The Night Heralds in modern Golarion

[Generic Villain]

I've always loved the Night Heralds and Dominion of the Black - it's probably my single favorite thing about the Pathfinder campaign setting. That said, information on the former has always been sparse. The most we have is a small write up in Occult Mysteries and the 2nd-edition playtest Doomsday Dawn. Doomsday Dawn effectively saw the end of the Dominion of the Black's threat on Golarion.

So I was surprised to see that the Night Heralds are still very much active - they even have their own symbol and write up in the new Core Rulebook, and are apparently still active in Osirion. I'm curious about a lot of Night Herald/Dominion things, and I'm actually getting kind of excited by the gosreg creature in the 2nd edition bestiary. Not only does this suggest that the Dominion is still being fleshed out, but the sidebar suggests that the Doomsday Dawn was only phase one of the Dominion of the Black's plans to invade Golarion.

Now that Night Heralds are an official faction with a nifty symbol and everything, and we continue to get Dominion monsters and references, does anyone have ideas/plans on using either in their future campaign? I've been designing a Night Herald campaign on and off for over a year, and I know people on these boards are nothing if not a great source of inspiration.

For my own campaign, I'm ignoring a large chunk of the Doomsday Dawn adventure. In my opinion it retconned too much of the original story. Without too much complaining, it relegated the Four Pharaohs of Ascension to puppets of Ramlock, didn't mention any of the 11 gifts given by the Dominion (other than the Last Theorem), and changed the Night Heralds' motives from a nihilistic urge to be absorbed brain-first by neh-thalggu, to seeking out Countdown Clocks as a means of protection against the coming apocalypse.

So yeah, if anyone has any thoughts, ideas, suggestions or the like, I'd appreciate it.

This part isn't necessary, but in case anyone wanted to know...

Campaign Info:

For my own campaign, there was no Ramlock and the Four Pharaohs were the initial point of contact between the Dominion and the people of Osirion. I may still have the Countdown Clocks active, ticking towards a new period in the unknown future. The focus will be on the four regions mentioned in Occult Mysteries where the Night Heralds are based (Osirion, Numeria, Ustalav, and the Sodden Lands).

The primary villain is the unofficial head of the Night Heralds and operates out of an ancient Lirgeni observatory-fortress in the Sodden Lands. He has a tooth from Tychilarius and is waiting for the right time to attempt the ritual Waken the Drowned God to let the poor fellow out of its prison, because his previous servant failed (as detailed in the Dark Tapestry literature way back from the Reign of Fire Adventure Path). Meanwhile, he's coordinating with a mummy lord from Osirion's second age, and it's her job to try and forge a portal between Aucturn beneath the streets of one of Osirion's big cities.

Also now that I think about it, are there any sources I'm missing about the Night Heralds/Dominion? The following are big ones:

Occult mysteries (Midnight Herald description)
Valley of the Brain Collectors (Dominion of the Black description)
Doomsday Dawn (meh...)
Pact Worlds (Starfinder book with loads of info on Aucturn)

[James Jacobs]

Doomsday Dawn saw the end of ONE Dominion plot on Golarion. Iron Gods saw another. There are still plenty more Dominion Plots lurking in the wings waiting to be uncovered or discovered by PCs!

In particular, something I'm working on for 2021 will have some Dominion elements in it... it has nothing to do with the Valley of the Brain Collectors or the Countdown Clocks.

The Night Heralds and the Dominion are still very active on Golarion. It's why we chose the Night Heralds as one of the groups to mention in the Core Rulebook, in fact.

[Generic Villain]

James Jacobs wrote:

Doomsday Dawn saw the end of ONE Dominion plot on Golarion. Iron Gods saw another. There are still plenty more Dominion Plots lurking in the wings waiting to be uncovered or discovered by PCs!

In particular, something I'm working on for 2021 will have some Dominion elements in it... it has nothing to do with the Valley of the Brain Collectors or the Countdown Clocks.

The Night Heralds and the Dominion are still very active on Golarion. It's why we chose the Night Heralds as one of the groups to mention in the Core Rulebook, in fact.

Awesome, thank you for the info. I'm not expecting a Dominion AP (as amazing as that would be...), but I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for the 2021 Dominion madness.