Why are there humans on multiple, unrelated planets?

[Yqatuba]

This has probably been asked before but I don't get why there are humans on at least three (Golarion, Earth, and Androffa) otherwise unrelated planets that are implied to be in different galaxies? Did they start out on one and somehow spread? Or did the same god create them on multiple planets (and if so, who is this god?)

[James Jacobs]

The fact that there are humans on multiple planets implies a relation between those planets, even if it's not obvious. It's not a reason we've revealed yet. We might some day, but for the moment, there are humans on multiple planets because we want to foster the implication that all Pathfinder homebrews (and any published settings you might use with the Pathfinder rules) are potentially found in the same universe.

Strange Aeons "what-if" spoiler...

Spoiler:

Originally, I was going to develop the Strange Aeons Adventure Path, but it got pushed back a year and we did Hell's Rebels instead. Then, when the time came to start working on Strange Aeons, I was instead assigned to the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover. Adam took over my basic outline for Strange Aeons and did an amazing job developing it, but the element of having the PCs potentially discovering some deep past clues about the nature of the gods (this information ended up showing up in some of the Windsong Testament stories I wrote earlier in the year) and perhaps the source of humanity (which is an element Lovecraft wrote about in "At the Mountains of Madness") got put on the back burner. I've still got those notes, but haven't had a chance to really start developing them beyond the basic ideas I had about it and as such they're still "half-baked" and not ready for the public. If/when I'm working on an appropriate project in the future, I might work them into it. Or if/when another developer is working on a project like that and they're interested in using that element, I'll work with them to get it out there. For now... it's still a secret.

That said...while reading "At the Mountains of Madness" won't spoil this secret at all, it might give a hint of where my headspace was when I started thinking about "why are there humans on so many planets"? The solution I arrived at is pretty different than the source of humanity explored in "At the Mountains of Madness" though.

[pauljathome]

Actually, its CATS who are the universal masters.

Needing slaves to scratch their ears and open their cans of cat food, they brought people wherever they went.

You can get that from Lovecraft too :-) :-)

[Odraude]

James Jacobs wrote:

The fact that there are humans on multiple planets implies a relation between those planets, even if it's not obvious. It's not a reason we've revealed yet. We might some day, but for the moment, there are humans on multiple planets because we want to foster the implication that all Pathfinder homebrews (and any published settings you might use with the Pathfinder rules) are potentially found in the same universe.

Strange Aeons "what-if" spoiler...

** spoiler omitted **

This has me super interested. I picked up two of the Strange Aeon books, but I might have to look at more. I really dig the reveals from the Windsong Abbey Testaments.

[James Jacobs]

The meta reason, of course, is that this is a game written by humans and played by humans, so that by having humans be the most common ancestry in the game (regardless of what planet you're on), we can spend more wordcount on developing the story rather than developing society rules for alien races—it's a time- and space-saving tactic, and also allows us to build environments and gear that works for all PCs. ;-)

[Yqatuba]

I've never read "At The Mountains Of Madness", but is the implication that a Great Old One or Outer God created humans originally?

[James Jacobs]

Yqatuba wrote:

I've never read "At The Mountains Of Madness", but is the implication that a Great Old One or Outer God created humans originally?

It's not an implication at all. One of the key parts of that novella is...

Spoiler:

...that life on Earth (including humanity) was created by aliens. It's likely this story helped inspire the "ancient astronauts" theories that gained popularity a few decades after its publication.