What are the lands of the Sarinis? This campaign page suggests that it's based in Ravounel Forest and lands west. Is that accurate? If so, that does lend itself to revising the hags vs. strix theme there. If not there, where would they retreat to brood and plot revenge after the revolution?
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I don't think it's stated in canon anywhere, but James Jacobs places Sarini holdings between, and inclusive of, Kintargo and Acisazi. In this scheme, their seat, if it isn't Kintargo itself, likely lies on the shore of the big lake that drains into Dismal Nitch.
I'd place their seat and holdings on Cape Dis, though, if for no other reason than to associate Ravounel's most enthusiastically diabolist family with a region named after a Hellish city. I also think of the Sarini county seat as being named "Dargarsti," a "manor house" and "old fortress" mentioned in the introductory blurb to the Bestiary in The Kintargo Contract.
In any event, the Sarini seat cannot be within the Ravounel Forest. Their not being called out, along with the hags and strix, as potential representatives of Ravounel Forest for the purposes of the Kintargo Contract, excludes them pretty definitively. In addition, the middle of a forest is a bad place to put an economic, administrative, or military center - it's far from any good farmland and any large concentrations of people able to work it, be taxed, or be levied.
Good lord, I wish they'd done a map of the noble's territories at some point. Jacobs' map matches less than 50% of the info I've gathered and told the players, although I'm not even sure whether I'm right on canon.
Good point about the Sarini county seat. I didn't want it to be in the Ravounel Forest and that's a good rationale for it.
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Good lord, I wish they'd done a map of the noble's territories at some point. Jacobs' map matches less than 50% of the info I've gathered and told the players, although I'm not even sure whether I'm right on canon.
Good point about the Sarini county seat. I didn't want it to be in the Ravounel Forest and that's a good rationale for it.
What makes it more bizzare is that Paizo is perfectly capable of matching nobles to lands in, say, Taldor or Ustalav. If I didn't know any better I'd say the presentation of specifically Chelish nobility in both Ravounel and Cheliax itself (especially in Westcrown) as deracinated, urbanized parvenu quasi-bourgeois was supposed to say something about the state of Chelish society. But I know Paizo does not want to grapple with the things it is implying, so I'll call it what it far more likely is: disinterest making for lackidasical and nonsensical worldbuilding.
Good lord, I wish they'd done a map of the noble's territories at some point.
So very true. I made my own, because it is information that I suspected my players would ask for when starting to deal with the nobility in earnest (and which they did ask for).
If you'd like to share it, I'd be happy to get have it for my campaign, which starts today. :)
If you'd like to share it, I'd be happy to get have it for my campaign, which starts today. :)
Well, the location names (several which I added myself) are in Swedish. So, assuming you're American, I'm afraid it would be like reading names of IKEA furniture ("Risby"? "Silversten?").
I did use this one, made by WhoDrewThis on DeviantArt as my base:
https://www.deviantart.com/whodrewthis/art/Cheliax-Ravounel-County-58945110 1
And then I edited out the names.
If you're interested to see it nonetheless, for my take on the baronies and roads, here is the first one with roads and additional towns (in Swedish):
https://imgur.com/JcPdeKG
And here is the one with my take on the baronies: https://imgur.com/a/zHD8hnH
These are some cool maps in this thread, but I'm a little confused as to why none of them seem to line up with the info given in the last page of book 3 (in the little blurbs about the good-aligned nobles)...
- The Jarvis Barony encompasses Argo Isle, ie the city of Kintargo (hence the district named after them).
- The Jhaltero barony is based out of Whiterock, just South of Kintargo.
- Aulamaxa has Cypress Point to the north.
- Varshnarstill has Anchor's End which is over in Arcadia.
Personally, if I were to assign them, if take Mr. Jacobs' map with the following modifications:
- Replace Delronge with Aulamaxa.
- Replace Sarini with Jarvis.
- Replace Jarvis with Jhaltero, and extend the border east to include Whiterock.
- Replace Jhaltero with Sarini. Sarini could also take Varshnarstill's land since they technically don't have any holdings in Ravounel, or say that they have it on loan from the Sarinis as a token holding on the mainland (which could be turned into a plot point; in my game there was a conspiracy on the part of the Delronges to strip the Varshnarstill's of their nobility, and the Sarinis could well be in on it).
- Replace Tanessen with either Aulorian or Delronge and extend it further into the North plains because an Archbaroness or a Count should have a bit more territory than that little corner of nothing).
- Keep Aulorian as is or replace with Delronge if they replaced Tanessen.
- Replace Victocora with Tanessen (I just like the idea of the military defence buffs holding Menador Keep, though their current placement also makes sense if you look at it from the "bulwark against Nidal" angle).
- Replace Aulamaxa with Victocora.
Interestingly, this puts all the allied or neutral nobles' holdings along the coast, closer to Kintargo, while the loyalists are closer to Cheliax proper (except for Victocora, which is behind enemy lines but also close to another very rebellious region). That might be a little on the nose, but fitting, I think.
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These are some cool maps in this thread, but I'm a little confused as to why none of them seem to line up with the info given in the last page of book 3 (in the little blurbs about the good-aligned nobles)...
Mr. Jacobs explains why his map doesn't line up with Dance of the Damned (or indeed, with Tomorrow Must Burn, which establishes that the Jhalteros also have land near the head of the Katharevousa River). His is a scratch map for a private game that was neither canon nor subject to editorial, and he didn't cross-check.
This lack of attention should us something very important about Ravounel nobles in particular and Chelish nobles in general if we're willing to work through its implications, that I alluded to upthread: it largely doesn't matter where their lands are. The Civil War broke their power and drove them into the cities, and Thrune policies have kept them there to discourage revolt and built up the para-nobility, the Church of Asmodeus, and the bourgeoisie as alternate bases of power.
That seventy-five years of policy and social development can't be undone, and to present the revolution as straightforwardly restorationist is to place form over substance. The szlachta of 1863 were not the szhlachta of 1789; so too here, no matter how badly the Ravounel nobility may desire the Golden Freedoms.
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If you'd like to share it, I'd be happy to get have it for my campaign, which starts today. :)Well, the location names (several which I added myself) are in Swedish. So, assuming you're American, I'm afraid it would be like reading names of IKEA furniture ("Risby"? "Silversten?").
I did use this one, made by WhoDrewThis on DeviantArt as my base:
https://www.deviantart.com/whodrewthis/art/Cheliax-Ravounel-County-58945110 1And then I edited out the names.
If you're interested to see it nonetheless, for my take on the baronies and roads, here is the first one with roads and additional towns (in Swedish):
https://imgur.com/JcPdeKGAnd here is the one with my take on the baronies: https://imgur.com/a/zHD8hnH
These two maps are wonderful, thank you. :)