Pathfinder Regional Deep Dive: Cheliax

[@Revenge221]

As a Cheliax fanboy (look, I know it's problematic. I like studying evil empires.) this was an excellent video. Way better detail than what's on the Pathfinder Wiki. Much kudos!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thank you so much! Glad I could help you delve deeper into the darkness. 😎

[@ferdinandavila-soto7233]

I like Cheliax for the sick fashion and decor. Red and black are my favorite colors, and while Asmodeus himself looks pretty generic, Cheliax and Asmodeus’ devotees look pretty damn metal.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@ferdinandavila-soto7233 Wait until you see the Nidalese. Now they have some crazy styles.

[@cynicaltheastrocreep4504]

It's not problematic. It's an interesting look at the corruption of the "promised land" which was never perfect to begin with, but instead became a nightmare.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@cynicaltheastrocreep4504 - Hard agreement here. Liking your villains to be cruel and despotic in the fictional game world isn't problematic.

[@zacharyhawley1693]

I've always taken Cheliax as proof that Aroden and Asmodeus had an alliance of some sort even if it was more of an nonagression nature. His death obviously caught even the lord of hell by surprise. But being lawful he couldn't let an empire of his ally go to waste. And the lord of hell is nothing if not dramatically pragmatic.

[@TheMythkeeper]

That's quite possible.

[@ackbarreserve]

I laughed at how fitting it was to use Emet-Selch as a Cheliax noble. Great use of the slides, and very legible maps.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Seemed fitting!

[@vineveer4358]

Cheliax is vastly more colorful than I would've thought. And humanity-first diabolists is just a cool concept. It really seems to be on the verge of collapsing in on itself, or springing into an enormous empire. One extreme or the other.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its definitely suffered a lot of setbacks in 1E, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see Cheliax bounce back in a big way in 2E. They're consolidating their power and figuring out how to navigate a world that fears them.

[@cynicaltheastrocreep4504]

​@@TheMythkeeperhell yeah. I hope they do. They add so much to the setting.

[@RollingSoloRPG]

YESSS !!. Cheliax !! Thats the setting for our campaign! Thanks friend. :)

[@TheMythkeeper]

Enjoy!

[@OranjMoose]

An hour plus video from Mythkeeper?! I must have been on the nice list this year

[@hexplorerapp]

This is a truly remarkable compilation of lore both in its scope and also presentation quality. Thanks so much for this!

[@TheMythkeeper]

My pleasure!

[@Jardo]

I'm a new Pathfinder GM planning to run a campaign revolving around Cheliax, because it caught my eye the most during my first flipthrough, this was SO helpful! I adore how many little tidbits you gave, like around Nicyruse. The whole area seems teeming with adventure hooks!! Would you hav any further reading recommendations?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Cheliax, The Infernal Empire is the main sourcebook from 1st edition. I'd also suggest you have a look at my "guide to 1st edition adventure paths" video as there are no fewer than 4 campaigns officially set in Cheliax and each contains additional details about the nation or deep dives into specific cities or regions.

[@XDependent]

Learned recently that Cheliax abolished slavery in 4722 because of the rising abolitionist movement, but Thrune being the savvy political heads that they are basically turned it all into ‘indentured servitude’ based on socioeconomic support. So now if adventurers free slaves the slaves will be like “But how will I eat?”

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah, check my Firebrands faction video for the latest on this ;-)

[@jefffarler]

Enjoy your work, look forward to more! With all of the references sprinkled throughout Pathfinder, sometimes I wonder if the current Cheliax is Pazio's commentary on the Empire and Imperium of Man from Warhammer and 40K; a fascist culture loosely based on the Holy Roman Empire, among other things. In a setting like Pathfinder, it's a little more difficult to perform oppressive atrocities and still pretend to be heroes when there's literally a Detect Evil spell. So Pazio went all in and said, "yeah, these guys are baddies"😂. Not to mention how Cheliax is also the end result of a man-god who championed humanity at the expense of everyone else, and whose death* saw their corruption. *Yeah, I know that The God Emperor is *technically* still alive, but for all practical purposes it would probably be better if he were gone.

[@jefffarler]

Also, I'm aware that Games Workshop's official position is that there aren't any good factions in either Warhammer, but too many fans treat the Empire and Imperium as the default heroes. Hence, Cheliax becomes literal devil worshipers to make sure most people get the point.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@jefffarler Yeah Cheliax are definitely explicitly codified as villains. I do think "Detect Evil" is a silly ability, and I'm glad that they are finally doing away with alignments in the upcoming ORC rewrite - so in future the Chelish will be evil but not Evil, if you know what I mean.

[@JustAsteria58]

I always saw the Aroden and Big E parallels but this puts it in a whole new light. Another Warhammer40k reference is the Archdevil Baalzebul and Azhia. Azhia is a long-forgotten Goddess of Healing that Baazebul keeps in a cage to siphon off from all eternity. Sound familiar to you?

[@andrewlaporte5477]

These region videos are delightful! I'd love to see a breakdown of Isger, to finish off Old Cheliax!

[@TheMythkeeper]

It will come!

[@lj_aderyn]

I did not expect homeboy Emet-Selch to appear in this video. He would fit right in though for real.

[@TheMythkeeper]

😆😆

[@nickputney605]

Love the use of Emet Selch in this video xD

[@TheMythkeeper]

😅

[@seiryu8096]

Thank you thank you for all the valuable content. I'll be forever grateful for your effort, dedication, passion and great storytelling skills. Please consider uploading in podcast format on whichever platform you prefer (spotify, google podcast, apple podcast, etc.)

[@ethankly12]

Really awesome write up and really awesome narration. You've been very useful and inspiring in advance of my Pathfinder game!

[@RicardoPM777]

Love this regional videos

[@rosemannjens]

My campaign centers around House Thrune and Cheliax. Been waiting for this for some time and it did not disappoint. Made a lot of notes and will watch it a couple of times to extract all the information out of it. Do you have a list of the (main) sources for this video? Which books did you use, so I can dive a bit more into some details. Thanks for the great work! Keep it up.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I do! Check the description of the video for the primary resource!

[@simmonslucas]

An hour long banger

[@HierophanticRose]

I dont believe Asmodeus will end up accepting the contract. As distant as he is to his brother's creations, there was a reason he didnt claim it all; and there is a line between stacking the contract against you, and binding someone without their knowledge. A line I think Asmodeus would never cross

[@BronnBlackwater]

Oooooh my favorite region!!! Paizo please release book on Cheliax 🙏🙏🙏

[@youknowpomm]

Infernal Empire and Empire of Devils already exist, we don't really need a third

[@BronnBlackwater]

@@youknowpomm history moves forward, we need to know what happens next

[@zimmerwald1915]

​@@youknowpommPaizo doesn't print old Player Companions or Pathfinder Campaign Setting books. Particularly the latter - the Pathfinder Campaign Setting is no longer supported, in favor of the Lost Omens Campaign Setting.

[@GustavoYuki]

Amazing content! Good job!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@watdahill]

thank you for the long video😁

[@TheCleber96]

Another great video! Did you perhaps make a video about Ragathiel? He is one of my favourite deities in Pathfinder and I would love to know more about him.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Not yet Boreas, but hopefully soon.

[@aqure9]

I love this channel I just need to find time to watch all this good stuff

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks KJ! Take your time, its a lot of videos now. 🙂

[@drifter331]

Do you have any plans on covering the world wound? i just recently finished DMing Wrath Of The Righteous and god the amount of lore it has its insane!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yes eventually, but I have a few other nations to get to first.

[@MrTotalAhole]

Thank you so much for this channel as I love Golarian also. Im glad its getting more love from the KZbin table top community. If I may recommend The Tower of Tomes for you (or your members) for some incredible story driven Pathfinder lore. Subscribed and notified. 👍🛎

[@jorgebranchi1862]

Un video excelente... como siempre!, seguí así, se agradece todo el lore de Pathfinder

[@TheMythkeeper]

You somehow saw this video 2 weeks ahead of publication 😅

[@marcussimoes2909]

novels about Cheliax: Nightglass and the sequel Nightblade, also a great one it´s Hellknight!

[@TaterRaider]

So the roads of Egorain are laid out like Boston?

[@____________838]

Pezzack’s name has always made me laugh, due to how popular the NPC Pezock was in my group’s playthrough of Serpent’s Skull.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Exact. Same. Reaction. 🤣

[@sofyacab]

14.53, I noticed you used a pic of Emet Seltch from FFXIV, I love your channel and since I know its not exclusive to pathfinder I wanted to ask you, do you know/play the game? Would you cover FFXIV lore in the future too?

[@TheMythkeeper]

You know I started with the intent of branching out to other settings, and I had a shortlist of other ones too including Warhammer and some old D&D settings like Dark Sun and Dragonlance. I had not planned to talk about video game settings (except maybe Warcraft...) only because that's a pretty over-saturated market. Anyway, as it turns out I radically underestimated how much there was to talk about in the PF-verse so I've probably got at least a year's worth of Pathfinder content I want to get through before I start doing that, and when I do to be completely honest I'm not at all sure what my next lore venture will be. Heck, maybe I will keep with Paizo and it will be Starfinder first... 😅

[@staunchystal]

these maps you use are amazing and comprehensive, is there a place we can get them like a patreon or?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Not yet, they're all just on my hard drive right now, but probably I will do something like that in the future.

[@jeremyh3567]

I want to second this, maps of deeper history are all too scarce. What do you use to make yours?

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@jeremyh3567 I use the GIMP which is a free tool

[@thepaqman]

That map is amazing, is it available somewhere?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its the official Rob McCaleb map, purchased from him by Paizo. It used to be around the internet somewhere, but I'm not sure what the best way to get ahold of it is now. You might want to try reddit and see if someone will share an 'ultra-high res' copy with you.

[@thepaqman]

@TheMythKeeper Thank you very much!

[@Rognus1]

Let's goooooooooo

[@severussnape2917]

I love lore! ❤

[@brau3690]

I need a Mendev video. Im writing a campaign there.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its coming... eventually!

[@brau3690]

@MythKeeper good to hear. Its going to be 0-10 a group of Iomedae followers stopping a plot by Eiseth to corrupt paladins to help her fight Moloch. Set in Mendev ive been looking for details.

[@mathinvitti7954]

Good work there are too few lore overviews.

[@trajanfidelis]

Nice inspiration for a tyrannical empire in my homebrew campaign, They too like to worship/contract with devils. Thanks for the video!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks for watching!

[@MartinVanBuul]

I've been searching for 2 days but haven't found the source of the Ostenso map. What book is it from?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its been a while since I made this video and I'm out traveling so can't confirm, but I have to assume it came from the Cheliax: Infernal Empire book linked in the description.

[@MartinVanBuul]

@@TheMythkeeper thank you for the right direction! I hope the random encounter table is merciful on your travels!

[@Dragoran5836]

The big one.

[@keizerbob]

Poor Isger, barely a mention.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Because Isger will get its own vid some day

[@jamalsiddique1362]

i know this is late but can abyone find the map shown at 1:20 because its my favourite inner sea map I hav ever seen

[@TheMythkeeper]

You'll have to dig around. Its the high-res Rob McCaleb one, but he's since taken it down as Paizo bought it.

[@deladriendilmegilindir9499]

The impact site of the meteor was where the Isle of Kortos is now. Yet the destruction of Azlant seems to be attributed to the meteor impact however it is roughly two thousand miles away. Is the destruction of the Azlant continent ever explained in more detail than that?

[@TheMythkeeper]

The starstone, which landed where the Isle of Kortos is today, was the heart of the meteor, but I believe that when it hit the upper atmosphere the meteror fragmented. The heaviest chunk landed in the Inner Sea, but the rest of the comet rained fire across half the hemisphere, with the majority landing across the old nation of Azlant, thus its destruction. I don't have a source for this I can point you to - I am pulling this from memory - so some of the details are a little fuzzy! Perhaps someone else can correct if I mistated any of this.

[@deladriendilmegilindir9499]

​@@TheMythkeeper Thanks for the response and these videos! Do you have Isger on your list for a lore video? You covered Logas and Misaria briefly here. Would love to see more. The information regarding Citadel Draythe seems to mirror that of Citadel Altaerein from Age of Ashes. while accurate, it's odd.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@deladriendilmegilindir9499 It's coming but I have a few other region deep dives to go before I get to Isger so you may need to hang tight a little on that one!

[@tnttiger3079]

​@@TheMythkeeper iirc it was hittin the upper atmosphere that broke it, but it hittin the moon first

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yes according to Mythic Realms Acavna moved the moon in the path of the projectile, but since she's a goddess, she might not have moved the moon itself; ie it could be parable. I also read some conflicting sources so maybe that lore changed.

[@sullyb23511]

I fucking hate the end of Hell's Vengance. 😞

[@smokescreen100]

Oh good, now I can make more accurate jokes about my friend's Cheliaxian Monk. So far most of the jokes are about cannibals.

[@gffg1234]

:o

[@yamikami13]

For a country that is call cheliax. It sure isn't chill nor relax....... Im sure this is a running joke

[@TheMythkeeper]

Honestly this is 90% of the reason I'm still saying Chelish instead of the updated Chillaxin' we're supposed to be saying now 😂

[@sasha1mama]

"Heh-KASS-ter", not "heska-tor".

[@TheMythkeeper]

Oops!

[@skysamurai4649]

In my campaigns Cheliax is usually presented as good guys. Many people including Abrogail II herself understand the long term ineffectiveness of oppressive policies and slavery, so she makes steps towards more progressive and liberal policies, but she can’t do it to fast, because the whole cheliaxian political landscape is based on a tangled web of co-supporting nobles and bureaucracy, so if she wants to reform Cheliax, she must be subtle. Of course, for her it’s not a moral choice, but she is smart enough to acknowledge the fact that tyranny and slavery are just ineffective.

[@sathdk79]

This guy pronounces CIRCA like WTF... and mixed up the words EQUINOX and EQUATOR. This is getting hard to follow at not even 3 minutes in.

[@TheMythkeeper]

My apologies sir! Circa is pronounced the way Italians pronounce that word because I’m Italian and the other thing was a mistake! It’s a lot of time and effort to produce these videos and sometimes even when I catch the recorded mistake in the edit it proves too laborious to fix it. Hopefully it’s not so many that you can’t get through it.

[@yellowmartian]

​@@TheMythkeeper some people just like to complain. 🤷🏼‍♂️ I find your work to be top-notch. Keep up the good work!