Pathfinder Religion Guide: Asuras, Divs and Qlippoths!

[@brianyaksha]

I watched this video the other day and was caught off-guard by the Asura; as I had gotten the chance to write them for Impossible Lands and I actually had to consult the book I worked on because I had thought I had done more to them than what is presented here. I should've checked the notes from the start, as you're consulting the Book of the Damned (2017) and they've progressed a bit since then in terms of theme and scope; so as to allow them to be a bit more than just fiends with a different sort of paintjob. Notably, the purpose of their malevolence is more clearly stated; they are cosmic entities from an existence that was before this existence; they dwelled in the void of nothing and dreamed of the unimagined potential /anything/ which could yet emerge from that nothingness. And then the concept of the divine came into form and it robbed them of both the solidity of nothing and the infinite of everything. This universe is imperfect, and so they seek to unmake it, unspooling it through corrupting faith and seeking to pervert the concept of the divine - so to then allow them to eventually bring existence back to what they perceive to be 'perfection' - or at the very least, no longer 'imperfect.' Which is something of a matter in the Age of Lost Omens, as the idea of mortals ascending to divine position greatly interests them - because it does, in a way, really bite its thumb at the idea that any 'divine' being should have had a hand in creating existence. If an entity that was created to exist can ascend to be one who creates existence, then it is imperfection further creating imperfection; and thus enlightenment - escape from the wheel of reincarnation - is a means to usurp divine authority. They're adapting with the times, because gods can die and new gods can emerge from mortal stock - their perfidious words can easily find purchase now. Sort of preaching enlightenment by way of the mara, rather than to escape such bonds. Fun video all the same, and good to find someone out there making videos on these topics for ease of reference. I don't believe I consulted the Book of the Damned all the much while on the project; as I was writing them within a cultural context but also due to edition changes and the lore shifts within that further saw some things made outmoded.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hi Brian! Thank you so much for watching my video and commenting! I feel honored! This was just a huge oversight on my part and now that you've pointed this out I am really frustrated with myself for forgetting there was a whole section on the Asura in the Impossible Lands book. Typically my approach with these videos is to go to the 2E sources first if I can, and then if the 2E sources are not yet available, or incomplete, use the 1E sources secondarily - presuming that anything not directly retconned in the 2E sources is likely still true in the new edition. I think when I started this I scanned through all the currently published 2E titles and overlooked Impossible Lands. I missed the lore updates and defaulted back to the old Book of the Damned source. Agh! My Geb, Nex and upcoming Alkenstar video all draw heavily from the 2E Impossible Lands book. If you happen to watch any other videos and find similar errors or inconsistencies, please let me know. KZbin doesn't let you edit videos once they are uploaded but I can always do a corrections video in the future. Also if you ever want to send me a direct message, you can connect to me over Instagram linked in my channel homepage. Once again, thanks so much for the comment! I'll try to pin this too so other folks can get this info.

[@theprinceofawesomeness]

This new lore, while it starts promesing with them coming from a world befor, they kind of sound like Devil flavored Daemons

[@sullyb23511]

Are there stats for the Asura Ranas in Impossible Lands?

[@DEricTodd]

Ha! "The BEST place for Pathfinder lore" Damn straight son

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thank you so much for the affirmation!

[@Ofley_Adventures]

Love to see that these beings are kind of primordials in their respective planes. Pathfinder truly has an amazing lore in every single way. Thanks to you I have found this beautiful lore so captivating. Have a phenomenal day everyone! Thanks for the vid.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks for watching, as always ;-)

[@rune5916]

I hope this comment helps bless your video in the eyes of the mighty algorithm, and helps spread it to many more Pathfinder lore seekers like me.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thank you!

[@rune5916]

​@@TheMythkeeperYour welcome.

[@samstriker5584]

Only tangentially related but this reminded me of the thing that I said when asked by my players why there are both daemons and demons: daemons came first, and the demons are chaotic evil so they deliberately named themselves that to confuse people

[@zacharyhawley1693]

Well not just that they took over Abaddon for a time. If you're an evil outsider you kill daemons whenever you find them because they're actively trying to murder everything. Something both devils and demons dislike.

[@TheMythkeeper]

🤣

[@JamesAdams-nd1td]

Interesting. I always appreciate more lore to use in homebrew projects. I hope we can soon get a grab bag of the lesser known Good Aligned Outsiders like Garudas, Peri, and Manusputras.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Good call, thanks for the feedback

[@JamesAdams-nd1td]

@@TheMythkeeper Thank you

[@justincherry4027]

My wizard had a tripurasura familiar. Very interesting rage filled dude. But getting him got me to look at asuras and I gotta say they're very interesting. Very similar to titans.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah they are cool. I really like that Pathfinder gives us more flavors of fiends than just one per plane.

[@chillax319]

Nice. With that my knowledge of pathfinder cosmology will be rounded up.

[@ColinGrym]

I was waiting for this video and enjoyed it a lot! Although: "just like demons and devils, they are irreversibly evil". But...but...my dear Arueshalae?! I loved her story enough that I'm going to conveniently ignore that bit of lore and stubbornly assume you meant "innately", as in they all start evil but can (rarely/with effort) evolve ethically from there. ArueshaBae's WoTR arc is the hill I'm ready to die on :) I found it quite interesting that while Asuras hate gods so much (makes sense given their backstory) their entire society seems to mirror the structure of a religion. Perhaps they should be souls of hypocrites, those who project their own faults onto others or those who denigrate for reasons of jealousy a la "sour grapes". Their particular brand of evil is all the more devastating for being based on betrayal after building trust with intent to deceive and harm. Again it makes sense given a backstory where their creator declared them a mistake and tried to destroy them, which could reasonably be taken as a terrible betrayal that defined their racial mindset. It was initially odd that the theft-oriented Bohga would be a Lawful Evil Asura Rana, but if you look at the history of "justified, legal" thefts like colonialism or technically legal corporate profiteering it's clear that one can outright steal from people while justifying it via the laws of the time. The Qlippoth section was definitely morbidly interesting. Rovagug being a pantheon-threatening Qlippoth is quite the revelation to say the least. I also noticed you said when Shiggarreb crusades against demons in the Abyss she "brings the influence of the deep Abyss, causing the areas she traverses to twist and warp". You know you're dealing with true malice, depravity, and chaos when her mere presence is so awful that it warps horrific Abyssal realms to be even more alien and terrifying. Great video, and I look forward to more visits to strange, wondrous and terrible places.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Thanks so much for the support! Irreversibly evil is indeed the wrong word. "Innately evil" would have been more correct. They are made of the raw stuff of evil (evil-aligned quintessence) but as creatures of free well they are able to shape their own destiny ultimately and that may lead them down different and unexpected paths.

[@ColinGrym]

@@TheMythkeeper It's all good of course, and given the content you've covered such as Nocticula's change of heart I knew you knew. Just some lighthearted teasing while I huffed and puffed about one of my favorite WoTR characters. As always I really enjoy your delves into the stories of PF's planes.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@ColinGrym Thank you! I appreciate that!

[@RicardoPM777]

These more uncommon planar creatures are very interesting, even more than some devils, demons or daemons

[@TheMythkeeper]

Glad to hear it and thanks for the feedback

[@koboldlord]

I love Pathfinder's use of these alternative fiends and celestials so much I back ported them to my DnD game. Particularly the Divs, they're my favorite of the non-standard fiends, well tied with demodands. Thank you for covering this content!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Any time! Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@koboldlord]

@@TheMythkeeper The man himself! Thank you for filling the tragically neglected Pathfinder shaped lore hole on KZbin!

[@skyfall-1738]

Your videos got me to up and join my local PFS, always glad to see another one in my subscription feed!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@sadiqmazloum9204]

Oh I have been excitedly waiting for this one ever since you mentioned it was coming out soon.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@sadiqmazloum9204]

@@TheMythkeeper I enjoyed it greatly, I always wanted to know more about the different creatures that lived in the hellish planes. I was curious to know what exactly separated them from each other and this video did great at explaining it

[@Christopher_Pug]

Man, the creature designs for these things are so cool!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah these are really cool fiend types.

[@phatasticpat5374]

Starting to get into the oddities. Absolutely love dropping these into game

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yep, we've done the big post-mortals and we're in the weird zone now.

[@burningbronze7555]

yeah this is what I am here for

[@TheMythkeeper]

Hope it lives up to the hype!

[@burningbronze7555]

@@TheMythkeeper it does, all though I swear there were more asuras

[@trajanfidelis]

Thanks for the video!

[@zacharyhawley1693]

Incidentally, this is close to the checklist of a mythic characters of mine and their road to divinity. By slaying Ahriman on the mountain top of his own domain in abaddon, kicking his skull down the side and consuming the other evil outsiders neither devil nor demon is how he achieved his dark apotheosis without the starstone.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Brutal and awesome. I approve.

[@Grevnor]

Is it just me, or have the Qlippoth Lords become a lot more humanoid in Second Edition? That seems kind of like missing the points of Qlippoths entirely?

[@havokmusicinc]

great video, love hearing about the more obscure critters

[@Nionivek]

Fun fact! A Mortal Soul can technically become a Qlippoth, but the requirement to do so makes it impossible. Namely they have to be evil but without sin.

[@benjaminfeld6388]

Perhaps for your next video you could do a piece on the post mortal inhabitants of the heavens.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Angels, Agathions, Archons and Azatas are all up on the channel already ;-)

[@benjaminfeld6388]

@@TheMythkeeper I know. But they're all native to their respective planes, aren't they? They're not the transform souls of mortals who have come to the planes after death.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@benjaminfeld6388 In all three cases they were formed from the raw stuff of the planes originally, however in all three cases, if a petitioner (or dead person) who winds up in the respective plane, follows just the write path they can indeed become one of these three creature types in the afterlife.

[@benjaminfeld6388]

@@TheMythkeeper oh, I see

[@ishmiel21]

Another in a long line of your awesome videos! Thanks so much for putting these out, they are super helpful and packed full of really useful information.

[@TheMythkeeper]

And thank you for watching and commenting!

[@israelmorales4249]

woooot!? Rovagug was a qlipot????!!! wow! thanks for the information...and the nighmares!

[@TheMythkeeper]

Any time!

[@jasonpike4489]

I'm curious do any of the Qlippoth lords have stat blocks of any kind? They all seem super interesting

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yep! www.aonprd.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Yamasoth

[@jasonpike4489]

@@TheMythkeeper Oh, wow! Thanks very much for the response!

[@justincherry4027]

Do you think the chernobue have something to do with the aboleths? They're very similar in appearance

[@TheMythkeeper]

Possibly. We know that the Great Beyond predates the Inner Sphere and the Material Plane, and the Aboleths believe themselves to be natives of the Material Plane. BUT they also existed at the dawn of creation - which is decidedly weird - so maybe some Qlippoths entered the material realm at some point? Also Aboleths don't get judged when they die, rather their spirit remains in the Abolethi collective - so there is a hint they may be extraplanar in origin.

[@philhudson3619]

Barloch Gavorn Sorcerer from Molthune. Fire Bloodline. Bar's father earned his citizenship and a modest living in Molthune's military. A harsh but fair man, typical of the better produce of that nation. Raised his 3 sons with discipline and earned praise. His mother was a raven haired farmer's daughter. She ran her household in the typical Chelish fashion. When Barloch displayed magical gifts early, she made sure he got a proper tutor. Which was a stretch for his martial minded father. But she made it happen. When adolescent Barloch's gift for destructive magic began to blossom, his father had high hopes for a career as a war wizard. But Barloch desired travel. His strong sense of being too big of a fish in his home pond took him to other lands. He went about offering himself as a mercenary, and selling his magical services to people that needed it. Sometimes for illicit purpose. He got mixed up with the Aspis Consortium for a season. Which left a bad taste in his mouth, even if he had a full coinpurse. Now he seeks to find a gig worthy of his talents and his caliber. To prove to everyone he was meant for more. Let me join one of your campaigns, MK.🎉

[@TheMythkeeper]

This is a great character, thanks for sharing ;-)

[@deathtowaterbottles8207]

Love the video as always! This series has helped me so much in GMing my own 2e campaign! I only have one question tho: where’s Zevgavizeb? I know the Reptile Lord is a demon lord but seeing as you didn’t mention him in your demon video, I thought that he would be covered here (seeing as he was once a qlippoth). Do you plan on covering Zevgavizeb and the xulgaths at some point, or where they a causality of the remaster project that I wasn’t aware of?? Again love the work!! Can’t wait for the next video!!

[@TheMythkeeper]

This was just a total oversight on my part. I will get around to Troglodytes in a creature feature at some point and I’ll make a point of covering their god in that video too!

[@Cilan1999]

I wonder if you could do a series about the lore of the iconic characters and about the player classes in general. That would be neat!

[@TheMythkeeper]

I will definitely get around to class lore at some point, or some adaptation of that concept. Not sure about the iconics. Although there stories are captured in various sources including books and comics they also serve as surrogate concepts to inspire new players so many have incomplete details beyond their base visual aesthetic

[@ferdinandavila-soto7233]

I quite like the qlippoths. They have a cool eldritch horror aesthetic that sets them apart from the other evil outsiders. It's not like the difference between demons and devils, where you've got "scary red monster with horns, sharp teeth, claws, and a tail" and "scary red monster with horns, sharp teeth, claws, and a tail, but this one files its taxes."

[@TheMythkeeper]

Yeah I agree they're a little weird and different

[@tomkerruish2982]

Have you done demodands? Also, would Golarion's solar system (Distant Worlds et al.) be an appropriate video topic?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Demodands are coming. I don't yet have plans for a solar system video but its totally a good idea.

[@frederickgleicher1385]

Very detailed and well done ! I can't remember, is there a very good video on Nhimboloth ?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Check my video on the Dark Tapestry ;-)

[@demonvamp33]

oh yeah! have you done velstracs yet?

[@TheMythkeeper]

Not yet! Coming soon...

[@RicardoPM777]

👏👏👏

[@TheSpiritus0]

Did the abyss form with the universe or does it predate Pharasma and the other gods?

[@TheMythkeeper]

I'll discuss this in more detail in my Protean video, but according to the Proteans, the Abyss (and the Maelstrom) predates the gods.

[@AdriusFrostglare]

The qlippoths really tickle the unknowable evil part of Pathfinder. I almost wish they'd taken up the lion's share or the spot taken up by the Lovecraftian material like the Outer Gods.

[@johnnelson4411]

I am worning on an evil monk major NPC that lives in Jalmeray. Thinking a follower of Irori who has been corrupted by an Asuna into thinking enlightenment js about perfection, power, abd exoanding one's understanding forcibly onto others. It fits the Asuna wanting to unmake and remake reality, to counter the divine, and the themed of self development and enlightenment for both monks and Irori.

[@TheMythkeeper]

~Aug 1 my Vudra and Jalmeray video comes out. Should be a great one for this concept

[@johnnelson4411]

@@TheMythkeeper I look forward to it! Tentatively I'm leaning toward a normal asura that works for Gavidya secretly created the Exhaustive Path, and the monk follows that.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@johnnelson4411 In that case let me share one additional detail about Gavidya that may be of interest and doesn't appear in this video. During the Age of Anguish, Gavidya is said to have come to the mortal realm to besiege and try to conquer the cities in Vudra along the Matra river. The Matra river was protected by the goddess Matravash, for whom the river is named. Gavidya was winning the war against Matravash, and overwhelming her forces, but a wanderer came to the river valley, in the form of Ashukharma, the goddess of canyons. Ashukharma and Matravash allied and together forced Gavidya to reteat to hell. They've been lover ever since. The citizens of Radripal, one of the greatest cities in Vudra along the Matra river, believe the great natural land bridge the connects the two banks of their city was formed where Ashukharma and Matravash held hands after their victory over Gavidya. Not sure, this is usable lore for you, but just some more Gavidya info for you ;-)

[@marcolinosalgarone9442]

Rovagug whay? And: How? When? Where? Why?

[@bobdrooples]

Divs? Now that's funny.

[@RicardoPM777]

I didn't know rovagug was a qlippoth

[@burningbronze7555]

we need the oni of the material plane

[@TheMythkeeper]

We'll get there! I'm going to cover fiends of some other planes first - Velstracs and Sahkils - then over to the material plane Fiends.

[@burningbronze7555]

@@TheMythkeeper velstracs would feed into nidal if you want to do that nation

[@mysterionlibrary]

We also need to know about demodands, don't forget.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@burningbronze7555 - You canny devil! Yes you figured it out, it will be Nidal then Velstracs very soon!

[@TheSpicyLeg]

I refer to my black lab as “the rough beast” and it drives my wife up a wall lol.

[@TheMythkeeper]

😂

[@justinmarquez6033]

Psychopomps? When we going there??

[@TheMythkeeper]

My very next religion vid ;-)

[@CrudusViscus]

Disappointing to see SO MANY omissions here. Also, you used art of Ahriman himself for the Akvans.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Sorry about that! Maybe it was overkill trying to cover all three of the 'extra' outer planar fiends in one video.

[@ColinGrym]

@@TheMythkeeper There's nothing to prevent you from doing a grab bag of creatures down the road after you cover the topics you have on your list already. I mean, it's almost inevitable that the foundational lore changes coming up are going to prompt eventual revisits anyways.

[@TheMythkeeper]

@@ColinGrym Absolutely, once I've covered the major bases I have no doubt I'll get there and start filling in the pieces I had to leave out for time.

[@alinazhou8028]

No being is irreversibly evil. Nocticula and Arueshalae are case and point. There's also the Redeemed, devils that saw the error of their ways.

[@TheMythkeeper]

Irreversibly evil is indeed the wrong word. "Innately evil" would have been more correct. They are made of the raw stuff of evil (evil-aligned quintessence) but as creatures of free well they are able to shape their own destiny ultimately and that may lead them down different and unexpected paths.

[@LandB2015]

Took a piss in the abyss

[@LandB2015]

CAn you do a lore episode on bull ants or fire ants 🐜