#Aroden

[wormsanduba]

(Not so) lost omens

[murthingsblog]

Aroden/Arazni

Let me explain.

I love Arazni (my little girl deserves all the love in the world). I love Arazni's story. A deliciously painful rollercoaster of triumphs and horrific suffering. I will fight for Arazni and her comfort.

And I love Aroden. He's a jerk. I like it. And I like to think he wasn't always SUCH a jerk. Divinity and chosenness will corrupt anyone.

But what if back then, a thousand years before Absalom... There, in Arcadia, Aroden fell in love. Young, innocent, open to life Arazni, with whom they traveled and fought side by side... Yeah, I'm weak. I love the "divine being falls in love with a mortal" trope.

I like to think that many centuries ago, Aroden loved Arazni. The way he knew how to love.

Less than she loved him.

And I love the new layer that Arazni's death adds. Her death and imprisonment in Geb destroys me, But betrayal from the man she loved and who probably no longer loved her is the final nail in my coffin.

[onehobgoblin]

Okay, head cannon time:

Does anyone know if the whispering tyrant did something big after failing to take over Absalom the last time?

Because if not I have a theory: Aroden was his biggest enemy and he fucking died while the lich was sealed away. Imagine getting to the city with a brand new undead army, ready to kill your nemesis just to discover that someone else already did it.

If he didn't make anything big after this is because the lich is fuckin depressed, megamind style, after losing his enemy.

Imagine Iomedae approaching him and calling him for a fight and the Whispering Tyrant being like "IT'S NOT THE SAME THING!"

[golariontoday]

4433 AR: Aroden's last appearance on Golarion https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Aroden The god Aroden defeated the avatar of the demon lord Deskari along with his followers in the Northmounds of Sarkoris, driving them into the Lake of Mists and Veils.

[archpaladin]

And to be entirely fair, Pathfinder IS course-correcting on this: they've done a bunch of writing to explicitly state Aroden did a number of downright shitty things, such as tampering with the Veins of Creation in Xopatl (in Arcadia), that have caused the people there to regard him as an outright villain, as well as his theft of the Aeon Orbs condemning the xulgaths they belonged to to cultural collapse and worse.

And compounding this is his somewhat callous disregard for Arazni, who was his friend in mortal life and divine servant post-ascension. He LET his faithful bind her to fight the Whispering Tyrant, an act that led to her death, and didn't intervene to save her from Geb when he stole and desecrated her remains to make her a lich. He just promoted Iomedae into Arazni's old spot.

Iomedae is explicitly being written now as in conversation with Aroden's legacy of colonial chauvinism and reckless actions that benefit his chosen people at the expense of others (as well as her own followers' harmful acts like letting Hulrun Shappok's paranoia run rampant in Kenabres during the Mendevian Crusades, causing innocent people to be hurt under suspicion of being demonic spies, and she's essentially trying to make sure such things DON'T happen again, and to be better than Aroden was.

I think another issue is Iomedae and Sarenrae get a little "guilt-by-association" from their faiths' respective trappings as well: Iomedae has crusades, paladins and Gothic cathedrals, and so she is very, for lack of a better term "Catholic-coded." Sarenrae, meanwhile, has temples with minarets and priests with turbans and scimitars and (up until recently) a cult of assassins, so she becomes shallowly associated with Islam. Even if those comparisons are only surface-level, the emotional and historical baggage real-world faiths take gets rubbed off onto them, and it's particularly strong in Iomedae's case because there's a very strong tradition in fiction, from literature to movies to video games to TTRPGs using a Catholic-looking religion as either hypocritical and corrupt, or dangerously fanatical to the point that they commit atrocities. So when the text outright says Iomedae is trying to be better than Aroden and hold her faithful to a higher standard, players don't believe it and assume she's hiding SOMETHING.

So. After that post about crusades in fantasy, I just want to talk a little bit about my feelings about religion and the gods in Pathfinder specifically for a minute.

Firstly, I don’t actually like Iomedae as a goddess. I don’t object that she exists, you understand, but she wouldn’t be a goddess I would choose to play a follower of. That is less to do with Iomedae herself, though, and more with Aroden.

Because, see, I don’t mind that Iomedae is essentially the god of paladins. I don’t mind that she runs crusades against demons and necromancers. In a high fantasy setting like this, that’s what you have gods like Iomedae for. To fight demons. She’s doing her job, essentially. In case of demonic invasion, break glass. That’s why you have a war god or two in your back pocket for emergencies. I do not see, as I have explained exhaustively, the existence of demons in a fantasy setting and a god to fight them as any indication of real world religious opinion. These are genre conventions.

The god I do have an issue with is Aroden, the god of humanity, and his incredibly central role in the plot. Also Sarenrae, to a lesser extent, for similar reasons.

See. On the one hand, I do kind of get what story Aroden is aiming for. The human who becomes a god by his own courage and intelligence and strength, and who then goes on to sponsor humanity’s development and brings them out of the shadow of the telepathic Cthulhu monsters who secretly controlled them for so long. I get that.

The problem is that … Well, actually, it’s twofold.

The first problem is Aroden’s own background and behaviour, both before and after becoming a god. Aroden is the last surviving scion of the Azlanti Empire, Golarion’s equivalent of Atlantis, which was a vast techno-magical colonial power that had been ‘uplifted’, essentially, by the alghollthu, said Cthulhu monsters, to be better and more powerful than everything around them. The Azlanti had figured this out, and had planned to rise up against and destroy their ‘creators’, but the alghollthu saw this coming and dropped a fucking asteroid on them, destroying Azlant’s entire continent but also dropping the alghollthu themselves as well as the entire rest of the planet back to the stone age. Which … is fine, we can have fun with conspiracy theories here, I don’t object.

The problem is that Aroden, as the survivor, then goes to Azlant’s ex-colonies and attempts to do the same. To ‘uplift’ them, to keep Azlant’s culture and magical supremacy alive. Which. You do get. His culture just got literally vaporised, he wants to keep his homeland alive. But. He becomes immortal, he raises the Starstone, he becomes a god. And he then proceeds to become the patron deity of Azlant’s descendant empires. Taldor, in particular, the setting’s broadly Roman equivalent. He declares himself patron god of humanity as a species, and sets about trying to assert human supremacy. Taldor, as an empire, starts aggressively expanding pretty much immediately following this.

Aroden becomes, essentially, the god of colonialism? Species-based colonialism, at that.

Now. Sarenrae, as I mentioned, is doing pretty much the same thing over in the Empire of Kelesh, the setting’s Middle Eastern Muslim/Persian equivalent. The difference with Sarenrae, and the reason I don’t mind her quite so much, is that she’s not declaring herself humanity’s patron at the same time. So it’s less, you know. Race based.

If you are looking for the part of Pathfinder lore that does enter more problematic echoes-of-the-real-crusades territory, this is where you find it. The Mendevian crusades, despite the name, are mostly fine, they’re against an extraplanar threat. Taldor and Kelesh’s five thousand year war, on the other hand …

And even still, I might have not minded? Empires do this. Religions do this. I don’t necessarily mind the portrayal of a religious conflict between empires, even ones directly sponsored by a real deity. In this case, both empires are sponsored by a deity, and both deities are good. By alignment. Well, Aroden is actually lawful, not good, but basically neither of them have an evil alignment. So neither empire is especially vilified, at least not for their religion, they’re just … doing what empires do. Having a history like this as part of your fantasy world is not wrong, it’s good to explore that kind of history and verisimilitude.

The problem I have, the second part of the twofold problem above, is with Aroden. And specifically, Aroden’s role as patron of humanity.

Because Aroden is so central to Golarion’s lore. The death of prophecy, his death, is the defining event of the timeline. The entire Inner Sea region, the main setting until Pathfinder started branching out recently, is shaped by his actions. And they are broadly portrayed as … not necessarily right, but also not evil. Despite the fact that he is the scion of one human-supremacy empire and the sponsor of several others.

Humanity is considered kind of the rightfully dominant species of Golarion, at least of the surface world? The elves are from another world, the orcs, dwarves and goblins are all latecomers from underground, most other non-human species live in and around human civilisations. Most of the big historical non-human empires, like the serpent folk and the Ghol-gan, were explicitly evil, either initially or falling to evil over time, while humans, no matter how many empires we build, are more or less fine. Granted, Cheliax is a thing, so this is not one hundred percent. But, the thing is. Cheliax didn’t fall to devil worship until after Aroden died. So. We’re still here with Aroden as the rightful saviour and sponsor of humanity. And humanity, while following him, are the rightful inheritors of the world.

And it bugs me, because Aroden’s kind of a fucking dick? He’s a coloniser, originating from a colonising nation, and sponsoring others once he ascends to godhood. Now, again, Sarenrae, despite being of good alignment, also gets some of this, but Aroden being humanity’s patron, being a sponsor of colonialism on a racial/species level, gets me worse.

Now! Again. Something to consider here is that Pathfinder then explicitly killed him. Aroden is dead. And that is not a later decision, that was the initial event that kicked off Golarion as a setting in 1e. What does humanity do in a world where our sponsor god is abruptly dead. What do we do when our quite literal divine right up and fucking dies straight out of the gate. So Pathfinder is engaging with the problem. It’s just.

Aroden is so central. Humanity is so central. Even still, it’s not really questioned. Almost all the big movers and shakers are human, with the non-human ancestries kind of tacked on around the edges. And I do get it. The audience is human. A huge number of players, starting out, pick human as their ancestry, because it’s familiar. I do get it. But it does have some implications.

So yeah. Aroden is where Pathfinder’s worldbuilding around religion and species and morality bugs me. Not enough to write it off, it’s a fantastic setting, but yeah. It’s not perfect.

And Iomedae, unfortunately, despite the fact that she is mostly just doing her job, does get a bit of that by proxy as his inheritor.

[bite-the-bloody-hand]

Aroden was out there 100 years ago telling people to squash Deskari like the lanternfly but alas ancient sarkoris was not as community focused as modern Philadelphia

[outeremissary]

Aroace icon Lander Lebeda?

[nnibarrel]

@murthingsblog got me hooked on pathfinder divine lore, and now this is your problem too))) Arazni when she was a herald of Aroden / Thalachos, herald of Sarenrae... "His metallic skin is as hard as steel to any that wish to do him harm, but as soft as velvet to anyone kind, merciful, and good"...

"He is on friendly terms with the heralds of Shelyn, Cayden Cailean, and Iomedae, and several sources show that he knew Arazni, herald-goddess of Aroden."

Thalachos vibes BIG cute energy, why there's nothing here on him yet... Anyway, now I have three angels of Sarenrae to hyperfixate about and a second herald angel bro. (like Inheribro) (Gods, he even looks a lot like Hand of the Inheritor.)

[mkaiww]

fuck yeah

Stolen from twitter bc I need to see everyone's answers

[sheppi-isometrics]

⚔️ Tyrant Lich enemy token on Patreon

This token is available for free at our patreon :3

The wizard king Tar-Baphon was powerful necromancer with hunger for greatness. His gluttony knew no end: the world itself would serve him, alive or dead.

His brutal ambition brought winds of carnage with every conquest, which resulted in the attention of the gods. In the battle on the Isle of Terror he was killed by the Living God, Aroden, and was buried and sealed in that island, capital of his kingdom.

However, Aroden wasn't aware of the necromancer's plan. The only path for immortality required a special step in the ritual of un-death: being killed by a god. This above is the reason of the mystery in the location/identity of The Wyspering Tyrant's phylactery or soul cage. Plus another mystery in Aroden's death, that became the dead god Pharasma's top secret that nobody knows or can't know.

By supporting us on Patreon you will get access to more than 400 creatures, maps and assets! Complement your campaigns with hq hand-drawn tokens and start building the adventure of your dreams with our isometric and 2D assets 🏰!

[dailycharacteroption]

Deity Drop 8: Iomedae

And so we’re back to the top of the list, looking at our second of the core deities of the Inner Sea Region, and it’s perhaps one of the most important for humanity: Iomedae the Inheritor!

The youngest of the Inner Sea deities, Iomedae lives up to her title by being the one that inherited the title of God of Humanity after Aroden’s death after serving as his second Herald after the death of Arazni. However, she did not start out this way.

Indeed, Iomedae is our first example of a mortal risen to godhood (outside of Aroden himself) and the latest (confirmed) to have done so by way of the Starstone, the legendary artifact that granted Aroden his own divinity, which he sequestered away in the Starstone Cathedral, a dungeon meant to protect such a powerful object and test the mettle of those who would dare to seek divinity.

In her mortal life, Iomedae started as a Chelish paladin in the service of Arazni and served in the Shining Crusade against the Whispering Tyrant. It was during and after that campaign that she performed 11 miracles, some of which were merely impressive feats for a mortal, others showed a spark of divine favor. The exact details of which are lost to time, but it is generally considered that the lessons learned from them are more important than the particulars.

In any case, her final act was turning her cloak into a bridge across the bottomless span to the Starstone Cathedral, where she took the test and ascended to divinity, where Aroden took notice of her and offered her a spot as his herald, which was recently vacated by the death of Arazni.

However, Aroden himself later vanished, presumably dying, leaving his followers and humanity in general in the lurch, that is until Iomedae stepped into his shoes, becoming their patron.

That being said, Iomedae is a very different deity to Aroden, focused more on goodness and righteousness and the fight against evil than he ever was, which he actually found inspiring.

Iomedae is a goddess of honor, justice, rulership, and valor, and leads by example to encourage mortals to do the same. Whenever mortals show courage against evil, compassion to others even when it puts themselves at risk, and even hand in their use of authority, The Lady of Valor smiles upon them.

So yes, Iomedae is the deific embodiment of what a knight is supposed to be, and those that follow her genuinely can be expected to be devoted servants of law and order, both on the crusade and back home seeing to the people.

(Keep in mind that unlike the real world, the crusades of Iomedae’s followers are generally expected to actually be motivated by a desire to defeat evil, since such things are tangible and real in Pathfinder. That being said, even lawful good groups can make mistakes, and not everyone is comfortable with the association with the Crusades)

The Light of the Sword appears much as she did in life, being a Chelish woman with short dark hair, adorned in fine plate mail with her sword and shining shield in hand, and sporting an aura that strikes fear and unease into even most fiends.

Iomedae’s personal realm does not seem to have a unique name, but it is located on the second tier of Heaven, taking the form of a pastoral and peaceful land that is nevertheless dotted with several keeps. The militant nature of the realm makes it a useful support for the archon armies of the heavenly mount, with many archons training there and staffing it’s keeps in case someone ever dares to invade the celestial realm.

Naturally, humans make up the majority of Iomedae’s worshippers, though she accepts all with righteousness in their heart. Warriors that value honor, as well as civilians that try to live their less violent lives by the same principles are equally worthy to her. Additionally, there is a sizable population of halflings that believe in her message despite having a history of enslavement by humanity in the Inner Sea Region.

The Inheritor counts most lawful and goodly gods among her allies, and the chaotic and evil as her foes. She shares something of a rivalry with Irori due to the differences in their methods of ascension to the divine, and she holds a grudge against Pharasma for her secrecy concerning the death of Aroden. She typically has no friendly dealings with beings of evil, though she cautiously hears out Asmodeus and his cronies, sifting through the lies and corruption for nuggets of wisdom.

Her servants are composed of angels and archons in abundance, and she even has her own unique angelic servants in the form of the iophanites, small burning disc-like angels that can transform into shields. Her current herald is the mortal Queen Galfrey, who stepped down from her previous role as leader of Mendev in order to serve the goddess. Her previous herald was the Hand of the Inheritor, who was captured and corrupted by the Demon Lord Baphomet, leading to his death. Additionally, Iomedae is served by the likes of the superior iophanite Jingh, the celestial gold dragon Peace Through Vigilance, and Saint Lymerin, a former priestess of her goddess uplifted to an avian-headed celestial form.

Iomedae’s domains are Glory, Good, Law, Sun, and War, with the subdomains of Archon (by way of Good and Law), Chivalry, Day, Duels, Heroism, Honor, Hubris (by way of Glory), Light, Redemption, Revelation, Sovereignty and Tactics; all of which reflects her nature as a god of righteous warfare, but also of kindness and perhaps a little recklessness in the pursuit of what is right.

Meanwhile, her 2E domains are confidence, might, truth and zeal, which reflects those aspects as well. Additionally, she offers the alternate domain of duty, as well as magic of uncanny accuracy, increased size and might, and warding oneself with flame.

The obedience of the goddess is simple enough, being an hour long ritual of reaffirming one’s vows to follow her teachings while dangling your holy symbol from your preferred weapon. Those that do so are blessed with insight when it comes to diplomatic matters and recalling information about the upper echelons of society.

But of course, as a full deity her expanded powers are split into three. The first of which, her evangelist powers, reflect her courage and the fear she strikes into evil. She grants spells that dispel fear and imbue allies with the blessings of courage and heroism. From there, She grants power to pierce the magical defenses of fiends or protection from them if you are no caster, as well as the ability to infuse spells (or weapons for non-casters) with holy power to pierce the immunities of such fiends.

Meanwhile, her exalted ones draw upon her command of holy energies, able to cast protective wards, enthrall with words, or smite with rays of light. They can also learn to imbue their weapon with a deadly burst of holy wrath against their foes, and even summon mighty shield archons to aid them.

Finally, her sentinels reflect her history as a mortal paladin, first granting spells that bless weapons or armor, as well as bolster strength. Afterwards, she grants them an improved ability to smite if the sentinel is a paladin, or a lesser form if they are not. And finally, their blades are blessed to banish fiends back from whence they came.

Iomedae is actually very prevalent in Starfinder, retaining her role as patron of humanity, as well as any species that values honor and valor alongside warrior prowess. Her largest religious organization is the Knights of Golarion, which act as righteous defenders of the Pact Worlds and anyone else that calls out for aid with their mighty fleet of warships.

That will do for today, but I hope this was inspiring and interesting to read, and shines some new light on the role of the typical “uber paladin deity”. Tomorrow we’ll be going for something a bit more obscure, delving into a forgotten god from the Mwangi Expanse.

[the-faramir]

Oh, yeah, Midori somehow managed to get her own sideblog at @ringmaster-midori! Her rules are there.

What? There's another Midori living on Earth in Manhattan? She's over at @midoriniji.

Midori's Story

Niji-iro Midori: The Reluctant Ringmaster (Midori's Backstory)

Could contain spoilers for the Extinction Curse Adventure Path!

Preface: The Niji-iro Family

Chapter 1: We Are On a Diplomatic Mission to Absalom

Chapter 2: The Circus Arrives Without Warning

Chapter 3: Hi-Diddle-De-Dee, a Carny's Life for Me

Chapter 4: Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys

Chapter 5: One Does Not Simply Walk Into Abberton

Chapter 6: The Circus of Wayward Wonders

Bonus: Extraction Team Delta's Debriefing (between chapters 1 and 2)

Bonus: Midori's Backstory: TL;DR

Extinction Curse (The Story Continues)

Contains spoilers for the Extinction Curse Adventure Path!

"Come one, come all! Humble performers become leaders of the Circus of Wayward Wonders when tragedy strikes. But as these heroes lead their motley band of performers and roustabouts around the Isle of Kortos, they uncover a sinister plot to exterminate life from the Starstone Isle. The dead god Aroden may be gone, but his legacy lives on, as do his old enemies who would destroy the wonders he raised from the sea. Spectacle meets savagery as the heroes strive to stop the Extinction Curse!"

Book 1: The Show Must Go On (In Progress)

Book 2: Legacy of the Lost God (Coming Later)

Book 3: Life's Long Shadows (A Little Exposition)

Book 4: Siege of the Dinosaurs

Book 5: Lord of the Black Sands

Bonus: Midori's Ghost Powers

Bonus: Midori's Dream (Revenge of the Fifth)

Bonus: Midori Dreams of...Earth?

Midori's Details

Midori character summary

Extras

Kitsune udon recipe

Niji-iro tōgarashi recipe

Midori Mix recipe

Midori's Parents

The Niji-iro Siblings

Concurrent Stories

Meanwhile, in Absalom....

An Alternate Universe

More Characters

Original Characters

My Artwork

Old drawings

New drawings

[murthingsblog]

Okay

A completely spontaneous idea that I'm starting to find charming.

1. We don't know (?) (I definitely don't know) anything about the Iomedae family except that they are from Cheliax and were born around 3800

2. Aroden was very much loved in Cheliax, Cheliax was the center of worship of Aroden

3. ...

4. Pick any story about the divine conception of any mythical hero demigod and tell me that Aroden couldn't pull off something like that

5. Do you know what mythical demigod heroes do? Labours. Or, for example... Acts

6. The Inheritor is starting to sound a little ironic if Iomedae is literally Aroden’s daugther

I'm not saying it's canon, but I am saying I'll be exploring this idea for a while because I see potential in it. It's funny

[onehobgoblin]

I went into r/BatmanArkham

[golariontoday]

4605 AR: King Gaspodar prepares for the appearance Aroden https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Gaspodar King Gaspodar of Cheliax prepared for the prophesied appearance of the god Aroden and the beginning of the Age of Glory.

[sirenscrawlings]

It Started With the Death of a God

It started with the death of a god.

As did many other things, besides. He took an entire age with him, after all; or, well, two, if you count the one that never came to pass. Even prophecy itself went along with, lost in whatever hole he failed to crawl out of to save himself. Yet, contrary to his very nature, the god of humanity's death was perhaps the most selfless of his acts.

For when Aroden failed to return on that fated day, his absence showered his people with a gift that shook the very world. When sages speak of the Age of the Lost Omens, they do so of the tides, of the storms, of the very earth tearing itself asunder with a glee unto violence. The birth of the Eye of Abendego yielded a wailing cry yet unceasing, its winds more kin to the Maelstrom than what Golarion had ever known before. Poor Lirgen and Yamasa were hewn from the coast and dragged gurgling into the drowning depths, joined by Deng and countless villages along the Sphinx, Asp, and Crook.

Yet none of them speak of what boon was given upon the dawn of that new age, the only true gift the so-called God of Humanity gave his people. Rare is it, that a god gives their followers what all sentient beings strive for, even without knowing; and fewer still, do the gods and their mortal ken speak with the reverence it aught be showered with.

Freedom.

Self-Determination.

Liberation.

Only in death are a god's followers finally freed, and so it was on that fated day that humanity finally knew the feeling of their shoulders free of the burden of prophecy. Aroden's yoke sloughed from their necks. Their wrists ached with the phantom memory of his manacles. They turned and snarled at one another just as they laughed and embraced. Fate fell into their own hands, yet what is Fate but Freedom from having to choose one's course in life, and Freedom but Fated to have to choose? Was it fate that humanity would turn to bloodshed when given freedom, or was it freedom itself that fated conflict?

A digression, of course, but also an explanation. They had always loved mortals, humans and all of their contradictions most especially so.

And so it was that, with the death of a god, so too came with it the asking of a question.

"I need not remind you of your place here, as 'honored guest.' Such is a title I can relieve you of much faster than I deigned to give it", they received in response, the crimson lips that delivered it twisted into undisguised contempt as the silver eyes above it conveyed a rage unhindered by their lack of iris or pupil.

It was accompanied by a pressure within the chamber, sudden and growing, and the moonlight cast from the celestial body hanging just above the tower seemed even to brighten. The smile upon it looked deeper, menacing in its glee.

They could only chuckle.

"My Lady, your assumptions wound me so! I had trusted our relationship better, that you would know and trust that I would not make such a request lightly, alas...! I seek only a single soul, and for nothing... untoward, I assure you. I would even request it be of your choosing."

.

.

.

"I seek only what is nature to all sentient beings, My Lady. Something that you, patron to midwives and mothers alike, should know well enough. I seek only an heir."