The concept of Rune magic first being fulled by virtues, then corupted by sin is such an evocative idea for a magic system. Thanks for all the hard work you put into these!
It's wild! There's actually a cult to Lissala in Riddleport (PATHFINDER SOCIETY SCENARIO SPOILER LOL) and Lissala is believed to be the original creator of Rune magic
I’ve always been more of a homebrew-setting GM, but it might be a nice change to set a campaign in a region with such a rich history. Great work, as always! Cheers 🍻
Its all a question of available time. When I was younger and had more time I did a lot of homebrew and a lot of my own original adventures. As I got busier, I've found the premade adventures and the already established settings have been a huge time-saver for me.
I've been running a consistent weekly game in the Pathfinder setting for 5 years now, covering a total of 200 sessions of play. The advantage of using a published setting is that it feels like something the players get to discover instead of invent. Often times my players actually use these kinds of videos to research the world they live in
No need. I knew absolutely nothing about Forgotten Realms before I started running the starter set. I learned everything very quickly from wikis as it came up in the various campaigns
Thank you so much for this video! It's helping a lot in our campaign. Our DM is unfamiliar with PF2e and we normally play less crunchy systems so us players, who have been playing together for years and are well-trusted, have agreed to take over certain duties normally assigned to the GM since if we were less trusted we could easily cheat. I, as the biggest lore nut in the group, am the party's loremaster. Basically I spend some of my free time learning the lore of the area and setting so I can know things that would be reasonably common knowledge IC to help the party get situated and help with things like knowledge checks OOC so the DM has to spend less time looking things up on the wiki. Having a source like this that gives an overview of where the campaign takes place is a big help to both.
It’s amazing, well thought out and detailed regional/world lore of fantasy worlds that really helps me in my own worldbuilding exercise. I’m loving your content and I’m looking forward to watching all of your regional deep dive videos!
@@TheMythkeeper As someone that does a lot of mapwork for their game, I know how labor-intensive it is. As a visual learner though it helps me a lot and I greatly appreciate it.
Oh yeah, I definitely want to do more of these. Taldor definitely needs to be its own video. Golden Roads might also be split up into a few videos. There's so much detail on each of these countries, I wouldn't want to short shrift any of them. 🙂
@@TheMythkeeper My word, if you could do a deep dive on Taldor, that would be phenomenal. I’ve tried several times, but because of heavy retcons and conflicting information in a few places, I haven’t been able to really get a handle on Taldor’s older history or what is it isn’t canon (and I’m even further out of date with 2e).
I have watched this 1 year later, and wow does it really hold up ! I do wonder if the Runelords in New Thassilon will make use of the archway in Riddleport...
34:30 The one thing I will say is that citizens of Riddleport DO wave the flag: "By Overlord Cromarcky’s decree, any ship that flies the flag of Riddleport at full mast is under his protection and is not to be raided by any pirate who wishes to call Riddleport home" source Second Darkness pg. 49
You are absolutely correct! What I meant to say was that Varisia: Birthplace of Legends suggests this is not a very nationalistic community - but of course they will wave the flag when it makes sens to do so. Also as pirates when traveling abroad they would typically keep their flag well-hidden, or even wave the flag of Magnimar to seem safer.
Thanks for this video! I was looking for lore info on Golarion and was recommended this channel. Thanks also for including the link to Paizo's product that specifically relates to Varisia, but I was wondering if there are any other products Varisia-related as well? Thanks!
Birthplace of Legends is the best single source I think. Lost Omens World Guide has a good overview. The 1E Inner Sea World Guide is similarly pretty good. So is Lost Omens: Legends which again isn't specific to Varisia, but includes some Varisian figures worth knowing about.
Is Turtleback Ferry independent? I got the impression it was at least in Magnimar's sphere of influence due to Fort Rannick and its connection to Magnimar in Rise of the Runelords. Ilsurian I know was explicitly independent and resisted at least one attempt by Korvosa to absorb them.
What an interesting place! Korvosa seems the best to me. It's basically a more laid back Cheliax(...mega cool, but I don't want to be a puppet) and as such, I admire it greatly. Magnimar and Riddleport are both very interesting too, but Korvosa takes the crown here. Kaer Maga is simply odd, it's ... thoroughly repulsive imo. Can't put my finger on it, maybe those giant skulls or walls or what have you? Thank you for giving us Tour de Varisia!
Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoy Korvosa consider picking up a copy of Curse of the Crimson Throne, PFs second ever adventure and a story fully set in the city.
Garund will not be in one video, but several. Osirion is already up and is my first Garundi video. In ~4 weeks I should be dropping another one on Vidrian. More will come!
@@TheMythkeeper Having grown up in a small town, Sandpoint has always had a special place in my heart. I think all but one of my Pathfinder setting characters have been from Sandpoint or the area
I absolutely love this, and there’s so much great and fantastic information here, however Citadel Vraid and the Order of the Nail definitely do not serve the Korvosan and monarchy! In fact Queen Dominar was incensed when her and treaties were successful, citadel Vraid was established, and the Hell Knoght order immediately proceeded to not follow her commands or orders or show gratitude, because they are not a function of royal government, but only law and an abstract and discipline sense. Also, although this is a much more minor detail, unless something has changed for Retcon alas nest was female, not male. Again, these could be retconned and maybe you address them later, but I felt compelled to ping. Them out. Thank you for the deep dive, though! Also Blugh, Autocorrect is having a field day! I tried to correct everything, but who knows! 😅
Hey! Thank you so much for comments & corrections! I really appreciate it! I may have been using some old out of date campaign sourcebooks for this content which might explain some of the errors, especially around the nature of the Hell Knights relationship with the monarchy.
That’s super-fair. I haven’t actually kept up with 2e, so my info could be out of date as well! As for Alaznist, I literally only know that because a player of mine accidentally (almost) recreated her for Rise of the Runelords which made it really funny when I started describing a human statue that happened to look almost exactly like my half-elf player (but with a better hairline and pointy ears). Made for a really interesting character hook for the rest of the campaign! Very memorable! (We also specifically ran elements with the Order of the Nail, which is the only reason I knew of their thing-research for that specific game event). But I could be a victim of edition shift: I’m not certain what they have and haven’t retconned. Regardless of anything else, I’m really glad for this video!
Good quality, but there's a bunch of little details that aren't quite right. The Heidmarch manor is in the Alabaster district, for just one example (I just got done running Shattered Star recently, so that was a big thing for us, and also it's listed as being in the Alabaster district in the very same graphic you show on screen). Overall good job.
It came from artstation.com - like a lot of my art - but I'm struggling to find it again. I think I had searched 'arcane school' but its not coming up. I'm traveling righ now and can't do this, but you may be able to screengrab my video and search by image to turn it up.
I love the concept of like "hey maybe we could learn from other people? like it's a big world out there ya know?" and everyone else is Azlant being like "you must now move across the ocean wtf is wrong with you"
Pretty good though I think for the Runelords and their Rune Magic it would be good for newer fans if you stated which magic school the seven deadly sins line up with since it isn't necessarily obvious. So Sorshen, Runelord of Lust (Enchantment), Belimarius, Runelord of Envy (Abjuration), Etc.
There's a wide boulevard by the bridge that rises between the levels. I also think there are a few narrow stairs, and likely a lift or two at specific locations.
Check the description in the vid for a link. There were a few other sources for this video, notably the Lost Omens World Guide as stuff changed between editions. Some additional detail might have come from the Pathfinder Wiki and some other sources like the Runelords AP. I don't have a perfect record of all the sources I used for input when I put these together unfortunately.
I love these videos, thank you so much for your work! Can someone spell me the Korvosian moto please? I'd love to use it my game I currently (re-)running curse of the crimson throne
@@robfrank3423 Yeah there are some definite advantage to playing a simpler rule system. Interestingly, though I've never played the Savage World editon, in the middle of our Reign of Winter we switched from Pathfinder to FATE system because we had some newer players who were struggling with the math. It was pretty seamless and we played the whole adventure through on a system that was never built for Pathfinder. It kind of goes to show how resilient the world is that it works with multiple mechanical systems without breaking per se.
@TheMythKeeper if you ever want to stream pathfinder for savage worlds let me know, I got a dwarf alchemist ready to go, with a few edges and new arcane background from the fantasy supplement known as tinkerer giving him some powers in the form of gadgets
Anarcho-Capitalism is not a good term. Please don't associate anarchists with libertarians. I love the videos and all your work though! I know my comment is just an opinion.
Literally begging worldbuilding writers to know ANYTHING about an IRL political system before you wax poetic about it in your writing, and would definitely like to know who wrote about Caer Maga being an anarcho-capitalist system as if that were a good thing. V. concerned about their views regarding the age of consent.
Two thoughts. First no one said Kaer Maga was a good thing. Its a weird, dodgy place, not an aspirational vibe. Second, what makes a fun encounter in an RPG isn't always directly correlated to what makes for a completely workable society in the real world. I don't think Kaer Maga would ever exist as a real society, but the moments my own players have had in that city have always been really memorable. I think that counts for something.
The concept of Rune magic first being fulled by virtues, then corupted by sin is such an evocative idea for a magic system.
Thanks for all the hard work you put into these!
Wow! Thank you so much for the tip Casimir! Super-appreciate you. :-)
It's wild! There's actually a cult to Lissala in Riddleport (PATHFINDER SOCIETY SCENARIO SPOILER LOL) and Lissala is believed to be the original creator of Rune magic
@@Pathsfound Lissala is somehow a deity I haven't gotten around to covering in my religion videos, but I'll get there.
We need more regional deep dives.
They're coming!
@@TheMythkeeper I’d love a deep dive on osirion history so much! I’m running Mummys mask and it would be so helpful 😊
For real please more deep dive region videos
Hear hear!
Kaer Maga is the new place to be! Really like it's openly nongeneric vibe :)
Its so weird and awesome, I love it.
I hope paizo returns to New Thassilon someday. Would be interesting to see how the nation has evolved, and more about it's cities and settlements.
I'm sure they will. Feels like an inevitable destination for some upcoming remaster APs.
All of your lore content is fantastic, and I say this as a Pathfinder 1E GM GMing Golarion since its existence. Thanks for making these videos.
Thanks sir! Means a lot to hear!
I’ve always been more of a homebrew-setting GM, but it might be a nice change to set a campaign in a region with such a rich history. Great work, as always! Cheers 🍻
Its all a question of available time. When I was younger and had more time I did a lot of homebrew and a lot of my own original adventures. As I got busier, I've found the premade adventures and the already established settings have been a huge time-saver for me.
I've been running a consistent weekly game in the Pathfinder setting for 5 years now, covering a total of 200 sessions of play. The advantage of using a published setting is that it feels like something the players get to discover instead of invent. Often times my players actually use these kinds of videos to research the world they live in
@@TheMythkeeper If that ain’t the truth, I don’t know what is!
Can wait for the Mwangi expanse region!!
Love the pathfinder setting so much good stuff
This and part 2 have been huge in my character creation, an elf from the churlwood who joined the Pathfinders. Thanks so much for your research!
Thanks! Glad I could be of help!
Holy shit you and Black Dragon Gaming both need to flood us with more content! Great work!!
Another wonderful video! I wish we had such comprehensive deep dives for Faerun!
No need.
I knew absolutely nothing about Forgotten Realms before I started running the starter set.
I learned everything very quickly from wikis as it came up in the various campaigns
Thank you so much for this video! It's helping a lot in our campaign.
Our DM is unfamiliar with PF2e and we normally play less crunchy systems so us players, who have been playing together for years and are well-trusted, have agreed to take over certain duties normally assigned to the GM since if we were less trusted we could easily cheat. I, as the biggest lore nut in the group, am the party's loremaster. Basically I spend some of my free time learning the lore of the area and setting so I can know things that would be reasonably common knowledge IC to help the party get situated and help with things like knowledge checks OOC so the DM has to spend less time looking things up on the wiki. Having a source like this that gives an overview of where the campaign takes place is a big help to both.
This is awesome to read, glad I can be of help to you and your group!
The quality of this is outstanding! Thank you!
It’s amazing, well thought out and detailed regional/world lore of fantasy worlds that really helps me in my own worldbuilding exercise. I’m loving your content and I’m looking forward to watching all of your regional deep dive videos!
Thanks for watching. You can probably tell, but the regional deep dives are my favorites to do.
Absolutely love this channel. The way you do your maps especially is SO good. Keep up the amazing work sir.
Thank you! The mapwork is time-consuming but feels totally worth it.
@@TheMythkeeper As someone that does a lot of mapwork for their game, I know how labor-intensive it is. As a visual learner though it helps me a lot and I greatly appreciate it.
The map work is exquisite, yeah. Excellent work!
@@TheMythkeeper The map work is amazing.
You're an absolute star. I recently got into pathfinder for Savage Worlds and I've been devouring your content. Looking forward to more big guides.
Do more! :D
Love if you Deep Dive Golden Roads and Taldor :D
Oh yeah, I definitely want to do more of these. Taldor definitely needs to be its own video. Golden Roads might also be split up into a few videos. There's so much detail on each of these countries, I wouldn't want to short shrift any of them. 🙂
@@TheMythkeeper My word, if you could do a deep dive on Taldor, that would be phenomenal. I’ve tried several times, but because of heavy retcons and conflicting information in a few places, I haven’t been able to really get a handle on Taldor’s older history or what is it isn’t canon (and I’m even further out of date with 2e).
@@Tacticslion ruclips.net/video/Zz1EDIbZ-2o/видео.html ;-)
@@TheMythkeeper SWEET!
mythkeeper has the hair to make him a truly great TTRPG commentator in the vein of matt colville and matt mercer.
This, good sir is an amazingly well done video. You are a damn legend.
Thank you so much for the kind words!
I would argue he is a Myth
This is so well timed, was just looking into this region
The videos have been outstanding ! Keep it up !
I have watched this 1 year later, and wow does it really hold up ! I do wonder if the Runelords in New Thassilon will make use of the archway in Riddleport...
This was amazing. I'm preparing to run a campaign in Varisia and this was extra useful
Regional videos are the best!
Absolutely fantastic deep dive. Please please please do more.
Eventually I hope to have one of these for every region on Golarion ;-)
This is so cool! Your channel is full of super helpful information.
Loved this! I'm running PF1e RotR right now, and I have an Elf PC in it as well. Needed this background! Thx!!
Glad it was helpful!
Great video! Thank you for making this
34:30 The one thing I will say is that citizens of Riddleport DO wave the flag: "By Overlord Cromarcky’s
decree, any ship that flies the flag of Riddleport at full mast is under his protection and is not to be raided by any pirate who wishes to call Riddleport home" source Second Darkness pg. 49
You are absolutely correct! What I meant to say was that Varisia: Birthplace of Legends suggests this is not a very nationalistic community - but of course they will wave the flag when it makes sens to do so. Also as pirates when traveling abroad they would typically keep their flag well-hidden, or even wave the flag of Magnimar to seem safer.
Thanks for this video! I was looking for lore info on Golarion and was recommended this channel. Thanks also for including the link to Paizo's product that specifically relates to Varisia, but I was wondering if there are any other products Varisia-related as well? Thanks!
Birthplace of Legends is the best single source I think. Lost Omens World Guide has a good overview. The 1E Inner Sea World Guide is similarly pretty good. So is Lost Omens: Legends which again isn't specific to Varisia, but includes some Varisian figures worth knowing about.
@@TheMythkeeper cool thanks very much!
Great Work!
Thanks for the awesome vids.
Is Turtleback Ferry independent? I got the impression it was at least in Magnimar's sphere of influence due to Fort Rannick and its connection to Magnimar in Rise of the Runelords.
Ilsurian I know was explicitly independent and resisted at least one attempt by Korvosa to absorb them.
Oops! Yes, Turtleback Ferry is under Magnimari jurisdiction. If I said otherwise in the video I made a mistake.
I hope more info is released on new Thassilon Sorshen is a favorite of mine
This is GREAT!!!!
What an interesting place! Korvosa seems the best to me. It's basically a more laid back Cheliax(...mega cool, but I don't want to be a puppet) and as such, I admire it greatly. Magnimar and Riddleport are both very interesting too, but Korvosa takes the crown here. Kaer Maga is simply odd, it's ... thoroughly repulsive imo. Can't put my finger on it, maybe those giant skulls or walls or what have you?
Thank you for giving us Tour de Varisia!
Thank you so much for watching! If you enjoy Korvosa consider picking up a copy of Curse of the Crimson Throne, PFs second ever adventure and a story fully set in the city.
would love to see your PF2e version of where the Adventure Paths revolve around .
It will come 🙂
I can't wait for Garund.
Garund will not be in one video, but several. Osirion is already up and is my first Garundi video. In ~4 weeks I should be dropping another one on Vidrian. More will come!
Ah, Sandpoint. Where it all began
I plan to do a Varisia Part 2 at some point with a little more Sandpoint in it for you ;-)
@@TheMythkeeper
Having grown up in a small town, Sandpoint has always had a special place in my heart. I think all but one of my Pathfinder setting characters have been from Sandpoint or the area
I absolutely love this, and there’s so much great and fantastic information here, however Citadel Vraid and the Order of the Nail definitely do not serve the Korvosan and monarchy! In fact Queen Dominar was incensed when her and treaties were successful, citadel Vraid was established, and the Hell Knoght order immediately proceeded to not follow her commands or orders or show gratitude, because they are not a function of royal government, but only law and an abstract and discipline sense. Also, although this is a much more minor detail, unless something has changed for Retcon alas nest was female, not male. Again, these could be retconned and maybe you address them later, but I felt compelled to ping. Them out. Thank you for the deep dive, though! Also Blugh, Autocorrect is having a field day! I tried to correct everything, but who knows! 😅
Hey! Thank you so much for comments & corrections! I really appreciate it! I may have been using some old out of date campaign sourcebooks for this content which might explain some of the errors, especially around the nature of the Hell Knights relationship with the monarchy.
That’s super-fair. I haven’t actually kept up with 2e, so my info could be out of date as well! As for Alaznist, I literally only know that because a player of mine accidentally (almost) recreated her for Rise of the Runelords which made it really funny when I started describing a human statue that happened to look almost exactly like my half-elf player (but with a better hairline and pointy ears). Made for a really interesting character hook for the rest of the campaign! Very memorable!
(We also specifically ran elements with the Order of the Nail, which is the only reason I knew of their thing-research for that specific game event).
But I could be a victim of edition shift: I’m not certain what they have and haven’t retconned. Regardless of anything else, I’m really glad for this video!
I'd like to see you try and 'tackle' Gorum!
We love you President Nelson! Thank you for everything that you have done to be the Lord's instrument.
Good quality, but there's a bunch of little details that aren't quite right. The Heidmarch manor is in the Alabaster district, for just one example (I just got done running Shattered Star recently, so that was a big thing for us, and also it's listed as being in the Alabaster district in the very same graphic you show on screen). Overall good job.
Thanks for the correction!
Where did the picture at 28:59 come from?
It came from artstation.com - like a lot of my art - but I'm struggling to find it again. I think I had searched 'arcane school' but its not coming up. I'm traveling righ now and can't do this, but you may be able to screengrab my video and search by image to turn it up.
I love the concept of like "hey maybe we could learn from other people? like it's a big world out there ya know?" and everyone else is Azlant being like "you must now move across the ocean wtf is wrong with you"
That's pretty much how it went down 😅
Pretty good though I think for the Runelords and their Rune Magic it would be good for newer fans if you stated which magic school the seven deadly sins line up with since it isn't necessarily obvious. So Sorshen, Runelord of Lust (Enchantment), Belimarius, Runelord of Envy (Abjuration), Etc.
If I do a Runelords or Thassilon specific video I'll definitely cover that.
As the nicer parts are held above on the cliffs, how does one travel down? Roads or?
There's a wide boulevard by the bridge that rises between the levels. I also think there are a few narrow stairs, and likely a lift or two at specific locations.
@@TheMythkeeper Rises as it physically goes up and down or that it sweeps from the top down, like a hill?
@@beardlesswizard9197 Sweeps like a hill. If you find a high-res map of Magnimar you will see what I mean.
If you read the Pathfinder Tales books by James Sutter, you'll feel like you've actually been to a few of these locations.
5e ex-pat reporting in, what books are the sources for these amazing lore dumps?
I must have it!
Check the description in the vid for a link. There were a few other sources for this video, notably the Lost Omens World Guide as stuff changed between editions. Some additional detail might have come from the Pathfinder Wiki and some other sources like the Runelords AP. I don't have a perfect record of all the sources I used for input when I put these together unfortunately.
I love these videos, thank you so much for your work!
Can someone spell me the Korvosian moto please? I'd love to use it my game I currently (re-)running curse of the crimson throne
The city's motto is "Trosker ep Styrk", which in an archaic form of Taldane means "Fidelity and Strength".
@@TheMythkeeper That's what i heard. I was't sure of the pronunciation that's why I asked.
Thanks a lot !
Kyonin deep dive please.
Working towards it ;-)
Can you do a deep dive on Norgorber?
Norgorber is coming - about 4-5 videos out if you can be patient with me - I now have a bit of a backlog on produced content. 😆
Have you heard of pathfinder for savage worlds?
Yes, but I've only played the d20 version.
@TheMythKeeper I played the savage world system myself, it's true what they say about it being a much quicker combat system
@@robfrank3423 Yeah there are some definite advantage to playing a simpler rule system. Interestingly, though I've never played the Savage World editon, in the middle of our Reign of Winter we switched from Pathfinder to FATE system because we had some newer players who were struggling with the math. It was pretty seamless and we played the whole adventure through on a system that was never built for Pathfinder. It kind of goes to show how resilient the world is that it works with multiple mechanical systems without breaking per se.
@TheMythKeeper if you ever want to stream pathfinder for savage worlds let me know, I got a dwarf alchemist ready to go, with a few edges and new arcane background from the fantasy supplement known as tinkerer giving him some powers in the form of gadgets
Bruh if there had been more content creators like you when I started playing rpgs I wouldnt have touched 5e at all lol
When the day comes this will make a great new MMO to replace Pathfinder Online once better and easier technology becomes available.
United Cities of Varisia when?
Agreed.
(Psst. Do Irrisen.)
Its coming ;-)
Gendarmerie*
Anarcho-Capitalism is not a good term. Please don't associate anarchists with libertarians. I love the videos and all your work though! I know my comment is just an opinion.
Absolutely! No offense intended!
Literally begging worldbuilding writers to know ANYTHING about an IRL political system before you wax poetic about it in your writing, and would definitely like to know who wrote about Caer Maga being an anarcho-capitalist system as if that were a good thing. V. concerned about their views regarding the age of consent.
Two thoughts. First no one said Kaer Maga was a good thing. Its a weird, dodgy place, not an aspirational vibe. Second, what makes a fun encounter in an RPG isn't always directly correlated to what makes for a completely workable society in the real world. I don't think Kaer Maga would ever exist as a real society, but the moments my own players have had in that city have always been really memorable. I think that counts for something.