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With the release of the new Impossible Lands book, we now have 2/3 Garundi microregions thoroughly explored in the current edition's lore. What's there is already so much more than any one campaign has any hope of possibly getting to, I think there's a lot of potential in considering the continent as its own context, independent of their northern neighbors.
Trade is the obvious link for the places we know well - Alkenstari gunpowder, Gebbite grain, Thuvian potions, Katapesh's endless hungers, Kibwe's commerce, Mbe'ke trade goods, pirate booty - threading distant lands together with gold, offering an easy framework for a traveling campaign. God-hating alghollthus and asuras might make common cause, while undead-slayers have two separate unnatural kingdoms to rally against. Ancient Osirion's legacy lives on in the domains of the archmages it spawned. The Padishah Empire of Kelesh lurks, just to the east, impossibly massive and with its nearest extent led by a barely-leashed satrap. Murderers stalk the high seas, mountain passes, and dark alleyways. Cursed ruins of the long-dead cyclopes and serpentfolk endure, full of Evil. Magical and scientific learning are ascendant, internationally. Ships sail to Arcadia and Vudra.
While I'd love any and all thoughts on the topic and story or campaign ideas, what I really want to ask is folks' thoughts on Rarity for such a project! The honest germ of this whole idea is thinking that Iruxi would be Common and core if Garund stood alone, given their prominence in multiple regions across the continent, and things spiraled from there. Things skew different from what we usually see centered; outside of the proud Mualijae nations and the wandering Vourinoi, Elves are fairly scarce, as are Goblins outside the occasional wasteland mutant or monkey-tailed sailor. Geniekin are the central planar scions, seen more often than the like to the north, and those touched by fiends instead bear the blood of asuras, divs, and rakshasa over devils. It's a fun shift in palette!
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I think draconic being the new Common based on geographic distribution ignores the fact that outside of Droon and Jaha, Iruxi are naturally reclusive, and normally don't like interacting with humans (potentially for understandable reasons), and don't have the sheer numbers that humans do. A better reason would be the ubiquity of dragons across the region, and its usefulness for spellcasters - you have Thuvian alchemists, Nexian wizards, Magaambya Arcanists, the ancient traditions of Osirion being revived, and so on. I think one of the planar languages would probably be an even better candidate, such as celestial - like using Latin in the real world, it's a common enough liturgical language and would especially improve the ability to operate in Holomog. I could see ambassadors learning it, or bringing along their own clerics to translate - a diplomat from Nex in the court of Holomog might have picked it up as part of his wizardly studies even. Though it might prove an obstacle in Rahadoum.
Truth be told, I don't actually like the idea of even having a Common language. I think making international and intercultural communication a bit more difficult makes breaking those barriers down a challenge, and when it happens feels more satisfying. It also improves the utility of spells like Comprehend Languages and Tongues, and gives arcane casters who may not have the highest charisma a chance to play an important role in dialogue, and making places feel a bit more unique when you can't be sure everyone you meet across, say, Northern Garund speaks intelligible Osiriani.
In terms of potential metaregional developments you could build campaign pitches around, including a few I've already mentioned in other threads:
* An embassy from the Nexian Seven Veils magical academy sets out through the N'dele pass to the Magaambya. On its face, it seems like no more than a goodwill visit, one school sending visitors to another. But in truth they are exploring an alliance with Nantambu to check Mzali, who they have heard is considering Geb's proposal of a formal alliance.
* Having checked through Absalom: City of Lost Omens and LO: Impossible Lands a bit, I've found no evidence that Geb actually does send grain to feed Absalom, as I had previously thought. Which is probably a relief to Osirion. But with tensions between Geb and Nex increasing, the return of Geb to political affairs and the rumoured return of Nex to reignite the war, Nex might be looking to establish a new source of grain in case Geb's grain barges stop coming, and negotiate to create a permanent portal from Sothis to Quantium with some Elven consultants. The Ruby Prince is torn - on the one hand, getting involved even peripherally in Geb and Nex's war risks his own kingdom. On the other, having a new market is an enticing prospect, especially when the buyers are a magocracy who can make wonders that rival even Ancient Osirion. Geb, on the other hand, is finding it hard to meet Nemret Noktoria's demands for flesh after Osirion stops sending slaves to the ghoul city.
* Nexian mages establish a permanent embassy on Akiton. Eager to follow suit, Nantambu and other Mwangi cities send their own embassies through the Door to the Red Star, opening up both regions to interplanetary travel and trade. This has the unintended consequence of making Castrovel feel threatened, with Kyonin emissaries sent to both to figure out how valid that threat is and how to stop it.
* Rahadoum, seeing the opportunity Cheliax's waning fortunes present, invests heavily in shipbuilding, hiring Absalomi and Chelaxian shipwrights, and building its own navy to corner trade beyond the Arch of Aroden. This presents the pirates of the Shackles with a double-edged sword - suddenly pirate crews have new plunder, or even job opportunities with the fledgling Rahadoumi navy, at least until it's up and running and can start trainign up its own crews. On the other, once it's up and running they'll once again be sandwiched between Vidrian and a northern naval power, one who would spit in Besmara's eye. Meanwhile, seeing Rahadoum at it, the other regional powers look to their own navies - Thuvia hires old hands from the Shackles left with less palatable prey now that the Chelaxian trade has contracted, while Osirion builds its first deep-water navy since the First Age to protect trade along its coast from Okeno pirates.
* Rahadoum takes the radical step of sending representatives to Qadira so that its wizards and druids can share anti-desertification methods and techniques with their counterparts. Unfortunately, the Qadiran delegation, perhaps as a studied challenge to Rahadoum's militant secularism, have appointed a Sarenite cleric as their delegation's leader.
* Eager to share construct-making tips, Nex invites Rahadoumi tinkerers with experience from Jistkan automata to its fleshworks. The experience is so horrifying Rahadoum withdraws its ambassador and bans Nexians mages from its borders.
* Unlike his father, the Ruby Prince has thus far kept potential suitors at arms length, not even taking the traditional harem and naming his younger twin siblings as joint Crown Prince and Princess. But this year, Khemet III seeks a Queen and sends out diplomatic envoys to Thuvia, Rahadoum, Katapesh, Nex, Geb and the city-states of the Mwangi Expanse to measure potential candidates, and test for compatability. Any potential candidate will not only have to handle the pressure of representing a formalisation of better relations between their two nations, but also potential assassins, a hostile Sothan nobility resentful at being overlooked, and the jealous indignation of the invisible fire elemental Janhelia who, it is rumoured, has been his secret lover for thirty years.
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I think draconic being the new Common based on geographic distribution ignores the fact that outside of Droon and Iruxi are naturally reclusive, and normally don't like interacting with humans (potentially for understandable reasons), and don't have the sheer numbers that humans do. A better reason would be the ubiquity of dragons across the region, and its usefulness for spellcasters - you have Thuvian alchemists, Nexian wizards, Magaambya Arcanists, the ancient traditions of Osirion being revived, and so on. I think one of the planar languages would probably be an even better candidate, such as celestial - like using Latin in the real world, it's a common enough liturgical language and would especially improve the ability to operate in Holomog. I could see ambassadors learning it, or bringing along their own clerics to translate - a diplomat from Nex in the court of Holomog might have picked it up as part of his wizardly studies even. Though it might prove an obstacle in Rahadoum.
Sorry - to be clear, I meant "Iruxi would be a Common Ancestry, on par with Humans and Elves," rather than "Iruxi Draconic would be the Common tongue." Given the dominance of Golden Road trade, Kelish seems like the safest bet for a universal Common tongue, though Mwangi polyglot, Dwarven, Draconic, Necril, and Ancient Osirian are all relatively safe investments, as are some of the planar tongues.
What do people in Rahadoum natively speak? I have no idea. Is there a Jistkan/Tekritanin linguistic branch still around in modern Golarion?
As for your pitches, I love them - even if they do remind me that LO:IL sets up interplanetary diplomacy in the Introduction and then never follows through!
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Sorry - to be clear, I meant "Iruxi would be a Common Ancestry, on par with Humans and Elves,"
Ah, whoops!
What do people in Rahadoum natively speak? I have no idea. Is there a Jistkan/Tekritanin linguistic branch still around in modern Golarion?
I believe Osiriani. From memory, Jistkan and Tekritanin are entirely dead languages, and Tekritanin especially poorly attested except for a ghost that turned up I think in a Pathfinder Society one-shot in Absalom. But it would be cool if Rahadoum and Thuvia were working to revive it as a day-to-day language, much the same way Maori are in NZ (with the advantage of it never being an extinct language here) or what's happening with Manx and Cornish in England.
As for your pitches, I love them - even if they do remind me that LO:IL sets up interplanetary diplomacy in the Introduction and then never follows through!
Yeah, I was a little perplexed at that. At the very least, I wondered whether there would be an Androffan embassy, or an ambassador from Castrovel, or some planar portals (we see an illustration of a Protean poking their head through to talk to a merchant) but it kinda gets glossed over. The Proteans especially sound like they'd LOVE to get a foothold into the Impossible Lands and really stir things up.
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It’s also just dawned on me - I consistently talk about “the 3 Garundi microregions,” and never count the High Seas as one, despite the Shackles being right there. That’s a bad habit worth kicking.
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Honestly, a Rahadoum one-shot where some adventurers are tasked by the Pure Legion with investigating a "cult" only to find out it's entirely loyal but extreme Rahadoumis allying with a bunch of Asuras sounds pretty interesting. I doubt Rahadoum officials have any more love for such Outsiders and their inherently corrupting influence than their neighbours, but their national ethos finds themselves uniquely attracting things like Asuras and Rakshasas, and maybe have to work harder to counter them than places who can call in clerics. Perhaps there is a disproportionate number of Thaumaturges to try and pick up the slack?