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Alkenstar and Dongun Hold
Capital: Alkenstar City
Ruler: Grand Duchhess Trietta Ricia
Located in the precarious middle between Nex and Geb, in a wasteland where magic is unstable, the city-state of Alkenstar has long had to rely on technology for its survival. Close to the dwarven Dongun Hold, Alkenstar city has survived the chaos of their region with many wondrous inventions, including one of actually dwarven origin: Firearms.
- Badass Normal: Enforced by the Mana Wastes, which seriously interferes with the use of magic. While Alkenstar still houses some spellcasters, and even the prestigious Blythir College for the arcane, spellcasters are still advised to keep a low profile.
- Clock Punk: Besides its firearms, Alkenstar is also famous for its clockwork-technology , employing numerous constructs such as clockwork golems.
- Egopolis: The Grand Duchy of Alkenstar and its capital city were named after their founder Ancil Alkenstar.
- Fantasy Gun Control: This is the only place in the setting where this is not present by default.
- Magic Versus Science: Alkenstar is a haven for scientific progress surrounded by two warring magnocracies. It is not completely against magic, but it's generally considered to be unreliable. Any spellcaster entering the city has to register with the Shieldmarshals.
- Wretched Hive: Befitting its founder, a fugitive criminal, Alkenstar has long been plagued by crime. while the city's elite and the shieldmarshals have done their best to uphold law and order, Alkenstar's meteoric rise has only attracted more and more unsavory individuals.
Anong Arunak
The King of the Dongun Hold, Anong helped Ancil create Alkenstar centuries ago, and has remained an staunch ally of Alkenstar since then, despite the controversies of some of her compatriots.- The High Queen: Born to the royal house and trained since birth to rule her people, Anong Arunak complemented that education with her own studies to become one of the most far-sighted leaders of her generation.
- She Is the King: Anong Arunak, the High King of Dongun Hold, is actually a woman.
Bhopan
Capital: Hoba Dukuza
Ruler: King Webhekiz
An small, isolated kingdom, inhabited by Beastkins and those touched by fey magic.- Dangerously Garish Environment: Due to effects of fey magic in it's land, Bhopan is full of unique fauna and flora that is not anywhere else. Said fauna and flora are immensely dangerous to even those who live in the region, such as the shrapnel trees, whose fruits explode in deadly shards of wood.
- Hidden Elf Village: For most it history, Bhopan has remained hidden, considered only a myth or a long gone kingdom, if they even heard of Bhopan at all.
- Horse of a Different Color: Bhopan often uses giant insects as mounts.
- Little Bit Beastly: Much of Bhopan's population are Beastkins of one animal or another.
Geb
Capital: Mechitar
Ruler: Arazni (formerly), Geb
A state ruled by and named after the powerful necromancer rival of Nex.- A Lighter Shade of Black: Under the reluctant rule of the Lich Queen Arazni, Geb pursued a policy of detante with Nex and realigned its economy towards exporting food to its neighbors. After Arazni's escape and Geb's return, some of her old followers still try to deescalate the tensions with Nex and support more liberal movements like the Quick-Dead coalition.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Becoming a Blood Lord requires one to be undead, or at the very least steeped in necromancy, a process most good-aligned beings avoid.
- Egopolis: Geb, its founder, named his nation after himself.
- Evil Versus Evil: They commonly vie for power and position, though codes of conduct prevent them from outright conflict.
- The Necrocracy: Type III. In Geb's kingdom, undead are often in positions of power, but the living can and sometimes do rise to the same level. There is a whole underclass of human chattel who are bred only as food for vampires and ghouls, however.
- Polluted Wasteland: A magical variant. Nothing grows around Mechitar ever since Geb drained the life from the and to fuel one of his attacks on Nex.
- Religion of Evil: As one might imagine in a country full of intelligent undead and necromancers, Geb is the main center of worship of Urgathoa, which just falls short of being the state religion.
- The Trains Run on Time: Geb is a brutal place to live, but an efficient one. It helps that a large portion of the population has no need for sleep, allowing them to work non-stop, or food, which cuts down on the need for certain industries.
- Undead Laborers: Mindless undead like skeletons and zombies do much of the low-level work in Geb.
- Unequal Rites: As Revive Kills Zombie, the Dead-Laws strictly forbid the use of positive energy (such as the Heal-spell) with Geb's borders.
- Vampire Monarch: Quite a few Blood Lords are vampires.
Geb
The Ghost King
Lawful Evil male human ghost wizard 23
Nearly 5,000 years ago Geb was exiled from Osirion, only to conquer a chunk of that same nation through powerful magic and an army of the undead. Geb ruled largely in peace afterwards, until expansion attempts by the archmage Nex sparked one of the most infamous rivalries known to Golarion. Their feud lasted centuries until Geb supposedly slew his rival, though the uncertainty of his success caused him to spiral into paranoia and eventually take his own life.
- Arch-Enemy: Geb's life is defined by his feud with rival wizard Nex.
- Driven to Suicide: He committed ritual suicide out of distress that he wasn't able to kill Nex and fear that he might return.
- Evil Is Petty: Is it ever! Any time someone opposes him and fails he's not just content with killing them, but typically turns them undead or inflicts some other Fate Worse than Death on them. The
worst example of this would probably be when the Knights of Ozem tried to destroy him once and for all. Not only did he turn them all into undead, he also forced them to bring him the corpse of the paladin Arazni (who was dead at the time and had nothing to do with it) to him so he could turn her into an evil lich under his control. - Foil: To his Arch-Enemy Nex: Nex is an arcane Self-Made Man who rose from a street urchin to become The Archmage, whereas Geb was the Sole Survivor of a noble house. Geb is also foremost a Necromancer, whereas Nex seems to approach magic more broadly, albeit with a focus on summoning/interdimensional magic.
- Ghostly Goals: After his death, his lingering anger, necromantic power, and desires unfulfilled in life saw his spirit return as a ghost.
- Haunted Castle: His palace, insofar as it's haunted by himself.
- No Full Name Given: "Geb" is actually his last name. After most of his clan was slaughtered in a revolt against the Pharao, Geb started to use only his family name in their memory.
- Properly Paranoid: The idea that Nex may yet live haunts Geb. It's an entirely justified dread, as Nex survived the supposedly final attack by retreating into a demiplane.
- Reluctant Ruler: After turning Arazni into his trophy wife, Geb retreated from active rule and left his job to her. By 4719 AR, when Arazni disappeared, he finally received some competition in the form of the Whispering Tyrant, and there are signs that his archenemy Nex is to return, Geb has become more driven than he has been for millennia.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: He's trapped in Geb, which obviously puts a damper on trying to seek out proof of Nex's fate.
- Sorcerous Overlord: He ruled over Geb with an iron fist, even using magic to his own ends, in life and may have maintained some of his power in death.
- Unfinished Business: Geb's spirit is bound to Golarion until he can be convinced that his ancient archnemesis, Nex, is well and truly dead.
- Unreliable Narrator: As the writer of the in-universe Book of the Dead, the lore sections of the rulebook of the same name are narrated by him. As one of Golarion's most infamous necromancers, while he can be trusted to reliably detail the traits of the undead, when he argues in favor of necromancy the result seems trustworthy until you think about what he's not saying. For instance, he notes that Pharasma is opposed to creating undead because it perverts negative energy, something that is meant to be used for destruction, into something else. He spends a lot of time detailing how undead, as a result of this sin, have a natural urge to consume and destroy, but refuses to acknowledge that this might be because creating undead is a mistake. He chalks that up to Pharasma's bias and theorized systems where mortals and undead could work together. The one he nominally rules actually only ended up working in the first place when the Blood Lords took over. In essence, it was a happy accident, not the cooperation of the living and the dead, that made Geb The Necrocracy, and it shows,
- Villain Has a Point: While Geb is horribly biased when it comes to the potential for necromancy to be used as a force for order, his reasoning for decrying the Voices of the Spire is solid.From Nex, they strike against Geb's undead citizenry, but their blatant acts of terrorism now have my full attention. These puerile fools believe it’s a moral imperative to target my feeding facilities and free the mortals within. Being short-lived mortals themselves, they fail to realize that a stable and orderly supply chain is much safer for everyone in the long term than wandering hordes of hungry and erratic undead.
Rinnella Brenon
Neutral Evil daughter of Urgathoa summoner 9/hierophant 1
The mistress of the Cathedral of Epiphenomena.- Enigmatic Minion: A creature much like a nightwalker is always with her, though its true nature and that of their arrangement is unknown.
- High Priest: She leads what may be the single largest congregation of Urgathoa on Golarion.
Vernetta Xenopha
Lawful Evil female mohrg fighter 12
The overseer of Ossum Harbor.- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: She's a CR 20 thanks to class levels on top of her base CR and she's led the defense against several major naval attacks.
Khmet Khanrah
Lawful Neutral male human ghost ranger 12
The ghost of the Osirian governor who once ruled the land that became Geb.- Deadly Gas: His domain is filled with gas that causes hallucinations and drives victims mad. Even undead aren't immune to its effects.
- Ghostly Goals: He wants to see Geb fall, both the nation and the necromancer.
- La Résistance: Since he can't leave his old home, he relies on trying to enlist others to see Geb toppled.
The Bellator Mortus
A small army dedicated to the defense of Mechitar.- Elite Mooks: More powerful undead serve as this, as well as any with class levels.
- Flesh Golem: They make use of golems made from once-living beings, particularly bone, flesh, and carrion golems.
- Necromancer: Many of the higher ranking members can raise the dead as more soldiers.
- Undead Mooks: The rank and file of the organization.
Jalmeray
Capital: Niswan
Ruler: Thakur Kharswan
An island nation off the coast of Nex, Jalmeray has long been ruled by Vudran nobles and is considered to be the western-most "impossible kingdom" of Vudra. It is renowed for its Genie-population, as well as its martial arts.
- Authority in Name Only: While Jalmeray is nominally a monarchy, the Tankur is de-fecto subservient to the Island's more powerful lords.
- Fantastic Racism: Jalmeray is home to many beastbrood- and faultspawn-cambions (descended from rakshasas and asuras, respectively), who serve as an underclass of untouchables for the rest of society, often forced to work repulsive jobs. Most Jalmeri won't even touch food that has been touched by a cambion.
- Port Town: Prada Hanam, once a small city, but now a thriving port full of commerce.
- Supernatural Martial Arts: Jalmeray is renowned for the Three Houses of Perfection, who incorporate elemental powers into their martial arts.
- Town with a Dark Secret: While beautiful and relatively peaceful now, Jalmeray has a dark history of violence, colonialism and genocide that can still be seem to this day.
Mana Wastes
Nominally a part of Nex, a disaster corrupted magic in this area. In return, the people started developing technologies such as firearms to defend themselves.
- Polluted Wasteland: A magical version. Not only are the Mana Wastes nearly uninhabitable, they also regularly give rise to magical storms that interfere with spellcasting.
Nex
Capital: Quantium
Ruler: The Council of Three and Nine
The former home of the archwizard of the same name. With his disappearance, the Arclords now rule in his name.
- Blob Monster: Oenopion is a city in which they have learned to create oozes of all kinds. A massive intelligent colony of them lives in a lake in the middle of the city.
- Egopolis: Much like its southern neighbor, Nex takes its name from the ancient magician that founded it as a means to one-up his rival.
- Fantastic Racism: Nex, and especially Quantium, is a very cosmopolitan place, and is very tolerant towards various ancestries, plane-touched heritages and even planar outsiders, such as genies. There are two exceptions: The Fleshwarps of the mana-wastes, who are only accepted into the larger cities if they can appear somehow useful, and the undead, due to its history with Geb. Undead are mercilessly hunted by the grave-sealers, a special unity of the Nexian army, consisting mostly of devoted Pharasmians.
- Humiliation Conga: The arclords had their own, after Nex's disappearance. Their misadventures include:
- Staging a coup against the council of Three and Nine. The Elder Architect and the Prime Seer survived, went into hiding and were back in power after only a year. This event also saw multiple seemingly all-mighty wizard-lords Slain in Their Sleep.
- Conquering Jalmeray, yet loosing it to a giant Vudran fleet within a century, with each attempt at reconquest failing.
- Trying to take Absalom, which even their master at the height of his power failed to do. Needless to say, the "conjured siege" wasn't a success.
- Note that all of this happened consecutively. Since these failures, the arclords have grown to begrudgingly accept the council's authority and reintegrated themselves into Nex's political system.
- Land of One City: Downplayed and justified. Nex is a land of three cities: Quantium, the capital, the fortress-city of Ecanus and Oenopion, which is famous for its alchemy. Most of the space between these three cities is a spell-scarred wasteland, roamed by fleshwarped monstrosities and brutal bandit-clans. The only other really controlled place is Khulo, an island prison fortress.
- Neural Implanting: Besides fleshforging, the Nexian army also uses mindforging, which involves directly implanting memories into someone's mind via Psychic Powers. This can be done bit-by-bit, or totally, causing a Death of Personality. The latter is done with criminals, who are then drafted in to the military.
- Nice Mean And In Between: The Three in their attitudes towards Geb: Master Arclord Agrellus Kisk is an unabashed Warhawk, whereas Prime Seer Iranez of the Orb, a powerful witch and Gebbite defector, advocates for further peace. Elder Architect Oblosk, an ancient Kasesh, normally normally serves as a mediator, but he has recently disappered.
- Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: The Council of Three and Nine has members from numerous factions: The "Three" are appointed for life (which can be very long in a nation of wizards), and try to keep the nation on a stable corse, whereas the "Nine" hold more fluctuant seats, representing different factions, such as the other two cites, major churches, or trade and even assassin guilds.
- Plant Person: Nex is the place of origin of the ghorans, and still holds most of Golarion's ghoran population.
- Polluted Wasteland: Nex, outside of its major cities, is hardly any different from the Mana Wastes, with major trade-routes needing magical protection against fleshwarped beasts and unstable magical energies.
- Technical Euphemism: It's "fleshforging", not "fleshwarping", thank you very much. While mechanically the same, Nexian "Fleshforged" are voluntarily created Super Soldiers, whereas "Fleshwarps" are mutated waste-dwellers.
- Warhawk: With a possible return of Nex and Geb's actual return to rulership in the south, most arclords, lead by Agrellus Kisk of the Three, clamor for a resumption of the Nexain-Gebbite war.
- Unequal Rites: While Nex is a great center for all kinds of magic, this does not include necromancy, due to its history with Geb.
- We ARE Struggling Together: Nex's prime weakness after its founder's disappearance was the quickly emerging disunity between the arclords and various other factions, leading to rebellions, civil wars and external losses. The balance of power between the various council members remains tenuous at best.
Nex
The Archwizard
True Neutral male human wizard
A powerful wizard and the founder of Nex. He warred with the necromancer Geb for centuries until an attack forced him to withdraw into an extradimensional bolthole, from which he's never returned. He is an important background character in Pathfinder: Worldscape.- Arch-Enemy: Nex's life is defined by his feud with rival wizard Geb.
- The Archmage: He was so powerful that he created entire demiplanes for refuge or magical experimentation.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: In many ways, Nex was a capricious, dangerous Mad Scientist who casually mucked about with living constructs and time magic with horrifying abandon, often to disastrous long-term effect. Given he spent much of his time fighting Geb, however, he's generally regarded pretty fondly.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Implied. Nex was the mortal enemy of Count Ranalc, a fey demigod of shadows. At around the time Count Ranalc disappeared, Nex besieged Absalom with an army of shadow creatures. It's not hard to speculate that he may have been responsible for Count Ranalc's disappearance.
- Emperor Scientist: A magical version. Being of
True Neutral alignment, he isn't outright evil enough to be a Sorcerous Overlord, but he definitely isn't a Benevolent Mage Ruler either. - Foil: To his Arch-Enemy Geb: Nex is an arcane Self-Made Man who rose from a street urchin to become The Archmage, whereas Geb was the Sole Survivor of a noble house. Geb is also foremost a Necromancer, whereas Nex seems to approach magic more broadly, albeit with a focus on summoning/interdimensional magic.
- Godhood Seeker: Even though he could create pocket dimensions on regular basis and lived beyond a human's natural lifespan, this wasn't still enough for him as he sought ultimate power.
- Greater-Scope Villain: In Pathfinder: Worldscape, he created the titular demiplane in his attempt to besiege the city of Absalom which guarded an artifact that would grant him godhood. He failed, but his creation remained longer after his disappearance.
- Not Quite Dead: According to the Traveller in Worldscape volume 3, he is still alive all these years just bidding time for his return by collecting the power of gods.
- Only One Name: Its only "Nex". Given that he grew up an orphan on the streets, he probably really never learned his last name.
- Self-Made Man: He started out as a street urchin in Quantium, picking up magic from its sea-mages. He ended up as The Archmage, as well as a magical Emperor Scientist. This contrast to the aristocrat Geb probably factored into their rivalry.
Oblosk
male kasesh
Elder Architect Oblosk is the longest serving member of the three, having served since the concil's founding. This ancient kasesh knows every inch of Quantium like the back of his hand, and served as a major stabilizing influence of the council. Recently, however, he has vanished.- What Happened to the Mouse?: He has recently vanished, although the other two members of the three act as if he is still there and still convene as if nothing happened.
Iranez
female human witch
Iranez of the Orb serves as the Prime Seer of Nex, a member of the Three and as The Spymaster of Nex. She advocates a policy of detente and trade towards Geb, bringing her into conflict with the arclords under Agrellus Kisk.- Assassin Outclassin' : She was the one outclassed. Originally a Gebbite witch, she attempted to kill Nex and got remarkably close, before being killed by Oblosk. Having impressed both men, they bargained with Pharasma for her resurrection.
- Badass Bureaucrat: She served in various government positions for millennia, before rising to the Three.
- I Owe You My Life: Her millennia long service to Nex goes back to her being revived after failing to kill Nex himself.
- Lady of Black Magic: A powerful, as well as elegant and beautiful, witch.
- Older Than They Look: She has lived for millennia, yet barely looks older than her twenties.
- The Spymaster: She leads Quantium's intelligence service, "Her Most Keen Eyes", also simply known as the "Keen".
Agrellus Kisk
male human wizard
The youngest and newest Member of the Three, Master-Arclord Agrellus Kisk is a proponent of war with Geb, as he and the other arclords view it as their missing master's will. Barely a century on the council, he nonetheless manages to maintain his influence by playing the other squabbling arclords of one another.- Bald of Authority: He is the leader of the arclords, as well as a high-ranking council member and he's bald.
- The Chessmaster: He managed to attain his high position at his relatively young age by exploiting division within the arclords.
- Warhawk: He is the highest-ranking advocate for war with Geb, yet finds himself checked by Iranez within the Three.
