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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shemeska" data-source="post: 4806582" data-attributes="member: 11697">Jack, here's some more info on the book like you wanted. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Brief overview of the content:There's an opening chapter giving a brief overview of the planes, the overall structure of Golarion's cosmology, a discussion of the history of the planes, the role and nature of the gods (very different from Planescape on that one, and very open ended by intent to let GMs answer some of the specifics), a section on the lifecycle of the mortal soul (with mortal life being effectively the mid-point in a grander progression), and finally a section on travel to the planes.Next the planes of the inner sphere are covered:Positive EnergyNegative EnergyMaterial Plane (tied to Positive)Shadow (tied to Negative, effectively a warped attempt at a second creation by the natives of the void)Ethereal (the misty border between the Material and Shadow, where the influence of Pos and Neg interact)Elemental Planes in sequence (Air / Water / Earth / Fire), and discussion of border mixing and inclusions between normally non-interacting layers.Then the Astral and the River of Souls. Time is spent discussing the poaching of souls by the astradaemons of Abbadon, and how ensuring the arrival of souls at their proper destination makes for strange bedfellows at times between races of outsiders normally at one anothers' throats.Then the planes of the outer sphere. Essentially planes of the cardinal alignments drifting within a truly infinite Maelstrom, like islands of stability within a sea of potential. The cosmology intentionally lacks any of the rigidity that the Great Wheel sometimes gets accused of, and there are always room for additional planes to be added, given the nature of the chaotic sea it all exists within.There's no monolithic Blood War. Things are much more dynamic, and much more evenly spread around. The CN Maelstrom wants to subsume everything back into itself, seeing the various lawful planes as a tyrannical infection of sorts, but at the same time, the Maelstrom's fury is almost equally reserved for the Abyss, which it views as a corruption of its own nature. The Abyss wars with itself and everyone else. The LG, LN, and LE planes engage in truly awesome campaigns into the Maelstrom and the Abyss, and Heaven's archons and the devils of the 9 Hells will at times go after one another just as fiercely. The Hells have also warred with the CG Azata, and the daemons of Abbadon while loathed universally by every other planar race, focus their attentions not on the politics of the outer planes, but on the eventual destruction of mortal life.Finally there's a chapter on demiplanes (with a much more open definition than Planescape) and other planes that don't fit within the normal model of the cosmos. Any of these planes can be used outside of Golarion's cosmology, and I had a blast with them. For instance, there's Beselfyst the domain of the Barghest demigods of the goblinoid pantheon who - chaffing under Asmodeus's yoke- sold their loyalty to Lamashtu the Mother of Monsters, and saw their domain ripped from the Hells and drawn into the Abyss. There's the Dead Vault, a demiplanar prison to seal away Rovagug, created by the combined might of Asmodeus and the NG Saranrae. There's the First World of the fey (also the origin of Golarion's gnomes), a Dream Plane, a Plane of Time, etc. Then there's a smaller section of lots of minor demiplanes, including: the Crypt of the Dying Sun, the Fleshwarren, Freehold of the Rogue Angel, the Lost, the Machine Armory, the Mnemovore, and the Prison of the Laughing Fiend.And then for the last section, the bestiary contains stats and flavor text/ecology information on the CN keketar proteans, NE astradaemons (inspired by the astraloths from my first Storyhour), LN axiomites (beings of living mathematics with the outward appearance of idealized humanoids, inspired by Planescape's moignos, and to a lesser extent the human-form replicators from Stargate), NG vulpinals (who also first appeared in my first Storyhour), and the fey Lurker in the Light.<a href="http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderChronicles/PZO9209-Cover.jpg" target="_blank">The cover artwork by Wayne Reynolds</a><a href="http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderChronicles/PZO9209-Keketar.jpg" target="_blank">The keketar protean will make you not miss the slaadi</a><a href="http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderChronicles/PZO9209-Axiomite.jpg" target="_blank">An axiomite, partially dissociated into a cloud of symbols and equations</a><a href="http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderChronicles/PZO9209-Astradaemon.jpg" target="_blank">The astradaemon in all its energy-draining, tentacled awesomeness</a></blockquote>

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