Pathfinder Religion Guide: Aeons

[@vineveer4358]

So prophecy disappeared and the god of math was like, "Wait a sec', gotta rewrite physics." And after 3 days and 3 nights, math was returned to the universe alongside a note and a large icosahedron.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hahaha! That's exactly how it went down. You are reading correctly between the lines. God of math was like "We're going to need some PCs to fix this."

[@of5606]

For three days, a note on the biggest fridge at Axis said: "brb, figuring out the Uncertainty Principle. Yall can eat without me."

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@of5606 Or this!

[@ColinGrym]

This was one of my favorite episodes from you so far. Ever since finding Pathfinder via the Wrath of the Righteous video game I have been intrigued by Aeons. They seemed fascinating because of their alien mindsets and abilities to alter reality. What I didn't know is that they would scratch the same eldritch itch as the Outer Gods/Great Old Ones of the Dark Tapestry whom I love because unlike many gods/races they are legitimately alien in nature and intent. I especially enjoyed learning about Monad who is as unknowable as any Outer God but in a very different way. Monad seems to be the "pro-existence" mirror of the "outside existence or non-existence" nature of the beings of the Dark Tapestry. Outer Gods like Azathoth are said to be distracted/slumbering/uninterested and could destroy worlds or even existence simply with their presence or attention. As the other side of the eldritch coin, Monad appears to be aware/awake/involved, embodying existence and chiefly motivated to preserve it. I wonder if Monad is actually an Outer God that was awakened and influenced by Pharasma to preserve "proper" reality with the associated ruleset and uses the same sort of cosmic power that another Outer God would use to destroy. That would help explain its incomprehensible nature, disconnection from the Cycle of Souls, ardent protection of "Pharasma's" rules, relative indifference to worship, and the profoundly perspective-altering nature of contacting or starting to understand it. I like how Lipikas seem to embody the butterfly effect - the idea that small actions can have huge consequences on the far side of a sequence of events. In a campaign, perhaps a Lipika could show up and demand that the party leave behind one of several hostages because said hostage would eventually upset the local balance. Would the PC's agree to abandon a helpless person under those circumstances? What if the predicted upset is that the hostage watched a fellow prisoner die of disease and thus devotes themselves to inventing a cure that results in "too many" people living healthy lives for "too long"? After all, balance means not too good as much as not too bad. I am reminded of Thanos from Marvel's Infinity movie series given (as I understand it) that he was motivated primarily by cosmic balance and long-term sustainability - maybe his viewpoint would suit a Lipika. One has to wonder how an Athaos would feel about major centers of civilization or "cities that never sleep". Places where it's never truly dark - either bathed in sunlight or lit so brightly they can be seen from orbit. Perhaps those population centers are balanced by the creation of unlit caves and dungeons and that's why those are found everywhere in so many campaigns :) Regardless, thanks for the video. I enjoyed learning about the early cosmos and Pharasma's origins. I think there's a lot of potential for development when it comes to Aeons. In particular fleshing out what exactly "balance" entails on the level of worlds, planes, or the whole multiverse and what implications maintaining it has for the many types of creatures that try to bias existence towards prosperity and propagation.

[@TheMythkeeper]

You know, even as I was publishing this video, I was thinking this is one that @ColinGrym was going to really enjoy. I do think the Monad being a kind of paradox version of the Outer Gods feels about right. The idea that he _was_ an Outer God is even better though. Eternity is its own kind of horror in a way. I don't know, I think there's something to that idea. Thanks for the support and thoughtful comments as always.

[@ColinGrym]

@@TheMythkeeper Unlike some of the creatures you cover, I am clearly predictable. I reliably love the weird stuff (the stranger the better) and leave long comments. I'm glad there's a lot of Pathfinder for you to cover because you do it very well and videos like these are fun starting points for imagination.

[@Ofley_Adventures]

Both the design and concepts for the proteans really evoke a feeling of both dread and awe. Really wanna use them on a campaign now. Excellent job as always. Have a delightful day everyone! Thanks for the vid.

[@TheMythkeeper]

As a double-feature Proteans and Aeons were super-fun to make. Some really dense lore packed into these little videos.

[@VenatorStellorum]

I find the change from true neutral in 1e to lawful neutral interesting for Aeons, I can see how both make sense. I really liked how you discussed the nuance of their alignment towards the end of the History chapter.

[@TheMythkeeper]

My personal favorite is that in remaster they'll be doing away with alignments altogether, so Aeons can be more accurately simply be described as a force for Balance rather than neutrality or law.

[@VenatorStellorum]

Yeah the militantly true neutral tack in 1e was a little weird to be sure, and nine alignments are really too rigid to define morality which in both our world and Golarion is likely a big mushy 3 or 4d scatter plot lol

[@velemamba260]

This was a great video. I've loved Aeons ever since Wrath of the Righteous, and learning this lore about them was fascinating. Getting an expanded look at just what they are/do is really interesting. And the Godmind and Monad are both brain-breaking in a really fun way.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I also really love the Godmind and the Monad. 😅

[@TheMythkeeper]

I also really love the Godmind and the Monad. 😅

[@Ozcogger]

I love your videos. I watch them before I go to bed and sometimes listen like an audiobook.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Well thanks for listening and commenting!

[@CooperativeWaffles]

The videos are great to listen to "on-loop" while not able to actively listen.

[@scottforsythe37]

I was just defending picking up an aeon stone in my game the other week, this is such a great resource!

[@fumarc4501]

I just learned about Conrasu. This was a real treat. Thanks for sharing!

[@LarvalGhoul]

Someone who actually pronounces it correctly! :') Subscribing.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yes! Thanks for subscribing and welcome to the channel!

[@rockchewer7929]

Been waiting for this one! I have a player in my campaign whose lvl 20 end goal is to become an aeon

[@TheMythkeeper]

Should be a fun one for you

[@dragon200ism]

Great video dude. Though i feel like this is the one place i can kinda complain about the change. The addition of the axiomites and inevitables into the Aeon's is definitely one of the lore changes going into 2e that i disliked. One is the thematics, the Aeons really strike that chord between mundane and lovecraftian that i think of as Cosmic. Their weird and abstract, but not cosmic horror levels of it, almost like cosmic bliss rather than horror. Beings like four arms around a vortex of light and dark or the infinite cosmos inside a cloak. Abstract but not terrifyingly so. The addition of math elves and robots feels... unthematic. Secondly. I just liked the Axiomites being their own thing. I think just adding the Axiomite subtype and expanding their ranks would have been the more interesting option than slapping them onto another creature type. I just really liked their original backstory. The Cosmos trying to understand itself is so interesting and philosophical. The fact that even with the change they are still recognized as two separate "types" feels... pointless. Like they could have made them a separate type and simply didn't. But thats just my piece.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I totally see your point. I always feel closer to the lore than the mechanics in these games (as you can guess from my channel) so the fact that 2E afixes the [Aeon] descriptor to axiomites doesn't actually mean a whole lot to me. That said, its true that I don't mind the lore changes specifically regarding the origins of the Axiomites. I'm a bit of a roll with the punches guy anyway, when it comes to this sort of thing. Now I just think of Aeons and Axiomites as wolves and dogs respectively. Sure they're both technically canines, but they're a pretty radically different species.

[@edwardchytil8868]

It would be cool for a video to explain the pathfinder guild you mention it a lot but I do t really know what it is about and its history. By the way, I’m still here I haven’t commented in a while but I watch every video you are doing great man!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thank you! And yes, the Pathfinder Society is definitely in the works! They just have a ton of content to collate so its taking me a while.

[@craigwatkins3569]

Another awesome video! Still not use too the magic e. Can't say Daedric Armor with it. Makes it sound like my manager's uniform.

[@TheMythkeeper]

See now that word I'd actually say "Day-dric" 🤪

[@israelmorales4249]

great video, this is very interesting, nothe chapter of knowledge in the creation of the universe of PF, thx

[@TheMythkeeper]

A lot of detail packed into this one for sure.

[@AdriusFrostglare]

27:54 "The Godmind is an even less conventional deity than the Monad." random background car: *honks in agreement*

[@TheMythkeeper]

Haha true!

[@Phalcon777]

Fantastic video as always

[@TheMythkeeper]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@RicardoPM777]

The part about the survivor is so awesome

[@TheMythkeeper]

That was fun to do, probably the highlight for me in this video

[@46jerdboy]

One thing I do miss from DnD is the Formian's role in extraplanar lawful politics. The story about one of the subplanes of heaven getting shifted to a LN plane after heavy formian colonialization was always fun to me. I def find the Proteans more interesting than the Slaad though. And I like the almost book of revelations angel look of some of the Aeons.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah the formians do exist in Pathfinder, but they're just ant-people, not extra-planar in any way.

[@tomkerruish2982]

​​​@TheMythKeeper Ackchyually, to quote the 1e book The Great Beyond (p. 30), when describing Axis: Native Creatures Outside of the plane’s resident gods, their own petitioners and direct servants, three outsider races populate the eternal city of Axis: axiomites, formians, and inevitables.

[@justincherry4027]

Will you ever break the 4th wall and explain how pathfinder came to be as a game?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hmmm... I feel like I kind of talk about this in the very first video I ever did and I definitely talk about this in my OGL video. But most of the time I am trying to keep to in-world lore and not meta-lore.

[@zacharykeller4905]

Wow you got the man himself to respond. But yeah... I was excited to tell you to check his first video. But... yah know.

[@CooperativeWaffles]

Or is the in-lore of Golarions on Earth creating the game what is sought? The All Father knows that tale.

[@ArtlifeJoy]

It's bit of unknown secret I heard elves from another planet gifted it through a magical vision

[@confusedrhino]

Maybe a video about relative size of planes, continents, empires, cities, biggest monsters?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Relative sizes... hmm... I'll take it under advisement

[@TheInsatiableDrBoom]

Bro considering how badass you made your commercial shipping video. I'd love to know more about land trade routes, road networks, passes, trade depots things more exotic than earth animals which could even naturally segue into a video on telecommunications. Maybe sound dumb but but my players lack the imagination to have people with out cell phones so they have Mwangi coconut phones. 🥥 one half can talk to the other half.

[@VVizardthewizard]

The pathfinder cosmology really seems similar to an organic cell. I wonder if this was an intentional design or just coincidence.

[@TheMythkeeper]

I'm not familiar with organic cell at all but I'll have to look into it now

[@VVizardthewizard]

@@TheMythkeeper The inner sphere seems like a nucleus with the quintessence acting as a sort of outer membrane. Perhaps the planes are somewhat like the organelles.

[@ColinGrym]

@@VVizardthewizard Pharasma sitting in the nucleus of the Boneyard atop the DNA strand of the Spire moderating the rest of the "cellular" multiverse :)

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@VVizardthewizard Haha OMG! I thought "Organic Cell" was like an IP I didn't recognize. I see what you're saying. You've solved the riddle of the multiverse I think...

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@VVizardthewizard Haha OMG! I thought "Organic Cell" was like an IP I didn't recognize. I see what you're saying. You've solved the riddle of the multiverse I think...

[@flibbernodgets7018]

19:38 that looks a lot like phaerimms from the Forgotten Realms. I like it when fantasy creatures are just downright weird, and a windsock with arms and snake scales is pretty darn weird.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah, its funny that aeons and proteans, although diametrically opposed frequently have similar features

[@RicardoPM777]

Thanks for this great video

[@jens1639]

"What is order to the spider is chaos to the fly" but are we all flies to the Aeons?

[@waifusmith4043]

Watching this video because my GM is allowing me to play a summoner with the sunmoners+ expansion and im like "what's an Aeon?"

[@TheMythkeeper]

Now you know!

[@agsilverradio2225]

Has anyone else thoguht about the high population density of the Boneyard? I mean, it's the only outer plane that must host, not only beings of its assosiated allignment, (true neutral,) but also those souls who have yet to be judged; yet has the smallest surface aria of all the planes!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its depicted as having the smallest surface area, but I actually think the planes are fairly malleable, constantly expanding as the material universe does. Also consider the boneyard is the judgment place of all life, not just the life from Golarion, Androffa and Earth, which are all canonically referenced in Pathfinder but _all life_ period, and there are billions of worlds. I imagine that if you die on Golarion you go to a version of the Boneyard that looks 'familiar' to a Golarion dweller, whereas if you die on Earth you go to a different Boneyard, that has like a doctor's waiting room, or something familiar there. Same, I imagine goes for Axis. What we see depicted is Golarion's version of the city of cities, but somewhere out there is an Androffan version which looks like Cyberpunk 2099. All of the outer planes are effectively infinite in scope, our minds are only perceiving what we can understand to be true.

[@agsilverradio2225]

​​@@TheMythkeeper I immagine all planes of exsistance are technicly infinite, but still.

[@Rognus1]

Ah lets gooo

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hell yeah! Let's bring some Law to the table. :-)

[@Thegenderfluiddinosaur]

Hey I have a question about something. Are you going to do a video on druma and if so would you consider covering Isger in that video as I believe you missed that one during your cheliax video?

[@TheMythkeeper]

The Druma video is next week 😅 but unfortunately no Isger in it. Isger will get its own video in time.

[@Thegenderfluiddinosaur]

@@TheMythkeeper that's great to know and I'm hyped since I don't know a huge amount druma and really want to know more.

[@frederickgleicher1385]

Amazing as always ! So how do you think these will change with the loss of alignment ? Also is there a good video to check out the flesh warped creatures ?

[@frederickgleicher1385]

Also do you have an insights to the Godsrain ?

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@frederickgleicher1385 - I've said in a few other videos, but I think loss of alignment is good for specificity. The alignment system was always quite restrictive. Now aeons are neither LN or TN, they're simply creatures of balance. Best video for fleshwarped creatures, I think is probably in my Nex region deep dive. I discuss fleshwarps and fleshforged creatures there somewhat, but they don't appear in any of my ancestry guides yet. As for Godsrain, I'm waiting with baited breath.

[@joshuawilliams8252]

Unrelated to this video but have you considered making a video that's just focused on magic lore?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah, but I'm holding out for REMASTER as I think there will be some cool lore updates as they drop some of the old D&D magic schools.

[@Pathsfound]

Fellow 6 month badge, I see you! And I totally agree

[@LittleCrowYT]

I would love to play a monk that had a vision of the monad and now seeks to embody its "teachings" and philosophy

[@TheMythkeeper]

That's a great concept

[@RicardoPM777]

👏👏👏👏

[@trajanfidelis]

a lot of gnostic inspiration in pathfinder it seems. Thanks for the video!

[@TheMythkeeper]

You bet!

[@Xo-3130]

Actually no. Pathfinder has more to do with Hinduism in how creation is born, destroyed, and reborn by a single surviving entity in an inevitable cycle. This is the Kulpa cycle, alongside the Breath of Brahma. Gnosticism would treat all of creation as hell itself and as a false reality. Which, Pathfinder does not go far enough.

[@Xo-3130]

I mean... the Dark Tapestry is straight up what's outside the Multiverse and they're straight up hostile to everything within it which flies in the face of Gnosticism... though it ironically fits with a minor school of Hinduism that was influenced by Zoroastrianism.

[@speccrusastrum]

Why are thier forms more chaotic than the chaos snakes ?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Sometimes balance looks like chaos to the uninformed eye!

[@JohnBrown-no4od]

Aeons...cool!

[@TheMythkeeper]

😂

[@SageofStars]

Buncha jerks, these ones right here. Talk about laws and physics, but when it comes time to punish someone for it, they only go after the good side, since they know they won't fight back as hard. Sure they might TRY to stop evil, but they only send one guy against evil like the Abyss, or that one 'guarding' the gateway that leads to Hell that is a BIG treaty violation.

[@namelesssomebody2557]

...Why are the Aeons more chaotic and unpredictable than the Proteans? Did the Devs get their notes switched up?

[@TheMythkeeper]

They're totally not! Aeons are fairly predictable all things considered!

[@Discolittle]

Is the Theletoses aeon not canon anymore? Just noticed that it missing from the types of Aeons section

[@TheMythkeeper]

I assume anything in 1E (inlcuding Theletoses) is still canon in 2E unless explicitly altered. I didn't include every single Aeon type in this video, and I did favor those Aeon types that had 2E stats for them already.

[@Discolittle]

Ah ok. Thanks

[@agsilverradio2225]

I wonder why the architypicly *lawfull* neutral outsider of the axiomites, would primarilly chouse to *model themselves* after the traditionally *chaotic* good elves?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Its a great question. There's no canon explanation for this, but here's my head canon: Official Golarion lore doesn't specify the sequencing with which the various humanoid species appeared in the universe, but if elves were among the first races of the universe, then maybe the Axiomites simply modeled themselves after the first race rather than because they found them beautiful or otherwise valued them. Just a thought. I don't think there's any real answer to this one.

[@DontchadaretouchIT]

27:58 BEEP

[@TheMythkeeper]

🤣

[@panduputraa3630]

Who's the strongest god In Pathfinder world?

[@Lordingish]

Likely Rovagug since it took multiple gods to just seal it away, not even to kill it. I wanted to say Pharasma as well, but an update from literally today 7 hours ago is hinting that Pharasma is going to die..

[@agsilverradio2225]

"And given strange eons, even death may die."

[@scottread2979]

@@Lordingish I think you missed the image in the article. Also, they could've killed Rovagug; Sarenrae forbade it in case he was capable of redemption.

[@morganmcconal4785]

Azroth

[@agsilverradio2225]

Aeons are confusing. The seem lawfull neutral to most, but it sounds like their true motives are more true neutral?

[@TheMythkeeper]

And this is why I'm happy they are doing away with alignment. They are creatures of balance. Isn't that enough?

[@agsilverradio2225]

​​​​​@@TheMythkeeperI just feel like the decition to remove allignment comes from, moral-subjectivism which I do NOT belive in. ... Based on how the aeons don't like outsiders changing allignment, I don't think the aeons belive in moral-subjectivism either; even if they don't take sides between good and evil.

[@Readasaur]

The concept of Aeons really seems so dumb to me, the idea that A. Balance is possible and B. Things like ignorance, slavery or killing random mortals serves some form of cosmic longevity

[@floppa2154]

мне понравилось ! накрутка лайка и комментарий , для алгоритмов ютуба =)

[@TheMythkeeper]

Спасибо !