#pathfinder lore

[underleveledjosh]

Abadar is more of a social Democrat than a capitalist.

[viscanpikamine]

Is it too niche if I say these two are so similar and I can’t stop thinking about them?

[beholderess]

Silly Arazni headcanon

Since Arazni is yet to get her own divine realm, I like to imagine her crashing on Calistria’s couch

And Calistria be like, “Guuuuurl, we ARE going to plan terrible vengeance on your enemies, but we should get it WHILE getting our nails done (by the way, you need it). With cucumbers on eyes. Now, what kind of wine do you want to drink as you watch them burn?”

[catthattalks]

Not overly familiar with Pathfinder lore but one thing I do know is that Golarion - the world where pathfinder: kingdom and pathfinder: wotr take place - is a prison for this God, who if ever escapes, would start an apocalypse.

AND I LOVE CRAZY LORE LIKE THAT ONE!!!

[wowieweirdwarlock]

Best Bosses: The Mistress of Midnight Teeth.

Source: Tome of Beasts 2

Image Source: Tome of Beasts 2, pg. 147.

“The elegant gnomish noblewoman smiles, flashing dazzling white teeth in contrast to her rich blue hair, and moves with fluid grace past a mirror. As she passes the mirror, her reflection briefly shows old blood caked on her face.”

Phylomara Gladrienne, mistress of the Court of Midnight Teeth, is one of the most influential of the shadow archfey. She appears as a refined gnome, bedecked in fashions such as fine silk and jewels that always compliment her inky blue hair. She loves styling her hair very elaborately, and insists on never appearing with the same style twice.

Mistress of The Blue Barbers. The Mistress’ gnome courtiers in her home also serve her as agents abroad. Known as the Blue Barbers, they are defined by their blue hair and desire to bring style into the lives of all they meet. They are polite and social, offering services as decorators, artists, information brokers, and stylists of all varieties.

Hungry for secrets. The main reason Blue Barbers are so gregarious is due to their Mistress’ endless hunger for secrets. She is desperate for gossip and interesting facts, and ever-eager to learn information regarding unique and interesting individuals. She is particularly stealthy, using her knowledge of darkness and manipulation of shadows to manipulate people from behind the scenes of her decadent parties.

Ravenous for Flesh. Beneath the Mistress’ facade of style and politeness, her darker side reveals itself in too-sharp teeth and strange reflection. She is always hungry, and her court constantly works to bring her fresh meat to devour. Any and all who cross the Mistress of Midnight Teeth discover that her hunger is something formidable, endless, and evil.

Knowledgeable Hostess. The parties and banquets the Mistress throws are well-renowned for their decadence, with Fey and other beings flocking to her dappled gardens to partake in strange games of intrigue and gossip. Those looking to earn the Mistress’ favour would do well to attend such a party and engage with her court, for she is very knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics. Those seeking her wisdom must be prepared to trade their own secrets in return, or at least a bit of flesh.

The Mistress’s Lair:

The Mistress makes her home in the Court of Midnight Teeth, a massive marble and silver mansion in the Plane of Shadow. Gilded mirrors hang on every wall to reflect the stylish Blue Barbers wandering about, each attended to by hosts of goblin house servants.

Within her home, the Mistress is all but immune to damage, as she can shunt injuries off to her reflections in the surrounding mirrors. As she stalks her halls, she often stops to consult her imperfect replicas in every mirror— her reflections are monstrous and often covered in bruises or cuts, revealing the Mistress’ darker personality within.

In addition to using her reflections defensively, the Mistress has other uses for her glittering copies. Her Reflections appear in every reflective surface near her, including puddles or metal, which she can cause to reach out to attack nearby creatures. She can also step into any reflective surface, walking through them similarly to portals to appear somewhere else.

Along with manipulating her reflections, the Mistress also has control over the darkness in her realm, and is capable of casting the area into a sphere of gloom in order to make it more difficult to navigate her halls.

While within her home, beings experience strange effects. Humanoids wake up every day intensely hungry, experiencing unknown cravings that cannot be satiated unless at the Mistress’ dining table. Reflections within three miles of Her lair move of their own accord when unobserved.

The Mistress may scry the location of any being in her home by casting her sight through a mirror, and can extend this ability to any mirror near one of her Blue Barber servants, quite literally giving her eyes and ears across the multiverse.

Ideas for using the Mistress of Midnight Teeth in your campaign:

A charismatic, blue-haired gnome appears to the party, offering them an invitation to one of their Mistress’ exquisite banquets. After they arrive and enjoy Her hospitality, the Mistress informs them they may not leave until sharing a few secrets with her. If they don’t, she is perfectly happy bringing them to her next party… as the main course!

The party needs information, be it a secret regarding an enemy or the location of an ancient treasure. They must meet with the Mistress of Midnight Teeth in order to get the information out of her, and must sneak past her small army of Blue Butlers who are constantly on the lookout for those without an invitation.

Another Archfey is looking to get back at the Mistress for exposing one of their secrets, and has enlisted the party to aid them. They must go to her annual birthday banquet and steal the main course, replacing it with something vile covered by an illusion. When the party gets there, they discover the main course isn’t what they expected— it is a group of humans, who they now are responsible for getting out safely.

I believe the Mistress and I, were it not for her garish appetites, would get along swimmingly. We both have quite the desire for knowledge, and I’d love to wrack her brain for secrets regarding some hard-to-reach lore.

Of course, I don’t believe the price I’d have to pay to access that knowledge would be quite worth it.

As fun as her events are, and as useful as she is, the Mistress only ever looks out for her own needs, and only ever wants two things: Fresh gossip and fresh meat.

- A Weird Warlock.

[tentakrool]

Introduction to From Whence Came She: An Exploration of Pharasma and the Windsong Testaments

Edelgarde Midwyck, professor of theology and cosmology Lepistadt University, Lepistadt, Ustalav

Before the birth of everything, there came an ending, to which only one survivor bore witness.

In an ancient time inscrutable to us who now live, a universe unknown met its end. Whether this realm exploded in an unquenchable fire, or found itself snuffed quietly out like a candle, none can say. All that remained scattered amidst the blackness of space, speckling the void with the dying embers. Nothing remained but she: The Survivor, the Lady of Graves, the Mother of Souls. She, who threads the weft and warp of fate across the centuries; who holds life and death in her hands, gathered the remnants of existence and began anew. 

Her name is Pharasma, the First and the Last. 

Pharasma’s role as mother to our universe may seem strange to those who do not know her. After all, is she not the goddess of death? Does she not author the final pages of our soul’s journey? Those more familiar with her worship know better; after all, she also safeguards the passage into life. Midwives invoke her name and bless their knives with water drawn from her holy fonts. A goddess of cycles, she sharpened her skills on the greatest birthing of all: that of reality itself.

What her role might have been in those days before, none can guess. After all, we have nothing to draw from, save the groundless assumption that this previous incarnation must have resembled the current. I have my own suspicions, as do dozens of my contemporaries, the scholars and ascetics who dedicate their intellects to untangling the riddle of what could have been. Personally, I wonder if the Pharasma we know and the one that traversed an all-consuming apocalypse eons ago were much alike at all.

Consider Nocticula: once a demon lord, she murdered her contemporaries and assumed their roles, stole their devotees and quite literally built her kingdom upon their backs. Now, she has transformed herself into something new – a goddess of freedom and redemption. Perhaps, like Nocticula, Pharasma transformed herself upon the death of what came before, changed into a deity to suit the season of creation and destruction. Perhaps, Pharasma once knew a time when life and death did not hang in the balance of her every word and gesture.

Of course, if we further explore my theory, one must then wonder what sort of deity Pharasma could have been, back in those unfathomable days. I can envision her as a young deity bursting with vigor and life, ushering the fragile souls of the unborn into the light, guiding the hands of those wise, skilled women without whose ministry so many would meet an untimely end. Perhaps she walked among the people, with bare feet and ruddy cheeks warmed by the sun of an ancient world. Perhaps then, her face was not haunted by millennia of shadows.

Regardless of what form she took then, I cannot help but imagine how devastating that moment must have been – the moment when Pharasma looked around herself and saw that she truly existed alone, swaddled in void, with no one but the vast, unknowable Outer Gods watching from beyond with hungry eyes trained on our little empty scrap. How brave of her to take that solitude and wrap it around herself like a mantle, mold it into a shape that we could call home, breathing life into the ash and embers of the things she’d loved and lost. As a mortal, it may not be my place to do so, but I cannot help but pity her.

Some of my contemporaries take it upon themselves to criticize my work. They feel that speculation of this sort leads to nothing but confoundment and consternation; I cannot help but disagree. What are they gods, if not reflections of ourselves? What does it hurt for us to imagine Pharasma not as an impersonal arbiter of our fates, but as a servant to our souls, and as keeper of the loneliest duties of all? How can we not grow closer to her, knowing that our penitent souls are the only brief company she keeps? 

[nairdde32]

Do you think Quinn and Aric ever explored each other's bodies?

[coyotl-theismposting]

I'm making a Pathfinder au for some OCs of mine and I really need to be silly about them so :33333 ramblings time:333333

This writing really sucks bc I'm basically just putting ideas I Just Had. I apologize so so much for this.

^ them ^

_____

In this version, Miranda is a champion to Jin Li / the Golden Carp, and has an strained relationship with her family due to not being a follower of the Nagaji's creator. She wanders earth and sea in part because of this, and in part to prove her worth to her community, although she won't admit neither of these.

Alexis, meanwhile, comes from a different background; She was born and killed in slavery, only to be reborn via circumstances outside of her control. Although she remains confused and overwhelmed due to her past, she has lived and felt and experienced wonderful things since her return, and is slowly coming to terms with herself.

_____

I honestly have zero idea about how they met in this au, but I do know that they travel together as adventurers. Miranda has been an adventurer for longer than Alexis has, and probably introduced her to this too. This is all I have for now lol, I'll probably make more lore

[idkrpg-ideas]

For those who're curious, here is the specific paragraph that mentions this, located on page 217 of Planar Adventures;

"While the watchers stride Jandelay’s streets and tend to its needs, the even larger Oliphaunt is Jandelay’s greatest champion. Itself a being of utter chaos and destruction, the Oliphaunt might seem an unlikely guardian for a law-infused museum of forgotten worlds, and it might be tempting to theorize that the watchers have trapped it on the demiplane, or even created it and forced it to act as sentinel. But in truth, and despite their considerable powers, the watchers are nowhere near potent enough to achieve such a feat. The true creator of the Oliphaunt, the true warden forcing it to remain Jandelay’s guardian and prisoner, is none other than the Oliphaunt itself. The Oliphaunt is a physical, living embodiment of the apocalypses that left the remnants from which Jandelay is made; much as morbid fascination causes onlookers to stare at the aftermath of a horrific accident, the Oliphaunt is compulsively drawn to these remnants of utter annihilation."

So what is Jandelay?

One of the earliest and longer-running mysteries in Pathfinder was the identity of the mysterious Jandelay, mentioned only in the statblock of the Oliphaunt of Jandelay. In Mythic Realms, it remained ambiguous if Jandelay was a creature, an event, a plane, or some other mysterious entity, with the only hints about it being the poem carved into the base of the enormous Spindlethorn:

Jandelay, proof against the Maelstrom, Jandelay, of green fields and faultless spires; No sane soul born dares trespass fair Jandelay For the Oliphaunt guards you always.

But five years later, (almost) every question about the mysterious Jandelay was answered in Planar Adventures! It’s a demiplane, but not just any old demiplane! It is a bubble of pure Law floating on the surface of the Maelstrom in stark defiance of the Maelstrom’s desire to subsume all that is back into chaos. It refuses the Maelstrom’s pull and instead exploits the source of all quintessence, drawing it out as needed in order to maintain itself for its unique purpose.

Also known as the Apocalypse Archives, Jandelay is a realm of rolling green grass fields with alabaster spires placed regularly throughout… and thousands upon thousands of stitched-together, chimeric and chaotic arrangements of various biomes, architectures, and environments. Whenever a Watcher places a Beacon of Jandelay down upon a doomed world, it marks that section of the planet for collection by the plane. When the world is destroyed by the apocalypse which summoned the Watchers in the first place, every area marked by the Beacon is torn from the world and placed on Jandelay, merged together with other marked sections with little regard for whether or not the arrangement makes sense, but the magic of the plane and the attentions of the Watchers maintains these sections even when they would have logically crumbled away or annihilated one another (such as if a section of glaciers ended up next to an active volcano). Sapient lifeforms preserved by the Watchers are combined into a Collected, a form of Outsider with the minds and memories of dozens or perhaps even hundreds of creatures, bound eternally to the stitched remains of the world they were “rescued” from and allowed to wander it, but no further.

It’s not directly stated if animal life is taken along for the ride, but what IS canon is that Watchers use their perfect memories and passion for crafting, as well as knowledge obtained from the Collected, to build facsimiles of various flora and fauna that didn’t manage to get saved, using their constructs to decorate the world-sections. Despite this adorable behavior, Watchers don’t exactly make for good company, so the Collected tend to live a lonely existence. It’s not like anyone really visits.

Any knowledge about Jandelay is understandably difficult to come across. How the Runelords learned anything about the Oliphaunt or the plane itself is a mystery that yet endures, because dimensional travel straight up does not work. Any attempt to use Plane Shift or ANY other form of dimensional travel to enter, exit, or even just travel around inside Jandelay fails if the user doesn’t succeed a DC 41 Will save (something the Watchers must be innately immune to despite their statblock saying no such thing, else they can’t escape or re-enter their own home if they roll lower than 15), and Gate or similar effects fizzle automatically without allowing a save unless the caster is Mythic or the source is an Artifact.

So to even know about it, your world will already have to be on its way out the door. You need to succeed a DC 28 Will save (or be immune to Inconspicuous) to see a Watcher, NOT freak out about it, then convince it to tell you a little about itself, and then further convince it to tell you about Jandelay… and if you want to GO there, that’s a DC 41 Will save or you simply can’t without burning another spell slot or resource to try again. And Armageddon continues to breathe down your neck as you try again! And if, by some miracle, you end up there? Well, good luck getting out with any swiftness, especially since you’d need to not only have more castings of Plane Shift, but a safe destination in mind to recollect yourself as you grapple with knowing your world is gone. That kind of thing changes a person! Is it any wonder why knowledge about Jandelay is so hard to come by, when the conditions for gaining even tiny scraps are so severe? (No, you can’t just summon a Watcher; they have far too many HD for anything lower than Gate to work)

It’s not super dangerous in the archives, at least. if you wanted, you could wait to get your slots and sanity back while looking at the past destroyed worlds. Maybe even find your own. The Watchers don’t attack creatures who merely examine the exhibits–that’s what they’re there for, after all–but any attempt to damage them and you’ll find out there’s a lot more of the creepy crawlies than you know about hiding just outside your senses.

And then there’s the Oliphaunt itself. Chaos made manifest, a mountain made flesh, a storm given purpose. It’s the Oliphaunt that protects Jandelay from all intruders, its own presence the one that imposes the travel restrictions for reasons that can only be guessed at (which means that if it’s NOT in Jandelay, one can travel there without making a save! easy, right?) and the greatest deterrent to the Proteans who’d otherwise object to Jandelay’s presence. The origins of the Oliphaunt, and of Jandelay, are stated in surprisingly plain terms: the Oliphaunt created itself, and made Jandelay soon after. Then, Jandelay itself birthed the Watchers to tend to it. The Oliphaunt is stated to be the incarnated form of the idea of the apocalypse; the manifestation of calamity and destruction on a planetary scale, drawn to observe its collection of destroyed worlds for its own inscrutable reasons.

It leads me to believe it was born shortly after the rampage of Rovagug, the collective dying gasps of thousands of worlds and gods coalescing into a single being, and it created Jandelay as a method to assure no more worlds would be forever lost and forgotten; something by no means canon, but it makes the most sense to me. What also is not canon but makes sense to me is that the Oliphaunt, as the incarnation of world-destroying calamities, should not be an entity the players can reasonably fight. We’ll see how I approach this particular challenge this Friday!

[owlyjules]

You like TTRPGs? Wondering what you could add to your campaign?

What about Strange, Powerful and Mysterious Deities and their followers? :) "Book of Devotion" is the most recent compendium by SleepyWyrm_Ed, who you might know from their previous project "Tome of Pact", currently open on Kickstarter!:D I was lucky to be part of this one this time as one of the "Forces of Nature" Deity artists!:D The compendium is great to add to any campaign or just to read for fun! If you are interested to learn more about those Deities and their Clerics and Paladins, please check out the kickstarter page!

[pathesis]

Nightmares am I right gang?

[viscanpikamine]

Bothering my DM at 2AM solely so I can have disadvantage on half my rolls because my character has ptsd

[silver-gm]

That actually brings up an important point about Pathfinder lore

*Major spoilers for Tristian's questline*

Tristian was once an angel. To quote the 1st edition bestiary, page 9:

All angels are blessed with extraordinary beauty, though their actual appearances vary widely. Their natural shapechanging ability means they may appear to mortals as male or female, depending on their personal preference or the will of their deity. As they are spiritual creatures given a physical form rather than creatures of flesh born of other creatures, their gender is mutable; some angels always use a male form, some strictly a female one, and others use either or both, or prefer an androgynous or sexless shape

As a consequence, angels (and by extension Tristian) clearly have something of a looser relationship with gender than mortals (I mean, they share a plane with Arshea, the empyreal lord of being trans). In all likelihood, Tristian spent the first year or two after his creation trying out different shapes, names, and pronouns before finally settling on something he liked. They/them pronouns were quite possibly the first he used, when he was fresh off of Sarenrae's palm. Does he still like them? It's never mentioned, so use whatever answer you like.

... Does it count as being trans if your biology is entirely mutable soulstuff?

I stole Emi’s headcanon for Tristian and I’m never letting it go.

[eliotbaum]

You seem to draw a lot of Curse of Strahd. Loving all of them. I don't play much DnD and prefer other games but Strahd sorta lowkey speaks to my goth soul. Would you recommend it?

HAHA I sure do. ty!!

So, based on my personal experience the answer would be yes and no. It's one of the stronger modules, if not the strongest DnD module out there, but running it just by the adventure book is not something I'd recommend; plot holes, disorganized, women often get the short end of the stick... There is a whole subreddit dedicated to improving it, adding things on top, and other sources and supplements to make it a fleshed out world with depth. It's very much a diamond in the rough LOL Either way earlier editions of DnD Ravenloft and the domains of dread provide more fun gothic horror to play around with so I recommend looking into all of that stuff! It's got all the classic tropes and is truly rather dark for DnD. Low fantasy, high stakes!

Since I haven't finished the game as a player yet and as such don't know the entire original plotline, if anyone feels like adding their thoughts, by all means!

[lizzorasaurus]

Nocticula - The Redeemer Queen!

Once a powerful demon lord, Nocticula ascended to godhood and her domains concern midnight, artists, and exiles!

[wowieweirdwarlock]

Radical Races: Dhampirs.

Source: Advanced Race Guide & Blood of the Night.

Image source

“The half-living children of vampires birthed by human females, dhampirs are progenies of both horror and tragedy. The circumstances of a dhampir’s conception are often called into question but scarcely understood, as few mortal mothers survive the childbirth.”

Many different schools of thought argue on the origin of Dhampirs, but all agree they are born of suffering. One possibility is that they are the natural spawn of vampires coupling with humans, and another is that they form when a pregnant mortal is bitten by a vampire. Some zealous scholars even claim that they aren’t their own race at all, merely mortals suffering under a vampiric curse.

Dark Children. Dhampirs enter the world embraced by pain and rejection. Despite their natural vampiric charm, many of them face prejudice and mistrust due to their heritage. Humans who witness a Dhampir child’s supernatural abilities or strange cravings could have an array of negative reactions, further cementing the stereotypes regarding Dhampirs. Because of this, Dhampirs keep few companions, and even with the few they choose to be close to they can be sullen and dark; They fear that their dark natures willl push their companions away, or that their bloodlust will eventually consume them.

Human Passing. Dhampirs tend to take after their mortal parent in terms of appearance. They are often slender, muscular, and statuesque, with unearthly beauty. Their eye, hair, and skin colors appear as unnerving versions of the human parent’s, with many having sallow skin and sunken-in features. Many Dhampirs can pass as human at first glance, but any further attention reveals their strange appearances and fluid grace. Their canines tend to be exaggerated, reflecting their urges to consume blood, despite the substance providing no physical value.

Evil in The Blood. Most Dhampirs have no true culture to call their own, with very few coming together and forming cabals to watch out for eachother. They usually consist of outcasts and exiles, gathering the philosophies and beliefs of societies that reject them. Most Dhampirs tend towards evil, listening to the corruptive power in their blood. They are unnatural beings, and most races view them as scions of evil. A very rare minority of Dhampirs turn against their dark heritage, and turn to lives as vampire hunters. Some do this to track down their vampiric parent, or to simply purge the evil of vampirism from both themselves and the world.

Image Source: Advanced Race Guide, pg. 97.

Vampiric Traits. Dhampirs inherit some, but not all, of their parent’s vampiric gifts. Some traits are common among the Dhampir race, such as light sensitivity, spell-like abilities, and an affinity for negative energy. Occasionally, a unique Dhampir is born with an unusual vampiric trait, such as being able to walk during the day or communicating with beasts of the night. These unique traits often correlate to the conditions of the Dhampir’s birth, as the state of the mortal parent during conception can change the nature of the Dhampir child.

Breeds of Dhampir:

Just as there are multiple clans and bloodlines of vampires, there are different breeds of Dhampir. Each Dhampir inherits some of their vampire parent’s dark legacy, with different vampires spawning different kinds of Dhampir. The four most common Dhampir are:

Svetocher are the spawn of the elegant Moroi, the most common breed of vampires, who value charm and seduction in their hunting. Svetochers tend to have an easier time interacting with mortals than other Dhampirs, due to their unnatural charm and beauty. Since Moroi often choose to interact with royalty, most Svetochers are born into nobility, raised in the shadows of high society. This equips them with the skills necesary to avoid discovery, as many Svetochers excel in deception and intrigue.

Ru-Shi are born from Jiang-Shi, incredibly old vampires bound up in traditions and superstition. They are usually the result of a ritual or magical affect, as few beings would couple with the corpselike Jiang-Shi. They are born with a wasting curse that putrefies them from within, making them graceless and unsettling, with gray skin and unnaturally light eyes. They are often scientifically or linguistically gifted, and prone to strange obsessions and interests.

Ancient-Born are Dhampirs hailing from the Nosferatu, by far the oldest among vampirekind. From birth they are misshapen, with sallow, and tend to hate humanity for the rejection they inevitably face. They often possess their forebear’s eerie powers or arcane gifts, but they lack the immortality that offsets the Nosferatu’s horrific appearance. Due to this, age wears terribly on the appearance of an Ancient-Born.

The unique Vetala vampires, with their childlike demeanors and ability to claim the minds of mortals, spawn the strange Dhampirs known as Ahibachana. These Dhampirs are often the result of curiosity or experimentation rather than genuine romance, and are possessed of sharp minds. Just like their progenitors, they possess a thirst for knowledge that pushes them to succeed at everything they attempt. Ahibachana tend to master skills very quickly, and often develop Vetala-like psychic abilities.

Ideas for using Dhampirs in your campaign:

An insane vampire has been going across the area, targeting pregnant women to feed off of. He is aiming to create a brood of Dhampirs to serve him, so as to have thralls that can survive in sunlight and will inherit some of his vampiric power.

A Svetocher has been manipulating a noble court, paving the way for her Moroi father to come in and take power. The party is hired by a Lord of the court to investigate her and expose the coup.

A Ru-Shi has developed an obsession with a member of the party, and is constantly seeking to hunt them down and taste their blood.

Dhampirs are a unique race, having been born from two worlds but being completely unable to thrive perfectly in either.

Other “bastard” races, such as half-elves or half-orcs, can navigate in the worlds of their parents with a little bit of effort, but Dhampirs are unequipped to choose one over the other.

Their sensitivities and strange cravings make them nocturnal predators among mortals, yet their mortality and empathy marks them as lesser than their vampiric creators.

Some Dhampir philosophers claim that this means they are meant for something different from either parent. These strange scholars speak of a possible society of Dhampirs, where they aren’t viewed as half-breeds or bastards but a powerful and unique race.

Until this vision is realized, most Dhampirs will simply be seen as cursed by mortals and mistakes by vampires.

- A Weird Warlock.