Isle of Kortos Help

[Dargurd]

Hi all, I'm trying to get a feel for the Isle of Kortos to help set the scene for the players.

Is there something in the real world I can relate to it in terms of climate, terrain etc ?

[CrystalSeas]

You may find this "Mapping Golarion" project useful in finding comparisons

Mapping Golarion.

As you can see from its placement, Kortos is in a global position that is much like the Earth's Mediterranean islands.

Think Greece, Sicily, Cyprus.

[The Raven Black]

As for size, this thread gives some good clues and comparisons.

[Dargurd]

The Raven Black wrote:

As for size, this thread gives some good clues and comparisons.

Thanks for the help - very much appreciated

[Dargurd]

Thankyou i will go and investigate

[Ixal]

For there to be much of wilderness left after 4000 years of settlement much of the island must have very poor soil so that hardly anything useable grows there outside of the zones of aeon towers.

Maybe grassland like the Eurasian Steppe? Would fit with there being centaurs...

[CrystalSeas]

Ixal wrote:

For there to be much of wilderness left after 4000 years of settlement

Real world economics and earth-like fertility patterns don't apply to Golarion. So your conclusions don't apply to Kortos. There are towns that were built around lumbering, and families that have made fortunes over generations running timber/lumber companies.

[Ixal]

CrystalSeas wrote:

Ixal wrote:

For there to be much of wilderness left after 4000 years of settlement

Real world economics and earth-like fertility patterns don't apply to Golarion. So your conclusions don't apply to Kortos. There are towns that were built around lumbering, and families that have made fortunes over generations running timber/lumber companies.

Unless you run a complete gonzo campaign, common sense still applies. And that common sense says that there must be a reason why the island with the center of civilization on it has not been settled completely.

Low fertility makes the most sense as that was the main reason areas were not settled and also mixes well with the aeon towers specifically created to increase fertility around them.
Steppe would be such a low fertility terrain and would fit with centaurs being there which makes at least thematical sense as thats the exact kind of region where horse nomads originate from.

[Dargurd]

Lots more good stuff to consider. Thanks all.

[Ixal]

By the way, the best geographical match for Kortos would imo be Sicily or Sardinia, including the size.

[CrystalSeas]

Ixal wrote:

Steppe would be such a low fertility terrain and would fit with centaurs being there which makes at least thematical sense as thats the exact kind of region where horse nomads originate from.

So the published information is wrong? There aren't huge forests on Kortos and lumbering companies that are still active hundreds of years after they were started?

As staff have told you repeatedly: your vision of the world is not at all the same as theirs. You keep trying to re-write Golarion canon to fit your own logical biases and view of "how things ought to be" rather than how things actually are in the published descriptions of the setting.

[Ixal]

CrystalSeas wrote:

Ixal wrote:

Steppe would be such a low fertility terrain and would fit with centaurs being there which makes at least thematical sense as thats the exact kind of region where horse nomads originate from.

So the published information is wrong? There aren't huge forests on Kortos and lumbering companies that are still active hundreds of years after they were started?

As staff have told you repeatedly: your vision of the world is not at all the same as theirs. You keep trying to re-write Golarion canon to fit your own logical biases and view of "how things ought to be" rather than how things actually are in the published descriptions of the setting.

You seem to be quite angry when someone puts more thought into the setting.

That there are still lumbering companies just means that the entire island has not been deforested yet which is not surprising, especially when it is not settled, considering how much wood is normally needed for burning. Even if it were tightly settled, deforesting it completely would be quite an achievement.

It also does not mean that the interior of the island can not be low quality soil unusable for farming. Large logging operations would be limited to the coast and close to rivers (which, from the maps I have seen are rather rare in the island) as again, large scale transportation is a problem unless it is by boat. For Absolom it would be cheaper to import wood from somewhere else than getting it from the inland of Kortos without river transport.

[Vorsk, Follower or Erastil]

A likly reason for the lack of complete settlement is unlike Earth, Golarion has monsters litterally everywhere. The articles on the different regions in the Extinction Curse Ap mention all kinds of creatures that exist outside of what would be considered civilized, from beasts to fey to monstererous humanoids who like to be left alone and likly attack those that try to settle areas they deem as theirs. The large number of minotaur, harpies, centaurs,and other traditional "monsters" from Voon's failed first seige likly made expanding to cover the whole island slightly difficult

[Franz Lunzer]

Also: if there are large numbers of 'monsters', those need to feed on something too. A large population of predators need a large population of prey, and those need a food source too, so the soil needs to be able to support that too.

[Rysky]

Ixal wrote:

You seem to be quite angry when someone puts more thought into the setting.

More you acting that you know better than the writers, theorycrafting's fine.

[Kasoh]

Rysky wrote:

Ixal wrote:

You seem to be quite angry when someone puts more thought into the setting.

More you acting that you know better than the writers, theorycrafting's fine.

I mean, they could. There's nothing inherently superior to the writers of an RPG than any other person except that they landed in the position to write RPG books*. Paizo wants books written a certain way that appeals to how they want to present the world. But just because it got printed doesn't mean its better or right.

It is, however, canon.

The world is presented a certain way with a certain level of detail because most customers don't want or need more detail than that. Some people might like a hardcover "Inner Sea Macroeconomics" but I doubt it'd be a hit unless the Accountant and Securities Trader dedications are really great.

The books printed are focused on presenting a world where heroes go on adventures and the entire world tilts on that face. I generally just accept that minor moments of my table saying "That really shouldn't work." aside.

Man, that was a lot of words to say I see both sides. Oh well.

*:

The institutional and professional knowledge a person acquires to be in a position to be offered jobs to write RPG books could make us think they are better at writing RPG material than amateurs, which is probably true so long as you like the house style.

[Rysky]

Kasoh wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Ixal wrote:

You seem to be quite angry when someone puts more thought into the setting.

More you acting that you know better than the writers, theorycrafting's fine.

I mean, they could.

No, no they do not. Random person who doesn’t work on the setting does not know how the setting works better than the people who do actually work on it.

[thewastedwalrus]

You'll probably find the most recent information on the Isle of Kortos in the Extinction Curse adventure path.

My understanding is that west of the central mountains is a pretty lush landscape with magically impressive crop yields and forests, while to the east lies the city of Absalom and much harsher soil/earth. The eastern portion links back to the pretty well known tale of how Aroden pulled the Isle from the bottom of the Inner Sea. And the western portion is so life-filled because of

Extinction Curse spoilers:

the Aeon Towers that spread life into the island. Without the towers giving life, the island is just a rock that would relatively quickly crash back into the sea. Most of this information can be found in books 3 and 6 of that adventure path

[Kasoh]

Rysky wrote:

Kasoh wrote:

Rysky wrote:

Ixal wrote:

You seem to be quite angry when someone puts more thought into the setting.

More you acting that you know better than the writers, theorycrafting's fine.

I mean, they could.

No, no they do not. Random person who doesn’t work on the setting does not know how the setting works better than the people who do actually work on it.

I don't think one can know that. Which random person, which creator? Its not like a Paizo employee has never gotten anything wrong about the setting before. And work can be assigned to freelance writers who have never worked on the setting or that location before. That material is passed over by developers and editors who are supposed to maintain the feel and tone of the setting--and even then--mistakes still get made. Or, someone changes their mind about how it works and then new stuff gets printed.

And its not uncommon for some fans to have way more knowledge about a work readily available than the people who created it. Of course, these fans tend towards Watsonian and creators tend toward Doylist in my experience which is probably the source of most of the friction.

[Dargurd]

thewastedwalrus wrote:

You'll probably find the most recent information on the Isle of Kortos in the Extinction Curse adventure path.

Thankyou i will go pick up a copy.