New Aquatic Locations in Lost Omens

[Opsylum]

So, a couple weeks ago, Luis Loza made a thread on Reddit asking people what they'd be interested in Lost Omens exploring more of. To my delight, there were a lot of comments about exploring elemental-themed environments, including island and aquatic-based locations. I've previously a little bit criticized how the Inner Sea doesn't have terribly much support for naval campaigns beyond abolition adventures (which are taking the bench) and piracy. Much as I really love the latter, it would be nice to get a little more diversity in backdrop.

Happily, Lost Omens has been broadening its horizons lately, hinting at more locations perfect for swashbuckling, sailing adventures: like Pacific Islands-inspired regions in Okaiyo, the Minata Isles in Tian Xia, Grecian Iblydos, the drowned cities of fallen Lirgen, Azarketi and sea elf settlements, Arcadia's "Salt Stretch" metaregion (I assume), and more – to say nothing of the Azlanti Ruins themselves, now that places like Talmandor's Bounty are recently a thing. There feels like there's lot of room here for creative expansion. So my question is...what kinds of new aquatic locations would you like to see? What sorts of places would make you want to run a seafaring campaign, and what would just generally excite your imagination for Golarion's great big blue? I'll start!

Aquatic Urban Environs:

I'd like to see more cities or villages built on top of water. Places like Venice and the floating markets in Thailand have always felt incredibly beautiful to me – human civilization thriving in a location of plentiful, even extreme elemental presence – and I'd love to see more of that. Disney's Atlantis and Dreamwork's Sinbad have plenty on inspiration to pass on, here. Zo Piaobo in Minata seems like one such a place, being a literal floating city composed of hundreds of boats, rafts and driftwood roped together into an artificial island. Lirgen's drowned cities seem like another interesting place, many still occupied by native Lirgen still intent on living the old ways. If its architecture is anything like Jaha's, this could prove to be one of Golarion's most aesthetically interesting places, having this nearly sci-fi vibe to it.

Elemental Dungeons:

So, Inner Sea Temples low key has some of my favorite art in the Campaign Setting line, evoking interior architecture much more mystical and fantastic than usual. In places it sort of reminded me of elemental temples in video games of yore, like Zelda's manifold water temples or Ocean Force Point from Dinosaur Planet. Abzu recently had some nice places, on-brand. The atmosphere in locales like these are just incredible. It's one thing for fantasy architecture to be built for mundane purposes that grounds the whole place in some level of mundanity. But when places like these are built for truly fantastical purposes from the start – like preserving an oasis of breathable land under the sea, or for communing with a powerful ocean spirit – this is where "dungeons" and "temples" and the like really get to depict a uniquely alien story and atmosphere. More of that would be nice: places leaning into the fantasy-end of Golarion's otherwise pleasantly grounded shtick – to occasionally remind you that you are, indeed, on a different world than our own.

Haunted Waters:

Not much explanation needed here. Haunted zones in the wide ocean would be cool, bringing nightmares to life underneath the murky waves lifting your ship. Maybe play around with some interesting natural phenomena, like "milky sea," black hole-like ocean eddies, or fata morgana. Massive sea monsters would also be nice. Heck, locations inside massive sea monsters would be awesome. Some fun material for naval adventures leaning into the horror side of the genre. I'm sure the Alghollthu have some places that could give R'lyeh itself a run for its money.

[keftiu]

Is that bit about inhabited underwater Lirgeni cities canon? If so, that’s awesome.

I’d like to see more military ports; they often have a unique character compared to other cities, and the major naval powers of the setting are woefully underdetailed. Show me where they call home, where they seek repairs and provisions, and where they do battle! Bonus points for Rahadoum info.

And of course, I’ll take whatever we see of Arcadia and Tian Xia (Wanshou and Minata, please), as well as any Azlanti islands - I’m surprised that last option has seen so little play! They seem to beg for adventure, and they’d make a nice excuse for more info on the Spiresworn elves, who I still think don’t have enough to be truly playable.

[Opsylum]

keftiu wrote:

Is that bit about inhabited underwater Lirgeni cities canon? If so, that’s awesome.

I was mostly going off of this bit in TME pg.31:

The Mwangi Expanse wrote:

Despite the wide variety of locations in which Lirgeni people reside, they do their best to keep in contact with their remaining kin, so they commonly travel to and from each other’s communities. A few thousand continue to reside in the Sodden Lands, living in their drowned cities and studying astrology to attempt to discern the future, but they remain the most disconnected from modern Lirgeni culture as a whole.

I'm not completely sure whether the cities are actively underwater per se, but I hope a few are. It'd be wicked awesome.

[PossibleCabbage]

"What neat things are on the bottom of the ocean" is probably the single biggest hook for me in fantasy games like this, and Golarion has many kinds of aquatic peoples many of whom are friendly, so I'm really interested in those thriving underwater cities and the nearby surface communities they maintain for landlubbers.

[keftiu]

Ah, I believe that’s referring to places like the locale visited in Strength of Thousands #3, towns and villages pretty beaten up by storms.

I like your take waaay more though!

[James Jacobs]

I've been pushing for us to publish more lore about the underwater nations and monsters and regions of Golarion for about as long as I've been pushing for something like the Travel Guide, so the more interest folks show for underwater stuff, the better, I say!

[zimmerwald1915]

James Jacobs wrote:

I've been pushing for us to publish more lore about the underwater nations and monsters and regions of Golarion for about as long as I've been pushing for something like the Travel Guide, so the more interest folks show for underwater stuff, the better, I say!

This is to show interest in underwater stuff. Particularly aquatic elves.

[Gisher]

zimmerwald1915 wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

I've been pushing for us to publish more lore about the underwater nations and monsters and regions of Golarion for about as long as I've been pushing for something like the Travel Guide, so the more interest folks show for underwater stuff, the better, I say!

This is to show interest in underwater stuff. Particularly aquatic elves.

Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!

[Rude_]

Interested in all things aquatic as well