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In chapter 7, it is revealed in detail how the taldan conquest of Isger happened:
Apparently, according to the intro in said chapter, the grand prince that succeeded Cyricas decided to conquer Isger, and faced the twelve tribes of seasons. After a full generation of fighting, and said prince committing warcrimes against the tribes, one of the tribes decided to call to their ancestors by painting their faces with the ashes of the deceased, and received a response from their patron deity:
"Feast upon the harvest your enemies have wrought"
"Become the herald of my winter and survive in spite of death, forever"
When the tribe was caught, those that died returned as wights, and started amassing an army. Taldor desposed said grand prince, but the damage was done: in a decade, the wights retook Isger and planned to take more territories south.
After this, the (living) remains of the twelve tribes allied with Taldor to erradicate the undead. The conflict provoked the erradication of the tribes.
Now, the reason i'm explaining all this is because this is all explained in the introduction, and it seems like Urgatoa is the goddess they talk about (gluttony, undeath, etc...) specially since the BBG of this chapter is a descendant from said tribes and a child of Urgatoa. But surprisingly, she isn't. Instead, it is revealed behind a single DC 34 religion check that said goddess was actually Jaidi.
And the book refuses to ellaborate any longer.
Am I crazy for thinking this is a bit insane? We are talking the Azlanti goddess of agriculture here, the one that's married to Erastil, and the one whose tennets do not include any warmongering/vengeful doctrines. FFS, she doesn't allow unholy sanctification nor provide a harm font.
I'm not saying this isn't impossible, but I really need some details. What the hell did Cyricas' brother do in Isger that he got Jaidi, a goddess of nature, not prone to conflict, and probably one that dislikes undeath, to say: "Welp, time for an undead apocalypse!"
I'm hoping to either get some extra context on other sources about Jaidi or this conflict, or, maybe if I'm lucky, somehow get one of the writers to clarify at least some details on this. If I can also get some context/interpretations on the dream sequence in the boon of the isgeri spirits, since it mistifies me. Is the stag supposed to be a representation of Erastil, or just another spirit of the Isgeri? What does that decision mean simbolically?
Wow, Jaidi is cool now?
I thought the implication was that they called to their goddess (Jaidi) but who actually answered was Urgathoa similarly to the Horselords of Nidal calling for salvation and Zon-Kuthon answering. When the other tribes realized that their brethren got corrupted by this entity they allied with the Taldan, all of them died and the Taldan named the province in the memory of the tribes that rebelled against the Urgathoans.
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My understanding of the Religion check is that it's to understand who the "true goddess of the harvest" is, which would be Jaidi, while those who became undead served Urgathoa after she capitalized in their desperation.
Plus, both she and Urgathoa wield scythes - likely causing confusion in the Twelve Tribes. The relic seeds involved in the campaign (especially that chapter) are related to the four seasons, and the scythe that the child of Urgathoa in that chapter uses is a corrupted one of those, implying that Urgathoan worship corrupted a formerly peaceful harvest relic.
Further evidence to this is that you can try to make checks related to Jaidi to cleanse the scythe relic while fighting the child of Urgathoa at the end of the chapter.
Hope that helps.
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Yeah, that makes sense. Thinking about it, there's also the similarities that this story has with what happened both in Nidal and Cheliax, and the adventure makes reference to this: in her description, Ilcanya believes that since Asmodeus has Cheliax and Zon-Kuthon Nidal, why couldn't Isger be for Urgathoa? There is also a painting in the grotto of the sacrificed that somehow depicts the invading army with the symbol of Asmodeus, predicting the separation and fall to diabolism of Cheliax. With that and the fact that Zon-Kuthon already had taken control of Nidal, it insinuates the idea that the fall of Isger to Urgathoa is destiny.
With all this in mind and a bit of thinking, I feel like I finally have a reasonable interpretation of the dream at the end of chapter 7:
After defeating Ilcanya, history has reapeted itself: some Isgeri vowed to take Isger to Urgathoa and they were defeated by other Isgeri who refused and sacrificed themselves (literally in the first time, the second time, by the Hellbreakers forcing themselves to end the undead plague instead of further preparing the revolution, which comes back to bite them at the start of chapter 8). And looking like the invaders are taking back Isger again.
I believe then, that the apparition in the dream is a message by Erastil: not only he's a deity that has a big following in Isger, but also Jaidi's husband. Seeing his beliefs, he probably believes that, no matter what the law says, the PCs are the rightful protectors of these lands, and sends them a message to help them and make them understand their responsibilities, by offering them the choice:
Are they going to try and ask for another high power to free Isger, hoping to either die like all that tried that before them or become enslaved to them, repeating the cycle and continuing the winter that started when their ancestors throwed themselves at Urgathoa?
Or are they going to forget all that, take their own stregth and finally end the winter so spring can finally begin?
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but man, do I love this AP.