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Since we have the other thread up, it only seems fair to create its inverse - what place on the map jumps out at you most? I'd love to hear about your top nations and regions, places that you like to see best in play or simply eat up a lot of mental real estate.
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Been playing in Ustalav for the better part of the last two years and honestly I'm still fond of it.
I have high hopes of being able to go back to Numeria and run Iron Gods properly this time, but the location in general tickles me in many ways.
Really, pretty much any part of any region which I've dug into for any length has attracted my attention, though I suppose not all of them are places I'd prioritize to play in. I think Taldor as a concept in the history of the setting is pretty cool but I have no idea what modern Taldor is actually like. Their history is way more important to me than their current existence, though I *have* heard that War for the Crown is pretty solid.
Shout out to my first love in the Inner Sea, though, Hermea. When I read that a gold dragon was basically running a human eugenics experiment on the island under the guise of a utopia project, I was thrilled. It's a bit of an overstatement to say I didn't know D&D settings could be that interesting but I did come from a background of pretty one-note generic fantasy settings that blended together.
Also, part of me desperately wants to explore the ruins of Azlant in an elaborate 'finding Atlantis' narrative.
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Numeria is what first caught my attention; I wasn't much of a PF1e fan, and having been caught on the wrong side of the PF-4e schism, I wasn't in much of a hurry... but then I heard about Iron Gods. I'm /desperate/ for novelty in my fantasy, and the genre mash-up space is one that's tragically underloved. The alien cultural underground is one of my favorite things in the whole setting, something I want much more of. Someday, I'll play my Fleshwarp Shadow Sorcerer from Chesed, a product of the secret velstrac cult trying to build more of their kind using incredible technology.
Weirdly enough, I have no idea what to do with Numeria in 2e. With the Technic League shattered, the main thrust of the drama in the region is Kevoth-Kul, who has always felt a little inert to me. I'm quietly hoping for an Adventure or AP in the area to give us something to do; it feels like it's pretty sorely needed.
I'd give just about anything for more on Casandalee's church, also.
Otherwise, I'm spending a lot of mental bandwidth on the Impossible Lands these days. My love for the region is in spite of the Wild West influences, even though I adore guns in fantasy - the Mana Wastes, Nex, Geb, Jalmeray, the Dongun and the Kulenett are all so cool, and so beg to be fleshed out more. 2022 is a year I'm very excited about. I'm also desperate for any and all Arcadia info, and my answer for this thread will almost certainly shift to something in Fallen Razatlan once we see more of it.
The lands of the Linnorm Kings and the Crown of the World.
Many parts of Tian Xia.
Arcadia.
Any standout favs in Tian Xia? It's still a continent I struggle to get excited about, though Zi Ha is somewhere I'm hoping for move of eventually.
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places that you like to see best in play or simply eat up a lot of mental real estate.
I've poured entirely too much brainpower, far more than they deserve and certainly far more than I'll ever put to use as a GM (assuming I ever get to GM), into Cheliax, its discontents, its successor states, and their discontents.
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Rahadoum.
A sere waste committed to an unwinnable crusade, littered with the detritus of empires burned to ash, crashed from the sky, or which linger in the insane puppets which skitter through mountain ruins. The long, barren coast with scattered, isolated communities huddling around narrow streams barely eking out a living, always in terror from the cannibalistic giants in the desert and the grotesques from the sea. Azir, Menaket, cosmopolitan cities full of trade but each perched on the edge of respective disasters as the deserts encroach and the missionaries smuggle in their deific tracts. Refugees from the terrors to the south moving north with their heretical ideas, the diablerists perched to the north with the beckonings of a new war, where the Law of Man will march against the Law of Hell. The baking interior, short on water, long on peril, but sometimes, just before the sun rises, walk up the dune, and see the dawn...
Yup. Rahadoum.
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I like Ustalav because "let's go beat up Dracula/various novelty sequels to the Monster Mash" is one of my go-to fantasy tropes.
I like the High Seas because I'm endlessly fascinated with "what cool stuff is there out there in the ocean".
I like everything I've seen about Arcadia and it's potential for "Weird West" and "Luchador(a)s beat up the devil" gonzo stuff.
I like Ravounel since it feels like it belongs to the people at the table more than other parts of the setting.
I like Jalmeray a lot because it has everything.
Nidal is fascinating but I don't think I have the chops to pull off a game set there.
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Ustalav will always have my heart. Loved GMing Carrion Crown, and in general it's full of fun places. And it doesn't have too much of Wes Schneider's Weirder Habits in it so I don't even need to scrub all that much of anything.
Second would be Nidal, which has always enchanted me and my players. Third is probably Geb? So basically all the worst places.
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Andoran, born as a break away province that understandably didn't want to bend knee to devils or their 'orderly system' and then asked itself "Why stop there?" and ditched Cheliaxian slavery entirely to embrace liberty, fraternity and equality and it worked! High hopes, High ideals, all smooth sailing from here, right?
Only, of course not. There's no vast ocean between it and the kingdoms that claim a right to it. Cheliax considers this a temporary set back and sends its hellish influence to destabilize. Taldor to the other side waits for its once frontier to 'return to he fold'. Pirates plague the shores, Fey are (understandably) annoyed their forests are being intruded on. Formal noble families scheme to change the democracy into a monarchy, and no one's most loved Lumber Consortium crushes its workers with poverty wages and control that is borderline 'slavery with extra steps' particularly in the Darkmoon Vale area. It's a place worth fighting for, and it needs adventurers.
And the more I learned of it's quirks, the more I loved it. Carpenden's crazy moon melon festival and the history behind it. Alvis which houses the alchemical society because they burned sections of the last city they were in so were likely encouraged to set up elsewhere. Sauerton making terrible wine they're actually proud of, etc. Each region and town had just enough twist to flavor it from the others in the setting.
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I likewise feel guilty for forgetting Sarkoris. Really hoping for it to get more love in 2e.
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Yeah, same. Especially with the extremely weirdly negative portrayal it got in the Wrath of the Righteous game, but it's not like Owlcat has any idea of how any location on Golarion works in the first place.
I'd love a cool good Sarkoris content injection.
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Yeah, same. Especially with the extremely weirdly negative portrayal it got in the Wrath of the Righteous game, but it's not like Owlcat has any idea of how any location on Golarion works in the first place.
I'd love a cool good Sarkoris content injection.
In my wildest dreams, we get an Adventure or AP about the Reclaimer effort… but I’d honestly be happy with enough info to make good Sarkorian PCs.
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Any standout favs in Tian Xia? It's still a continent I struggle to get excited about, though Zi Ha is somewhere I'm hoping for move of eventually.The lands of the Linnorm Kings and the Crown of the World.
Many parts of Tian Xia.
Arcadia.
Well, I have always been a fan of Japanese and Chinese stories and myths, even though I mostly got them through a western-oriented retelling when I was a kid.
I could not get enough of the TV series based on the Water Margin novel.
I loved L5R and the original Oriental Adventures (Hengeyokai FTW).
But what I really appreciate in Tian Xia (which I just learned thanks to Google is a real chinese expression BTW) is
1) all the countries inspired by RL asian countries that are NOT Japan or China = Hongal, Hwanggot, Xa-Hoi, Minata ...
2) the non-human, or even monstrous, countries. Especially Shenmen and Chu-Ye. I think diving into these places, their inhumain masters and their human (and similar) inhabitants' lives can be a cornucopia of creation and well-done weirdness.
3) the Valashmai jungle, which to me represents the dark, dangerous and primeval places where wonders are born.
I would really love for all this potential to not go to waste.
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The Saga Lands, basically.
I fell in love with Varisia from the moment it was introduced 15 or so years ago. The frontier setting, with vastly different people and cultures struggling to co-exist with an ever-present threat of conflict roiling beneath the surface. All the while building upon the ruins of an ancient magic civilization. Just love it.
Irrisen has the fantastical fae/occult stuff going on that makes me giddy. The dynamic of the common people chafing under the ruling dynasty of witches has myriad applications for interesting stories and adventures.
Not generally a fan of viking culture, but the Lands of the Linnorm Kings has somehow always held interest to me. Maybe because it reminds me more of the power struggle of ancient Chinese dynasties, which is a period of history that has always fascinated me.
Realm of the Mammoth Lords interests me less so than the others, but I've warmed to it recently and am excited about the upcoming AP set there.
Crown of the World also interests me. Loads of untapped potential there.
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Basrakal feels like it’s begging for an 11-20 AP centered on it. I think it would sell like hotcakes, and gives a good Golarion-specific anchor for a planar campaign.
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Since I vented about things that I didn't like in the other thread, it's only right to praise what I do like here.
1) The Saga Lands - My introduction to Pathfinder was Pathfinder #5, Sins of the Saviors, so Rise of the Runelords had an outsized impact on my view of Golarion. I particularly love Varisia, even if some individual elements feel like they could be handled better. The whole setup of the runelords themselves (and that some of them were at least quasi-redeemed) was enjoyable for me.
2) Taldor - This one gave me mixed feelings for a while, but the whole trope of the 'empire in decline' is vaguely appealing, as is the fact they decided to turn things around near the tail end of PF1. It might not be my favorite thing in the world, but having one of these huge empires that doesn't feel almost nauseatingly self-righteous and also isn't pure evil is nice.
3) The River Kingdoms - I just like having an area in the relatively known world which is perfect for kingdom building. It's the exact opposite of Taldor in a lot of ways, with enormous amounts of freedom.
4) Numeria - This one surprises me, because I don't like sci-fi in my fantasy most of the time. I still don't like the overall presentation of the country in other material, but Iron Gods managed to scratch an itch I almost had forgotten I had.
5) Kyonin - I'll admit it, this one is iffy for me. I don't like the way it was portrayed in 3.5, which has been said was a mistake, so I'm just generally hopeful that eventually Paizo will return to an elven nation that for once isn't in decline. With the whole Whispering Tyrant thing, I'm hopeful that'll happen! It's kinda lucky to be on this list.
Honorable Mention: Holomog. We don't have much detail about it, but I really want to see more based on the fragments we have.
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Honorable Mention: Holomog. We don't have much detail about it, but I really want to see more based on the fragments we have.
We're getting another look at it in the Blood Lords AP, which has me very excited; anything Southern Garund piques my interest.
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We're getting another look at it in the Blood Lords AP, which has me very excited; anything Southern Garund piques my interest.
Honorable Mention: Holomog. We don't have much detail about it, but I really want to see more based on the fragments we have.
Alas, the fact it's in Blood Lords means I won't be seeing it. But I'm hopeful that I'll hear some about it indirectly. Maybe from a friend who gets the APs still.
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I forgot to mention Jinin in my list of favourite Tian-Xia places. Not for what it is (elven samurai), but for what it could be. Because I do not think a few nice dreams is enough to escape unscathed from being the Drows' closest cousins.
Similar take on Amanandar. If they can make it just one city trying to survive, let alone thrive, in the middle of Tian-Xia's River Kingdoms-like area. And really explore how the locals and the colonizers had to work together to keep the good of the situation (stability and military strength + cultural mix) while getting rid of the bad (cultural superiority and Avistani as saviors).
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Numeria :p Iron Gods and fallout fan in me is main reason for that
As someone who loves every aspect of my favorite rpg setting, gonna save time by putting my other favorite places in tags, all of them are top five but not in particular order.
Sarkoris Scar because native people reclaiming their land from demonic invaders is inherently interesting concept (tell me how that isn't interesting and make it 1000k word essay ;P )
Realm of Mammoth Lords because I run stone age campaign once and it was fun :p Kinda reason I want to see an actual prehistoric game because having to play game without even "medieval" resources is really weird experience.
Druma because of Druma book and all shenanigans happening in border plus its history is fascinating.
Nidal in concept but not in practice because torture is one of things I'm squemish to run :p
I do like other places in the Avistan too(like Belkzen, Irrisen, Land of Linnorm Kings, etc) just to be clear, but had to pick some for the top five ;P
Kwanlai, besides me liking tengu, mistreated people took control of their own nation and they are lead by half celestial CG priestess of the most CN god imaginable. Chaos that is Kwanlai is fascinating to observe.
Kaoling because let's face it, hobgoblins have the evil army aesthetic down :p
Chu Ye because nation openly ruled by evil spirits with lot of mythology to take inspiration from... How to not love that?
Shenmen is as horror land more to my tastes than classic gothic horror lands(TM), even if I do like Ustalav.
Osirion because I actually like the ancient egyptian deities dagnabbit and nobody shall take that away from me x'D
Droon. Yes we know nothing about it besides powerful iruxi on dinosaurs nation. We don't need to know anything else besides whether those dinosaurs have feathers since that would make the aesthetic wholeness perfect.
Geb/Mana Wastes/Nex is kinda cheating, but I consider them to be part of the whole really. Most of it is Mana Wastes really for me, again because I'm Fallout fan.
And finally... Huh Nurvatcha or Murraseth maybe? Nah that is more of me liking Anadi or Catfolk. Hmm... I think my main issue here is that while I like Mwangi Expanse as whole(I know ironic considering my previous entry), I really struggle to see it as single nation. HOWEVER... If I think of invidual Mwangi Expanse place, first one I think is... Its... Wait the heck its Holy Xatramba? Okay name is catchy, but now I understand why I didn't think of Mwangi Expanse, my personal favorites from the regions are ruins(Saventh Yhi, Kho were other two on my mind...) so that is kinda weird. Usaro, Nantambu and Mzali are on my like list yeah, but I don't really have fifth "favorite" garund location yet. Ironically reason why Mwangi Expanse as whole isn't my favorite is that I have hard time picking favorite in that region even if I like all places in the region overally great amount, but they compete with each other for my individual attention.
For Casmaron by default its Kelesh/Iblydos/Vudra/Iobaria because those are only places we know more about and what we know is fascinating.
Arcadia is in kinda same spot as Mwangi Expanse for me, I find it overally interesting so hard to pick favorites, but I personally want to learn about origin of Syrinx and Strix ;P Enlightened owl tyrants the best weird tyrants to punch
Darklands I've never read 3.5 setting book on so uh... Yeah I'm still waiting for new Darklands book. But favorites so far are Ilvarandin and Black Desert ;P
Underwater/Sea/Ocean stuff is fun, my persona favorite is probably Antarkos Ocean stuff just because I like aesthetic from The Thing and end of Frankenstein ;P
Azlant's islands is really other book we need, but Sun Temple Colony is my favorite there yeah.
Crown of the World gets special mention for being continent treated as single region due to how sparsely populated it is, but it has fun eldritch stuff to it and closest thing we have to Finland in pathfinder ;P
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Ooh, so many!
I love Qadira and Osirion, but I also love the faux-Persian and faux-Egyptian settings Al-Qadim and Hamunaptra as well, so that's almost a cheat.
For uniquely Golarion nations, that aren't just giving me 'fantasy Vikings!' or 'fantasy French revolution!' or 'fantasy Africa!' vibes, but actually creating their own niche;
1) Numeria. A nation that's more or less the setting from Thundarr the Barbarian? Oh hell yes.
2) Varisia. Caveat: Not the biggest fan of homey Sandpoint, but Korvosa, Magnimar, Riddleport and Kaer Maga *all* tickle different fancies of mine, and I love them all. I suspect, if/when we ever get more information on Janderhoff, with it's maybe dominant dwarf population?, I'll like that one too! The Thassilonian ruins? The Shoanti quahs split off from the original runelord 'virtues of rule?' Neat, neat stuff.
3) Cheliax. Lots of other settings have ambitious evil gods of tyranny like Hextor or Bane, and then Archdevils like Asmodeus get an entry in the book o' monsters but turn out to be mostly redundant. Golarion makes the prince of hell one of the big 20 gods, and he's got a large in charge nation right there on the map. Impossible to ignore. The 'evil god of tyranny' is getting **** done, not a wannabe or has-been like in some other settings where you can look at the map and wonder what the evil tyrant is even doing, since it's all kingdoms run by scantily clad good mages. Plus they are just so hate-able. It's like the setting has it's own Nazis, perfect villains for any situation, with no quibbling moral issues about whether or not it's okay to kill them and take their stuff.
4) Irrisen. Dark faerie tale land of enchantment? Neat. Less Disney, more Grimm, and I like it!
5) Geb and Nex. We haven't seen much of these lands yet, but the dribs and drabs of lore we've seen so far excite me.
6) Ustalav. Ravenloft was never my thing. I like reading Lovecraft, Poe or early Stephen King, but not really trying to put myself into the horror story, either by watching horror movies, or by role-playing in horror scenarios. But I love the moody ambiance, and if there were more stories set in Ustalav, I'd read the heck out of them. :)
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I shouldn't leave out how much I love Mzali. "Join the underground resistance effort (empowered by a forgotten pantheon of lion-sun gods) against the undead child-mummy-god-king of an ancient city-state and his fash cronies who rule with an iron fist" is SUCH a strong pitch, and one of the highlights of the entire Mwangi Expanse.
Book 4 of Strength of Thousands has won me over as my single favorite AP volume. I'm hoping the Bright Lions and their struggle get an Adventure Path to themselves a few years down the line.
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I like Nidal a lot, less for the torture stuff and more because the concept of a culture around for that long, preserving itself through a direct deal with a deity, is fascinating to me. It's noted in places that they have historical archives dated back further than any currently extant societies, and that's super cool. And I like the shadowy (pun intended, always intend your puns) atmosphere of the place.
Sarkoris is also really neat, given their old culture and their attempts now to reclaim their homeland. I'd love to see more of it.
We haven't (yet) seen a whole lot of Alkenstar, but I love weird west stuff, so I'm looking forward to that AP!
Kaer Maga, for just how off-the-wall it is. It's a bunch of cities within a city, which is cool.
The new Mwangi Expanse book has bumped it way up on my list, too. Plenty of needed updates and some really interesting cities to hang out in!
I have...a lot of favorites. :-)
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Nidal, I actually like the spookyness more than the cenobite stuff.
Ustalav, also spooky.
Irrisen. Once upon a December...
Sometimes I think that Rysky and I are the same person.
I have a lot of love for Irrisen and Carrion Crown was the first AP I ran in PF1. Spooky shadow magic is just icing, bb.
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Nidal, I actually like the spookyness more than the cenobite stuff.
Ustalav, also spooky.
Irrisen. Once upon a December...
Sometimes I think that Rysky and I are the same person.
I have a lot of love for Irrisen and Carrion Crown was the first AP I ran in PF1. Spooky shadow magic is just icing, bb.
^w^
And in Irrisen you can have shadows on your icing magic :3
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Nidal is a place I want to love, but Kuthite stuff hits too many of my triggers to get anywhere near. It’s a shame; “ancient nation with alien values brought on by their pact with a dark god” is entirely my jam, but I can’t safely play with most of it.
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The Sarkoris Scar is a big one for me, I thought the first edition Worldwound was neat but dealing with the aftermath of it is even more interesting. I like the lore and history of Geb, Nex, and the Mana Wastes a lot. I mean, two nations created by an ancient rivalry between mages, one full of high-magic weirdness and one ruled by undead, and the wasteland formed by the devastation of their war? Awesome stuff.
I didn't think much about Razmiran at first, but it ended up becoming one of my favorites, the idea of a wizard who created a whole nation by scamming people into thinking he's a god is fascinating to me. Nantambu and the Magaambya are pretty cool, and the Realm of the Mammoth Lords is fun (though I do wonder why we don't see many mammoths and stuff in the surrounding regions). Jaha has a pretty interesting premise as well.
Thuvia is underrated in my opinion. There's not much info about Dtang Ma but I like the setup of sorcerers with different power sources, led by one that can use them all, ruling the country. I'm also intrigued by Ravounel, Oprak, Kelesh, Shaguang, Holomog, the Land of Northern Lakes, Droon, Xa Hoi, and Vudra (especially the regions of the Cradle, Crying Jungle, Golden Basin, Narhari Desert, and Open Bridge).
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Hwanggot. It allows me to tell fantasy stories from a inspired period of Korean History, the Joseon dynasty. Which there are LARGE amounts of Kdrama about to draw inspiration from. Which also includes fantasy horror Kdramas.
The lonely traveler trying to reach home. Encounters a ghost along the way. The ghost leaves when the rooster crows three times before the sun rises.
Tiger people. Fox people hungry for hearts. Stories that scared me as a child, and are great sources for encounters (family watched lots of kdrama).
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I've increasingly fallen for Shokuro and Shenmen, who are both even better together as a pair; Shokuro as a scrappy underdog kingdom in need of heroes, Shenmen as a place of ghosts and horrors to threaten it.
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Digging this thread back up to say that I’m increasingly excited by Xa Hoi. It feels like a uniquely Southeast Asian take on classic fantasy tropes: the noble Sovereign Dragons run the state and military, Nagaji and Wayangs live alongside human clans and those dragons, and there’s an army of haunted clockwork lurking beneath!
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Fantasy Vietnam in anything before. I’d love to have it done right.
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In the safety of fantasy (where I don't actually have to make a living in those conditions) my soul yearns for libertarian nightmares where my PC can strike out for there own fortunes like the shackles or the river kingdoms, one piece style. Open frontiers where I make my way.