by sleep every day; meanwhile, spirits can think about its crazy thing 24/7 for years on end).
Even if the phantom originally knew the truth, such details might have been blurred long ago. But the PC might accept such hazy facts as the gospel, and think 'Cheliax simply hid the truth!'. This problem can be compounded if you refuse to put points into knowledge(history).
