Pathfinder Regional Deepdive: Northeast Avistan - Mendev, Brevoy & Iobaria
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ค. 2024
- Welcome back to our Deep Dive series!
This is probably the longest video I will ever make on this channel, because I'm tackling not just 1 but 3 different countries - Mendev, Brevoy and Iobaria. Why did I decide to combine these all into one video? Well, you'll see, but there's a lot of shared history and heritage between these nations. For those hungry for more, the crusades of Mendev will also get a little more shape in an upcoming Sarkoris/Worldwoun deep dive and there's also a little detail about Brevoy that's covered in my River Kingdoms deep dive that's been on the channel for some time.
In any case, enjoy this immense feature-length video on the history, current events and important locations of the Iobarian nations.
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Preamble
4:09 - History of Northeast Avistan
47:00 - Northeast Avistan Today
1:03:31 - Important Locations - Mendev
1:13:36 - Important Locations - Brevoy
1:22:27 - Important Locations - Iobaria
And don't forget to Like & Subscribe!
CREDITS
The large high-res map I use is not a Paizo official map, but the work of the incomparable Rob McCaleb ( www.artstation.com/robmccaleb ) used here with their gracious permission.
On this video, also many thanks to Reddit user Hyperonn ( / hyperonn ) for providing the combined Mendev/Brevoy/Iobaria map that I'm using in this video. The map of New Stetven is not an official map, but one developed by user Narolas from the Cartographer's Guild.
Content for this video came from "Kingmaker" by Tim Hitchcock
If you enjoyed this video, please support Paizo publishing by purchasing this product or others.
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#paizo #pathfinder #golarion #innersea #roleplaying #rpg #history #lore #d&d #Avistan #Mendev #Brevoy #Iobaria
Much love from Alaska man, never played pathfinder only dnd but I love these videos. Definitely gonna run a pathfinder setting campaign now.
Do it!
As another Alaskan just starting a pathfinder campaign, I recommend it highly!
How it go did you run it?🥹
As someonre planning on running the 2e version of Kingmaker the breakdown of the history of Iobaria and Brevoy as well as the political climate is a gold mine of ideas for adding more political flair to that AP. These videos are always fascinating to watch and you seem to have managed to release ones relevant to my comapign plans at just the right times! The Realm of the Mammoth Lords as I was startign Quest for the Frozen Flame, and now this as I contemplate a return to Kingmaker. :D
Awesome! Happy to be of service!
I came here to post almost the same thing. I will be running Kingmaker as well and I have been waiting for this since the beginning of the year.
Iobaria is a region I’ve been hoping for for a great long time. Thank you, excellent as always
An adventure where a party is hired by House Garess and the remaining dwarves to investigate and find out what happened to the dwarves sounds awesome.
This is such good adventure seed material that I sincerely hope we get an official AP exploring this at some point. I have to assume its also all tied in with the Vanishing and whatever is happening to the Observatory as well.
@@TheMythKeeper I'd love to see it ALL tied together.
1. Spiritual successor to Kingmaker (hey, maybe even add space to slot in a party's Kingmaker realm into the struggle)
2. GOT-style political struggle for the future of Brevoy, where the party backs a house
3. Have that struggle eventually lead to discovering the fate of the Dwarves, and how that ties to the vanishing
@@tnttiger3079 Yeah - that's what I'd look for in a 2nd ed official PF AP set in this area.
I'm running a campaign now that's a bit of a sandbox for the party in Brevoy. Thus far they aligned themselves with House Surtova after helping repel an attack during a festival where elementals kept spawning in New Stetven and attacking.
Currently they are investigating undead and chasing a mysterious cannibal priest in Port Ice, gradually finding more mysteries such as the weapon of a missing Lebeda house member accused of treason, a chest bound in dragonscales containing notes from Chorals journal mentioning a hidden tomb, and encounters with mysterious hags.
General outline is Choral fled Iobaria, intending to conquer Brevoy to unite it and protect against the Dragon Plagues (in part in this game, it's a conflux of events from deals made by mages in Iobaria, similar to Ashai and Valyria in GoT). When he came to Brevoy, Choral encountered areas where the planar fabric was weak (akin to what Deskari used in the Worldwound), finding links to the elemental planes and the First World. The First World brought forth many hags and the like into Brevoy and the River Kingdoms/Stolen Lands.
Choral secretly made a deal with a collection of the hags, known as the Triumvirate, a massive coven made up of 3 different covens wielding massive power. His deal with them was to help keep the plagues of Iobaria at bay. The cost is unknown, but likely resulted in the Vanishing.
Now incidents with hags are increasing, both the Triumvirate and individual hags who wish to join them or gain their favor. I'm thinking they are about to help unleash the plagues on Brevoy through disease, natural disaster, and draconic monstrosities under their control.
@@JohnSmith-ro2sc This sounds like an epic adventure. Thanks for sharing!
Always been a big fan of Brevoy. Thank you for the amazing lore video
There might be another influence present in history of Brevoy:
A mighty warrior from East becomes a king and creates a dynasty that rules his new domain for next 200 years... Sounds like Jagiełło to me, grand duke of Lithuania who became king of Poland, after the death of his wife, king of Poland Jadwiga Andegaweńska, to whom he was merely a consort.
But yes, parallels to "A Song of Ice and Fire" political situation are striking.
Hey thanks for pointing this out!
These videos are well done and greatly informative! Its really helped me transition from D&D to Pathfinder, and helped me inform the other players at my table! Speaking of Elf-Gates, any chance of a Deep Dive of Kyonin in the near future?
The short answer is "Yes, eventually, all the regions will be done," but the longer harder answer is that I think both Kyonin and the Five Kings Mountains will probably be among the last regions I get to, only because I've sort of talked about those two in a very round-about kind of way in Elf and Dwarf Ancestry guide videos.
@@TheMythKeeper It is truly impressive that you are able to keep all of this content straight, tracking what you've already discussed and always giving us something fresh and engaging!
@@christopherpugnetti5827 Thanks Chris. I always thouht I had a good handle on the PF world because I've GMed so many games, but making these videos has turned me into a veritable encyclopedia. Its crazy how detailed my memory is of each video I've made so far. I'm sure that will start to slip over time, but so far its holding.
I'm writing a story (maybe a novel the way it's going) about Brevoy, and Iobaria might play a part too, so this is very useful. Thank you.
Awesome! Happy to help
Love all you videos and lore. Feels like a documentary and it’s very relaxing. I liked D&D 3.5E but stopped playing as I didn’t like 4th and 5th edition. Feels fresh and I hope the pathfinder setting continues to develop.
@@CuriousMouse1988 awesome! Thanks for sharing and glad you’re enjoying the videos!
excellent work of investigation as allways, thanks for the information!
Such a FANTASTIC video!! Thank you!
Thank you so much! Glad you liked it
Almost missed this one, another awesome regional deep dive. I'm actually trying to get a 2nd edition game started at some point, this channel had been a great inspiration for that. I'd also recommend The lore tour Channel, they did a whole series on Absolam that's just awesome 👌. Thanks as always for a great video
Thanks for watching Matt!
Another good vid! First of my own modules happened in Brevoy. It was mix of "The Thing" with watered down "Game of the Thrones" - in order to claim his own inheritance (small castle and silver mine of the minor branch of house Garess) one of PC must involve into sibling rivalry and defeat strange cult related to the Dark Tapestry :)
That sounds like a really fun adventure.
@@TheMythKeeper i hope it was. I'm not really expirienced DM, so boss fights turn out to be much easier, than i wanted. At least i learned that one big monster as encounter is bad idea.
@@winterkalte819 I'm not really a channelf or adventure and game advice (many others out there for that) but that's definitely a good lesson. Bosses need minions to keep your heroes distracted and occupied. Also best boss-fights happen in architecturally interesting locations, multiple balconies overlooking a great hall, a throne room with a walkway flanked by a yawning chasm and so on, so the environment itself is a bit of a hazard and to make the whole event more memorable.
@@TheMythKeeper ty for advice. I tried to make final boss encounter interesting mechanically - players must disrupt several stages of ritual in ancient observatory, what would weaken summoned lafcraftian entity, but i underestimate their power. This thing i will learn on my own mistakes, i guess) (Sorry for butchering english, i understand language more or less, but not often use it to communicate)
Thank you for the videos. It is helping me immensely!
You're very welcome! Thanks for being a member and supporting the channel, and congrats on getting 1st comment on the new vid.
that was both detailed and amazing..a really good resource.
Glad you liked it!
I love these videos, and this was perfect, as I'm planning to set a campaign around the Lakes of Mists and veils :)
Well stay tuned because although my next deep dive takes us back to Garund, the Worldwound is the one coming up after that.
Thanks again for your work! Great video!
My pleasure!
Really love these videos!
Thank you Lucas! Really appreciate the support. :-)
Lovely video as always!
Thank you! Cheers!
Love regional videos, will see it later
I’m planning on running a modified Kingmaker campaign after the conclusion of my current 5E campaign. Your videos have really helped me with getting acclimated to the world.
You're so welcome! Thanks for watching!
This came out at the perfect time. I'm preparing to run Kingmaker starting this coming Saturday.
Awesome, I love it when it works out that way
So well done much love 😍
Thanks so much!
I would really like a video on the pathfinders, oddly enough I haven't found a single video about them
Yep, I plan to start Faction Guides in the near future and Pathfinders will be at the top of the list.
@@TheMythKeeper much appreciated
I love this channel sm I noticed you had a video out about dragons I'll have to watch that when I am done with this!!
Thank you! Welcome to the club!
I gotta say, I loved the cyclops in Kingmaker, they are probably my favorite monsters, so its nice to see so much about them.
Me too. More cyclops content coming in my Western Mwangi Expanse video!
Your contant is very enjoyable thank you 👍
You're very welcome! Thanks for watching!
These are great
Amount of information in this video is MASSIVES.
So i decide to make massive SMASH on the like button.
Awesome! Thank you
Обожаю ваши видео! До здравствует Дом Трунь!
Lander and a member of house Garess are both in the kingmaker game. Quite the interesting characters.
Great, now I know where and how tiny and insignificant my new kindom will be in kingmaker, that's all I wanted to know.
Haha! Stolen Lands are hella big actually, I think.
Excellent vignette. Each episode make me appreciate intricacy of Golarion seating even more.
BTW if it would not be too much of a work would it be possible to list books that provided information in the video? Or was it all from "Kingmaker" by Tim Hitchcock as listed in description?
Honestly like 90% of this video came from the Kingmaker AP. That's where the Brevoy and Iobaria details are all sourced. The history of Iobaria is given in great detail in a Blog that was published on the Paizo Blog's site which you can find through a quick google. There's also some general content in the history section (like the dats of Taldan expansion or the date of the Numerian Starfall) which come from more general sources.
It's always a great day when I see a new upload especially a regional deep dive! Is there any chance for a deep dive into galt?
Eventually ;-)
Well so you know these videos on the River Kingdoms, Brevoy, and Iobaria have been great resources as I am running a series of Broken Lands campaigns
Thanks so much!
These videos are such an amazing resource, thank you so much for the hard work. I gotta ask, how do you make the regions on these maps? Most maps of Golarion I find are either much less detailed or simply don't include borders and regional shading, and as I am working on a homebrew world (which I will be using with the pathfinder system and is heavily inspired by Golarion), I am having a hard time figuring out how to do this.
If you're making maps completely from scratch I'd suggest doing some map-making tutorials. I use the GIMP for editing my images and there are some good tutorials out there on creating textures for forest, mountains and so on, as well as for doing things like curved text or borders with stroked paths (dashed lines). Many people use photoshop instead. I've also heard good things about tools like Inkarnate, but I'm not currently using any of those.
thank you sir thank you.
You are most welcome
Brevoy is just Game of Thrones with the serial numbers filed off
Haha! This is known
The blame games and riots over the Choking Death hit a little too close to home. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Sometimes bad things happen and there's no villain to blame.
@TheMythKeeper well im blaming Apollyon for this. This sounds like his kind of fun
This is great! Iobaria is one of my favorite regions to run campaigns in. Where did you get your maps?
The underlying map is the official high-res Rob McCaleb map. The Iobaria one I found on Reddit and is linked in the description. All the overlays (showing how the regions evolve over time) I make myself just based on the lore provided in the books.
This is as Detailed as it gets.
Thank you!
I wait patiently for a lost omens Casmaron book
Me too 🙏
I saw an image depicting the War of Vengeance aka the War of the Beard from Warhammer Fantasy and now I am sad 🥲 (but enjoyed the video hah)
Yeah I use a fair bit of art from Warhammer as well for these videos
I will be pushing my players heads to their screens to watch. “And you want you own kingdom… amongst THIS??!” (No detective work required to guess the adventure path).
Haha! Yes, awesome, please share with your players!
My really only minor nitpick is referring to them as the three Iobarian 'city states', countries is probably more accurate, New Stetven is clearly a country capital you can even make the argument that Brevoy is two countries bound in a perpetual union that Rostland's elite would like to be free of. I do find Mendev's fate canonically of 'return to civilian governance' to be ahistorical and a little queer in terms of canon's phrasing (since if I remember correctly Galfrey is the daughter of the previous king of Mendev and at least in the game she has surviving relatives), but I digress.
Iobaria and frankly the three countries involved are places I really would like to see get full length source books of. [Not the least of which is I would like a new map of the region to definitively answer some questions about the layout geographically speaking of NE Avistan and western Casmarron]
The word city-state is totally wrong. These are countries or nations, not city-states. Sometimes you don't pick up on these things when you do your own editing.
I would love to get a Casmaron worldbook some day, like they're doing with Tian-Xia and have done with the Inner Sea.
Is the map you use in the preamble publicly available? Ty as always for very helpful content!
Unfortunately not. It was a Rob McCaleb piece bought by Paizo no longer available through his social channels. You may be able to find it if you search the hidden recesses of the internet though
@@TheMythKeeper I tried! Alas. I saw that it was one of his but artstation won’t let me buy it or download anything beyond 1920. I’ll see if I can email him.
Fantastic video! I'm very interested in the history connecting ghol-gan, Iblydos and Koloran and this is the first time I've heard of the fact that cyclops from Iblydos traveled north and through the Castrovin Sea to become the Koloran empire, usually the connection between Iblydos and Koloran is mentionned but kept extremely vague and it's not clear where and how the Koloran empire was founded (or if their name even is Koloran or if that's just how Iblydos called them).
I'd love a source on that bit if you have it, I'm running a campaign that has a bunch of Koloran empire stuff in it so anything I can use to add more history to them would be extremely useful!
Edit: Also, I recognize that custom map of New-Stetven! It's an unfinished map from someone on the cartographer's guild, would be nice if you credited them :)
Thanks for the long comment. I believe the best source of information on the Koloran cyclops is scattered throughout the original Kingmaker AP. The one with the details on Iobaria, if you can track that down.
@@TheMythKeeper Thanks! I'll look through those, a lot of this area's details are basically just hidden in that AP it seems.
Also I've found the source for the custom map of new-stetven you used that I remember seeing ages ago, it's from a user on the cartographer's guild called "Narolas" and it seems it wasn't ever finished, but I think it should be credited :)
@@nopetrash9198 Thanks I've updated the video description.
Referring to 33:09
I am surprised that a number of white and red dragons were able to be reasoned with and come together to hunt the humans in the area. Why wouldn't these chaotic evil creatures then turn on House Arjal? I know younger white dragons hunt in groups sometimes but I cannot see them getting along with red dragons, unless they are working as the red dragon's thralls. Also, aren't the territories of white dragons pretty large? Did Arjal travel far and wide and convince all of these dragons to work with him? Is he extremely powerful? Just some questions I had, I don't necessarily need the answers, I'm just thinking aloud here.
From the wiki:
"White dragons tend to be the most feral and animalistic of the chromatic dragons, relying on sheer force rather than elaborate plans or strategies"
My guess is that this coalition of red and whites was already subservient to an elder red dragon and Arjal struck a bargain with this elder red. It was likely that one keeping the others in line, because you're right that they would otherwise fall to bickering and infighting. There's even an outside chance that Arjal's elder red ally was the father of Choral the Conqueror, who would then have grown up on stories of how Iobaria was secretly a dragon kingdom and that Arjal was deferential to his father as a 'hidden master' and this might have motivated Choral to rule a nation of his own. (Nothing canon about this now, I'm fully in the zone of idle speculation.) Btw, my dragon video is out next ;-)
@@TheMythKeeper awesome! Yeah that does make sense, especially since the white dragons are the least powerful (I think).
11:44 The dwarf king was named Taargick. Tar Taargadth was the name of the kingdom.
14:10 The First Army of Exploration in 37 AR reached River Kingdoms, but the entirety of the region wasn't conquered until the time of the Fifth Army in 2009 AR.
Oops! You are correct sir. I need to figure out a reward for people that spot errors in my videos. Appreciate the correction.
You don't get a prize for the second one though. That's correctly documented in the video ;-)
@@TheMythKeeper At 14:10 you show the whole of River Kingdoms being conquered in 37 AR. That's incorrect; at that time the First Army of Exploration only made it as far as Sevenarches (in southern River Kingdoms). The rest of the River Kingdoms region was only conquered by the 5th Army in 2009, that's what I meant.
As for the region of Brevoy being conquered by the 5th army, I think that's incorrect as well. 5th Army conquered the River Kingdoms, but not the region later known as Brevoy. While explorers could have arrived there, the first settlers into Rostland were led by Sirian Aldori thousand years later, who wasn't a governor under Taldan rule, but an emigrant from Taldor. Taldor never controlled Issia, though people of Taldan descent traveleled there and mixed with the local people.
(source: "Taldor, the First Empire", especially map on page 8.)
@@adamlatosinski5475 I've spent a bit of time with this content and the map isn't always sync with the text and other sources. Check page 11 with the timeline. It clearly says: "2009-2014: The Fifth Army of Exploration employs a magical siege engine called the Worldbreaker to push north through the River Kingdoms and Brevoy to the Lake of Mists and Veils."
The Taldans definitely reached into Brevoy, even if the map doesn't reflect it. Also there's almost 2000 years between Army 1 and Army 5, and it would be strange to imagine an expansionist empire like the Taldans would sit on their laurels at the borders of Sevenarches for 2000 years and then suddenly expand to cover the whole thing in the 5 years of the 5th army.
I considered a more gradual expansion of blue into kellid lands, but to save time I just focused on two big milestones; RKs and then Brevoy, but you're right that Army 1 didn't conquer the whole thing, just a southern section. I may have simplified but I stand by my content here. Its not really a video about the RKs.
Also I should point out pre-emptively that I use the exact same set of maps for an upcoming Numeria video, so I apologize pre-emptively for the same error in that video too!
Crown of the World please!
Wow! My first request for a video on the Crown of the World! I must admit, this was not on my list, but I'll have to revise that. Thanks ;-)
oh yessssss time to figth monsters of north!
Where do you get all of your maps? I want them so bad. I got this one, but I want all the others too😂.
The main map was a Rob McCaleb piece bought by Paizo no longer available through his social channels. The maps with emphasized regions showing the state of the world at various points in time are my own work unfortunately and I haven't released them except in these videos.
@@TheMythKeeper Your work is awesome, dude.
Which map is this you use as background?
Check the link in the description
@@TheMythKeeper Thanks. Also I realized I have not levelled up to Pathfinder V2 yet. Thanks for great videos as well.
Sorry to be a bother, but can I get a quote or a pointer of where you got the info at 1:16:42 on house orlovsky breeding horses and their cavalry, my gm is asking
Its from the house summaries provided in the Brevoy Gazetteer at the end of the Stolen Land adventure path (I was using the 1E edition book, not the refactored 2E book).
@@TheMythKeeper Thank you!
@@TheMythKeeper Im sorry but Im feeling really dumb, I went to it and in page 64 I can find house orlovsky and Poul but not the thing about Eagle’s Watch and horses
@@WhyvernReinforcements I don't have comprehensive list of sources that I use unfortunately, but if you don't find the material there you can also try Pathfinder Society adventures. In this one for example: pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/On_the_Border_of_War the PCs go to Sylvanna Orlovsky (IIRC) and get a number of House Orlovksy special horses (called Brevik Warmbloods).
@TheMythKeeper Thank you. That was the final nail I needed to hold it all together.
👏👏👏👏
What happened to the Centaurs after their kingdom fell? Do they survive to the modern day?
Yeah all the 4 main groups of centaurs I discuss in this video can still be found in Iobaria, the just don't really have a united country any more. Neither do the humans for that matter, actually ;-)
@@TheMythKeeperA new subscriber here. I have been loving your videos. I'm tempted to give Pathfinder another go because of them.
@@elenorefangirl3389 Do it! You won't regret it ;-)
Also, welcome to the channel! And thanks for watching and commenting. 🙂
Yasss the best region
Having played the WotR cRPG, the relatively happy canonical fates of Galfrey and Hulrun fill me with frothing rage. Idk how they were in the tabletop adventure path (I suppose that's largely up to individual GMs) but from my experiences with them, they deserve far worse.
One of the important lessons of life is this… Life is not fair. So I’m good with Galfrey getting canonised and seen in a far better light by history than she actually was.
@@scottlette I know life isn't fair, but stories can be. That's part of why we tell them.
I’m on @scottlette’s wavelength on this one. I enjoy the morally gray characters and I’m not opposed to them ending up with unconventional endings, though probably more so in the case of Galfrey than Hulrun in this case
House Rogarvia motto "With Sword and Flame" is reference to Polish novel
"With Fire and Sword" is a historical fiction by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in 1884. , set in the 17th century in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Khmelnytsky Uprising or Cossack-Polish War .
Thanks for the reference Jor-El!
There was also a movie based on it as well. I remember watching it when I was a teen.
I hadn't thought of it, as I immediately placed the reference as thinly veiled reference to it's GoT allegory, House Targaryen. Good catch
17:45 That's not how you pronounce Kjell. Kj is a soft SH sound Kjell is pronounced Shell.
Thanks for the pronunciation tips.
All those Brevoy and Iobarian names are so damn Slavik it's rather funny, "Orlovsky" Just means Of the eagle, Orel just meaning eagle. I do see that Brevoy is more like Ukraina, the borderland between Iobraia and the rest of the continent. With Mendev like the mixture of the baltic knightly orders of the Teutonic and Livonian orders that waged a crusade for near and over 100 years against the baltic pagans. With the north lake just being the baltic sea. Hm, interesting seeing all the inspirational parallels.
Yeah - they really enjoy drawing heavily from real-world languages and influences.
@@TheMythKeeper Cheers for responding, subbed, since I enjoy your voice and really love listening to all the history and lore especially something as in depth as the D&D And Pathfinder lore that's not all that known in the nerd community, now if I could only get in to a P&P game somewhere that would have been grand, lol.
@@Geraduss - Not as hard as you think! Try to find a local pathfinder society club. If you can't find one (I know its not easy if you're not in a major metro) just look for tabletop gaming / rpg communities on meetup and similar sites. Post around and see whose interested in playing some Pathfinder. As someone that much, much prefers face-to-face gaming over virtual gaming after I had a number of my players move away and had to start over from scratch I found it took some effort to vet people and seek them out, but it didn't take as long as you'd think it would to find 4-5 players. I suspect its easier if you plan on being the GM as that's the hardest position to play, but you'll find one if you look.
@@TheMythKeeper Wish it was that easy. I'm from Slovenia EU, and I live in the middle of the woods far away from any large urban centers so online game is my only option, would certainly prefer face to face but it's virtually impossible. But thank you for the encouraging words, have been trying to find something online but as you know it's hard to vet people when your first impressions are only through chat boxes. Well we'll see, wish me luck, and again, thank you.
@@Geraduss Okay, I admit that's harder than I imagined! But hey you're not too far from Venice where my family is from. I used to play with my cousins in the small town of the Giulia-Veneto region not too far north from there when I was younger. You can find players even in pretty remote parts.