Hey folks,
So I have an interesting situation I plan to have fun with. Firstly; I'm running Ruins of Azlant. Second; one of my players is running an Oracle without a deity. He and I agreed before the game began that his character will be recruited, over the course of play, by "Elion".
Elion is/was the Azlanti god of "Colonization, Discovery, and Exploration". After Earthfall, he grew tired of Golarion and left to wander the universe. So we like the idea that he starts coming back to this situation when a colony returns to Azlant and the history of that civilization is discovered and clashed with.
So I was hoping to get some input/ideas/feedback on how to expand this god into the campaign both flavour, lore, and mechanics-wise.
E.g. My current thought is that Elion left because he had been pushing people to explore and colonise, and when they were finally forced to, he felt they no longer needed him and left. But now people have returned to his soil, acting under his domain and so he returns to help and guide them.
Flavour-wise I'd love to know how you folks think he should interact with this first disciple(Currently thinking of having him interact with her in her dreams, as she's looking to go into lucid dreaming and that kind of stuff). How his return would influence Talmandor's Bounty(the colony) etc.
Mechanically I'd love ideas on things like alternate spell list options, Deific Obedience, stuff like that.
Clearly I have a lot of time and can do this slowly. But I would enjoy an open discussion about this god of exploration and colonisation, and how to bring him into the campaign and the world. Thanks :)
Why he left, and where he went; new idea
The canonical reason Elion stopped being a thing in Golarion was "after Earthfall, he lost interest in Golarion and ventured out to the edge of the Great Beyond". Great Beyond being the term for all of the multiverse beyond just Golarion. However there are a few pieces of information that exist that I believe challenge this idea.
Firstly, Elion and Desna were/are allies, though Elion's worshippers often find Desna's to be "flighty" and "unfocused".
Second, Elion's church became interested in space travel apparently. Given that Elion was worshipped mainly in Azlant and left shortly after its fall, this is an interesting thing to note.
Third, It's believed that after Earthfall, Elion's followers basically led the exodus out of azlant and across the world.
This information, plus his portfolio, would imply that Elion would have become more interested in Golarion after earthfall, not less. So what happened?
Well, there are three main traceable groups that left Azlant;
(1) Aroden's expedition. Aroden left Azlant after Earthfall to head east to Avistan, to salvage the Azlanti culture. Interestingly, Aroden himself became the god of this expedition and it thus did not need Elion's help
(2) Smaller groups of Azlanti likely did leave with Elion's clergy at their helm. But just because Azlant was the first human civilization, does not mean it was the first or only civilization of its time. Thassilon at least also existed prior to earthfall, as did civilizations of Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and Giants. So these Azlanti humans, attempting to colonise new lands, would easily find themselves in conflict with any number of these groups. Or maybe they were taken in as refugees by these other cultures. Meaning either a shift of worship toward war deities, or toward the local deities. In either case; Elion was not needed at that time.
The third group however, is not traceable during the time of the campaign. In fact, it remains unknown to even us the players for thousands of years.
(3) New Thespera. Revealed in Starfinder, a number of Azlanti had been colonising other planets before Earthfall. Chief among these was New Thespera, a completely foreign planet with unfamiliar flora and fauna and unclear natural resources. After the travesty of Earthfall, the connection between Golarion and New Thespera would have been severed, leaving the people there without any support from the established empire and rendering them very much alone and isolated.
I believe it makes more sense that after Earthfall, as the azlanti culture on Golarion slowly began to die away and it's people called for him less and less, that Elion would hear the calls of his people marooned among the stars more strongly and left to help them.
And now, during a period where his people have conquered their own planet and are looking at how to enter space and explore the rest of their star system; the Azlanti god of Colonization hears the brief echo of a colony being born on ancient azlanti soil. And so he returns, even only partially, to look over the new settlement and guide it with the knowledge and changes he's undergone over the past 10,000 years.
Maybe this Elion while still a god of Colonization, exploration and discovery, has gained some more aspects necessary to helping his people; invention, diplomacy, and the stars.