Creative Director
|
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
He is, but we're not gonna be doing much with him going forward. This lets GMs do what they want with him without fearing too much that we'll contradict their stories in print.
For stories we'll be telling in the future that rely upon demon and undead content, we'll be using demon lords like Zura or Kabriri instead.
Orcus had his time in the limelight for decades in D&D, and while we can use him and include him in the setting as a demon lord of undead due to his inclusion in the Tome of Horrors, I'm more interested in letting his story be curated by the company who carries on the legacy of where he was created at this point.
Certainly, I've had my own personal say in what Orcus does in D&D between the dungeon adventure "Headless" I wrote (which was the first appearance of a demon lord in print for 3rd edition!) and the final adventures of the Savage Tide Adventure Path.
|
Creative Director
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
That makes sense, thanks. That's enough of a presence for my new Orc to ostensibly worship him simply because he has "Orc" in his name.
Fair enough, as long as your GM's cool with it, but canonically there's no more link between orcs and Orcus as there is between cats and catalogs.
That makes sense, thanks. That's enough of a presence for my new Orc to ostensibly worship him simply because he has "Orc" in his name.Fair enough, as long as your GM's cool with it, but canonically there's no more link between orcs and Orcus as there is between cats and catalogs.
Okay i decided now that i will make a wish using the baba yaga patron theme, with a catalog that she think is cat.
I would much rather see golarion specific demon lords like Areshkagal or Aldinach getting page space in PF2 anyway - Orcus already has so much written about him.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
we can use him and include him in the setting as a demon lord of undead due to his inclusion in the Tome of Horrors
This is strange to me. I would figure the grounds on which you can use Orcus is that Orcus was an honest to goodness Etruscan deity of the Underworld (and "punisher of broken oaths.")
A few thousand years ought to be enough for the character to enter the public domain one would think. Like "owning Orcus" is like "owning Asmodeus" or "owning Baal" since all these things predate roleplaying games.
|
Creative Director
|
| 11 people marked this as a favorite. |
we can use him and include him in the setting as a demon lord of undead due to his inclusion in the Tome of HorrorsThis is strange to me. I would figure the grounds on which you can use Orcus is that Orcus was an honest to goodness Roman deity of the Underworld (and "punisher of broken oaths.")
We could, but the Orcus that the vast majority of Pathfinder players want doesn't have anything to do with Rome, and everything to do with the lore created by Gygax and D&D over the decades.
Furthermore, having worked under D&D's shadow for so long, I'm increasingly more interested in exploring in Pathfinder NEW content either inspired by the real world or made up entirely for this game, rather than a competitor's game.
This is why we've abandoned having Tiamat play a role in Pathfinder. She's a mythological figure, but if we wanted to develop our own lore and expand her role in Pathfinder we would NOT be able to draw upon any of the lore established by D&D—no five headed chromatic dragon, no ruler of a layer of Hell, no poison stinger, etc. We'd have to change so much about her that if we filed off the name "Tiamat" no one would recognize that it was meant to be Tiamat. So we didn't try, and instead built up our evil dragon deity, Dahak, as its own thing inspired by the same real-world mythological traditions that Tiamat comes from.
D&D remains a great game with a lot of support and a half-century of legacy and nostalgia. If someone wants to continue to explore those stories in their games, I 100% understand and support and encourage that decision—there's some AMAZING stuff out there created for D&D.
That doesn't make it a great idea for us at Paizo to spend time working on though.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So James, you're saying there will be a demon lord of cats* that wields a catalog that kills whatever it strikes?
Or is Catalog the name of a vast abyssal layer where one can get utterly lost while one's gold continually depletes? Lots of treasure though! Albeit somewhat random and with delivery time.
*Actually would be interested in this for the larger carnivores! :)
|
Creative Director
|
| 6 people marked this as a favorite. |
So James, you're saying there will be a demon lord of cats* that wields a catalog that kills whatever it strikes?
Or is Catalog the name of a vast abyssal layer where one can get utterly lost while one's gold continually depletes? Lots of treasure though! Albeit somewhat random and with delivery time.
*Actually would be interested in this for the larger carnivores! :)
Nope. I'm saying that any time I attempt to be jokey or goofy on these boards that those jokes and goofs inevitably spawn lives of their own.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Thats just because so many of your jokes/goofs are great ideas.
"Ha ha! Orcus only had a wand. I shall smite you with a whole log!" -James Jacobs' new cat-demon lord concept.
Maybe...details still being hashed out.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"But the faithful will be healed with my Cata-tonic!"
...
For stories we'll be telling in the future that rely upon demon and undead content, we'll be using demon lords like Zura or Kabriri instead.
...
Love it, i would really love some Zura related AP with lot of vampires. Also something about Yhidothrus would be amazing, worms that walk, conqueror worms and all that jazz
"But the faithful will be healed with my Cata-tonic!"
"He doesn't look healed. He looks very dazed."
"Yeah, that's a side effect. Okay, the main effect."Official unholy garb: Pajamas
Clergy particularly vulnerable to Animate Rope which causes a Fascination effect on them.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Orcus has turned his attention away his attention from Golarion, and he now focuses on his battles against the Coastal Wizards on a distant world.