Ok, so me and a friend started discussing how the Starfinder deities work, what gods changed and what gods stayed the same. Eventually this discussion wound up on Gorum, with him saying that WoI technically retconned Starfinder lore.
This then resulted in us arguing. I do not ever remember seeing any mention of Gorum in any Starfinder material, like maybe in the old core book as a passing name but even that is iffy at best.
However he is convinced that Gorum did show up (or was heavily mentioned) in a Starfinder adventure (though he isn't sure if it was society or path)
I've admittedly not played any society while he has played a lot, but I have played several paths, and I don't remember Gorum ever being brought up.
So now I ask you all, did Gorum ever show up/was mentioned in Starfinder lore? If so what was it?
Starfinder has always been a different canon from Pathfinder - see also its non-redeemed Nocticula. There's no "retcon" to talk about here.
I mean, the Gap basically exists to justify any retcon they want to do. Sometimes they want to diverge from Pathfinder canon, sometimes they don't. Retcons aren't bad, after all.
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Starfinder has always been a different canon from Pathfinder - see also its non-redeemed Nocticula. There's no "retcon" to talk about here.
While you are doubtless correct, that is NOT at all obvious to me, a moderately well read GM. I played Starfinder 1e for about a year or so after it came out ( played and ran SFS and ran the entire first adventure path). I've read the 2e Core book and Galaxy guide. NOT read the GM book.
And I certainly didn't know that it had a different timeline, that it was an alternate canon. I had assumed that it was the singular future of Pathfinder.
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I mean there have been some retcons that made Starfinder align with Patfinder more (particularly in 2e), like the Wood and Metal planes, or the four magic traditions (which Starfinder initially made a big deal of being archaic ideas of how magic works, but becoming hard-baked into the 2e chassis).
As far as I know Gorum wasn't featured anywhere in 1e (not even a passing mention in something like Galactic Magic), so who knows.
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Like the thing about two different canons (as well as "the very existence of the Gap") is that the people who write for Starfinder can't be expected to predict every single thing that happens in Pathfinder forever, nor should the people writing Pathfinder refuse to do something fun or interesting because "that's not how it is in Starfinder."
So it's more about how things need to work, than "we want different canons on purpose". If the PF folks want to give Iomedae a cool new hat, they can do that. If Starfinder previously didn't depict her with her cool hat, they can just decide to do that going forward and nobody should worry about it. It's nothing more than "The SF folks also liked Iomedae's cool hat."
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ok, thanks.
as for the 'different canon' like the Starfinder people do say that its 'one possible future for Pathfinder' but its also a roleplaying game. If they hard stated 'this is the future' then it would mess with other peoples game worlds (which we have seen they don't want to do, as in pathfinder there is an entire continent they refuse to touch so it can be the 'whatever you want/need it to be' continent)
So while I get that its not 'the' future, it also basically is so I never put any stock into the whole 'they are different canons' as a good reason to not look back to Pathfinder for Starfinder lore, or look forward to Starfinder for interesting Pathfinder things (I mean if I didn't look to Starfinder I wouldn't have had a cool Pathfinder game set in a 'what would Eox had looked like back during Pathfinders time')
Also PossibleCabbage, had a nice laugh at the hat analogy and honestly now I cant help but think it would be funny if a god just suddenly changed their style in both games under the lore excuse of they 'got bored of their old look so opted to go to a new (Pathfinder) or 'classic' (Starfinder) look' but the actual excuse of someone at Paizo just liked this other design better.
In any case thanks for your replies.
There's a discussion, RE: Nocticula about whether Starfinder is better served by "maintaining a completely separate canon" even if this might feel like it invalidates stories that people who play both games were invested in, or if it's better off retconning things that weren't honestly important when they were mentioned the first time in Starfinder.
Like I feel as though "Nocticula's redemption didn't stick" is more of a bummer than just establishing her as a former Demon Lord regardless of how she was described as an aside in SF1. A way to split the difference might be to recognize that since alignment no longer exists, Nocticula is followed by both followers who of her redeemed portfolio and also by those related to her previous portfolio who hope to eventually move on to greener pastures ("assassin wants to get out of the game" is a trope after all.)
One thing I think that helps with this going forward, is how much PF2 switched from an omniscient voice to more of a voice from the perspective of someone in the setting in its non-core setting books (e.g. Divine Mysteries is supposed to in the voice of the Nosoi Yivali), which makes it much easier to change something you've previously committed to the page. I hope Starfinder does something similar going forward.
Starfinder has always been a different canon from Pathfinder - see also its non-redeemed Nocticula. There's no "retcon" to talk about here.Where is Nocticula mentioned in Starfinder? She's not on the deities page on AoN and there's no mention of her on the Starfinder wiki.
Nocticula is mentioned in one sentence in SF1. It's in the Pact Worlds book, the Aballon chapter, referencing example demon lords who have places of worship on a religious street in one of the megacities.
It's extremely minor, and because the book was written before the redemption arc happened in PF1 or because the two lines weren't communicating over this sort of stuff during codevelopment.
Or, in the alternative, Nocticula will revert to her old ways during the Gap!
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This is a standard way to mention a PF deity in SF who isn't a core deity - a random one liner that a bare handful of people worship them or vaguely remember them found in a random setting book/article.
The few exceptions are one paragraph references to Eldest or various demigods (very few of them) in the SF1 magic book.