On Golarion and my Origins There

Posted 2010-11-20/02:51 in category: explanations

A little over a week ago, I arrived on this planet in a teleportation accident. Before that, I lived on the planet Golarion, which is really different in some ways.

The Magic

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The People 

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The Technology (that there isn't)

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The History

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On The Gods and their Alignments

Posted 2010-11-20/03:02 in category: explanations

Golarion has been aware of magic for longer than we have surviving written records. We have also been aware of the existence of many planes: sets of places that it's impossible to go between without magic. Golarion and Earth are both on the Prime Material plane, the plane of ordinary matter where mortals are born, live, and die. There are also the elemental planes of Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Positive Energy, and Negative Energy, inhabited by beings of those elements. There are the Ethereal, Astral, and Shadow planes, which are too weird for this post but might get their own at some point. And there are the outer planes.

The outer planes are shaped by two pairs of opposing forces: Good and Evil, and Law and Chaos. There's an Outer Plane for each of Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil. Each outer plane is populated by outsiders, beings who fully embody the plane's alignment. Some of them are naturally occurring and appear out of nowhere, and others started out as living people, were sent to that plane when they died, and gradually transformed to be more like the plane they were on.

When a mortal being capable of making moral choices dies, they are judged by representatives of Pharasma, the creator of the universe, and sent to the afterlife corresponding to the effects they had on the world in life. This is a pretty okay system as far as Good and Neutral people are concerned, but it's a terrible system for Evil people because the Evil afterlives are very very bad. I'm not going to get into detail on this. The good afterlives are working hard at making sure as few people go to the Evil afterlives as possible. 

The most powerful outsiders on the outer planes are the gods. Gods are tremendously powerful, but there are many of them of all alignments working in opposition to each other, so rather than exhaust themselves striving against each other, they agree among themselves to limit their interventions on the Material. On Golarion, these interventions consist mostly of empowering clerics and paladins [. . .]

On the Life and Theology of Iomedae 

Posted 2010-11-20/03:02 in category: explanations

Iomedae's Mortal Life

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Iomedaean Principles 

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Author's note: I can't write this properly. Go read https://www.glowfic.com/templates/3360.

General Mailbag #1

Posted 2010-11-21/22:27 in category: mailbags 

Time for the first mailbag post! I got enough questions I wanted to answer in the comments on the first post that I'm splitting them into two mailbags. This is the mailbag for questions that aren't about theology. The theology mailbag will go up sometime tomorrow unless I'm unexpectedly busy.

If you don't speak English, what do you speak?

I speak Taldane, the most common language in Lastwall, and Celestial, the shared language of Heaven, Nirvana, and Elysium. I'm dictating my blog posts in Taldane, but sometimes I'll borrow terms from Celestial if it makes it easier to explain something.

Does your world have supervillains?

I'm afraid so. Some are your regular petty criminals with magic and some are the agents of evil governments and some are warlords or aristocrats. Arguably [Tar-Baphon](https://samora.blogzone. com/posts/4) was a supervillain.

What's daily life like on Golarion?

Most people are farmers. Beyond that a lot depends on what country you live in, but it's pretty common for most villages to have a low-circle priest who can channel and create water, and a low-circle wizard who can clean clothes, and some artisans, and a local lord or sometimes a mayor.

How are your governments organized?

Lots of different ways! Monarchies are the most common, followed by various types of theocracy. Lastwall is a theocracy: a lot of the government is paladins, and Iomedae is consulted on the most important decisions. We also have some republics, but they're pretty new and still figuring themselves out.

What are Golarion's great cultural achievements?

We have a lot of the same art forms as Earth! Our greatest plays are probably the Earthfall Cycle, a series of tragedies about several generations of a family before and shortly after Earthfall, and my favorite epic poem is Hrothung, the saga of a legendary warrior defeating increasingly powerful Evil wizards, dragons, and so on. There's lots of famous great architecture but the only one I've seen personally is the Starstone Cathedral.

How did the accident that got you to Earth happen? Are there going to be more people from Golarion coming here? Can you go back?

I don't know any of that, except that I can't get back.

What do you like about the Protectorate?

They're doing a good job at their job! Endbringer response in particular is impressively well-coordinated.

What do you not like about the Protectorate?

It would be nice if there was more after-action analysis of various engagements. Or possibly it exists and I haven't gotten it in which case it would be nice if I got a copy next time.

Have you seen Lord of the Rings yet?

Not yet, but I will.

Have you seen Twelve Angry Men?

Not yet, but six different people recommended it in two different places, so it's on my list.

Will you heal people who don't want to go to a hospital?

The way my healing works I can get a lot more people by packing then into my channel radius than by doing anything one at a time, so I can heal people outside a hospital context but it's more limited and also the logistics are harder to work out. So most of my healing is going to be in hospitals.

You mentioned a kind of magic you can't teach; how does it work?

Arcane magic involves manipulating spell structures directly without a god's involvement. Wizardry and sorcery are both arcane magic. Wizards learn magic by studying the math of how spells fit together and can learn any spell eventually, and get stronger the more cunning they are. Sorcerers have an intuitive sense for a smaller number of spells but can cast them more times, and get stronger the more splendid they are.

Have you gotten to enjoy Brockton Bay much? What are your favorite tourist things you've seen?

I've gotten some time to walk around the city and see the sights, yeah. It's a good city and the harbor is beautiful.

If people from Earth could go to Golarion, what tourist things would you recommend?

Absalom is the classic city that everyone wants to see someday, and it lives up to that reputation. You can see a hundred different kinds of people just walking around, and beautiful cathedrals including the Starstone Cathedral, and the best magic item shops anywhere. 

What are the popular sports on your planet?

Lots of places have kickball, where one team tries to kick the ball over the goal line while the other team tries to tackle whoever has it. Taldor has chariot races but I've never seen one. I know some guys who can walk up walls and across the ceiling and they played a ball game that took advantage of that, where you get a point if you get the other team's ball to touch any surface other than a player.

How do you choose who to bring back from the dead?

Armsmaster and some other Protectorate people have been deciding that because they have more context on who everyone is. So far I've been resurrecting people who died during the Behemoth fight, and I'm probably going to be doing a lot of that, because reducing the fatality rate of Endbringer fights is a big deal.

Do you heal Evil people?

Yes, both when I'm working at hospitals and during Endbringer fights.

Are you only going to resurrect parahumans?

I'm mostly going to be raising parahumans because that's most of the people who die in battle against the Endbringers. We haven't finished working out what I'll be doing when it's been long enough since an Endbringer fight that I can't get anyone else from it. 

Is it true you eat diamonds?

What? No. Raise Dead needs to consume a diamond to work. I guess metaphorically that's sort of like eating them.

Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck, or a hundred duck-sized horses?

Neither of those sounds like a difficult fight. A duck-sized horse is more likely to be smart enough to run away before I have to seriously hurt it, or if they're menacing people it's easier to kill a horse-sized duck entirely, whereas with a bunch of duck-sized horses some of them might get away. So I guess one horse-sized duck either way.

You and a super intelligent snail both get 1 million dollars, and you both become immortal, however you die if the snail touches you. It always knows where you are and slowly crawls toward you. What's your plan?

I would start by asking it what its problem with me is and trying to talk it into leaving me alone. If that didn't work, probably get someone to take it to another continent and scry it every few days to make sure it's still over there. Is the snail supposed to be intelligent enough to acquire boat or airplane passage, or does it just crawl to the nearest bit of coast and get stuck? I guess if I wanted to be sure I could pay someone who can touch it safely to entomb it in concrete, but that seems like a dick move.

Are you in love with Armsmaster?

What? I'm not, and even if I was I wouldn't do anything about it because female priests aren't supposed to marry and have children. Too many conflicting duties.

Are you in love with Dragon?

Same as the previous question, and also Dragon is a woman. (UPDATE 2010-11-23: The comments section has loudly informed me of several contradicting opinions on whether women on Earth Bet can fall in love with each other. Anyway, I'm from Golarion and I can't.)

Are you single?

See the question two questions ago.

What is the difference between a duck?

I'm afraid this question ran into trouble somewhere on its way to Taldane and back. Ask again in the comments if you really want an answer.

Theology Mailbag #2

Posted 2010-11-23/05:37 in category: mailbags 

Here's the theology mailbag! You guys had some tough ones. 

How can I become a cleric?

I'll be posting about more different gods on here over the next couple weeks. If you read one of those posts and think that you're especially aligned with that god and want to help advance that god's goals on Earth, you can pray to Them. The best time for this is just before dawn but any time can work. Make a holy symbol of that god, and go somewhere quiet and private, and kneel, and think about that god as best you understand Them, and think about what you would do with a cleric circle if you had one. If you're close enough in alignment and the god likes your plans and has enough intervention budget, you'll have a very hard-to-describe experience and then acquire some channels and orisons (and first-circle spells, if you do it at dawn, which is why dawn is best). The best way to be sure is to choose Create Water and then cast it (you'll know how) while pointing at a container, and if it fills up with water then there you go.

It's also possible to get chosen by a god some time when you aren't praying, and then you'll have to try to figure out which god it is and make a holy symbol. Whichever symbol lets you channel and cast spells while you're holding it, it's that one.

If you become a cleric and you get the choice whether to channel positive or negative energy, that means you and your god are both Neutral. Choose positive. It's vastly more useful and also demonstrates that you're not Evil.

If you become a cleric of a Neutral god and are at all worried that you may be Evil, try channeling when there's nothing alive within thirty feet of you except plants. If the plants wither and die, bad news: you're Evil. (Or your god is Evil, but I'm not going to talk about the Evil gods on this blog.)

Have you heard the Good News of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

I had not previously heard of Jesus but I looked Him up in response to this question. I have not personally verified anything relating to Jesus, but if all His followers go to Heaven regardless of their alignment in life that's an incredibly impressive achievement even for a god. I hope He manages to do it on more planets. If someone wants me to check, they can send me the name and picture of someone they're confident died Evil but worshipping Jesus, and ideally something that person owned, and I can try to scry them in the afterlife. Though note that I have no way to show scry results to anyone so you'd only have the evidence of me saying so.

How many religions are there on Golarion? Do they have religious wars?

There are about twenty gods commonly worshipped on the parts of Golarion I've spent time on, and probably about that many again on other continents, and elves and dwarves have their own gods that mostly concern themselves with elves and dwarves. Religion gets involved in wars, yes. Sometimes you get one or two gods backing one side and a different one or two gods backing the other side, while the followers of other gods try to make peace/sell arms to both sides/fight as mercenaries.

Are there religions you think are false or evil?

False: mostly no. Golarion doesn't really have the thing where we argue about which gods exist, because so many gods are intervening so obtrusively. If someone from Tian Xia told me that they worshipped a Lawful Neutral god of meticulous record-keeping, I would assume that that god existed and had priests in Tian Xia and I just hadn't happened to have heard of them. To be clear, that's a made up example, I don't know if there's a Tien god of meticulous record-keeping or not. There is one wizard who runs a country and claims he's a god and everyone who doesn't have to put up with him says he's lying, but nobody disputes that he exists.

Evil: unfortunately yes. There are Evil gods whose priests channel negative and whose followers usually go to the Evil afterlives. I'm not going to talk about any of those gods because I don't want to make it easier for Them to see this planet or pick clerics on it.

Don't you know there's only one god?

I got this question from several different people who disagree on everything except that the one god created the universe and possibly also judges people after they die. There is exactly one god who created the universe and the other gods, and She does judge people after they die, so if you want to say that that one is the one god and all the others are some other term then that's a reasonable way to categorize things. We call Her Pharasma in Taldane but it wouldn't be the first time people used different names and sexes to refer to the same god.

Is Iomedae a saint?

The word "saint" is translating as a word for someone who starts out as a follower of one god and then becomes a god or demigod in their own right, and Iomedae is one of those. On the other hand, I looked up the actual English word "saint" and it means something specific in Christianity, and Iomedae isn't a saint in that sense, I think.

Is Iomedae another name for Jesus?

Iomedae would definitely do the "make everyone go to Heaven regardless of alignment" thing if She had the option, but I don't expect She could. If anyone could it would be Sarenrae or Pharasma. Or possibly Jesus is neither of Them. I intend to pray to Him separately when His areas of concern are relevant and if I end up praying to Pharasma or Sarenrae twice then I've been a bit redundant is all.

How do you know the gods exist?

My first instinct was to say "well Someone has to be handing out cleric powers", but druids get their powers from nature so maybe not. Anyway, summoned outsiders say the gods exist, and for any given god it's consistent what gets you clericed and what gets you dropped, and Iomedae in particular walked around being a human woman and intending to ascend and then the day after She went for the Starstone people started getting spells from Her.

What does Iomedae think about abortion?

Abortion is wrong because babies that get aborted or miscarried after some point in pregnancy end up in the Boneyard and the Boneyard is a bad place for children to grow up. I realize this is terrible news for women who have been raped. I'm sorry. I wish it was otherwise.

What does Iomedae think about gay marriage?

I don't know. I only learned about the concept from this question and I don't know why you would marry someone you couldn't have children with. I'm not going to marry anyone. I doubt I'm the worst possible person to ask this question but there have got to be better ones.

What does Iomedae think about war?

War between humans is tragic and nearly always unnecessary. War against the demons coming out of the Worldwound, or Tar-Baphon's undead hordes, or the Endbringers, is necessary and righteous, but still tragic. The goal is to win all the necessary wars and then never have any more wars again.

Does Iomedae think people are saved by faith alone or by faith and good works?

If the Jesus thing works as advertised for Earth people Iomedae probably knows about it. On Golarion you have to do significantly more Good than Evil to get a Good afterlife, or at least not do significantly more Evil than Good to get a Neutral one. 

How do you know what's good and what's evil?

Some things are really obvious. Don't hurt or kill people without a very good reason. Don't own slaves. Don't raise an undead army to conquer the planet, or for any other reason. Other things are more complicated. Is it better to do something that will definitely help one person, or something that only might help a larger number of people? You've got to use your reason and conscience and get advice from wise friends and do your best in whatever situation you find yourself in.

Can you lie?

I am physically capable of lying and would be unlikely to be renounced for one lie in most cases. However, in the vast majority of circumstances I do not want to lie, because there's no lie more valuable to me than other people's ability to trust me when I say things. I will conceal information from my enemies, but not try to deceive people who are dealing with me in good faith.

Would you kill one person to save five others? Like, if a runaway trolley was going to hit five people and you could deflect it to hit one other person, and there was no way to save all six, would you do it?

In that specific case, yes. Though in the closest situation I've ever been in to that one in real life, I was able to raise the one person afterwards.

Suppose a doctor in a hospital has the option to kill one patient and use their organs to save five other people who would otherwise die. Should they do it?

No. This situation is importantly different from the previous one in that people go to hospitals expecting to be safe there. If you do this sort of thing people won't go to hospitals anymore and everything will be worse. Don't harm people who have put themselves in your power because they trusted you unless you're willing to destroy something much larger than any one person. Also, looking up what was going on with this question is how I learned that organ transplants exist, and I am very impressed by what people come up with when they don't have enough magic healing.

Life rolls on. Branding sends a specialist to take a close look at your clothing, who studies one shirt sleeve with a magnifying glass and says she can definitely make you as many more as you want. Director Piggot enrolls you in the Protectorate's mandatory course on vigilante law, which is a little tricky; most people who take it have background knowledge like "it is possible to call the police". Nevertheless, you're making good progress.

Before too long, it's Sunday again! You have a standing invitation to services at First Christ's Church of the Third Dispensation, but if you want to attend with Pride you have to show up this week; on Monday she has to fly back to Aurora and start doing her job again.

She no longer has a conflicting appointment with Cartesian doubt and is happy to go! She arranges to meet Pride in front of the building so they can sit near each other.

By now you've seen a few Bet churches, and you don't think this building started out as one: it's long and blocky, with big rectangular windows and crumbling brick walls. But it's the right place, clearly marked by both a cheerful cross-and-flame sign and a small, tense woman in a conservative civilian dress.

"Hey, you came." She'll dredge up a smile. This feels really exciting but she's learned to be wary of that. "I forget if I said, my name's Gabby. That's how these people here know me. I told the pastor we met when you healed me, I just didn't say from what."

She'll lead Samora inside.

The interior is simple: a small podium covered by a white cloth, a double semicircle of folding chairs around it, and a pair of tables on the back wall covered with coffee and cookies. Most of the folks inside are gathered around those tables, and their conversation rings off the metal ceiling. Smaller groups are scattered across the chairs.

Two young men, sitting together on the outer edge of the ring, have Evil auras.

One elderly lady detaches herself from the crowd and hurries over to you. "Gabby! You came back. Welcome! And who's your friend?"

Hm. Given who's powerful enough to Detect around here, those two are probably capes. She'll do her best not to think about it too much.

"I'm Samora, I'm a healer from another planet. Gabby is introducing me to Earth religion." Might as well get it out there before she says something else blatantly ignorant.

"Ohhh, Samora, right, you were on TV!  I'm Eleanor, good to meet you.  You saved all those lives in Denver but you can't read, do I remember that right?"  She leans in, with a conspiritorial air.  "I'm getting to where I can't read either, and honestly I don't miss it.  Most of what people write isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Oh, but I guess it's different for you, not being from around here and all."

A few more folks from the coffee and cookies crowd are eyeing you curiously, over Eleanor's shoulder.

She smiles at everyone but especially Eleanor. Sweet older church ladies are the same everywhere and this is heartening. "That's right. And yes, I can still learn a lot from people repeating what everyone knows."

Samora is offered coffee and cookies, and very visibly Not Stared At.  Pride Gabby is greeted more normally, like a good friend who's almost never in town.

This always happens when she attends a new church for the second time and it always...let's say she's getting better at coping with it. She smiles, accepts coffee, and does her best to call everyone by name.

Samora accepts one of the more homemade-looking cookies for purposes of complimenting it and proves able to compliment it sincerely. Learns a lot of people's names. Makes small talk about a couple people's families and professions, which doubles as useful information about what kinds of professions Earthlings have.

That opens them right up; the people of Earth Bet love being asked to talk about themselves.  Mostly they seem to have parents and siblings but not children, and jobs like "dockworker", "crane operator", or "salesman".

Then a solemn, complicated piece of music starts up on the other side of the room.  It's coming from an instrument Pride calls a "keyboard", which is apparently played two-handed, standing up.  Everyone takes this as a sign to finish off their coffee and conversations and head for the chairs.

It's a tight fit, only one empty seat in the whole place, but people rearrange themselves so that all the groups can sit together.

And then a tall young man in black and white takes the podium.  "Good morning!" he calls out.

"Good morning!" the congregation replies, on cue.

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!"

"And also with you."

"And it is a good morning, because I see a lot of new faces today."  His eyes pass over Samora and Pride, without quite stopping on them. "To all of you I say: welcome. This is the First Christ's Church of the Third Dispensation, and I'm Reverend Daniel Marks. Before we begin the order of worship, are there announcements of which I am unaware?"

"Announcement", in this context, turns out to be a term of art meaning "request for prayers". There are several: that man's father has cancer again, that woman's brother has run away from home, that man's store on the boardwalk was burned down. One of the men with an Evil aura asks for prayers for his mother, but doesn't explain why.

As this is happening, sheets of paper are being passed around showing the sequence of things that are going to happen during the service, the words to all the prayers they're going to say, and things like that. Well, to everyone but you, anyway.

She wasn't expecting church to involve reading, but she also doesn't have a lot of good uses for first-circle spells on a typical day, so she has a Comprehend Languages she can cast unobtrusively.

Even if she learns nothing else from this, coming here was good for her. Hearing the prayer requests, getting the reminder that in between the capes and their conflicts this world is full of ordinary human people with ordinary human problems, who have welcomed her among them without worrying about what she can do for them.