Lmao.

Earlier today, Paizo announced long awaited books for their Asian inspired continent Tian Xia. Unlike many other companies attempting projects that large, Paizo went out of their way to hire damn near every Asian TTRPG writer in the business.

 I’ve worked on ~100 books & games. I’m often the only Asian on a project. It’s rare to have more than 1 other Asian on a book with me.

The Tian Xia books?

There were like 40 of us! 😲

I’m really glad that Paizo took the time to do this right. 💚

Players are going to see what a difference that level of representation makes when they get their hands on Tian Xia & see the massive diversity of Asian cultures & experiences reflected in the books.

I’m not just talking about countries or ethnicities; there’s also different stories of identity — diasporic groups, immigrant experiences, people reconnecting with their heritage, refugees, people finding & making places of belonging, … The sheer breadth of Asian experiences and identities represented in Pathfinder’s Tian Xia team and in our books is astounding. 

This is why representation matters.

Thinking about Urgathoa

So, Paizo announces that there will be a huge event in Golarion spanning several realms, from where a fucking core deity will not get out alive, and at the same time, that Shelyn, the goddess of art, who has dissapeared in the Starfinder timeline, will be returning as Zon-Shelyn and going full goth, AND I'M SUPPOSED TO CONTINUING MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS AS IF THOSE ARE NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT BITS OF LORE THAT THEY'VE ADDED TO THE SETTING IN THE LAST YEARS.

My autistic ass needs to know MORE, I NEED DETAILS, ALL OF THEM.

Worst part of it is that my swashbuckler/devoted muse half-elf from Korvosa started as an abandoned child who found hope and comfort in the Shelyn church, only to have that ripped from her through all the traumatic events she has lived under the rule of Queen Ileosa. In fact, she started as a paladin, but the corrupted city made her abandon law and pursue a path of almost vengeance against the people who hurt her friends, art, the city. She learned to dance and sing to cope with the pain during her infancy, then she used it to share hope and beauty with the people of the city... and now, she uses it to ease the darkness that's grown inside of her, after seeing the worst that people can get and do. I feel that if she survives the Curse of the Crimson Throne and lives long enough, she would be next to Zon-Shelyn, channeling the pain and darkest emotions into the most beautiful art.

Pathfinder and D&D players are not enemies. In fact they are kissing, sloppy style.

WotC: Introduces the OGL 1.1

Paizo:

I like to imagine the in-world reason for Pathfinder ditching spell-schools is that everybody held on to this ancient Thassilonian system, and then the actual Thassilon starts showing up again, and we see how different they are from the mythology and go “oh, this whole taxonomy is gobbledygook.

“In retrospect yeah, some wizard despots who lionized their own personality flaws all declared the kind of magic they liked to do an innate classification, and we all just went along with it. Gods’ sake, half these ‘schools’ do 6 unrelated things, but DIVINATION is their waste bin taxon?”

Commission from Kapooki (twitter)

Millien! Bard and charlatan, coming soon to a town near you!

Paizo announces System-Neutral Open RPG License

Aasimar (Paths Beyond)

“Are they curious about their immortal heritage or do they fear it?”

When I wrote that line about the suli, my mind immediately went to the aasimar. I don’t think people would question tieflings fearing their heritage, but when we see aasimar, we default to our OCC knowledge of celestials and their alignment. What would it be like if you grew up on legends of avenging angels and relentless archons? That’s why that question resonated with me.

How much weight and expectation must there be on an aasimar’s shoulders, knowing they're descended from celestial beings? What was their childhood like? Did their celestial parent pull an angel unaware and adopt a mortal guise to be with the child? Did they watch out for them from afar? Visit them in their dreams? Did they grow up surrounded by entities of pure goodness in the afterlife? Or did the poor kid grow up like Percy Jackson, hearing tales of a wonderful parent that left them behind?

And then there’s the question of how much you should fear celestials. Yes, they are good, but good does not mean nice or perfect. Many celestials are outright terrifying if you aren’t a hero and that’s before considering how close they are to divinity or how connected they may or may not be to any given apocalypse. That’s a lot for anyone to take in, especially from a young age. While not every single one of an aasimar’s motivations should be tied to their lineage, it is a good place to start and storytellers should think about how aasimar feel about it.

While I’m ostensively going in reverse alphabetical order, it’s nice to jump out of order one last time and return to the beginning ten years later. When we plot hook our way through the Bestiaries, we tend to give Aasimar the short end of the stick, not because we hate them, but because they are the first thing we write. I encourage you to go deeper into these celestial-touched mortals, as I think you will find them to be diverse and fascinating.

Rasa Lightbringer was literally Heaven-born, having been raised in Heaven’s Shore by three generations of aasimar relatives as well as her celestial great-great-great-great grandfather. Rasa hardly speaks to them these days though, as she finds Heaven’s definition of “good” excusatory and patronizing. She still lives along the Heathen Shore, but now she represents the chaotic interests of the Cayden Cailean and the Azatas. She is welcome within the city, but Rasa knows how to get under the other locals’ skins. Many Archons would rather deal with almost anyone else.

Stereotypes of the aasimar abound, but celestial heritage in no way guarantees good behaviour. Ayes Emeraldeye was once a champion of Ketephys in the elves’ war against Treerazer. Blessed by his celestial heritage with a long life even for an elf, Ayes eventually fell from grace upon realizing that everything eventually withers. Now he stalks the River of Souls on the behalf of Charon, although the still smites any minions of Treerazer he encounters.

Raised by the D'ziriak in Thronestep’s Shadow, Aziba is surprisingly well-adjusted to humanoid cultures. The aasimar knows nothing of her family, only that she was found by skull faeries as a babe, who brought her to her insectoid foster family. Now, she is a priestess of the Prismatic Ray: from Shelyn she sees beauty even in the darkness, Sarenrae lets her see the good in all people, and she emulates Desna as she guides people through her home plane. She opposes the machinations of the velstracs who haunt Razmirans umbral reflection and seeks aid in thwarting their latest plots.

laughs in ohoho

This is my character Aria Serizawa for our Pathfinder game so that Tumblr knows what I'm talking about when I bring her up!! Neutral (verging on a little chaotic)/Evil She's the 22-year-old heiress of a wealthy trading family from Tian-Xia but she has ummm violent and impulsive tendencies! Her fiery temper, abrasive personality and love of alcohol don't change the fact that she's a great shot with her pistols though!

She also has a knack for triggering traps and getting severely wounded which some may call karma, but I think karma is sexist and hates to see a girl boss winning!

First image is by @mformultiverse the second and third are by @xerkanlol-il and the fourth is by DiceDoll on Twitter! Thank you all so much for bringing what I envisioned in my head to life so perfectly with your beautiful art <3 Follow them and support their art if you can!!

Milly:

https://twitter.com/mformultiverse?s=21&t=_3Yebe-7wvH9io4fa_mEgA

Xerkan:

https://twitter.com/xerkanlol_il?s=21&t=_3Yebe-7wvH9io4fa_mEgA

DiceDoll:

https://twitter.com/dic3doll?s=21&t=_3Yebe-7wvH9io4fa_mEgA

DUNGEON magazine #121 (Paizo Publishing, 2005)

Art: Wayne Reynolds

Out of curiosity do you think that Golarion's Caliban and hagspawn from 3.5 ed could coexist in the same setting or would they prove to be redundant?

Yes! I wrote the caliban, so I should know. At least, I mostly wrote the caliban. It was an RPG Superstar entry I wrote, and then a lot of the content from that year ended up in Tears at Bitter Manor. The gorget of living whispers was mine too, and they ended up giving it to the final boss!

My original flavor text had nothing to do with hags. I wanted the calibans to be the children of parents who were "blessed" by Lamashtu. The inspiration was various hybrid cryptids from the mid-to-late 20th century, like the Lake Worth Monster, Honey Island Swamp Monster and the Goatman (hence the axe). In the original stat block, the caliban's share deformity ability could also affect mental ability scores (so you could have a scholarly caliban parasitizing his intellectual rivals, or one who wants to be beautiful stealing abilities from pretty faces). The third flavor change that Paizo made was making them all male; again, as a way of making them relate more to hags than Lamashtu.

The art is perfect, though. No notes.

For a "mutant child created by hags", I would use my invunche statistics or 3.5 hagspawn, and use calibans for more general monstrous mutants.

Forever ✊🥲

Increasingly Common W from Paizo