Archives of Nethys has been the official online reference site for Pathfinder and Starfinder for eight years. It provides the rules of Paizo's games for free, in the form of a web-based directory, and has done so under license from Paizo. However, as of this month, Paizo is ending its relationship with the site, allegedly citing financial issues.
More specifically, Archives of Nethys posted that the decision was based on the fact that the site has never generated enough profit to pay Paizo royalties.
The website will continue to exist, albeit in a non-official capacity, and will rely on open licensed to reproduce Pathfinder and Starfinder content. The main impact of this will be the removal of much of the artwork on the site, and less timely updates because they will not be receiving early copies of new game books.
Last month, Paizo laid off 12 employees due to losses sustained in 2025 following the bankruptcy of Diamond Comics, which help large amounts of Paizo's stock. Paizo also reduced its Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society offerings to once a month, and has paused support for Foundry VYY modules.
We come to you today with some bad news. For nearly eight years, we here at the Archives of Nethys have been a licensed partner of Paizo Publishing and have proudly served this community as an official reference for all of Paizo's game systems. A few weeks ago, Paizo sent us an e-mail stating that our partnership has been terminated, effective on July 24th.
We have been told the reason for this decision is that our website has not produced royalties for Paizo. While we cannot go into the full details of our license arrangement, the general details have been publicly known for many years. Paizo would send us early access book PDFs well ahead of release and provided us with their art assets to use on the site. In exchange, our team of volunteers would make sure that the rules and content of the game made it onto the website in a timely and accurate manner. Lastly, if we generated enough profit, we would pay Paizo a royalty on that money, as licensed partners typically do. Unfortunately, as of the time of receiving this email, we had not made enough profit in a given month to generate any royalties for Paizo as per this arrangement.
Admittedly, Paizo's decision comes as a bit of a surprise to us - it was always known that our business model, for lack of a better word, was reliant on donations and ad revenue to support the website. Our primary expenses have only ever been server rental costs (both for the website and for elasticsearch, our search engine) and so long as we made enough money for that, we were happy. Everyone who works for the website is an unpaid volunteer drawn from the Pathfinder/Starfinder communities. We've always believed that attempting to monetize the site more aggressively would result in less users and that our real value to Paizo was in the traffic and business we sent their way. After all, one of the first things often said when pitching the game to a new friend is "the rules are free". Sadly, Paizo's decision has still been made.
With all of this said, the Archives of Nethys will continue to support this community. Paizo has even encouraged us to do so under the Community Use Policy (CUP) instead of our partnership license. This will, however, necessitate some changes going forward. As of July 24th:
We have been told the reason for this decision is that our website has not produced royalties for Paizo. While we cannot go into the full details of our license arrangement, the general details have been publicly known for many years. Paizo would send us early access book PDFs well ahead of release and provided us with their art assets to use on the site. In exchange, our team of volunteers would make sure that the rules and content of the game made it onto the website in a timely and accurate manner. Lastly, if we generated enough profit, we would pay Paizo a royalty on that money, as licensed partners typically do. Unfortunately, as of the time of receiving this email, we had not made enough profit in a given month to generate any royalties for Paizo as per this arrangement.
Admittedly, Paizo's decision comes as a bit of a surprise to us - it was always known that our business model, for lack of a better word, was reliant on donations and ad revenue to support the website. Our primary expenses have only ever been server rental costs (both for the website and for elasticsearch, our search engine) and so long as we made enough money for that, we were happy. Everyone who works for the website is an unpaid volunteer drawn from the Pathfinder/Starfinder communities. We've always believed that attempting to monetize the site more aggressively would result in less users and that our real value to Paizo was in the traffic and business we sent their way. After all, one of the first things often said when pitching the game to a new friend is "the rules are free". Sadly, Paizo's decision has still been made.
With all of this said, the Archives of Nethys will continue to support this community. Paizo has even encouraged us to do so under the Community Use Policy (CUP) instead of our partnership license. This will, however, necessitate some changes going forward. As of July 24th:
- We will be taking down all artwork that is not compliant with the Community Use Policy. This will be the majority of our artwork, leaving compatible art such as the iconics, religious symbols, and anything else it covers.
- We have been hosting the original Paizo PRD up until now, under legacy.aonprd.com. With the partnership dissolving, we will be taking this site down.
- We will no longer receive books early, so after Bastion of Blasphemies & Dead God's Hand (PF2e), along with Secrets of the Swarm (SF2e), we will have to go back to acquiring our PDFs the more traditional way. This means that our ability to release content on street date will cease. We will still aim to get our content online as quick as we can, but we will no longer be able to target the street date.
Update--Paizo has now issued a statement, assuring fans that while the commercial license with AoN has ended, the site is still able to function under the Community Use Policy.
Archives of Nethys is one of the most beloved and widely used resources in the Pathfinder and Starfinder communities. It has helped players learn our games, explore new ideas, build characters, and share their excitement with friends around the world. We are deeply grateful for everything Archives of Nethys has done.
The dedication, care, and passion that AoN has brought to its work has made it a pillar of the Pathfinder and Starfinder ecosystems. Their efforts have supported countless tables, inspired new players, and strengthened the connection people feel to our worlds.
We want to be transparent about why our commercial licensing contract with Archives of Nethys has come to an end. We also want to emphasize that Archives of Nethys will continue offering the same rules access as it does today under the Community Use Policy.
Eight years ago, we entered into a licensing relationship with AoN. The idea was simple: Archives of Nethys would receive early access to Paizo products and exclusive access to artwork that wasn’t available under the Community Use Policy, and in return, Paizo would receive royalties generated through that expanded use to cover the costs of this special relationship. It’s true that those royalties never materialized, but that wasn’t the sole reason we decided to end the license.
Licenses take resources to manage—lawyers to review and follow up on contracts, finance employees to review and enter royalty statements, and licensing staff to provide assets and other support. Those resources must be balanced against other business demands.
The use of Paizo artwork on the web also created ongoing confusion about what assets are allowed under the Community Use Policy. Archives placed a legal notice explaining that they had a license to use artwork and other elements, but other sites routinely copied those assets and used them for themselves. That created additional work for our legal and licensing teams to draft DMCA and cease‑and‑desist notices.
Our artwork, maps, worlds, and stories are core parts of Paizo’s identity and livelihood. We give away the rules for free under the ORC license (and will continue to do so), and we want to ensure that our policies remain clear, consistent, and fair for everyone who creates community content.
Ending this exception allows us to simplify our policies and protect the clarity of our IP, while giving Archives of Nethys the freedom to continue operating under the Community Use Policy. There are a number of very successful projects that continue to thrive supporting Pathfinder and Starfinder using the ORC license and the Community Use Policy, and we’re confident that Archives of Nethys can continue under that umbrella for many years to come.
When we first broke the news to Archives of Nethys that we were going to end the license, we offered a marketing agreement to make the change less impactful, but those conversations were not concluded before they chose to publish their notice. We remain open to discussions with Archives about ways to support the site in a manner that is less resource‑intensive and more protective of Paizo IP going forward.
