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Does anyone know the original inspiration or design purpose of Windsong Abbey in Varisia?
It always seemed to me to be an incongruous square-peg/round-hole eyesore in the setting made at the very beginning so that players could have somewhere for their PC-with-a-different-deity to be from when they started in Sandpoint. (And the AP volume in Shattered Star didn't do much to change my initial impression.)
But it's go so much potentially going for it, as a concept, if I could ever get the image of a friendly dinner table conversation with the Paladin of Ragathiel passing the potatoes to the Warpriest of Molech, the Inquisitor of Pharasma pouring some wine for the Necromancer of Urgothoa, the Cleric of Lamashtu sharing some fish with the Anti-Paladin of Pazuzu, and the high priests of Sarenrae, Szuriel, Asmodeus and Norgorber are debating cake or pie for dessert -- while all the while some 1st and 2nd level Monks are randomly in the background somehow learning Kung-Fu. ....Just so the setting has somewhere where a PC can be from if Sandpoint or Magnimar don't fit when RotRL begins.
If anyone can point me to any published material outside the basic paragraph in the campaign setting book or Shattered Star -- I'd greatly appreciate it. Maybe there's some fiction or a PFS Scenario I don't know about that will help me get a different feel for the place. ...Or if anyone has any anecdotes to share on Windsong Abbey's design history, I'd love it (or if you've altered it in your Homegame and want to share).
Anyway, many THANKS in advance!
Creative Director
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| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Does anyone know the original inspiration or design purpose of Windsong Abbey in Varisia?
It always seemed to me to be an incongruous square-peg/round-hole eyesore in the setting made at the very beginning so that players could have somewhere for their PC-with-a-different-deity to be from when they started in Sandpoint. (And the AP volume in Shattered Star didn't do much to change my initial impression.)
But it's go so much potentially going for it, as a concept, if I could ever get the image of a friendly dinner table conversation with the Paladin of Ragathiel passing the potatoes to the Warpriest of Molech, the Inquisitor of Pharasma pouring some wine for the Necromancer of Urgothoa, the Cleric of Lamashtu sharing some fish with the Anti-Paladin of Pazuzu, and the high priests of Sarenrae, Szuriel, Asmodeus and Norgorber are debating cake or pie for dessert -- while all the while some 1st and 2nd level Monks are randomly in the background somehow learning Kung-Fu. ....Just so the setting has somewhere where a PC can be from if Sandpoint or Magnimar don't fit when RotRL begins.
If anyone can point me to any published material outside the basic paragraph in the campaign setting book or Shattered Star -- I'd greatly appreciate it. Maybe there's some fiction or a PFS Scenario I don't know about that will help me get a different feel for the place. ...Or if anyone has any anecdotes to share on Windsong Abbey's design history, I'd love it (or if you've altered it in your Homegame and want to share).
Anyway, many THANKS in advance!
Windsong Abbey is, like a large amount of Varisia's locations, an export from my homebrew setting. The whole point of it is that it's a sort of "United Nations" of religion where scholars and philosophers from, in theroy, the 20 most widespread religions in the Inner Sea, can come to a neutral ground to trade lore and debate and have a safe space to talk to each other. As detailed in the adventure "Beyond the Doomsday Door" though... that idea didn't last forever.
I created the Windsong Abbey series of webfiction with Mark to create a place that shows of some of the in-world results of that "meeting of the faiths." Gives us a way to tell in-world myths and legends in a print format without the implication that "this is fact, not myth" that we can't do as well in a lore book that's talking directly to the GM.
That said, if the history and details in "Doomsday Door" didn't do it for you, your best bet at this point is to chat with others about their homebrew solutions and histories. Because the one in that adventure is more or less the version of it from my homebrew (although anything to do with Aroden and his death is pure Golarion).
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Thanks guys!!!!
I always kinda liked the idea of the location and the whole Shattered Star dungeon crawl underneath it is cool -- but it always did 'feel' a little off. But I wasn't just going to arbitrarily erase it from my game, nor make radical changes so that it was no longer anything at all like the published (may as well make it Saltmarsh or Candlekeep if you do that -- um, bleh, no)
And your posts will really help me finally get a handle on it, hopefully with just a few modifications -- such as which deities have reps there and which may not.
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Creative Director
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| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Thanks guys!!!!
I always kinda liked the idea of the location and the whole Shattered Star dungeon crawl underneath it is cool -- but it always did 'feel' a little off. But I wasn't just going to arbitrarily erase it from my game, nor make radical changes so that it was no longer anything at all like the published (may as well make it Saltmarsh or Candlekeep if you do that -- um, bleh, no)
And your posts will really help me finally get a handle on it, hopefully with just a few modifications -- such as which deities have reps there and which may not.
A huge part of the reason for it not being in a town or city is because they wanted it to be remote from distractions like that, and to ensure that those who came to join were serious in that they had to make a distant and dangerous pilgrimage to the location through the wilderness, so placing it in a town never made sense to me.
Sandpoint's Cathedral, which is itself a multi-denominational but smaller thing than Windsong Abbey, was for sure inspired by the Abbey which the original settlers of the town for sure knew about.
