Pathfinder Campaign Overview (Patreon)

[quote]This is a quick overview of the region and setting I’ll be running an online Pathfinder first edition campaign in, exact start date to be determined. I thus far have one confirmed player and one maybe (scheduling permitting), if anyone else is interested, feel free to DM me either here or on Discord. In addition to most Pathfinder races, there are three homebrew ones mentioned in the first paragraph.[/quote]

The lands of Resiliox, a land in the cold north, split in three by the Yestyr Mountain Range and the inland sea of Sæth Lake. Populated by elves, dwarves, humans and other races less widespread and well known throughout the multiverse. The three races that are virtually unique to Resiliox are the diminutive and crafty rantar, the recklessly enthusiastic mamuthians, and the ocean-dwelling koup’ira.

For the last six centuries, peace has reigned throughout the land between the three kingdoms that rule within Resiliox. Profitable trade and friendly relations brought the nations of the Aedoric Kingdom (ruled by the longstanding Nozlin Dynasty), the Basanite Theocracy (each King chosen by their patron, The Mountain Heart), and the Golycilf Imperiums (more than a dozen allied elven city-states) ever closer together. The height of cooperation being the slaying of the green wyrm Xuldrorthis the Eldervenom in a coalition between the three royal families. But that has changed. In the last hundred fifty years, disaster after accident after incident has caused tensions between the three nations to bubble ever higher.

The elves of the Imperiums accuse the humans of the Aedoric Kingdom of being oathbreakers, ignoring agreements made scant decades ago. The dwarves of the Theocracy berate the craftsmanship of the metalwork used by the Imperiums. The human nobility of the Aedoric Kingdom seeth at the insults and hubris of both the Theocracy and the Imperiums.

More than insults and poor trades plague the nations. The villages within the territory of the Imperiums have been attacked, in ever increasing frequency. The traditional ore veins the Theocracy has relied upon have been producing metal of increasingly poorer quality. The farmlands that the Aedoric Kingdom has relied upon have suffered blight after blight. Again and again, tragedy and struggle have plagued the nations. Peace is easy in times of plenty. This is not a time of plenty.

In the plains outside of Crabport, capital city of the Aedoric Kingdom, men from countless villages and towns are cycled through combat regimens, before moving onto other parts of the kingdom to spread the training far and wide. All while the Mage’s College of the Silver Arcanite shifts its courses from general magic to the magics most useful in the arts of war.

The heart of the Basanite Theocracy, the plateau city of Basaltrim, churns out arms, armor, and mechanical tools and war engines in numbers unseen since the days of Baruk Blackarm a thousand years past. More than plate and blades, new weapons are being produced and the dwarves are drilling in their use. Metal tubes utilizing an alchemical powder first developed in earlier centuries, but until recently ignored in favor of more tried and tested methods.

The forests of the Golycilf Imperiums, having opened their doors to the refugees of hundreds of human villages attacked by unusually frequent drow raids, are filled with legions of humans and half elves. Grateful for being given refuge, the children of the refugees seek to aid the elves that took them and their parents in when their homes were destroyed.

Separate from the politics of the nations, the Frosthorn Knights do their best to keep the roads safe from ever bolder and more aggressive bandits and monster attacks. The Greencloaks, rangers and woodland scouts just as skilled as the finest elves and traditionally apolitical have formally allied themselves to the Aedoric Kingdom. On the waters of Sæth Lake, Gray Cloak Corsairs raid on any and every vessel they stumble across, based from the largest ship ever constructed, the mighty Black Titan, and under the command of Commodore Dorbek Thazgren. Scattered across the lands, the fractured remains of the once widespread Abuta Seekers continue their order’s mission to research and chronicle the findings of ancient ruins.

On the coasts, the ocean-dwelling koup’ira venture forth, curious about dry land and eager to explore before they grow so large they become restricted to deeper waters. Offering their strength and hard shells, many act as mercenaries in the hopes of excitement and tales to share when they return to the sea. Many compare the behaviors they exhibit to those of eager teens, not realizing that that’s exactly what they are.

In the mountain peaks, the large mamuthians build their strange architecture while spending their youth in the lowlands, causing bemused annoyance in the lowlanders with their boundless enthusiasm and excitement for life. Despite their size and enthusiasm causing them to break things they don’t mean to, their earnest regret and desire to fix what they broke goes a long way in preventing hard feelings. (More than one lowlander has quietly compared the fur-covered giants to hyperactive puppies: no matter how many problems they cause, you just can’t stay mad at them.)

Villages in the northernmost part of Resiliox are wary trade partners with the rantar. Those familiar with them constantly warn outsiders to check anything and everything provided by a rantar, as the fewest pranks included in any trade package are a mere two. Many outsiders joke that rantar courtship most likely consists of an ever increasingly elaborate prank war. But increasingly, more and more rantar have left their homes, traveling south for reasons unknown.

This is the land of Resiliox, in the northernmost part of the world of Arsatum. Its people are hardy, its history vast, and it is one spark from erupting into a war of such unrestrained violence that blood will flood the land. It is in the midst of this powderkeg of turmoil, that a small group, seeking shelter from a terrible storm in the ominously named Godskull Cave, finds themselves unwittingly caught in matters far beyond anything they could imagine.