Pathfinder Regional Deepdive: Molthune and Nirmathas

[@MrHyperspaceman]

Man, as a recent bachelor of Political Science i adore these videos. Usually fantasy and sci-fi writers and settings never tackle more than simple feudal-like realms. Mostly because its too complicated for someone not in PS, and probably a boring read for others. Pathfinder is such a breath of fresh air tho, with so many different polities and systems. More please!

[@TheMythKeeper]

Yep its rich world-building for sure :-)

[@tnttiger3079]

And when they do tackle feudal society, they just treat it as modern Liberal capitalism without industrialism lmao Both the variety and verisimilitude of the politics of Golarion is refreshing!

[@alganhar1]

@@TheMythKeeper Shame some of them would not work. At least not in a real world situation. In this particular example Nirmathas *would* have fallen to Molthune. In the real world..... Only reason it exists in the Pathfinder mythos is because that is what the writers have decided...... Not because of what is possible. One good way of pointing this out is highlighting my own Nation, Wales. We were much like Nirmathas in that we were highly fractured, and we lost against the Molthune of England. England was more united and had almost twenty times the population. It took a while, but they DID win...... Cymru am bwth. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

[@TheMythKeeper]

@@alganhar1 It may still fall to Molthune in time but IMO as of 2nd edition thats looking pretty unlikely. Now that Lastwall has been destroyed and the region beyond Nirmathas is the Gravelands it could be that the Molthuni will just decide that its tactically advantageous to have a 'buffer state' between them and the undead hordes. They can keep shoring up their defenses in case Nirmathas falls, but at least a few people in Molthune now must be thinking that maybe pushing their border next to that of the Whispering Tyrant is a capital B, Bad Idea. As for Nirmathas, it needs to put aside old prejudices and start being friendly with the Orcs of Belkzen. In the war against the dead - everyone who is stil alive should be your friend. An undead invasion of Nirmathas from the north could be a great campaign idea actually - and one that would make the tense political situation between them and their southern neighbour really interesting...

[@alexwatts1064]

I've really been enjoying watching "History Channel Presents: Pathfinder". Good stuff, m8

[@TheMythKeeper]

Haha! Thanks, I appreciate that

[@MzQTMcHotness]

Nirmathas is honestly my favorite place to have non-adventure path adventures. It feels like a frontier medieval place with lots to explore, and it’s proximity to Molthune, Last Wall, Ustalav, and Horde of Belzkan make it an amazing spot to branch into wildly different countries, but not have to travel long distances.

[@TheMythKeeper]

Couldn't agree more! Consider playing Giantslayer and Ironfang Invasion for APs that are set adjacent to Nirmathas, where a bunch of Nirmathi towns have a chance to see play. :-)

[@casimirlawnicki8990]

Even if I never run a game in this setting, I always find your rereadings of its history fascinating. Makes me want to improve my own lore/world building delivery skills. Like, I love hearing about this stuff. But I can never find a way to get those stories (with all of their context intact) across to my players in a way that feels natural.

[@TheMythKeeper]

The trick is to take some time after character creation to weave your player's personal history into the history then region. Then reach out to the players privately and suggest those details to them. I've never had a player not be keen to have their personal history shaped by their nations history. Hope that's helpful!

[@casimirlawnicki8990]

@@TheMythKeeper Heck yeah! Thanks for your input. I guess it would make a lot of sense for the players to be most interested in their own characters. So weaving the regional context into said characters would make them feel like they're more attached to the region as a whole. I can see the logic in that.

[@tannerdeconcini8094]

Thanks to you I have been on a deep dive of everything Pathfinder related. I recommend my pathfinder group to you as well, and now they like to listen to your videos when they are making their pathfinder characters. I don’t know if you take suggestions of ideas, but have you thought of doing videos on guilds? The pathfinders themselves probably have enough information to last a few videos. I’m going to run a whispering way campaign soon as well, and have noticed that there is a TON of information about them not in the factions book.

[@TheMythKeeper]

I will be doing some faction videos in the not too distant future so definitely stay tuned for that :-)

[@torry3861]

Man , my heart both swells and sink when i listen to pathfinder lore . I wish I could world build like this

[@TheMythKeeper]

You realize Paizo is a team of dozens of people! Don't be so hard on yourself :-)

[@mamtakiewdomu]

Hey! Does anybody know where I can find this cool political map of Molthune? Or is it original by MythKeeper? Thanks!

[@TheMythKeeper]

The underlying map is the official Rob McCaleb map. The layers on top unfortunately are done by me and I don't have them in a readily sharable format.

[@soturi_]

Thanks

[@mightysurtur752]

I eagerly await the day of playing Ironfang Invasion being a stereotypically racist dwarf forgepriest/gunslinger/ranger, call Azaersi a leaf lover, and changing history

[@TheMythKeeper]

That's a fun character for that game for sure

[@brianhowe1982]

Molthune did nothing wrong

[@retroic3165]

Haven't watched the video yet but I'm already hyped! Thank you for the video. Please try and finish your race guide asap, it's really good

[@albertcapley6894]

I really like the mixture of high political intrigue and brutal warfare which is oddly reminiscent of both the hundred years war and much more modern conflicts such as the Crimean war. This video reminds me that I need to give this region a look over again because I only read the first two adventures from the hobgoblin war adventure path, and I barely knew any of the stuff you talked about in this vid. Great stuff as always.

[@berserkape1014]

First Eberron! Now Golarion! Hobgoblin mercenaries creating nations via creating standing armies through mercenary actions.

[@winterkalte819]

Ironfang Invasion was the first AP, that i run as GM. It required me to translate all of 6 parts of it with my poor knowledge of the language. Fun times. Personally, i like Molthune and Nirmathas very much, as well as main hobgoblin villains of this story. I think, that campain on behalf of hobgoblins and other monstrous humanoids, that wants to claim their own kingdom, would be a interesting idea

[@TheMythKeeper]

I love that even though the Pathfinder world is immense, everyone has their entry point, and everyone has place they are nostalgic for. For me its definitely Ustalav. And yes, more adventures that humanize the so-called villains of the game would be great!

[@richarddavies-vanvoorhis6708]

Don't comment much, but I just finished watching your Cheliax video, and was slightly saddened when I realized I'd watched all your Regional Deepdives. Am now happy

[@occupationallystrong1606]

I have played only a few games of PF 1e but never ran an adventure path. I always lean towards home brew and OSR games due to ease of rules and modularity. However, these videos really make me appreciate how well constructed their setting is. Thanks for doing such a great job.

[@almitrahopkins1873]

My first character for Pathfinder was a Seelie fey goblin from Nirmathas. It was Cu Lwyd Cynning, the Gray King’s Hound, tracker for a Seelie lord who died in the Darkblight. It was a CN Druid 3/ranger 2 that could be found almost anywhere in Nirmathas except the cities. He hated cities. If he went near a city, it was only because he knew there was a place where a Druid could find safe rest within it. It was better to live in the saddle on his companion wolf than in any city. He would use his Alter Self ability to appear as a Halfling or a human child whenever he first encountered humans, dwarves or elves. He almost never spoke in any language other than the sylvan tongue or Druidic, but he could speak goblin, common, elvish and orcish. I enjoyed that character quite a bit. You can use it in your game if your players need help when they’re lost in the wilderness anywhere in Nirmathas or running out of food. It can be an interesting NPC encounter anywhere in the country.

[@RicardoPM777]

These regional videos are amazing 🤩

[@Jo-Heike]

Nirmathas, the chaotic neutral nation, aka fantasy Texas (at least by the sound of it, and going of the stereotype).

[@godking]

Nirmathas is a nation of Ron Swansons 😅

[@TheMythKeeper]

Hehe, this is true

[@josephkelly4872]

Just made a Hobgoblin Fighter from Oprak and this video was excellent for fleshing out their backstory. This region has a such cool lore, great work!

[@joakimvretlund9243]

Where are those pictures of the lord generals from? Are they canon?

[@TheMythKeeper]

They're mostly from Pinterest, ArtStation and Imgur; they're not canon, but I did try to generally match the art to the general's physical description provided in the book.

[@joakimvretlund9243]

Makes sense, thanks for the answer @@TheMythKeeper 👍

[@OldGreyGryphon]

Awesome video man!

[@Jo-Heike]

You seem to have a predilection for making your OCs the rulers of the places you adventure.

[@TheMythKeeper]

Well it worked the first time ;-)

[@DaDunge]

A mere 300 miles across, but 300 miles is 500 km it's basically the width of Turkey.

[@TheMythKeeper]

Haha, yeah, I think other people have observed this. If you use the measurements as listed Golarion is a much bigger world than earth, though canonically its earth-sized. I don't know, maybe the whole planet is some weird bag of holding.

[@DaDunge]

@@TheMythKeeperI think it's a result of allowing PCs to travel 8 hours a day basically forever. I made the great plains of my homebrew setting sized the size of the great plains of north america and realized it would take my players just over a month to cross them on foot. For things to feel as big as they are in the real world they actually have to e much bigger.

[@TheMythKeeper]

@@DaDunge - I think you're absolutely right. Because of the quality of our roads and how much we've worked our lands we've also lost all concept of how difficult wilderness travel really is - not to mention how much back-tracking and retrying you have to do if you're crossing mountains or hills or swamps, or even if you just hit a wide river.

[@Krustulum]

Eagerly awaiting your next video. You are, at the moment, the only creator who does an outstanding job with lore depth, voice and narration. The rest suck in one way or another. In depth planar guide would be much appreciated. Ohh, and a star system guide too. Like how many planets are there, is there life on them, etc.

[@TheMythKeeper]

Pathfinder planar guides - kzbin.info/aero/PLAhGmA08aio2BhQlyjoOrZ099pSUmu-Lf

[@Krustulum]

@@TheMythKeeper what about in depth of the abyss, hell, heaven or whatever its called? Upd: Can't wait for you to get to Numeria. It just blew my mind kekekeke.

[@acerba]

food for thought: consider making a OGL+ORC video to bait new people into checking out your channel

[@TheMythKeeper]

I’m thinking about it :-)

[@spiritB0mber]

Damn I love how intricate these regions are

[@Revenge221]

Absolutely loving your videos. I just started a campaign taking place in the region and this has been a great help. Hoping one day for a video on Isger & the Goblinblood Wars!

[@TheMythKeeper]

Its absolutely in the works ;-)

[@Revenge221]

@@TheMythKeeper Wonderful! I look forward to it. Isger and the GB War has such little information on what is such a monumental event.

[@madman_chris]

Yet another amazing video.

[@nathanieldiaz2845]

As usual I love your stuff bro

[@benalias9118]

14:55 what a.. busty architect ! 👀

[@skyfatherproductions4929]

Next video can you do lands of the mammoth lords

[@TheMythKeeper]

Its coming but next up will likely be Osirion which has also been much demanded in the comments.

[@Balevolt]

Hey, I've been waiting for this one. I like both nations

[@TheMythKeeper]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@Balevolt]

@@TheMythKeeper I did, and I still think they need to get together as a nation they both have what the other lack. They got together if you fail Wrath of the Righteous

[@j0625]

❤