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In Treading History's Folly we're introduced to Kadrical, the Lawful-Neutral god of the Scoured Stars, and his four celestial heralds: Master of Conquest ("Dhurus", leader of the Jinzuls), Master of Preservation, Master Archivist, and Master of Nomenclature. We don't know much about the later three yet, but we know Dhurus resembles and is the leader of the Jinzuls.
In Pathfinder every deity's heralds exactly match that of their deity. That makes sense given the alignment should match that of the outer plane their deity resides. Its therefore a safe assumption that Dhurus is also Lawful-Neutral.
Except he can't be.
Every Jinzul we've met so far has been Chaotic-Evil, most importantly the Priest base commander encountered in Return to Sender. Priests are required to be within one alignment step of their deity. So what's the deal with Dhurus, the leader of the Jinzuls? A fallen herald?
Pathfinder has a few examples of corrupted celestials; Dou-Bral's corruption to Zon-Kuthon (NG to LE) and Aroden's herald Arazni who was killed and risen as a lich-queen of Geb (LN to NE). Many real world monotheistic religions also include fallen heralds, eg the story of lucifer as a fallen angel.
Thus we could draw that the Jinzuls we've so far encountered are not servants of Kadrical, but his fallen herald Dhurus. This explains many curious parts of the story; the Godshield was likely not to simply keep the Scoured Stars inhabitants inside but to protect them from the Jinzuls, why the Jinzuls were outside the Scoured Stars in the first place, and why they couldn't acquire a Tear to return on their own but had to wait for the Starfinders to open the shield for them - as a holy relic the Tears likely have protections against being used by Jinzuls.
If this is all true, Jadnura and Luwazi Elsebo have done something truly terrible; by releasing the Godshield they've allowed Jinzuls and their demonic leader Dhurus back into the Scoured Stars.
Thoughts?
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I'm not implying she did it on purpose, more acting in ignorance.
Treading History's Folly is about Jadnura taking action without all the facts. Luwazi similarly acted to save him and the other Starfinders without having all the facts. Both could have done a lot more research.
Luwazi certainly had reason for pause;
Royo completely ignored this "clawing darkness" and focused his research on the trajectory of the Tears.
Luwazi similarly focused on the Tears and didn't seem to investigate what this "clawing darkness" was.
Kadrical's godshield in this scene was clearly more to protect the inhabitants of the Scoured Stars from this threat than to prevent them from leaving, but in all the research nobody considered finding out what this threat was.
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Interesting thoughts! I'm looking forwards to hearing more about Dhurus in, oh I don't know, an upcoming War. A war of the Herald, as it were.
But seriously - I'm curious to see if the other three heralds have any part to play in all of this. Seems likely that someone named the "Master of Preservation" could have a part to play in all this!
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Well, it's certainly a theory, not sure if it works out as you assume.
I think 1-31 tells quite a different story.
Considering that the god has several heralds, I am not sure if those are not going to be on the extreme ends of his alignment spectrum. That does not discount your theory, but I am not sure how the timing works out.
There is also the fact that ghastly things happened shortly after those tears appeared, maybe to motivate the wayward children to return home.
The only thing that is pretty damn clear, is that Iteration - 177 can't be trusted and that he knows way too much. I would not be surprised to learn that he is a very old android, and is just collection personalities in a collective instead of refreshing his body with a new one.
Or he actually might end up one of the heralds, but he really did already know about Kadrical and financed the second mission to the Scoured Stars, so he likely has an agenda.
As much as I like this scenario, it gives us more questions than answers, and I am not sure how I feel about that.
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If this is all true, Jadnura and Luwazi Elsebo have done something truly terrible; by releasing the Godshield they've allowed Jinzuls and their demonic leader Dhurus back into the Scoured Stars.
IIRC from the special the scoured stars were basically uninhabited. Everyone left.
So they're back in the scoured stars and now they want to drive the Kreiholm collective back there isn't nearly as terrible as letting the Jinsul in to ravage the place: there's no one to ravage.
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Does anyone remember the Kadrical temple on the moon orbiting Bastiar-8? If you have a copy of #1-99 go read it again with what we know now.
The statue in Sanctum of the Forgotten God (page 30): "The statue resembles (a Jinsul), except it is much larger and has dozens of legs and even more eyes." And then a disembodied voice said, "I am the voice of the slumbering god. He shall return soon."
"I am the voice of" means herald, but not necessarily Dhurus. It matches the vague description of Dhurus only in resembling a Jinzul, but we don't know what the other heralds look like or even what race they are. What we do know is this herald is Chaotic-Evil because he then summons demons, and that does fit Dhurus.
Its even possible that the "clawing darkness" wasn't the Jinzuls at all, but something from the dark tapestry which corrupted one or more of the heralds and their Jinzul followers just as it did to Zon-Kuthon.
The only thing that is pretty damn clear, is that Iteration - 177 can't be trusted and that he knows way too much. I would not be surprised to learn that he is a very old android, and is just collection personalities in a collective instead of refreshing his body with a new one.
Or he actually might end up one of the heralds, but he really did already know about Kadrical and financed the second mission to the Scoured Stars, so he likely has an agenda.
Yea, when they (agender) first appeared something was seriously off - immune to *all* mind effects? That's some crazy high level stuff.
And then we learn they has contacts with Athaeum and brings a group of Hellknights and Starfinders with them? The Hellknights create a diversion of a lifetime while Iteration-177 is nowhere to be found. What was Iteration-177 doing during all that?
I find it really hard to believe that Kelria got a "hidden shuttle" to Athaeum, clearly capable of drift travel, without Iteration-177's knowledge.
But the doozy.. #1-31. Iteration-177 brings several items bearing Kadrical's holy symbol, most importantly expensive runeplates dedicated to Kadrical, and leaves them in veneration on the altar that the Tear previously rested. That's not a very Aspisy thing to do!
And did anyone know Androids could be "partially dismantled" while alive and lucid? And then reassemble themselves? If a mortal Android were incapacitated by those spirits they'd be dead or unconscious bleeding out nanite blood. The way the friendly spirit reacts to Iteration-177 is even more damning.
I'm siding with "herald of Kadrical" here, which despite being another alignment mismatch would certainly be an interesting reveal! It would be completely within the behavioral norm for a Monitor (Neutral aligned Celestial) to walk among mortals giving little nudges to correct cosmic imbalances, and would also explain his connection to Athaeum.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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** Iteration spoiler omitted **
Nice idea, maybe someone is Quantum Leaping into random Android bodies, or able to project himself through time and space...
The idea reminds me of a Doctor Who episode (and so does 1-28), the one where ... well without spoiling anyone the one with the bird and the mountain.
re next spoiler:
I have to reread the special, (fortunately, we might manage to offer it again for some recent converts to SFS organized play and a couple of new Sec Seec Jadnura followers) but I am quite curious about the planed where everyone left....
I wonder if/how you could collect the entire species of android and collect it into a single frame.. I wonder if that person would be immune to mind-affecting effects...
But yeah, the place looked rather deserted, and it's not like we would not have done it had we learned about the Jinsuls, they might have attacked the Starfinder Society or at least our agents eventually.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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This thread gives me life. Sufficed to say, ALL WILL BE REVEALED! :)
Though, in the meantime, continue to speculate. There's some excellent points here.
The current story reminds me a lot of some aspects of Starcraft, and I absolutely love Starcraft ^^ so this might be my highest form of praise. Though fans of Dr. Who and Star Trek will also be able to find something they like.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Does anyone remember the Kadrical temple on the moon orbiting Bastiar-8? If you have a copy of #1-99 go read it again with what we know now.
** spoiler omitted **
Its even possible that the "clawing darkness" wasn't the Jinzuls at all, but something from the dark tapestry which corrupted one or more of the heralds and their Jinzul followers just as it did to Zon-Kuthon.
** spoiler omitted **...
Fascinating idea, I had always assumed that the god in question was at least evil, though religions can change. IIRC Lisalla was LN at some point.
My players actually asked how old those rune plates were, I didn't have a great answer.
1-11: I only ran this one, but frankly, the fact that those Hellknights
were destroying all those books just because they were told put them firmly on the "bad guy" list, but the shuttle thing really sounded extremely fishy.
1-31 My players even asked Iteration about the Scoured Stars and he gave the answer from the scenario, honestly that big, combined with his unusual body should convince the Second Seekers that their best chance for more details is asking that "person".
I have also heard the argument that is connected to other divine entities, but the rune plates are just weird. They are keyed to the god's alignment and are wearing his insignia, having such a specific item ready is really quite unusual.
Considering the fact that without his money, #1-00 would not have been possible, he single-handedly enabled the Society to be able to actually find the other tears and go the Scoured Stars again... I am not certain if he had meddled with the first expedition.
After playing #1-31 my players were very keen to find out what happened to our tear, and possibly what happened to the tear Jadnura used to open up the Scoured Stars, since trouble seems to follow them.
I wonder if the Society would store it on Absalom Station, and consequently what terrible catastrophy it will cause.
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After playing #1-31 my players were very keen to find out what happened to our tear, and possibly what happened to the tear Jadnura used to open up the Scoured Stars, since trouble seems to follow them.
I wonder if the Society would store it on Absalom Station, and consequently what terrible catastrophy it will cause.
Yea! Did we ever find out what happened to Mentrasi's Tear that Jadnura used to lower the Godshield for the first expedition? In the special he said he'd tell us everything, but I don't think that story ever came out!
He entered the Scoured Stars with it, then he and all the agents with him were trapped inside, and they didn't have the Tear to open it again? Or do the Tears not open the Godshield from the inside?
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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** spoiler omitted **
They might get used up to open it, but considering that the local deity wants to keep people "in their place", likes to have things orderly etc... it would make perfect sense that the artifact just opens the shield from the outside.
Of course, we are not sure how his powers and sleep cycle work, apparently was still asleep during 1-99, but something has raised reactivated the Godshield once the Jadnura and his Starfinders had entered the system.
The species in 1-31 was not 100% certain what or who had allowed them to escape, maybe the space janitor just unintentionally flipped a switch in the shield control room...
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The species in 1-31 was not 100% certain what or who had allowed them to escape, maybe the space janitor just unintentionally flipped a switch in the shield control room...
The museum in #1-31, in the Mentrasi the Prisoners exhibit: "but Kadrical had fallen silent, fallen asleep. Using all of his strength to maintain the shield"
They seemed sure enough to detail it in the museum. Other sources seem to, at least, not contradict this. I mean, the scope of the Godshield is insane even for a deity.
Starfinder Society Developer
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Some good catches here...
Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta
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@Thurston
Maybe write things up as in the format of someone reporting what happened during the year?
I know that they have no plan to offer soft-cover or pdf options outside of the hardcover line, the society scenarios, and the AP volumes... I would buy this.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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Some good catches here...
** spoiler omitted **
Sounds like a neat idea for some additional content, Paizo is not selling a lot of fiction these days - I have no idea what happened to the novels line, but I kinda miss my audiobooks.
It would be very interesting to have someone take a stab at collecting the existing storyline and add some interesting characterization to the mix. The view of a formerly missing First Seeker or even specific Starfinders under his command might be exactly what's needed.
PFS eventually did some "the story so far documents" and it might be worthwhile to also produce something like this so new players can get a kind of roadmap, where each scenario is in the timeline.
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But what is Iteration 177's end game? Is it killing Kadrical? Awakening it? Iteration 177 clearly is more powerful and knowledgeable then anyone knows. Perhaps awakening Kadrical to stop Dhurus,is his plan.
Well, based solely on their actions this is what we know so far:
Iteration-177 wants the Starfinder Society to survive, we don't know why.
They needed something from Athaeum and through the actions of the Hellknights had the privacy to copy or steal whatever they needed.
They wanted us to find a second Tear, the purpose of which could only be for the Starfinder Society to return to the Scoured Stars. This had several major outcomes which he could easily forsee:
- The Godshield was lowered
- Starfinders (including Jadnura and Historia-6) were rescued
- Starfinders found the temple on the moon orbiting Bastair-8 and "met" the Jinzul fiend (likely Dhurus)
- Jinzuls were able to return to the Scoured Stars
- We had our first large-scale battle against the Jinzuls
- The Society now counts among its enemies the Jinsul Hierocracy
- The Society conducted information gathering missions about the Scoured Stars history and the Jinzuls
And they left Kadrical runeplates and other iconography where the Mentrasi's tear was left along with a set of footsteps to lead Starfinders to discover Xaharee along with the historical records within. And then Iteration-177 feigned incapacitation to ask Starfinder agents for help destroying the menhir.
Since Iteration-177 left on their own, they could have left at any point. They may have come to Xaharee for another purpose (information, an artifact, etc), to lead the Starfinders to Xaharee, or for the menhir - in any case they cared enough for the souls of the Mentrasi souls to want them released to the Boneyard.
Of interesting note, the Mentrasi souls were also Neutral, as is Iteration-177 so if they are a Monitor then the Boneyard would be their native plane. It would thus be in their nature to want the menhir destroyed - but why not do it themselves, or at least help the Starfinder agents?
Venture-Captain, Illinois—Fairview Heights
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I wouldn’t mind another flashback scenario like 1-00 offered as a quest pack to give 5 short backgrounds. There’s no reason Guidance, the Forum, faction leads or any VCs couldn’t have a small story segment that present day Starfinders could learn as an interactive memory or vividly related experience.
I personally would love to see 1-01 followed up with a quest pack or scenario to learn more back stories.
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Laid all out like that (awesome job btw Arc!) really paints a picture of Iteration-177 as someone who works through intermediaries, cat's paws, and such. They're not trying super hard to hide their intentions or the fact that they're moving towards some sort of resolution in the Scoured Stars system, though.
If we suspect that Iteration-177 is one of the other heralds - which one? Were I a betting man, I'd wager Master Archivist: someone who is tasked with gathering and guarding knowledge, possibly with keeping secrets, but is perhaps forbidden from taking direct action themselves.
Perhaps awakening Kadrical to stop Dhurus,is his plan.
Viewed in this light, that sounds plausible zauriel, and could explain some of Iteration-177's actions: they recognize that Dhurus has gone section-8 and that Kadrical wouldn't be too happy about it, were Kadrical awake. They know exactly what needs to happen, where all of the Scoured Star Orphan Civilizations ended up, what's up with the Tears and Godshield and all that, what needs to happen to {{resolve}} the Kadrical situation (whatever that resolution may be) but they, themselves, cannot do anything towards those goals. And so, they find a convenient group of explorers and start pushing.
Oh hey Starfinders I just happen to know how to get to this Unfindable Library Planet that has the answers I already know but am forbidden from sharing.Oh hi there Luwazi, can't help but notice you have an artifact belonging to the Kreiholm Freehold, let me point you in their direction.
Oh hello Starfinders, wasn't expecting to see you here on Kukanou-2b, but now that you mention it gosh it sure would be nice if someone smashed that menhir and laid a bunch of trapped spirits to rest, and oh did I mention to check out the museum gift shop on your way out?
Or, then again, maybe they're not a Herald. Maybe one of the original 8 Scoured Stars Civilizations was comprised of Androids, or relied heavily on Androids. We know about izalguuns, jinsuls, thyrs, and now the mentrasi...there's still four civilizations we know basically nothing about, right?
Side note: this is exactly why I got into Starfinder Society - I'm in on the ground floor. I really only found out about Pathfinder in Society season 5, and by then there was already just so much STUFF that had happened. It was a barrier to entry. I mean I know it's not insurmountable, but it felt like here was no way to catch up on everything, unless your full time job was playing Pathfinder Society. (We should all be so lucky, right?)
But now, I'm seeing stuff happen, as it happens! I'm speculating on the message boards before all of the answers come out! This is so exciting. I really appreciate that the launch of a new Organized Play Campaign affords the opportunity to start fresh, as it were.
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Starfinder Society Developer
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I wouldn’t mind another flashback scenario like 1-00 offered as a quest pack to give 5 short backgrounds. There’s no reason Guidance, the Forum, faction leads or any VCs couldn’t have a small story segment that present day Starfinders could learn as an interactive memory or vividly related experience.I personally would love to see 1-01 followed up with a quest pack or scenario to learn more back stories.
Historic scenarios is something I've really pushed internally. In the way back machine, I tried to see if we could get a product to be a group of survivors from the first Scoured Stars mission, since at the time there was a big outcry for "we want to see what that was like!"
Still something on my agenda to maybe look at in the future. :)
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I wouldn’t mind another flashback scenario like 1-00 offered as a quest pack to give 5 short backgrounds. There’s no reason Guidance, the Forum, faction leads or any VCs couldn’t have a small story segment that present day Starfinders could learn as an interactive memory or vividly related experience.I personally would love to see 1-01 followed up with a quest pack or scenario to learn more back stories.
Historic scenarios is something I've really pushed internally. In the way back machine, I tried to see if we could get a product to be a group of survivors from the first Scoured Stars mission, since at the time there was a big outcry for "we want to see what that was like!"
Still something on my agenda to maybe look at in the future. :)
What about a historic module? It seems as if you could fit more historic info into a module with a better opportunity to wrap in a bigger, more complete bow.
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We can make followers of Kadrical yes? He is nicer than the Society-legal Devourer, and his portfolio appears to fit well with the aims of the Starfinders.
Under the previous ruling, you can make a follower of any deity so long as your PC isn't a Priest theme, takes the Divine Blessing feat, or has any other mechanic that interacts with the deity you follow.
One of my PCs might be a chaotic-neutral cultist of Dhurus rescued from a moon orbiting Bastiar-8. A Jinzul learning of a non-Jinzul worshipping their herald would likely send them into a murder-rage frenzy (nearly indiscernible from their normal behavior), and anyone else learning of it might consider them mentally ill, so it'd have to be kept quiet and walk a fine line being a Starfinder agent while worshipping the leader of one of the society's enemies - which fits really well with the cultist theme. There may be other SFS PCs who also follow Dhurus and use dog whistles to secretly communicate their shared affiliation.
So yes, you can make a follower of Kadrical. It may even generate some cool roleplay leading into the next multi-table interactive special. It makes the most sense if that PC is a Scoured Stars Veteran (recipient of the boon with that name).
Personally I'd love to see the chronicle sheet for the next special to include a "faith boon" allowing you to build a Priest of Kadrical or a PC with their divine blessing on your other PCs, similar to linguist boons. Something to have a lasting influence on your PC options as a result of playing through the end of season 1, maybe even tied into the Journey to the Scoured Stars boon series?
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I re-ran 1-05 at a con the other week. Got me thinking. Spoilers for 1-05 below (but I'm guessing, at this point in the thread, you're already in for a penny, in for a pound.)
So with the added context of having played through most of the Scoured Stars metaplot stuff now, it made me wonder: who hired Triloteya to kill Luwazi? Was it related to the whole Scoured Stars thing?
Now that we know that Iteration-177 is pretty connected to this whole Scoured Star thing, my money is that they're the one. I177 knows that going back to the Scoured Stars is bad business - opening up that godshield again is going to provoke the jinsuls, which is exactly what happened. That is a can of worms no one wants.
I still like the theory that I177 is one of the other Heralds of Kadrical; if that's the case, they'd have a vested interest in keeping the Godshield up. Beyond the Dhurus & jinsul can-of-worms thing, it also keeps a new population within the Scoured Stars: namely, Jadnura and the others. Maybe, over time, the remaining Heralds and/or Kadrical would reveal themselves to the trapped Starfinders, demand worship, and boom, everything is back to being right as rain for good ol' Sleepy Kad. (Or, at least, good enough from their perspective.)
So, Iteration-177 suspects that Luwazi was going to do exactly what she ended up doing - in fact, one of the ways PCs can earn favour with I177 is to tell them rumours about the Society's future plans. They're clearly fishing for intel. Viewed in this light, Trilotya is I177's insurance policy: blow her up, in case their suspicions prove correct.
Interestingly, this means that I177 may have just let things go. If Luwazi's announcement hadn't been to return to the Scoured Stars, presumably I177 would have gotten word to Triloteya to abort mission, and everyone would have had a lovely evening.
As a fun point: if the PCs manage to impress I177, their "aid" in the final encounter is to fire a poison dart at Triloteya. Almost as though they wouldn't want Triloteya to survive and spill the beans about who hired her...Hmmmm...
...or maybe I'm grasping at straws and Triloteya is just a regular run-of-the-mill assassin hired by, like, commercial rivals or Luwazi's jaded ex or something. Heh. Presumably you don't get to be nominated First Seeker without making some enemies.
How this jives with my earlier thoughts about I-177 in the above posts, though...I dunno. Maybe their primary goal at the start of the season is "Keep Jadnura & friends trapped," but once a very un-detonated Luwazi announces that she's heading back to the Scoured Stars, I-177 pivots to "well fine then, but you're going to need help or else Dhurus will consume your soul. Time to plan a ridiculously circuitous plan to guide you just enough to live through this."
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That wouldn't align with Iteration-177 helping the Starfinder Society find a second Tear later. By all indications not only did Iteration-177 want to keep the society intact after the Scoured Stars incident, but they wanted to help the recovering society bring the Godshield down again.
That assassin may or may not have had anything to do with the scoured stars, but its almost certainly related to the season 2 main plotline and almost certainly Lao Shu Po. We've crossed them too often.
And given the events of 1-33: Data Breach I'm still betting that The Conspiracy will lead directly into the season 2 plot and we're going to see that start to blossom in #1-38: The Many Minds of Historia.
Venture-Agent, Illinois—Chicago
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So, relatedly to minor details in prior scenarios that in hindsight are really interesting... I'm gming [i]1-07: The Solar Sortie[i] again tonight and there's an anticorporate hacktivist with a mask and voice modulator that contacts you on your personal comms if you have Abadarcorp Annoyance. This has yet to be touched on again. Who is that? How do they contact you on personal comms mid-spaceflight? What significance do they play?
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Venture-Agent, Illinois—Chicago
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How do they contact you on personal comms mid-spaceflight?That's simple.
The call is coming from inside the Loreseeker, Sasha!
So, it's a slightly-silly response, but I honestly was thinking that unironically! Like, conspiracy stuff is big, so how do we know that there's not a renegade and secretive Starfinder agent who left something to carry the message by proxy in the ship? That or something along those lines honestly seems like the most likely thing to me.
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Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta
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So, relatedly to minor details in prior scenarios that in hindsight are really interesting... I'm gming [i]1-07: The Solar Sortie[i] again tonight and there's an anticorporate hacktivist with a mask and voice modulator that contacts you on your personal comms if you have Abadarcorp Annoyance. This has yet to be touched on again. Who is that? How do they contact you on personal comms mid-spaceflight? What significance do they play?
Well, your aren't in the drift, so I would think they just call you...
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So, relatedly to minor details in prior scenarios that in hindsight are really interesting... I'm gming [i]1-07: The Solar Sortie[i] again tonight and there's an anticorporate hacktivist with a mask and voice modulator that contacts you on your personal comms if you have Abadarcorp Annoyance. This has yet to be touched on again. Who is that? How do they contact you on personal comms mid-spaceflight? What significance do they play?Well, your aren't in the drift, so I would think they just call you...
Well, the issue is that a personal comm unit only has a planetary range, so it is unlikely that it has the power to pick up a call from Absolom Station.
That said, it seems like it would be relatively simple for an agent at that level to rig a call from a system-wide comm unit to bounce off of a ship's receiver directly to a personal comm. Would probably need a recorded message, due to light delay, however.
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Mild thread necromancy. After Xenocrat's excellent thread about what the Concordance of Rivals means for The Gap, I basically had no choice but to buy said Concordance. Reading through the description of Axiomites, and what do I find but this little tidbit:
More secretive than archons or devils, axiomites conduct their most dangerous research far beyond Axis itself, at hidden sites usually named simply "Iteration" followed by a number.
HMMMM. That's pretty on the nose, isn't it?
So...does that change anything we know about everyone's favourite android/Herald?/axiomite?/mystery, Iteration-177? We know that they have some pretty deep intel on, and cordial relations with, the Curators, who are themselves renegade Axiomites on Athaeum. Arc Riley pointed out Iteration-177 acts in a very Monitor-esque fashion, "walk[ing] among mortals to give little nudges to correct cosmic imbalances." Iteration-177 is also, very pointedly, immune to mind-effecting stuff, which is a trait that Axiomites had back in Pathfinder. (I haven't seen an Axiomite stated out in Starfinder, but presumably they retain that racial feature.) Does the possibility of them being an Axiomite, or some kind of dangerous Axiomite research project, change anything we know? What implications does that have for their motivations or connections to the Scoured Stars?I know I, for one, am pretty excited for next week, when The Herald's War comes out! Come on, sweet sweet lore payoff!
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I played 1-39 over the weekend, and had a blast! Loved the adventure, loved the lore.
Anyways, this being a big lore-heavy scenario, I went back after playing it to read through. I have an obscure lore question: we know there are 8 civilizations that fled the Scoured Stars, right, from the eight escapees and the eight Tears following them that we witnessed flying out of the Scoured Stars in the vision granted on Athaeum in In Pursuit of the Scoured Past. However, we know of five out of those eight species:
izalguun
jinsul
thyr
nelentu
mentrasi
So when Iteration-177 mentions at the end of the scenario the "four as-of-yet undiscovered civilizations from the Scoured Stars," shouldn't there be three, since we know already know about five of them? Oh, or, I guess the nelentu and the thyrs can be counted as just 1 civilization, as they are collectively a part of the Kreiholm Federation. Ok, maybe I've answered my own question, and species =/= civilization. I'm still dying to know which Herald Iteration-177 is, though: Preservation, Archivist, or Nomenclature? The way they've been acting feels too subtle and behind-the-scenes to scream "Preserver!" to me, so I'm guessing one of the latter two?
I've been sorely tempted to flex my non-RPG narrative skills and put together a bit of a short on Jadnura's early stories and some background on the initial Scoured Stars incident and the lead-up into that. That kind of information is something I'm glad people want to learn more about, but it's hard to put into a scenario without making it come off as unnecessary to the actual adventure (since our first goal with most scenarios is making sure that it's a rewarding adventure for players).
Anywho, all of this is to say that I am doubling down on Thursty's random musings above about doing some kind of lore dump through a non-Scenario medium. Like, as much as I, personally, would love a scenario 1-40: Asking Iteration-177 Questions While Drifting to the Scoured Stars type deal, that would probably be a terribly dull scenario for a lot of people.
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Preservation, Archivist, or Nomenclature
Has to be Archivist. It fits with joining the Aspis Consortium, being interested in religious relics, having a connection to Athaeum, and seeking out Mentrasi relics.
A preservation herald, I think would be focused on trying to resurrect the Mentrasi and save as many of the people from the scoured stars civilizations as possible. They'd be diametrically opposed to the Jinzul's acts of genocide (and almost certainly are, we'll see in 2-00!)
And nomenclature.. well I'm not sure what that herald would be doing right now but I'm fairly certain it wouldn't be collecting religious artifacts or helping the Starfinders.
Kishmo:
It's purely a lack of personal time of late that's prevented me from posting my own "P.A.Q." (Personally Asked Questions) about some of the big lore from this season, so put me down as well as wanting a big lore dump from Thurston. The one element in particular I have a lot of questions about (which I'll save for the GM Discussion subform, when I get a chance) is the Godwall itself...
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Starfinder Society Developer
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...so put me down as well as wanting a big lore dump from Thurston.
Yeah, with the season basically over, I think that it's something I'd LIKE to work on if I ever get the chance. Heck, for now, I even have a mostly inert Forum Thread (SHAMELESS PLUG) where people can ask me all sorts of questions, including stuff related to the Society's ongoing story arcs! :)
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Venture-Captain, Australia—WA—
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...so put me down as well as wanting a big lore dump from Thurston.Yeah, with the season basically over, I think that it's something I'd LIKE to work on if I ever get the chance. Heck, for now, I even have a mostly inert Forum Thread (SHAMELESS PLUG) where people can ask me all sorts of questions, including stuff related to the Society's ongoing story arcs! :)
And maybe sometime soon Starfinder Wednesday will start back up on Twitch and you could answer a bunch of questions there.
Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Hmm puts on gnomish-sized tinfoil hat.
Succeeding this check reveals that the faction leader was investigating her prior namesakes, though much of the information was purged from the Society’s data stores. The only note, beside the images of Historia-4, are indications that files pertaining to Historia-3 were locked out by order of Guidance.
What is Guidance up to? She keeps locking out files in Dataphiles missions. Is she a catspaw of Historia-Prime?
