Overview

Heroes aren’t born, they’re forged: forced by extraordinary circumstances to rise above and shaped by the world they inhabit.

This book is a guide to that world. In its pages, you’ll learn about the heart of the Pathfinder setting, known as the Inner Sea region, from the towns and cities your heroes call home to the wild frontiers and monstrous lairs where they’ll risk everything in search of fortune and glory. The information presented here provides players with a sense of the setting as a whole and is perfect for both fleshing out existing character concepts and inspiring you when you’re not sure what to play. Is your wizard a necromancer from haunted Ustalav, raised to battle the undead armies of the Whispering Tyrant, or a young student at the Arcanamirium in Absalom, the City at the Center of the World? Perhaps you’re a daring priest from the burning deserts of Qadira, blasting manticores and genies with the blazing light of the sun goddess Sarenrae, or a troll-hunting warrior from the icy Lands of the Linnorm Kings. Regardless, here you’ll find the rich details you need to give your character the perfect backstory, as well as new backgrounds, gods, feats, spells, and other rules to help you customize your ideal hero.

Likewise, Game Masters will find a rich and exciting world filled with hundreds of inspiring characters, plots, and adventure locations to get their creativity flowing, as well as new gear and magical items to reward their band of adventurers. Will you take your group to the rugged land of Numeria in search of alien technology from a crashed spaceship? Might they fight devils in diabolical Cheliax, or instead ally with the denizens of Hell themselves to reforge a troubled empire? They could venture into the ancient pyramids of Osirion, where mummies guard magic from a lost age, or battle dragons in the fractious orc hold of Belkzen. Whether you want your party to face pirates or giants, elves or dwarves, vampires or sphinxes, there’s no end to the threats and treasures lurking in the ruins of lost empires, in temples to forgotten gods—or just beyond their campfire’s light.

The Inner Sea awaits. Are you ready?

The World of Golarion

While the multiverse is a big place, most Pathfinder adventures take place on Golarion: a planet of magic and mystery, where mortal heroes can ascend to godhood and terrifying monsters threaten entire civilizations. This book focuses on the Inner Sea region, the traditional heart of the Pathfinder campaign setting, which consists of the entire continent of Avistan and the northern third of the continent of Garund directly to the south. Yet Golarion is much larger than any one nation or continent, and adventurers from the Inner Sea may travel far and wide in pursuit of greatness. Below is a brief overview of Golarion’s different major regions.

Arcadia

Millennia ago, the mighty Razatlan Empire spread across this vast continent, gobbling up weaker nations and marking its victories with vast pyramids. When the devastation of a meteor impact shattered the Razatlani civilization, the nations that were reborn from the wreckage found themselves forced to cooperate with each other to survive. Arcadia’s myriad cultures have remained surprisingly peaceful and insular ever since, focusing their energy on the wellbeing of their citizens. From the engineers in the Land of Northern Lakes, who craft clever machines from unusually abundant skymetal deposits, to the hero-gods of Xopatl and the distant south, Arcadia’s peoples both embrace a settled lifestyle among their terraced mountaintops and bayou stilt-houses and expand westward across the vast plains of a still lightly populated region. Most Arcadians remain suspicious of foreign cultures that are inclined toward conquest. Eager colonists from Avistan are thus restricted to a narrow strip of shoreline along the Grinding Coast, cordoned there by the Segada Protocol, which allows only those few exceptional individuals who have won the locals’ trust to pass beyond the shielding mountains into the continent’s interior.

Avistan

Settled by immigrants and refugees from all directions, this northern continent is a hodgepodge of cosmopolitan cultures. The southern shores of the Inner Sea hold urbanized political powerhouses vying for dominance: Hell-allied Cheliax, the crumbled and decadent empire of Taldor, and the upstart democracy Andoran. In the north, danger—and opportunity—waits for adventurers over every hill in orc-ruled Belkzen and the demon-ravaged landscape of the Sarkoris Scar. The north’s established nations are only marginally safer, from the rugged wilderness of Varisia and witch-ruled Irrisen to the shadowed moors of gothic Ustalav and sadistic Nidal. Avistan also has the distinction of being the center of several nonhuman cultures in the Inner Sea region, as dwarves attempt to reforge their lost empire in the Five Kings Mountains and elves guard the reclaimed lands in forested Kyonin that have been their stronghold since their return to Golarion after the Age of Darkness.

Casmaron

Dominated by the landlocked Castrovin Sea, Casmaron is at once densely populated and eerily empty—its bustling empires are interspersed with the ghost-haunted wastes of lost civilizations. To the west, the Padishah Empire of Kelesh rules unquestioned through genie magic and deft politics, while the south belongs to the Impossible Kingdoms of Vudra and their mighty rajahs. Traders flock to the archipelago of Iblydos, where legends walk the streets under the tutelage of cyclopean sages, while xenophobic Kaladay bans foreigners from its fabulous cities. Countless caravans travel the trade routes between these nations, rolling through the nomad-controlled Grass Sea. Yet no matter how these empires spread their wings, they are constantly reminded of their own mortality by the ruins of those vast civilizations that came before—places like Iobaria, fallen in the wake of the plague known as the Choking Death, and great Ninshabur, razed to the ground by the Spawn of Rovagug, the monstrous offspring of the god of destruction.

Crown of the World

Frozen and forbidding, the Crown of the World stretches across Golarion’s arctic circle, containing its polar ice cap—called the High Ice—as well as an outer ring of bleak mountains, evergreen forests, and stormy seas. Its primary human residents are the Erutaki, whose hundreds of different tribes live in scattered fishing villages or follow mammoths and caribou across the ice, while Ulfen and Tian enclaves dot the taiga called the Outer Ring, forgoing the comforts of southern nations for the freedom of the wildlands. They are joined by scattered settlements of snowcaster elves, dwarves, and frost giants, as well as more predatory residents like wendigos, dragons, and remorhazes. Yet the majority of the Crown consists of icy desolation, trackless wastes occasionally interrupted by strange ruins. The most famous of these ruins is the Nameless Spires, an alien city of star-shaped buildings and 2,000-foot-tall towers positioned at the North Pole, believed by some scholars to date back to the planet’s formation. Despite the obvious danger it presents, the Crown of the World sees plenty of visitors due to the Path of Aganhei, the overland trade route connecting Avistan to Tian Xia. Every summer, caravans looking to avoid the dangerous and costly sea routes between the two continents race across the ice in a journey that can take several months.

The Darklands

Golarion’s crust is riddled with cracks, and immense networks of tunnels and caverns connect every continent. It’s from these deep places that the dwarves and orcs first emerged, yet few surface dwellers look upon these underground worlds fondly, for their lightless depths are home to predators both monstrous

Age of Destiny

–3470 ar Ancient Osirion is founded.

–2323 ar Shory aeromancers establish Kho, their first flying city.

–1281 ar Descendants of Azlant join with local humans to establish Taldor, Avistan’s first human empire since Earthfall.

–892 ar The wizard-ruled nations of Geb and Nex begin a centuries-long magical war.

–632 ar The Tarrasque, greatest of the Spawn of Rovagug, devastates Avistan before being defeated and sealed away.

Age of Enthronement

1 ar

Aroden, the Last Azlanti, raises the Starstone and the Isle of Kortos from the depths of the Inner Sea, becoming a living god. Absalom is founded.

1893 ar Norgorber passes the

Test of the Starstone and achieves godhood.

2632 ar The elves return to Golarion from their refuge in Sovyrian, reestablishing the nation of Kyonin.

2765 ar Cayden Cailean drunkenly survives the Test of the Starstone and ascends to godhood.

3203 ar Having already been killed once by Aroden, the wizard-king Tar-Baphon returns as the lich known as the Whispering Tyrant, uniting the orc hordes to terrorize Avistan.

3313 ar Witch-Queen Baba Yaga conquers part of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, founding the winter-locked realm of Irrisen. 3660 ar The Dragon Plague begins in Taldor, and magically controlled dragons rampage across the nation for a dozen years.

3754 ar Taldor launches the Shining Crusade, a 70-plus-year war against the Whispering Tyrant. The lich is eventually imprisoned in Gallowspire, though not before he murders Aroden’s herald, the warrior goddess Arazni. The nation of Lastwall is established to keep him contained.

3832 ar Iomedae, hero of the Shining Crusade, passes the Test of the Starstone and becomes Aroden’s new herald.

3980 ar The Rending. Droskar’s Crag erupts, rocking southern Avistan.

4081 ar Cheliax breaks away from Taldor, taking with it Andoran, Galt, and Isger in a decade-long civil war dubbed the Even-Tongued Conquest. The new Chelish empire begins centuries of expansion.

4307 ar The Pathfinder Society is founded in Absalom.

Age of Lost Omens

4606 ar Aroden dies mysteriously, leaving the Empire of Cheliax without a divine mandate.

Iomedae takes on many of Aroden’s followers and legacy, becoming known as the Inheritor. The Eye of Abendego forms off of Garund’s western coast, drowning the nations of Lirgen and Yamasa. The Worldwound opens in northern Avistan; demons pour forth and destroy the nation of Sarkoris. 4622 ar The weakening Church of Aroden launches the First Mendevian Crusade, hoping to close the Worldwound.

4640 ar After decades of civil war, House Thrune allies itself with Hell to seize control of Cheliax, ushering in the current dark chapter in Chelish politics.

4667 ar Democratic fervor sweeps through eastern Avistan, prompting the endless Red Revolution in Galt, as well as the more successful People’s Revolt in Andoran in 4669 ar. 4697 ar The Goblinblood Wars ravage Isger, drawing soldiers from across the Inner Sea region.

4709 ar Golarion learns of the

existence of evil subterranean elves called drow.

4713 ar Mendev’s Fifth Crusade finally defeats the demon lord Deskari and refined. Scholars divide the Darklands into three layers. The uppermost— Nar-Voth—is the closest to a conventional cave system. Its tunnels are inhabited by isolated tribes of xulgaths, deros, duergar, calignis, and other surface creatures who descended into the dark for safety and found themselves twisted by isolation and dark energies. The middle section, Sekamina, once boasted a vast serpentfolk empire yet is now most notably inhabited by drow—elves who fled underground to avoid Earthfall and were transformed into sinister demon-worshippers by the leaking thoughts of Rovagug. The deepest level, Orv, is a series of impossibly large caverns, maintained since the beginning of the world by unknown and alien magic, each containing its own pockets of ecosystems. Orv’s residents are feared and revered by the inhabitants of higher levels.

Garund

A land of scorching deserts and impassable jungles, Garund’s northern half is closely linked with Avistan due to the prosperous trade routes across the Inner Sea but is home to civilizations far older than most of those in its northern neighbor. In the sandy north, Osirian adventurers seek ancient secrets in their ancestors’ pyramids, while Thuvians peddle elixirs of immortality and atheistic Rahadoumi refuse to bow to gods, even to gain their aid. To the east, the ancient magical kingdoms of Geb and Nex wage an endless war of subtle spells and undead soldiers, while the western coast is drowned by a massive hurricane called the Eye of Abendego, whose ravaging winds shelter pirates and assassins. In the distant south, dinosaur-riding lizardfolk share the land with the celestially appointed matriarchs of Holomog. In the middle of them all, the verdant jungles and savannas of the Mwangi Expanse house thousands of independent tribes, nations, and traditionalist coalitions.

Ruins of Azlant

Long ago in the Age of Legend, what most scholars believe to be one of humanity’s first great empires arose on the continent of Azlant, having been guided by the alien knowledge and magic of the aquatic alghollthus. Over time, however, the Azlanti grew arrogant and defied their masters. In retribution, the alghollthus called down the cataclysmic event known as Earthfall. Its impact produced massive tidal waves that drowned the empire and sank much of the continent beneath the sea. Today, Azlant is an uncharted maze of shattered islands. Its ruins are inhabited by monsters, guarded by Mordant Spire elves—mysterious warriors who watch over the lost continent lest greedy fools inadvertently trigger a second apocalypse—and picked over by the few bold adventurers in search of ancient magic who manage to dodge their attention.

Sarusan

The smallest and most mysterious of Golarion’s continents lies south of Tian Xia’s Valashmai peninsula, isolated from the outside world by vexing currents and powerful storms. According to legend, the continent was once connected to Tian Xia by a land bridge and inhabited by an empire called Taumata, before the gods shattered the bridge into the archipelago known today as the Wandering Isles. Yet while the archipelago remains inhabited by the nautical Tian-Sing people, whose appearance suggests descendance from unknown Sarusan cultures, even their legends of the shrouded continent are scattered and fragmentary. In their songs and the records of lost empires, Sarusan is a wild and mysterious land where giant mammals long extinct on other continents still roam immense frozen deserts and dense woodlands. Those few modern expeditions that venture near the shores speak of forbidding cliffs lined with smooth monoliths, while those who land and venture into its interior invariably disappear. What’s more, those sailors who do return home often mysteriously forget the details of their voyages shortly afterward, suggesting that the continent’s isolation may not be completely natural.

Tian Xia

Often dubbed “the Dragon Empires,” the myriad nations of Tian Xia are renowned for their close relationships with wise and ancient dragons who serve as rulers, advisors, and gods, from the Celestial Dragon who grants wishes to the leaders of Quain to the sovereign dragon who rules Xa Hoi in human form. Much of the continent belongs to the Successor States, those nations east of the Wall of Heaven mountain range that have risen to prominence since the fall of Imperial Lung Wa a century ago. In addition to those peoples commonly found in Avistan, these quarreling nations are populated by terrifying oni, crow-headed tengus, vulpine kitsune, reincarnated samsarans, and more. Farther east, the samurai of Minkai rub shoulders with kami in the Forest of Spirits, while to the south the serpentine nagas and their humanoid nagaji rule humid swamps at the edge of the Valashmai Jungle.

The Oceans

The Inner Sea is among the most heavily trafficked waterways on Golarion, and thus it’s no coincidence that Absalom, the island nation at its heart, is often called the City at the Center of the World. Yet Golarion has many larger oceans, each teeming with its own unique dangers and treasures. In the Antarkos Ocean, brave sailors ride the freezing southern gales, dodging aquatic giants and deadly icebergs, while voyagers on the Embaral must contend with a becalmed, lifeless marine desert full of strange ruins and deadly doldrums. Flotillas of traders hug the coasts of the Obari Ocean, reaping huge profits from trade between Garund and Vudra by way of Iblydos, yet kept from faster blue-water routes by flame cyclones and marauding dragons. In the Arcadian Ocean, the magical ruins of ancient Azlant challenge sailors with strange currents, making an already pirate-plagued journey more fearsome, while sailors on the Okaiyo must contend with the empire of shark-loving sahuagins that rules the waters above the Sintos Trench. Only the truly foolhardy or depraved delve down to the Sightless Sea, the subterranean waterway that lies beneath the Arcadian Ocean and runs through the deepest layers of the Darklands.

The Solar System

Like most planets, Golarion is part of a solar system containing other worlds, many of which are inhabited. Closer to the sun are the machine-ruled world of Aballon and the steaming jungle world of Castrovel, home to the psychic lashuntas. Just past Golarion is Akiton, a desert world of fierce warriors and ancient secrets, followed by technologically advanced and tidally locked Verces. Next comes the Diaspora, an asteroid belt inhabited by angelic beings who fly on wings of light, and then follows dread Eox, ruled by undead spellcasters who were transformed by an ancient apocalypse that set fire to the planet’s atmosphere. Skimming between all of these inner worlds is Triaxus the Wanderer, whose erratic orbit leads to seasons that last centuries, resulting in two alternating ecologies. Farther out, the gas giants Liavara and Bretheda host skies of sentient blimps and myriad moons full of fantastical terrestrial cultures, while the strange technology inside half-hollow Apostae’s warren of corridors suggests the whole planet may once have been a starship fallen to an unknown disaster. Last comes Aucturn, also called the Stranger, a living world of horrifying magic whose unknowable thoughts and gibbering cultists reach out to enact dark designs on distant Golarion.

The Great Beyond

Golarion’s universe—sometimes called the Material Plane—is only one part of the vast puzzle of reality. Other dimensions and planes of existence, known collectively and performs a ritual to close the Worldwound.

4714 ar In Numeria, the artificial intelligence Casandalee ascends to godhood.

4715 ar Civil unrest in Cheliax leads to the secession of Ravounel. A similar uprising is crushed in Isger by Chelish agents.

4717 ar Absalom outlaws slavery, drastically reducing the Inner Sea’s slave trade.

4718 ar The Runelords return from millennia of hiding, establishing the nation of New Thassilon in the region of Varisia.

4719 ar The current year. Tar-Baphon has recently broken free of his prison, destroying the nation of Lastwall and ravaging Avistan before finally being forced back onto the Isle of Terror.

Time

Like Earth, Golarion spins on its axis once roughly every 24 hours. A week has 7 days and a year has 52 weeks. To keep the calendar synchronized with the astronomical year, an extra leap day is tacked on to the second month of the year every 4 years.

Months and Days

The names of the months of the year are as follows in the Inner Sea region: Abadius (January)

Calistril (February)

Pharast (March)

Gozran (April)

Desnus (May)

Sarenith (June)

Erastus (July)

Arodus (August)

Rova (September)

Lamashan (October)

Neth (November)

Kuthona (December)

The names of the days are as follows: Moonday (Monday)

Toilday (Tuesday)

Wealday (Wednesday) Oathday (Thursday)

Fireday (Friday)

Starday (Saturday)

Sunday (Sunday)

Access to Rules Elements

Sometimes, a stat block for an uncommon rules element might include a bold Access entry that lists specific criteria. A character who meets the criteria listed in the Access entry, often hailing from a particular locale or being a member of a particular organization, gains access to the rules element. For instance, a character from Taldor gains access to the Lion Blade archetype, even though it’s uncommon.

Archetypes

Applying the archetypes provided in this book requires you to select archetype feats instead of class feats. Once you have the archetype’s dedication feat, you can select any feat from that archetype in place of a class feat as long as you meet its prerequisites. The archetype feat you select is still subject to any selection restrictions on the class feat it replaces.

Archetype feats you gain in place of a class feat are called archetype class feats.

Occasionally, an archetype feat works like a skill feat instead of a class feat.

These archetype feats have the skill trait, and you select them in place of a skill feat, otherwise following the same rules above. These are not archetype class feats (for instance, to determine the number of Hit Points you gain from the Fighter Resiliency archetype feat).

Each archetype’s dedication feat represents a certain portion of your character’s time and focus, so once you select a dedication feat for an archetype, you must satisfy its requirements before you can gain another dedication feat. Typically, you satisfy an archetype dedication feat by gaining a certain number of feats from the archetype’s list. You cannot retrain a dedication feat as long as you have any other feats from that archetype.

Sometimes an archetype feat lets you gain another feat. You must always meet the prerequisites of the feat you gain in this way. as the Great Beyond, are equally important to the daily life of Golarion’s residents, both for the magic and monsters they birth, and for the Cycle of Souls that every mortal spirit must follow.

While it’s difficult for mortal minds to grasp the true shape of the multiverse, it can be thought of as an immense fruit: the skin that holds in the rest of reality is the Outer Sphere, the Astral Plane is the flesh of the fruit, and all the other planes are formed around and atop each other in the middle like a seed. At the very center is the Positive Energy Plane, which creates soul energy that takes shape and wakes to consciousness as mortal beings on the Material Plane, only to die and flow outward in the River of Souls to an afterlife in the Outer Planes, where it’s eventually reabsorbed to keep reality running.

Below are brief descriptions of the various major planes.

Astral Plane

This silvery void connects the Outer Sphere to all the other planes and is mostly empty save for the River of Souls, which carries mortal spirits to their afterlives in the Outer Sphere.

Elemental Planes

These four realms are each devoted to an element—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water— and wrap around each other like the layers of an onion. They are the birthplaces of elementals, genies, and other such creatures.

Energy Planes

Sometimes called Creation’s Forge or the Cosmic Fire, the Positive Energy Plane is the blazing wellspring from which souls appear and begin their journey. Its twin, the Negative Energy Plane, is a devouring maw of entropy where only undead and other abominations can escape destruction.

Ethereal Plane

This misty, ghostly realm binds all the planes of the Inner Sphere, allowing those within it to see or travel between the worlds.

First World

A “rough draft” of the Material Plane later painted over by the gods, this realm of unbridled nature and inconsistent physical laws lies just behind the mortal world and is the ancestral home of gnomes and fey.

Material Plane

The Material Plane contains Golarion’s universe alongside countless others, and is where most mortal beings live out their existences.

Outer Sphere

When most mortals speak of the afterlife, they’re talking about the Outer Sphere— realms ruled by gods and populated by the transformed souls of the dead. Here the River of Souls ends in the Boneyard, where the goddess Pharasma judges each individual and assigns them to a realm according to their morality and beliefs. These souls eventually become outsiders, or fade into the very fabric of the planes themselves. The Outer Sphere contains everything from the righteous mountain of Heaven and the chittering rifts of the Abyss to the mechanized city of Axis, the mind-bending chaos of the Maelstrom, and more.

Shadow Plane

This dark and twisted reflection of the Material Plane doesn’t follow the same laws of space and distance, making for a useful—albeit dangerous—means of magical travel.