I don't have enough time for a more complete survey, but off the top of my head, Pharasma is the dominant religion in Ustalav and the largest cathedral there is the Maiden's Choir in the capital city. That said, Caliphas is not a very large city on a global scale, so as far as 'worldwide most important holy place', that is unlikely to be the place.
Absalom, the largest city in the Inner Sea has a temple to every deity, including Pharasma.
Overall I don't think Pharasma necessarily has any modern temple which is considered 'the' central location for the entire Inner Sea in the same sense as the Vatican, but you could also look for the oldest temple to Pharasma. Perhaps Osirion has one next to their temple of Nethys?
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Ustalav and Osirion were indeed the two I thought of right off. The two branches of the faith seem quite different in tone, with the Ustalavan group being the center of the 'penitent' movement, all about suffering and self-deprivation, but they might have *some* connective tissue via the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, which sort of fetishes occult Osirioni lore.
There was, IIRC, a typo in one of the earlier books that alternately listed the tallest structure in some Osirioni city (perhaps the capital?) as devoted to Pharasma, or Nethys (who is kind of a big deal, being more or less the founder of Osirion, in some tellings). It might be interesting to have the two churches still squabbling about it, no matter who really claims it currently. :)
I think the church of Pharasma was one of the three faiths all wrapped up in the religious wars (along with Norgorber and Nethys, IIRC) that got religion banned in Rahadoum, and it sounded like they were indeed one of the major faiths in that country, before it all went pear-shaped.
Inner Sea Gods also lists Brevoy, Nex, Thuvia, the Shackles and Varisia as having significant Pharasmin presences, but none of those places seem quite as likely to have a 'Pharasmin Vatican' as Osirion or Ustalav (maybe Brevoy?).
We do know the names of several of the high priests (the founder of Pharasmin Penitence was named Mother Kavapesta, etc) but I don't think Pharasma's faith has the same sort of structural hierarchy as the Catholic Church (despite how the Ustalav branch visually namechecks the aesthetic). This makes sense, since technically the setting is polytheistic, so the average person has reason to generate a range of gods rather than unify around specific religious identities. Also, Pharasma is as old as the universe, so her oldest and largest temples on Golarion were probably destroyed in Earthfall, while on the other hand in many places (Brevoy, for example) she is primarily worshipped by humble folk--midwives, gravediggers, and the commoners they tend to.
In short, even if all the specifics of Pharasma's worship were nailed down at this point, I don't think we'd find that there was one place in the Inner Sea which centralized her worship into a place where all others considered an authority over themselves. Unlike, for example, Aroden, whose faith believed that he would reappear before his faithful in Cheliax, I believe specifically the city of Westcrown, in the year 4606.
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the average person has reason to generate a range of gods
Oof, I meant venerate, this is what I get for typing on an ipad before I've finished waking up. Also you are most welcome!
A few more names which may interest you now that I have a moment to sit down with a wiki reference page:
Neferpatra is an 18th level Cleric who, despite her power is only in the middle of her temple's hierarchy, but also happens to be a Grand Councilwoman of Absalom.
Inebni Andabar is a 14th level Cleric who is the high priestess of the temple in Sothis, capital of Osirion, making it likely one of the oldest still-standing temples of Pharasma in the Inner Sea.
Malika Azardi is a 17th level Cleric/Wizard Theurge, called the High Theurge, who is listed as a powerful Pharasma worshiper also in Sothis, but contextually I suspect there's an error and she's the high priest of Nethys?
Sebti the Crocodile, 13th level Cleric, is the common-born High Priestess of the temple of Pharasma in Wati (a small city in Osirion which used to be populous before plagues; Pharasmin worshipers moved into and have been regrowing since.
Mother Verith Thesia, 12th level Cleric, is the high priestess in Caliphas, capital of Ustalav
Bishop Keppira d'Bear, 13th level Cleric, is the high priestess in Korvosa, Varisia (one of three major cities).
Annamentus Jivorus, 7th level Cleric, is the high priest in Magnimar, Varisia (another major city)
Delana Karaheis, 9th level Cleric, is the High Priestess of Death in the Godsmouth Cathedral in Kaer Maga, and also the leader of the church (largest minor city in Varisia)
Bavhulameta Ulametria, 11th level Cleric, is the current leader of the Pharasmin Penitence movement in Ustalav.
(I thought I was going to see a few inquisitors and an oracle on this list but I skimmed for people who looked like they had positions of significant authority, whether inside the church or from a political standpoint)
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The Pharasmin Vatican is the Boneyard.
Everyone gets to visit in due time.
This is the real answer.
All the gods have their own plane/territory which they control the very fabric of. And mortals (of sufficient power) can visit it and talk to their gods.
What could be a more powerful setting for a deity than their house.
But in terms of what your average mortals might experience? Sorry, I just don't know the lore well enough.
A few more names which may interest you now that I have a moment to sit down with a wiki reference page:It is interesting to note how many are Osiriani. That could just be a publishing coincidence where Mummy's Mask involved Undead and Osirion so more NPCs got mentioned or Osirion is a place with a high value on Pharasma worship.
When I played that I'd gotten the impression Pharasma had her primary temple(s) there (for Golarion that is), though I haven't read the AP to verify.
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A few more names which may interest you now that I have a moment to sit down with a wiki reference page:It is interesting to note how many are Osiriani. That could just be a publishing coincidence where Mummy's Mask involved Undead and Osirion so more NPCs got mentioned or Osirion is a place with a high value on Pharasma worship.
It would make sense that her oldest and most traditional churches would be in Osirion, one of the last vestiges of the 'ancient empires' of the setting.
Ustalav is, among other things, less monolithic than Osirion, almost like a collection of Ravenloft-y mini-settings bound together by a classic horror theme. Here there be werewolves, there vampires, etc. making it not quite as unified as Osirion, in it's presentation, with a half-dozen regional capitols, instead being able to focus on the primary church in Sothis.
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The problem with wanting to be Martin Luther in the Golarion universe is that your god can literally visit you (and you can visit them) and they can tell you exactly what they do and don't want.
As far as I know, Sarenrae is the only deity that has a major schism with the two sects practicing radically different ideas of the faith. And one seems pretty contradictory to what we know about Sarenrae and her faith, but for some reason is allowed to exist. The why isn't particularly clear except that Paizo wrote it and hasn't written away the Cult of the Dawnflower (to my knowledge).
In real life, mortals argue over the direction we should follow because you can't talk to your god. Your god sends no messengers. There are no angles coming to direct you.
On Golarion, you can stand in front of your god in literal heaven (assuming that's their domain). You shouldn't have squabbles over major doctrine because most gods will make it directly known what they want you to do.
Unless your deity likes the chaos. In which case...
The problem with wanting to be Martin Luther in the Golarion universe is that your god can literally visit you (and you can visit them) and they can tell you exactly what they do and don't want.
As far as I know, Sarenrae is the only deity that has a major schism with the two sects practicing radically different ideas of the faith. And one seems pretty contradictory to what we know about Sarenrae and her faith, but for some reason is allowed to exist. The why isn't particularly clear except that Paizo wrote it and hasn't written away the Cult of the Dawnflower (to my knowledge).
In real life, mortals argue over the direction we should follow because you can't talk to your god. Your god sends no messengers. There are no angles coming to direct you.
On Golarion, you can stand in front of your god in literal heaven (assuming that's their domain). You shouldn't have squabbles over major doctrine because most gods will make it directly known what they want you to do.
Unless your deity likes the chaos. In which case...
"I got my dogma directly from the Lord of Lies himself! Oh...wait."
I believe Paizo retconned away the Dawnflower faction (as in Jacobs directly called that out as a mistake). Whether they've been deleted or declared false/non-Saranrae I forget though I don't think they're around any more.
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YYeah, Cult of the Dawnflower was resolved.
Moreover, only a few clerics get the ability to directly ask their deity questions, and the spells that enable that don't guarantee contact with a specific deity, so getting word from on high actually requires plane shifting to the right place and hoping the deity is having office hours. Pharasma, for example, has a waiting list a few hundred years long. No big deal for the dead, but for a mortal, that's more of an issue. Or Groteus, who steadfastly refuses to speak to his clergy, let alone answer doctrine related questions.
That, coupled with how difficult it is to transmit information in semi-medieval society, and how the print history of The Lost Omens setting makes clear, misunderstandings of dogma happen constantly. Most famously, Sarenrae tried to get people to stop hanging out near the Pit of Gormuz. Omens, Portents, Signs and having a herald drop on by. And the place still had to be smote.
Divine casters can get away with a lot before they lose spell privileges. Deities are not hands on.
While only a few clerics possess the power to be able to travel to their deities, it really shouldn't take many people with that ability. As a cleric who falls too far out of step will lose that power. And I would think that a deity, while perhaps being mostly hands off, would (if they had an organized clergy) be more likely to be in communication (even if through intermediaries) than to allow a whole body of their faithful veer off in an undesired direction. Mind you I'm not saying Sarenrae is going to reach out about Joe the cleric who is doing a little something she doesn't like. I'm talking about Tom the High Cleric who's leading 10,000 people down a wrong path.
Direct communication to your deity while unlikely, doesn't mean that a deity can't communicate their desires through the host of outsiders that serve them.
Sarenrae and the Pit of Gormuz example is actually just a bit of lore that doesn't make much sense to me. Like, it's not hard to send a bunch of low level Agathions early on and have them repeatedly tell people "No, Sarenrae really meant for you not to be here". IMO, it was only miscommunicated because it served the story Paizo wanted to tell.
But "obvious signs" didn't need to be used. You can literally send low level outsiders to go hang out in that area and run everyone off.
I'm not disagreeing that obtuse signs could be misinterpreted. I'm saying that if slicing a giant wound in the planet is on the table, how about sending your minions to scare off everyone first with clear message "Please get the frack out" (and not waiting until they've gone crazy enough to kill your messenger).
The example of the Glorious Reclamation is interesting, because they were doing exactly the kind of thing Iomedae likes. But the main body of the church was like "We like this, but we can't say we like". I wouldn't consider that a schism. At least not one of dogma. Rather political differences, with one group saying "The consequences!" and the other saying "Hold my beer!".
And yeah, I guess lastly mortals having the run of the organization is another thing that unrealistic to me. I get that Paizo doesn't want the gods to be that directly involved. It just doesn't make sense to me. At least not for all gods. I can totally see some gods just not caring enough. But I feel certain gods should be micromanaging the crap out of their church. But we don't see that.
Mostly because the one likely to be micromanagers would also be a lot of the traditional "good gods" and a lot of the others would be evil (actually more along a lawful vs chaotic issue, but anyways) but that really limits players ability to be important narratively.
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I think we may be misreading the availability of low level outsiders to hang around specific regions of individual planets on the material plane... I don't know how many angels Sarenrae has personally in her service, but redirecting some from their duties to guard a desert for an indefinite length of time seems a bit of a tough sell. Add to that you first have to devise a means of sending them there in the first place since low level celestials generally have the means to travel the planes on their own.
Mind you, given the way events transpired, it might have been the better option, but also weigh that against the celestial and deific preference toward non-intervention when a simple warning message should have sufficed. We know from a handful of examples that communication between mortals and the divine is not a.ways simple or straightforward even from the divine side of things--there were like 3 mwangi sun gods who all vanished into history because mortals forgot about them, who Sarenrae would later adopt, according to myth.
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Add to that that there might be false entities posing as avatars/messengers to fool followers. So while there might be ample level 1 Celestials (etc.) to send out with correct interpretations of core dogma, they might be an Imp or Quasit in disguise or just some fey or trickster screwing with the flock.
"The glowing light said to smother the bear in chocolate."
"But my beam of light said we should prioritize egging the vicar's house."
"Eh...no." (Which might be why Wisdom's tied to excelling in divine paths, a dubious claim IRL.)
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YYeah, Cult of the Dawnflower was resolved.
Moreover, only a few clerics get the ability to directly ask their deity questions, and the spells that enable that don't guarantee contact with a specific deity, so getting word from on high actually requires plane shifting to the right place and hoping the deity is having office hours. Pharasma, for example, has a waiting list a few hundred years long. No big deal for the dead, but for a mortal, that's more of an issue. Or Groteus, who steadfastly refuses to speak to his clergy, let alone answer doctrine related questions.
That, coupled with how difficult it is to transmit information in semi-medieval society, and how the print history of The Lost Omens setting makes clear, misunderstandings of dogma happen constantly. Most famously, Sarenrae tried to get people to stop hanging out near the Pit of Gormuz. Omens, Portents, Signs and having a herald drop on by. And the place still had to be smote.
Divine casters can get away with a lot before they lose spell privileges. Deities are not hands on.
While only a few clerics possess the power to be able to travel to their deities, it really shouldn't take many people with that ability. As a cleric who falls too far out of step will lose that power. And I would think that a deity, while perhaps being mostly hands off, would (if they had an organized clergy) be more likely to be in communication (even if through intermediaries) than to allow a whole body of their faithful veer off in an undesired direction. Mind you I'm not saying Sarenrae is going to reach out about Joe the cleric who is doing a little something she doesn't like. I'm talking about Tom the High Cleric who's leading 10,000 people down a wrong path.
Direct communication to your deity while unlikely, doesn't mean that a deity can't communicate their desires through the host of outsiders that serve them.
Sarenrae and the Pit of Gormuz example is actually just a bit of lore that doesn't make much sense to me. Like, it's...
That is the thing though. Pit of Gormuz story is about Sarenrae telling her followers MULTIPLE TIMES in CLEAR TERMS that she doesn't want them to settle on top of the scar and each time her followers interpreting her being contrarian because its actually a test of their faith
Let's use a current polarizing example. Covid.
In the US we've reached about 77% of people taking at least one dose of the vaccines available. Less than we'd hope for, but more than half.
Not apples to apples, but I'd expect something similar to happen (I don't know the story super well) but from what I understand there wasn't a mass exodus with some deluded individuals sticking around saying it's a hoax (which I what I would expect). You wont get 100% of people to leave, but you should get a majority IMO.
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I didn't say it makes perfect sense assuming they were completely non rovagug corrupted people since only way it would make mundane sense would be if they all happened to be massive stubborn zealous idiots ^_^;
Its one of those things where "eh its fantasy setting so its fine, its what happened" is easy way to think about it. Alternate would be "that doesn't make sense so there has to be more to the story"
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The Pit of Gormuz story doesn't need people to behave as "rational actors" because it's a backstory lore entry explaining a few things. It's like myth. It's a work of artifice, as is everything else in the books.
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Also relevant counterpoint: in this analogy, none of the Gormuz 'antivaxxers' suffered any meaningful consequences for denying the truth until they were already pretty virulently messed up from all the Rovagug stealth worship they'd been unconsciously buying into. In our world people had already been dying for a long time before the vaccine came out, which was heralded as the way to return to normal. In this example, unless living conditions dramatically dipped (plausible), and handful of warnings about a potential bad future coming down the line, which have been interpreted by the majority as a test of faith, is not the same.
On the other hand I agree, it makes sense for there to be some who fled the city, probably carefully to avoid being shamed by their neighbors as faithless or unworthy. On the other hand, the entirety of the Gormuz legend is too short and focused on the topic of 'once there was a city that ignored warnings and turned to sin' to spend words elucidating the historical details outside the mythic narrative.
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My thoughts would be;
A) There are entities out there who delight in heresies, such as Geryon, whose practically a god of that, as well as Norgorber, whose followers (and outsider servants) might happily arrange for bad beliefs or misinterpretations or outright engineered false visitations or omens.
B) Outsiders aren't exactly 100% reliable. Entire cadres of psychopomps, created by Pharasma to be her hands and eyes and mouthpieces, went rogue and became Sakhil. And that's an extreme example. An angel, who could serve any of a dozen good deities, not necessarily created by Sarenrae or Erastil or Torag, and / or be a fan of a dozen or more empyreals, might have a *slight* doctrinal difference of opinion than the god or goddess who has assigned her to go straighten out some mortals, and her 'Shelyn says X' speech might not be 100% what Shelyn would have said in the same situation, and almost guaranteed could be misinterpreted by a zealous follower looking for confirmation of their own tenets, and willing to gloss over statements that conflict with their views as just 'standard holy boilerplate, not to be taken literally,' when, in fact, Shelyn herself very much meant the message she gave the angel literally...
Any time there is communication, there can be miscommunication, and when someone is sending agents (even outsiders) to relay information to others, it becomes a game of telephone. When recipients of this information have a strong vested interest, literally a *religious* faith in their beliefs, any statement from the god's flunkies becomes a game of spot the confirmation bias, as the follower 'hears' emphasis on messages that reinforce their own beliefs, and tends to downplay or de-emphasize messages that are contrary to or threaten their own beliefs.
Obviously, once this reaches the level of 'heresy,' and the clerics start losing powers, it's an issue, but, even then, there might be tricky evil sorts like Geryon, patron of heresies, or Norgorber, god of lies, or even someone less overtly sinister like Calistria or Sivanah, who might grant a 'heretic' spells, just to muddy the waters. (and plenty of congregations might make do with oracles or shamen or druids or some other sort of divine spellcaster, or not even a divine spellcaster, such as a bard, and there's no amount of 'heresy' that's going to make their 'cleric' lose their spells, since their 'cleric' has no actual cleric class levels!)
In short (TL;DR), there's plenty of ways this sort of thing could happen in the setting. None of the gods micro-manage every worshippers every thought and belief (even if some, like Asmodeus, might very much like to...). Cause, free will is a thing.
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Great stuff there. I highly recommend reading all you can about Pharasma and psychopomps. And indeed the blog posts with stories about the deities of the Lost Omens.
For more though sometimes dated sources, you can check the pathfinderwiki on these subjects and check their sources.
Also searching for Pharasma and psychopomps on the Lost Omens board but also on the PF2 boards might bring juiceful info.
Good luck with all this.