What's your single favorite setting detail?

[keftiu]

Exactly what it says on the tin.

[Paradozen]

Unless the retcon'd it when I wasn't looking, there is a wizard who moved to the sun because they got tired of golarion's affairs.

[Ventnor]

Anything to do with Old Mage Jatembe, really. I find him to be a fascinating character.

[Set]

I love the idea that things that are a part of the game, affect the game logically, and are consistently applied / integrated.

So I appreciate that Golarion doesn't just 'have' demons and devils and dragons, because those are D&D fantasy things to have, but has the Worldwound, and Cheliax, and Hermea, and the Hold of Belkzen, where those 'generic fantasy elements' have an actual impact on the setting, and are right there on the map, staring you in the face and saying, 'yeah, Asmodeus is actually *doing stuff* in our setting, he's not just a stat-block. And not every powerful good being, like gold dragons, sit around thinking good thoughts, but doing crap all for 'good works,' here's one who is actually trying to *do some good* (even if he might be going about it all wrong...)'

I love stuff like that. It really adds some versimilitude to a setting, for me, that the fantasy elements aren't just walled off, but actually have an impact on the setting. It's not just 'generic fantasy world, where there are orcs and demons and dragons, just, uh, they've had zero impact on how we drew the map, so, apparently, they aren't terribly relevant...' Having an entire nation of devil-worshippers makes Asmodeus so much bigger of a deal (and so much more true to his write-up) than in other settings where Asmodeus exists, as ruler of the Nine Hells, but apparently isn't up to much, and is ceding all the material-world tyranny and intrigue up to Bane or Iuz or whomever.

[Quandary]

Hopefully not derailing too much, but my take on Hermea is that Menkare may be LG but the Evil-ish stuff is mostly coming from the Evil impulses of some elements of the "superhumans". But because he respects everybody's will (and they don't seem to be prisoners mostly) he won't use his "overlord" powers against them directly, although maybe he does on the sly without using his full authority. So stuff like dead bodies and stuff are not just Mengkare being evil, but internecine conflict between the superhumans as much as anything. Which allows for not-so-Good stuff going on, but Mengkare isn't necessarily cause. Although the ultimate wisdom of his superhuman experiment maybe isn't being proven out as he wished. Anyways, that's how I resolve it personally.

I also love the organic, diffuse versimilitude interconnections stuff, although I feel it's running against another of their design strategies, which is "patchwork" where any element can be taken out or replaced without changing stuff too much (paraphrasing, but they said as much themself). Or despite saying 2E is setting-infused, I look at Common language list (for Inner Sea) and Undercommon, Draconic, Jotun, Orc, Tengu, and Elven are on it, but not Gnoll or Kelesh or Osirioni despite Gnoll being similarly numerous and probably more widespread/integrated with civilized folk than Orcs, and Kelesh and Osirioni being long founded imperial/trade languages with more presence/engagement than Tengu or Elven. Like they reverted to 'generic D&D elements' (with bias to 'enemy monsters' or non-humans generally, making 'human ethnicities' MORE difficult to learn despite population distribution), ignoring own setting's presentation.

Hard to say what #1 favorite is, Kaer Maga is up there, and I like the direction they've gone with Kalistrade.

[deuxhero]

There's recent inventions that aren't super niche.

[Frogliacci]

I like how ethnic groups isn't just a human thing.

While humans have the largest number of ethnic groups due to being the most populous race, you also see different elven cultures like the conservative and intrigue-prone Kyonin elves, the tribal Ekujae, the survivalist Snowcasters, the honorable Jinin samurai elves, and the xenophobic and enigmatic Mordant Spire elves. Similarly while most dwarves live in the Five King's Mountains we also have Druman dwarves, Bedouin-like Pahmet dwarves, and the berserker dwarves in the Linnorm Kingdoms. Even orcs get a few different ethnicities, some of which like the Rainmaer tribes in the Mwangi Expanse and the desert orcs of Garund aren't even all that evil. They're still brutal and savage, but they don't run around trying to conquer everything and actually make friends with local humans against common enemies like the bloodthirsty gorilla-folk or gnolls. There are also cannibal halflings in the Kaava Lands, although I suspect they aren't written much about in fear of copyright notices from WotC for clearly taking that concept from Dark Sun. But all things considered, having distinct cultures for common non-humans really sets Golarion apart from most settings. The only other settings I can think of that also does this is the Forgotten Realms, which had like 50 years of development before taking its modern form.

[Perpdepog]

I like how genre-mashy the setting is, but also how it manages to fit all that stuff together into a cohesive whole. Swashbuckling pirates? We have those. Indianna Jones-Style temple adventure? You bet. Liches infused with scavanged super science and arcane bullcrappery? Yo we have someone in Numeria you can talk to, only don't because he's super evil and insane.

I also like that the setting is dynamic. Things like the Worldwound actually closing are pretty big, and shake up the status quo in big ways, making the world feel more alive. It also incidentally provides possibilities for future books and scenarios for us to buy and read, and I am super on board with that marketing strategy.