Having played Pathfinder since its inception, I have to say this is one of the best Golarion lore videos out there. I'd love a remaster of this with a better mic quality, as the video itself is great.
I will absolutely remaster this at some point now that I've gotten a little better at making these. I will also remove the extended intro so its just the history and try to get it down to a tight 20 or so. Stick around though, and check out some of the regional deep dives. The sound quality gets better although its still not perfect, and in the regional deep dives I get to cover a lot more of the world's history that I can't cover in the 100,000 foot view
So far my favorite thing about Golarion is accidentally finding the exact NPCs I want for my story, conveniently settled near where I need them. For instance, in a game I am starting at Sandpoint, I needed a lvl5 Necromancer. I started building one til I read about the Hinterlands, and the Sanatorium, which houses exactly what I needed. Lucky lucky. But even better is how NPCs are interconnected. Players kill Kanker at Pauper's Grave? Suddenly they're on the radar of an Intellect Devourer and a cult in Magnimar.
Its so true. If the GM is willing to invest some time to do some reading every action should trigger a bunch of other dominos. I found this especially true in Skull & Shackles where it felt like every pirate lord had a relationship of *some* kind with every other one.
I'm new to Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, and after watching this video, I can safely say that I know far less than I thought that I knew, time to do a deep dive into this channel to learn more!
I asked on Reddit if there was anyone who could create a high level timeline drop of Golarian lore and they sent me here. This was an amazing video. Thank you for that. Youve got quite the narrator voice and your video editing skills were on point for this presentation. Subscribed.
Thrilled to have you! I knew nothing about editing when I started this project, I just couldn't find what I was looking for so I made it myself. Hoping to keep at this and keep some regular updates going for you. Wish I had known a little more about sound quality when I recorded this. Future videos should start to sound a little better!
I just bought kingmaker and am excited to jump into this world. Your video was the lore primer I needed to figure out the kind of character I want to play
This has quickly become my favorite source of Pathfinder TH-cam video lore channels, and it’s all thanks to you. Your expertise in the setting, casual but passionate narration, and use of visual aid are sensational. Have a great day everyone! Thanks for the vid.
Been looking to GM some PF 2e and I needed a guide into Golarion, as I've been a Forgotten Realms fan since I was a kid. I'm so glad I could come across this video, for it was really well presented, with great maps and descriptions. You have helped me immensely, sir.
This is exactly what I was looking for, a somewhat high level and chronological description of events that spans millennia. Thanks for making the video!
With in influx of new players (and importantly, GMs) this video will be incredibly useful as we work to navigate and build upon a cohesive theme in our campaigns.
Vey good videos, few comments: 1. Nidal was present since the Ageof Darkness, while you show it appearing in the Age of Destiny. 2. Dwarven empire of Tar Taargadth was much more extensive, it also ruled over what is modern Druma, and had its outposts in many other places. What you shown are the remnants of the empire, the areas that the dwarves still control today, long after the fall of their empire. 3. At the time of its founding in the Age of Destiny Taldor was much smaller, the are you showed in the video are the moderen borders, and Taldor didn't get that big until the time of the First Army of Exploration at the beginning of the Age of Enthronement. 4. Qadira isn't its own empire, but only the westernmost province of much bigger Empire of Kelesh. 5. The Forlorn Elves are not the elves that remained on Golarion while the majority left for Sovyrian. The Forlorn are modern elves who grow up in human cities and therefore are culturally different than elves who grow in Kyonin and other elven societies.
Great video! I never played tabletop pathfinder before. I discovered the setting in the pathfinder CRPGs and loved the universe but wanted to know more, thanks for that!!
Never had played original or any pen and paper rpgs, but playing kingmaker and wrath of the righteous i became huge fan of world of pathfinder those 2 games have become my all time favourites.
Like so many (former) 5e fans, I've started playing Pathfinder 2e, and, accessing the wiki, I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of lore there. Thanks for this! I hope you make/have made more Golarion content!
Well done sir. Your videos are articulate, well paced and enjoyable. Paizo really did their homework while creating their world and I am much impressed. Thank you for expanding my awareness!
Thank you so much for doing these videos. I’m super new to DnD and the Pathfinder worlds. My son wants to start a campaign and I’m the GM, but being super new, my knowledge is practically zilch and listening through your videos has felt like a godsend. We plan to start the campaign over the summer, so hopefully I have a good base of knowledge by then and get creative with a decent story not completely void of history.
I literally knew nothing about Golarion besides it being the default setting for Pathfinder but watching this very well done video makes me think I need to pick up a lore book.... xD
I consider Golarion the best fantasy setting out there, it's just a great place for table-top and the lore/history is a big part of it. I've run 5 APs so far (Giantslayer, Reign of Winter, Hell's Vengeance, Wrath of the Righteous, half of Serpent's Skull (so far) and currently finishing Book 2 of Tyrant's Grasp), plus years of organized play with PFS and I still just pick up the Inner Sea World Guide and read it just for enjoyment.
I would love to hear more about Pathfinder's cosmology and the conflicts between beings outside of Golarion, as well as how they have interacted and interfered with events on Golarion.
Love your videos, I'm playing as a scholar magus and I'm also in love with pathfinder lore, and your lore videos are best supplement for my character and for me.
I an greatly appreciative of this channel since I run Adventure Paths at my local Boys and Girls Club and I'm always looking for accessible resources for my kids to immerse themselves in the setting. I love the Tower of the Tomes channel as well, but it doesn't always have content I can show my students. I'll be looking forward to more from you. Thank you so much!
Thank you for making this video. I am a DM of 20+ years and have had reservations about getting into the Pathfinder setting, because of the lack of available info on it.
I know lots of people take issue with Pathfinder being a "kitchen sink" setting. It certainly is that, I'll admit, and certainly not for people looking for a less generic flavor for their game setting. But for me Pathfinder is what I've always wanted Forgotten Realms to be: a more focused, consise, and trimmed down version of many of the kitchen sink elements found in Faerun, while also throwing in their own subtle but distinct twists on familiar concepts. Faerun is great, but many of its ideas can also feel disjointed and cluttered, and it can be difficult to really appreciate how everything in that setting connects to one another unless you spend miltiple hours reading up on materials. It's like a box filled with unorganized toys, it's exciting to dig through to see what you can discover, but it can also make it difficult to sift through if you're looking for something spesific you want to pull from when building a world for your players. Pathfider, on the other hands, feels like someone took those toys from the box and neatly organised them on a display shelf, where from a single glance you can see everything clearly and how everything relates to one another. This can make it easier to see how multiple ideas relate to one another, but depending on how everything is organized it may make people who are using the pathfinder setting feel just a bit more restricted in how they feel they can tell their stories. TLDR: The way I see it both Forgotten Realms and Pathfinder have their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to how their worlds are presented, what matters is how each can help both players and gms build the stories and worlds that they want and have as much fun as possible while doing it.
This --> Pathfider, on the other hands, feels like someone took those toys from the box and neatly organised them on a display shelf I couldn't agree more. It does really feel like they kept everything in, but they took the time to sort it and make it much less cluttered.
Found your channel through the Shackles regional deep dive video. I must commend you for summarising a decent high-level history of Golarion into less than 30 minutes. I've read through some of the world guides and material, so I know that this 28-min video was probably the culmination of hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of reading. Only thing I'd have changed was to add descriptors to nations/places: (The archipelago of )The Shackles, or (The undead) nation of Geb. Arazni is probably the most compelling and interesting characters in the lore, so when you mentioned Nex & Geb, I realised you didn't cover how they're named after their respective sorceror-kings who hate each other, and the creation of the Mana Wastes. Probably too much detail to get into, but a few descriptors here and there would have greatly contributed to highlight how interesting some of these settings are.
Thank you for the long comment! Definitely check out my Geb and Nex region deep dives for more Arazni details! They are some of my favorites on the channel
Awesome video, thank you very much. Very helpful as an overview for creating a campaign revolving around the history of Golorian. I would love a video that dives a bit deeper into the ancient histories of Golorian and its ancient empires like that of the serpent folk, the zyclops, the azlanti and the Jiskan Empire.
Check out my Taldor video for a little more info on the Azlanti, and my Cheliax video touches on some of the history of the Jistka Empire, and my Varisia video talks about Thassilon. Eventually, my Shackles video will discuss the Ghol-gan/Cyclops empire. I may or may not do deeper dives into the various ancient empires in later videos, but for now those are good resources.
@@TheMythkeeper Thanks a lot, I will check them out. I am writing currently a high level archeology adventure and having some easy access to some inspirational info will be helpful 😁
Just found your channel. Very cool! Btw, the *actual* timeline conversion is 47XX = 19XX. Meaning, the current year in-game is actually 1922. This is based on the fact that the SPOILERS Reign of Winter AP goes to Russia so that you can KILL RASPUTIN
Pathfinder was my first and remains my favorite table top role-playing game. A bunch of work friends and I started our campaign together almost four years ago now. With no expectations, we jumped in. The Neutral Elf Rogue, Alerendale led the party alongside his angry CE kobold cleric, Ghangha; whom I specced into leadership to bring more lizards. The third protagonist, Rashel, was a Half-Elf Ranger with a bonded eagle. The trio embarked on their journey with a bunch of NPCs though quickly the party swelled, with nine active characters at one point. Part way through our first campaign, I took over as the DM, morphing my Kobold Cleric in to the villain, with him ultimately being defeated. Our first campaign came to an end nearly two years after it began, with Alerendale combining two bags of holding in a last ditch effort to close an extraplanar portal, and quell a demon incursion. The second campaign began a handful of in-game decades later, though it fizzled out as we began to move cities and states. Now, with a few of us having moved back to our home town, we're beginning our third foreay into the world of Golarion, which I hope to be the most immersive and expansive narrative we've experienced together so far. I like the presentation of this video because it helps me visualize and understand the deeply rooted lore that our stories have been inhabiting. I drew a map on a massive sheet of chart graphing paper, colored it in, and imprinted it into Golarion largely using the maps presented here. The concentration of images and visuals in this video and in the Pathfinder video games also helps greatly with describing what the party is experiencing. I much prefer to build my own lore, separated from the canon stories, though I absolutely love easter eggs and tying in canonical, and home brew events and this video has greatly helped me learn a bunch of details that the games (video and table-top) simply just can't all cover.
Kudos on creating great visual and informative videos. Great for new players and players already familiar with the world. Thank you (and anyone else involved) for taking the time to create this great content.
This is such a treat. Thank you! Where do you live, I want to play with you guys ;) So happy to see that there is much more content already on the channel! It will keep me busy for some time.
Very interesting. I grew up on the Warhammer setting, and little bit of the Forgotten Realms setting. And although I love both of those settings very much, they never really fit what I wanted in a role playing setting. Golarion seems more middle of the road between those two and is appealing to me.
I think that's exactly right. Pathfinder isn't as grimdark as Warhammer (which is perfect for tabletop gaming) but its a little more visceral and naturalistic than a lot of the old D&D settings like Greyhawk, Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms.
This is top tier, the maps are so helpful to visualize different kingdoms throughout the ages. Thanks! Suggestion for a next shorter vid, the border changes from PF1 to PF2, namely Lastwall to Gravelands, Oprak, Ravounel... are there others? Can't recall.
There are few yeah, off the top of my head - Ravounel becomes independant of Cheliax (as a result of AP: Hell's Rebels) Sargava becomes independant of Cheliax, renamed Vidrian (APs: Serpent's Skull & Skull and Shackles) Part of Varisia becomes New Thassilon (AP: Return of the Runelords) Lastwall becomes the Gravelands (AP: Tyrant's Grasp) Oprak is founded (AP: Ironfang Invasions) I'll put this on the backlog to do, but I have a ton of videos now in the works, so it may take my a minute to get to it.
I have watched this video a few times now. I'm excited to find a group to play PF2e, but know nothing of Golarian. I also am obsessed with Glass Cannon Network podcast, and much of the gods, lands, nations, etc that they mention are lost on me.
I've started to realize, and quite enjoy, how often fantasy worlds have much much crazier stuff in the world's history prior to modern setting. "Yeah, elves, dwarves and human kingdoms. But did you know the world was plunged into apocalyptic darkness for a long time?" "What... I need details..."
Great video! It's very professional, informative and interesting. I would really love to watch more videos like that, and I'm happy to see you've already made some more. I've subscribed to your channel and start to fill up my watch list 😄 I would be interested if you could make videos about the outer spheres (The Boneyard, Abaddon, Elysium, etc.) and talk about the souls in the afterlife, their judgment and their transition into the corresponding sphere by their alignment and philosophy. Thank you! 😁
It's absolutely incredible How Tolkien's influence still reigns supreme in modern fantasy, the Tar-Baphon's is basically Sauron, even the vigilance stuff is based on Minas Ithil!
I think I'd like to see some discussions of the lore around different ancestries in pathfinder 2e, and perhaps more deep dives on individual nations. But I haven't looked at your other videos yet, so for all I know you've already done it :)
@@TheMythkeeper I've always been a scifi nerd XD When the big OGL BS happened I was already looking into systems I could run scifi games in, that being the most obvious. Since I didn't want to have to backwards convert to my old 3.5 DND days, I figured just switch it all up. Aaaaaand now a friend is running a PF2e game so here we are anyway lol
That was fascinating. I loved how this fictional history both mimicked and departed from our own in fun and surprising ways. Others will interpret things differently of course, but I found myself thinking things like "so Constantine The Great created the island of Crete then went onto becoming his own god". I'm also often shocked and dismayed to find things in my own setting that I invented in isolation are similar to those in other settings. For instance, my world was also once ruled by reptiles, loosely based on Greek gorgons, with the difference being that nobody knows that in the present time. I guess we all draw on the same array of sources for inspiration, although mine was Dr Who rather than Lord Of The Rings. :)
That's so funny that you both had a prehistory that involved reptilian empires. I've always found the "Age of Serpents" to be one of the strangest bits of PF lore.
@@TheMythkeeper the simplest answer could be that we know _our_ world had an age of reptiles. Dr Who ran with this and presented us with the Silurians - the original sentient natives of Earth who are rather pissed that we evolved to replace them while they were hibernating. But ancient reptilians seem to be a thing in pulp fantasy also - did Conan have serpent creatures of some sort? That could be an influence.
Hey Thanks for the vid @MythKeeper, question though between 1:05 and 1:25, what application are you using to create the timeline? ive been looking for a timeline builder for a while but that looked right up my alley
Hi, Great video. Thank you. At the 1 minute mark (through 1:37), you show a picture of a timeline history of Golarion... is that an Aeon Timeline (software)? Is it yours or did you find that somewhere? I use that software and would love to have access to that timeline if it's possible.
Im finally switching over the OGL was just the final straw! However my biggest draw to ttrpg is the Worldbuilding! Keep it up, doesnt seem pathfinder has a huge market for solid content
Eventually I'll get there, and likely Casmaron and Arcadia too, but likely that will run behind the Inner Sea nations and the Tian-Xia nations which are more fleshed out at this time. This is basically my way of saying, yes eventually, but not for a long while!
@@TheMythkeeper Would be nice with some videos about Osirion, Qadira, Thyvia, Katapesh, Nex, and other nations on the southern side of the inner sea in northern Garund.
Love it! Thanks for the time you spent on this. Great video! I’ll spread your channel to my friends who will be moving to pathfinder in the coming months.
I will start doing AP chronologies probably once I get through my regional deep dive series, as those are also a good deal of work. No funding required right now, but if you want to support the channel, join the MythWatcher's Club right here on TH-cam by clicking the join button. (Which I think for some reason only appears on Desktop right now?? Let me know...)
Hey I'm looking for a video deep dive on absalom, did you ever make one? Or about the isle of kortos? Thanks so much for your work btw these videos are amazing 👏
Confused when Aroden leaves Golarion. Only says he removes himself and shifts his focus at the end of the fourth century. No clue what that means. If he left or not. Yet he fought Tar-Baphon around 900AR.
Its because its a gradual shift. He starts building his divine domain in Axis around the 4th century but for a while he travels back and forth between the heavens and Golarion. As time passes though he spend less and less time among the humans preferring to deal with extraplanar matters.
So Aroden didn't die, he just mysteriously disappeared. I've been playing WOTR on console and everyone, even Iomedae, believe he is dead. So maybe Aroden will reappear in a different age, when people aren't expecting it.
Great pacing, excellent narration and most importantly everything is supplemented by excellent maps so a newcomer can put places and events in context. Where did you get these maps from?
The territory overlays are everything. A lot of narrators don't focus on political maps while talking about lore, so you really can't get the whole picture. I can't wait to check out your other videos 👍
Lost Omens World Guide + Inner Sea World Guide + various other sources all amalgamated together. The best most current world book right now is the Lost Omens World Guide, but the 1E Inner Sea World Guide had slightly more content packed into its hefty pages, so if you're looking to pick up another world guide, consider that.
A note on humans: though never explicitly stated, humans are no more native to Galorian then Elves or Gnomes, nor Earth for that matter. All signs point to Androffa being the Human Homeworld, with eldrich forces like the Old Ones and Aboleths importing them as a slave race. This doesnt end well on either planet.
Having played Pathfinder since its inception, I have to say this is one of the best Golarion lore videos out there. I'd love a remaster of this with a better mic quality, as the video itself is great.
I will absolutely remaster this at some point now that I've gotten a little better at making these. I will also remove the extended intro so its just the history and try to get it down to a tight 20 or so. Stick around though, and check out some of the regional deep dives. The sound quality gets better although its still not perfect, and in the regional deep dives I get to cover a lot more of the world's history that I can't cover in the 100,000 foot view
So far my favorite thing about Golarion is accidentally finding the exact NPCs I want for my story, conveniently settled near where I need them. For instance, in a game I am starting at Sandpoint, I needed a lvl5 Necromancer. I started building one til I read about the Hinterlands, and the Sanatorium, which houses exactly what I needed.
Lucky lucky. But even better is how NPCs are interconnected. Players kill Kanker at Pauper's Grave? Suddenly they're on the radar of an Intellect Devourer and a cult in Magnimar.
Its so true. If the GM is willing to invest some time to do some reading every action should trigger a bunch of other dominos. I found this especially true in Skull & Shackles where it felt like every pirate lord had a relationship of *some* kind with every other one.
I'm new to Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous, and after watching this video, I can safely say that I know far less than I thought that I knew, time to do a deep dive into this channel to learn more!
If you know Pathfinder through the computer games, check out my River Kingdoms video (for Kingmaker) and my Worldwound video (for Wrath)
As a new player migrating from D&D do to the dark times upon us, I thank you so much for this video !
*due
What dark times?
@@VinnyBloo ah thank you I missed that ;3
@@nifftbatuff676 the dark times of the OGL 1.1 have passed and all is well (relatively speaking xD)
@@OhThatRobin the Grand Wizards of the Woke are sending Pinkertons after ppl, hard disagree
I am so grateful for this channel! Pathfinder is too good to not have dedicated lore channels, when D&D has so many!
I asked on Reddit if there was anyone who could create a high level timeline drop of Golarian lore and they sent me here.
This was an amazing video. Thank you for that. Youve got quite the narrator voice and your video editing skills were on point for this presentation.
Subscribed.
Thrilled to have you! I knew nothing about editing when I started this project, I just couldn't find what I was looking for so I made it myself. Hoping to keep at this and keep some regular updates going for you. Wish I had known a little more about sound quality when I recorded this. Future videos should start to sound a little better!
Easily the best channel for an in-depth analysis of Pathfinder lore. I've been listening to these for days now, thank you!
Rock on! Thank you so much for your generosity!
Phenomenal! Loving it as a 5e refugee. What an amazing world.
I just bought kingmaker and am excited to jump into this world. Your video was the lore primer I needed to figure out the kind of character I want to play
Awesome! Glad to hear it!
@@TheMythkeeper I decided to play a Half-Elf Magus.
This has quickly become my favorite source of Pathfinder TH-cam video lore channels, and it’s all thanks to you. Your expertise in the setting, casual but passionate narration, and use of visual aid are sensational. Have a great day everyone! Thanks for the vid.
Thank you so much! What an awesome comment.
Agreed.
Been looking to GM some PF 2e and I needed a guide into Golarion, as I've been a Forgotten Realms fan since I was a kid. I'm so glad I could come across this video, for it was really well presented, with great maps and descriptions. You have helped me immensely, sir.
You're very welcome! And welcome to the channel here. More good content if you stick around.
This is exactly what I was looking for, a somewhat high level and chronological description of events that spans millennia. Thanks for making the video!
You're welcome sir!
With in influx of new players (and importantly, GMs) this video will be incredibly useful as we work to navigate and build upon a cohesive theme in our campaigns.
Vey good videos, few comments:
1. Nidal was present since the Ageof Darkness, while you show it appearing in the Age of Destiny.
2. Dwarven empire of Tar Taargadth was much more extensive, it also ruled over what is modern Druma, and had its outposts in many other places. What you shown are the remnants of the empire, the areas that the dwarves still control today, long after the fall of their empire.
3. At the time of its founding in the Age of Destiny Taldor was much smaller, the are you showed in the video are the moderen borders, and Taldor didn't get that big until the time of the First Army of Exploration at the beginning of the Age of Enthronement.
4. Qadira isn't its own empire, but only the westernmost province of much bigger Empire of Kelesh.
5. The Forlorn Elves are not the elves that remained on Golarion while the majority left for Sovyrian. The Forlorn are modern elves who grow up in human cities and therefore are culturally different than elves who grow in Kyonin and other elven societies.
Thanks for the callouts Adam, and thanks for watching!
Some of the elves who were left behind are technically also Forlorn, since they grew up outside of the "normal" elven society who escaped to Kyonin.
Great video! I never played tabletop pathfinder before. I discovered the setting in the pathfinder CRPGs and loved the universe but wanted to know more, thanks for that!!
No problem! Thank you so much for watching!
Never had played original or any pen and paper rpgs, but playing kingmaker and wrath of the righteous i became huge fan of world of pathfinder those 2 games have become my all time favourites.
They are great games! Can't wait to see more from Owlcat.
@@TheMythkeeper yes very same here that 40k game looks cool, but i want more pathfinder!
Been playing a 2e game with my new party for over a year now, this is exactly what I needed.
I'm gonna use this along "How it's Played" as my go to's for Quickly picking up on something in PF2E. Thank you for the video.
Glad I could help!
Like so many (former) 5e fans, I've started playing Pathfinder 2e, and, accessing the wiki, I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of lore there. Thanks for this! I hope you make/have made more Golarion content!
There's tons already on the channel and more coming, so stick around!
Thank you for covering Pathfinder in such detail!
You're so welcome! Thanks for watching!
Well done sir. Your videos are articulate, well paced and enjoyable. Paizo really did their homework while creating their world and I am much impressed. Thank you for expanding my awareness!
Many thanks!
Thank you so much for doing these videos. I’m super new to DnD and the Pathfinder worlds. My son wants to start a campaign and I’m the GM, but being super new, my knowledge is practically zilch and listening through your videos has felt like a godsend. We plan to start the campaign over the summer, so hopefully I have a good base of knowledge by then and get creative with a decent story not completely void of history.
Awesome! I'm glad to help!
This is so wonderful. I'm going to have future players watch this prior to beginning campaigns. Thank you, MythKeeper.
These explanations are amazing! Thank you for making them.
Thanks so much, appreciate the kind words
I literally knew nothing about Golarion besides it being the default setting for Pathfinder but watching this very well done video makes me think I need to pick up a lore book.... xD
I consider Golarion the best fantasy setting out there, it's just a great place for table-top and the lore/history is a big part of it. I've run 5 APs so far (Giantslayer, Reign of Winter, Hell's Vengeance, Wrath of the Righteous, half of Serpent's Skull (so far) and currently finishing Book 2 of Tyrant's Grasp), plus years of organized play with PFS and I still just pick up the Inner Sea World Guide and read it just for enjoyment.
Couldn't agree more!
I would love to hear more about Pathfinder's cosmology and the conflicts between beings outside of Golarion, as well as how they have interacted and interfered with events on Golarion.
Check the channel, I have a whole cosmology series for you ;-)
Love your videos, I'm playing as a scholar magus and I'm also in love with pathfinder lore, and your lore videos are best supplement for my character and for me.
Thanks so much for the kind words!
I an greatly appreciative of this channel since I run Adventure Paths at my local Boys and Girls Club and I'm always looking for accessible resources for my kids to immerse themselves in the setting. I love the Tower of the Tomes channel as well, but it doesn't always have content I can show my students. I'll be looking forward to more from you. Thank you so much!
I will continue to try to keep it family friendly!
Thank you for making this video. I am a DM of 20+ years and have had reservations about getting into the Pathfinder setting, because of the lack of available info on it.
Stick around then, as I plan to cover as much as I can for a while here.
Somehow, Tar-Baphon returned...
Sorry, couldn't resist. Great video!
As a new GM to this system and world, this seems like exactly thr video I was looking for
Thanks so much and welcome to the channel!
I played PF in college a lot after dnd 3.5. Now, with Wotc/Hasbro issues, I’m getting back to PF2
Really enjoy dming and playing intrigue style games, this really helps for seeing the big picture.
Thank you for making this
Thank you so much! That's exactly why I made this video. 🙂
I just started a SWADE-PF game and this video saved me HOURS of reading, thank you so much!
This is literally epic and what I need.
Awesome, glad I could help
I know lots of people take issue with Pathfinder being a "kitchen sink" setting. It certainly is that, I'll admit, and certainly not for people looking for a less generic flavor for their game setting. But for me Pathfinder is what I've always wanted Forgotten Realms to be: a more focused, consise, and trimmed down version of many of the kitchen sink elements found in Faerun, while also throwing in their own subtle but distinct twists on familiar concepts.
Faerun is great, but many of its ideas can also feel disjointed and cluttered, and it can be difficult to really appreciate how everything in that setting connects to one another unless you spend miltiple hours reading up on materials. It's like a box filled with unorganized toys, it's exciting to dig through to see what you can discover, but it can also make it difficult to sift through if you're looking for something spesific you want to pull from when building a world for your players.
Pathfider, on the other hands, feels like someone took those toys from the box and neatly organised them on a display shelf, where from a single glance you can see everything clearly and how everything relates to one another. This can make it easier to see how multiple ideas relate to one another, but depending on how everything is organized it may make people who are using the pathfinder setting feel just a bit more restricted in how they feel they can tell their stories.
TLDR: The way I see it both Forgotten Realms and Pathfinder have their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to how their worlds are presented, what matters is how each can help both players and gms build the stories and worlds that they want and have as much fun as possible while doing it.
This --> Pathfider, on the other hands, feels like someone took those toys from the box and neatly organised them on a display shelf
I couldn't agree more. It does really feel like they kept everything in, but they took the time to sort it and make it much less cluttered.
Found your channel through the Shackles regional deep dive video.
I must commend you for summarising a decent high-level history of Golarion into less than 30 minutes. I've read through some of the world guides and material, so I know that this 28-min video was probably the culmination of hundreds, possibly thousands of hours of reading.
Only thing I'd have changed was to add descriptors to nations/places: (The archipelago of )The Shackles, or (The undead) nation of Geb. Arazni is probably the most compelling and interesting characters in the lore, so when you mentioned Nex & Geb, I realised you didn't cover how they're named after their respective sorceror-kings who hate each other, and the creation of the Mana Wastes. Probably too much detail to get into, but a few descriptors here and there would have greatly contributed to highlight how interesting some of these settings are.
Thank you for the long comment! Definitely check out my Geb and Nex region deep dives for more Arazni details! They are some of my favorites on the channel
Great video! Thank you! My group uses this world, too, and this video is useful for us. If you put out more Golarion videos, we'll watch them.
Man. Less than a year, you're quality has greatly improved. Not only that, but you're close to 10k subs. You've done an amazing job.
Thank you so much! Some day I will revisit this video, cut out some of the intro and record better sound. 😅
Great introduction.
Thank for the video.
You're welcome
This is excellent. I look forward to your other videos.
Welcome to the channel! They only get better ;-)
Awesome video, thank you very much. Very helpful as an overview for creating a campaign revolving around the history of Golorian. I would love a video that dives a bit deeper into the ancient histories of Golorian and its ancient empires like that of the serpent folk, the zyclops, the azlanti and the Jiskan Empire.
Check out my Taldor video for a little more info on the Azlanti, and my Cheliax video touches on some of the history of the Jistka Empire, and my Varisia video talks about Thassilon. Eventually, my Shackles video will discuss the Ghol-gan/Cyclops empire. I may or may not do deeper dives into the various ancient empires in later videos, but for now those are good resources.
@@TheMythkeeper Thanks a lot, I will check them out. I am writing currently a high level archeology adventure and having some easy access to some inspirational info will be helpful 😁
Excellent video, I immediately subscribed. Can't wait to share this with my new players!
Thank you so much! Welcome to the channel
I already knew a lot about Golarian, but even I learned a ton from this!
Just found your channel. Very cool! Btw, the *actual* timeline conversion is 47XX = 19XX. Meaning, the current year in-game is actually 1922. This is based on the fact that the SPOILERS
Reign of Winter AP goes to Russia so that you can KILL RASPUTIN
Thank you for the correction! I forgot that in the in-game-world, they are a hundred years behind us. 🙂
@@TheMythkeeper Yeah! I hope that Paizo does a 2e Lovecraftian AP that goes to Earth since it's around 1920s now.
Pathfinder was my first and remains my favorite table top role-playing game. A bunch of work friends and I started our campaign together almost four years ago now. With no expectations, we jumped in. The Neutral Elf Rogue, Alerendale led the party alongside his angry CE kobold cleric, Ghangha; whom I specced into leadership to bring more lizards. The third protagonist, Rashel, was a Half-Elf Ranger with a bonded eagle. The trio embarked on their journey with a bunch of NPCs though quickly the party swelled, with nine active characters at one point. Part way through our first campaign, I took over as the DM, morphing my Kobold Cleric in to the villain, with him ultimately being defeated. Our first campaign came to an end nearly two years after it began, with Alerendale combining two bags of holding in a last ditch effort to close an extraplanar portal, and quell a demon incursion.
The second campaign began a handful of in-game decades later, though it fizzled out as we began to move cities and states. Now, with a few of us having moved back to our home town, we're beginning our third foreay into the world of Golarion, which I hope to be the most immersive and expansive narrative we've experienced together so far. I like the presentation of this video because it helps me visualize and understand the deeply rooted lore that our stories have been inhabiting. I drew a map on a massive sheet of chart graphing paper, colored it in, and imprinted it into Golarion largely using the maps presented here. The concentration of images and visuals in this video and in the Pathfinder video games also helps greatly with describing what the party is experiencing.
I much prefer to build my own lore, separated from the canon stories, though I absolutely love easter eggs and tying in canonical, and home brew events and this video has greatly helped me learn a bunch of details that the games (video and table-top) simply just can't all cover.
Awesome man! Thanks for the rich and detailed content!
good stuff! i wana see some starfinder lore... but this helped me understand some themes in starfinder already =P thanks
Kudos on creating great visual and informative videos. Great for new players and players already familiar with the world. Thank you (and anyone else involved) for taking the time to create this great content.
This is such a treat. Thank you! Where do you live, I want to play with you guys ;) So happy to see that there is much more content already on the channel! It will keep me busy for some time.
Awesome introduction to the world of Pathfinder!
Very interesting. I grew up on the Warhammer setting, and little bit of the Forgotten Realms setting. And although I love both of those settings very much, they never really fit what I wanted in a role playing setting. Golarion seems more middle of the road between those two and is appealing to me.
I think that's exactly right. Pathfinder isn't as grimdark as Warhammer (which is perfect for tabletop gaming) but its a little more visceral and naturalistic than a lot of the old D&D settings like Greyhawk, Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms.
This was very insightful and well explained. Hope I can run a game set in Golarion soon!
That was awesome. I wish I could find posters of those maps
You can order poster-size maps from Paizo
Not the versions with my overlays, obviously
This is top tier, the maps are so helpful to visualize different kingdoms throughout the ages. Thanks!
Suggestion for a next shorter vid, the border changes from PF1 to PF2, namely Lastwall to Gravelands, Oprak, Ravounel... are there others? Can't recall.
There are few yeah, off the top of my head -
Ravounel becomes independant of Cheliax (as a result of AP: Hell's Rebels)
Sargava becomes independant of Cheliax, renamed Vidrian (APs: Serpent's Skull & Skull and Shackles)
Part of Varisia becomes New Thassilon (AP: Return of the Runelords)
Lastwall becomes the Gravelands (AP: Tyrant's Grasp)
Oprak is founded (AP: Ironfang Invasions)
I'll put this on the backlog to do, but I have a ton of videos now in the works, so it may take my a minute to get to it.
@@TheMythkeeper no worries! I like that you only went to pf1 with this vid, and didn’t try to smash it all in like a big run-on sentence
I have watched this video a few times now. I'm excited to find a group to play PF2e, but know nothing of Golarian. I also am obsessed with Glass Cannon Network podcast, and much of the gods, lands, nations, etc that they mention are lost on me.
This video was fantastic. Thank you so much for the hard work you put in to it.
Great video! Thank you for making it
Thank you for this! Very informative and enjoyable! You bring it all home, making it into an enjoyable history lesson.
I've started to realize, and quite enjoy, how often fantasy worlds have much much crazier stuff in the world's history prior to modern setting.
"Yeah, elves, dwarves and human kingdoms. But did you know the world was plunged into apocalyptic darkness for a long time?"
"What... I need details..."
That sort of happened on Earth too once upon a time. Just not when people were already around.
love what you do buddy
Thanks! Appreciate the kind words
Holy shit I'm so excited to have discovered your channel.
Great video!
It's very professional, informative and interesting. I would really love to watch more videos like that, and I'm happy to see you've already made some more. I've subscribed to your channel and start to fill up my watch list 😄
I would be interested if you could make videos about the outer spheres (The Boneyard, Abaddon, Elysium, etc.) and talk about the souls in the afterlife, their judgment and their transition into the corresponding sphere by their alignment and philosophy. Thank you! 😁
Thanks for subscribing! I'm planning on a video about the planes but it may take me a short while to get there. 🙂
It's absolutely incredible How Tolkien's influence still reigns supreme in modern fantasy, the Tar-Baphon's is basically Sauron, even the vigilance stuff is based on Minas Ithil!
Very true!
I think I'd like to see some discussions of the lore around different ancestries in pathfinder 2e, and perhaps more deep dives on individual nations. But I haven't looked at your other videos yet, so for all I know you've already done it :)
That's exactly what I do in my other videos ;-)
Watching this with decent knowledge of Starfinder lore but next to nothing of Pathfinder is wild.
That's a funny combo! Most people come to Starfinder through Pathfinder I think 😅
@@TheMythkeeper I've always been a scifi nerd XD When the big OGL BS happened I was already looking into systems I could run scifi games in, that being the most obvious. Since I didn't want to have to backwards convert to my old 3.5 DND days, I figured just switch it all up. Aaaaaand now a friend is running a PF2e game so here we are anyway lol
@@D3vious113 🤣
This is great! I wish you lots of luck with this channel!!!
Very nice overview.
That was fascinating. I loved how this fictional history both mimicked and departed from our own in fun and surprising ways. Others will interpret things differently of course, but I found myself thinking things like "so Constantine The Great created the island of Crete then went onto becoming his own god".
I'm also often shocked and dismayed to find things in my own setting that I invented in isolation are similar to those in other settings. For instance, my world was also once ruled by reptiles, loosely based on Greek gorgons, with the difference being that nobody knows that in the present time. I guess we all draw on the same array of sources for inspiration, although mine was Dr Who rather than Lord Of The Rings. :)
That's so funny that you both had a prehistory that involved reptilian empires. I've always found the "Age of Serpents" to be one of the strangest bits of PF lore.
@@TheMythkeeper the simplest answer could be that we know _our_ world had an age of reptiles. Dr Who ran with this and presented us with the Silurians - the original sentient natives of Earth who are rather pissed that we evolved to replace them while they were hibernating.
But ancient reptilians seem to be a thing in pulp fantasy also - did Conan have serpent creatures of some sort? That could be an influence.
@@originaluddite Lots of snake-themed villains in Conan for sure!
Thank you very much!
Hey Thanks for the vid @MythKeeper, question though between 1:05 and 1:25, what application are you using to create the timeline? ive been looking for a timeline builder for a while but that looked right up my alley
Check the video description for the direct link to the timeline ;-)
@@TheMythkeeper Incredible ❤ thank you
Hi, Great video. Thank you.
At the 1 minute mark (through 1:37), you show a picture of a timeline history of Golarion... is that an Aeon Timeline (software)? Is it yours or did you find that somewhere? I use that software and would love to have access to that timeline if it's possible.
That's not mine! I should credit that in my descripton. It can be found here - time.graphics/line/166512
Thanks for commenting!
i can't believe prophecy died
he was a great guy
Im finally switching over the OGL was just the final straw! However my biggest draw to ttrpg is the Worldbuilding! Keep it up, doesnt seem pathfinder has a huge market for solid content
Its great worldbuilding. You'll enjoy it on this side of the fence. 🙂
Outstanding!
Great stuff!
Great video! Thanks!
Are you, or have you made any videos about southern Garund? I am particularly interested in Murraseth, and other city states in the region.
Eventually I'll get there, and likely Casmaron and Arcadia too, but likely that will run behind the Inner Sea nations and the Tian-Xia nations which are more fleshed out at this time. This is basically my way of saying, yes eventually, but not for a long while!
@@TheMythkeeper Would be nice with some videos about Osirion, Qadira, Thyvia, Katapesh, Nex, and other nations on the southern side of the inner sea in northern Garund.
@@Jo-Heike Some of those are coming very soon! 🙂
@@TheMythkeeper Looking forward to it.
Great video. Thank you. Liked and Subscribed 😊
Always appreciated!
Tolkien would be happy to see this.
So wait, pathfinder lore is just a retelling of near eastern and European history?
But with magic and dragons and stuff!
Love it! Thanks for the time you spent on this. Great video! I’ll spread your channel to my friends who will be moving to pathfinder in the coming months.
Yup, it is an alternate universe effectively. Take a look at the map, and imagine it if the water levels dropped a tad as well
awesome, thanks for putting this together
Any chance and how much funding is needed for you to make a chronology of all the APs up to 2e?
I will start doing AP chronologies probably once I get through my regional deep dive series, as those are also a good deal of work. No funding required right now, but if you want to support the channel, join the MythWatcher's Club right here on TH-cam by clicking the join button. (Which I think for some reason only appears on Desktop right now?? Let me know...)
@@TheMythkeeper Alright, thanks homie!
Great video!
Hey I'm looking for a video deep dive on absalom, did you ever make one? Or about the isle of kortos? Thanks so much for your work btw these videos are amazing 👏
Not yet, been saving that one!
Confused when Aroden leaves Golarion. Only says he removes himself and shifts his focus at the end of the fourth century. No clue what that means. If he left or not. Yet he fought Tar-Baphon around 900AR.
Its because its a gradual shift. He starts building his divine domain in Axis around the 4th century but for a while he travels back and forth between the heavens and Golarion. As time passes though he spend less and less time among the humans preferring to deal with extraplanar matters.
You sound exactly like the guy who did the OSHA Safety Basic Plus Refresher video.
So Aroden didn't die, he just mysteriously disappeared. I've been playing WOTR on console and everyone, even Iomedae, believe he is dead. So maybe Aroden will reappear in a different age, when people aren't expecting it.
Somehow Tar-Baphon has returned.
🤣🤣🤣
Great pacing, excellent narration and most importantly everything is supplemented by excellent maps so a newcomer can put places and events in context. Where did you get these maps from?
The underlying map is the big Rob McCaleb one, but the territory overlays I make myself. The mapwork does get better in future videos too!
The territory overlays are everything. A lot of narrators don't focus on political maps while talking about lore, so you really can't get the whole picture. I can't wait to check out your other videos 👍
Aroden second coming when?
Did you thinking to upload this as well to spotify or other podcast platform?
Most of this content will work well in its audio form so yeah, podcast platforms are something I've been considering. 🙂
I have to ask, what is that time-line you show at around the 1 minute mark of the video? It looks incredible!
Link in the description!
Thank you sire. Bern trying find lore
You will find heaps on the channel already!
Well. Looks like I found my next binge watching channel.
Grab your ketchup and crunch away my friends.
Haha! Thank you, and welcome to the channel!
I need a remake of this video to better Audio Quality 😍
I do plan to do this eventually. It definitely needs that treatment.
What are the source materials for this? Was this from a campaign setting book?
Lost Omens World Guide + Inner Sea World Guide + various other sources all amalgamated together. The best most current world book right now is the Lost Omens World Guide, but the 1E Inner Sea World Guide had slightly more content packed into its hefty pages, so if you're looking to pick up another world guide, consider that.
A note on humans: though never explicitly stated, humans are no more native to Galorian then Elves or Gnomes, nor Earth for that matter. All signs point to Androffa being the Human Homeworld, with eldrich forces like the Old Ones and Aboleths importing them as a slave race. This doesnt end well on either planet.
There are hints at this - but since its not explicit its not something I'm including an overview like this for new players.
wow someone talking about the world i play thank you
pathfinder one i hate 2