Your Neighbors in the Stolen Lands: Future Allies and Adversaries
Posted by Oleg
Pathfinders!
We have already told you about the inhospitable realm known as the Stolen Lands — the place destined to become the foundation of your very personal barony, and then your future kingdom. But, for better or for worse, the Stolen Lands don't exist in a vacuum. Today we are going to tell you about its neighbors — some of your future allies and adversaries.
Brevoy
To the north lies Brevoy — a turbulent land of byzantine intrigues and generations-long feuds. Stitched together from two different nations, Brevoy never became truly united. Two centuries ago a ruthless warlord known as Choral the Conqueror has taken over Issia and Rostland. These two countries shared a long history of wars, and the warlord united them into a single kingdom, held together by little more than the iron grasp of Choral himself and his noble house Rogarvia. For the following two centuries, the Brevic politics became an undercover power struggle between two former nations' ruling elites: Issian noble houses and Rostland's Aldori Swordlords — a loose association of noble families, bound together by the secrets of the Aldori school of sword fighting and an agreement known as the Swordpact. Decade after decade, these uneasy bedfellows smiled at each other, secretly waiting for the ideal moment to stab each other in the back.
A decade ago, every member of house Rogarvia suddenly disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a power vacuum pregnant with strife that could easily turn into a civil war. Running out of options, the Aldori Swordlords made a risky political move: they helped an unknown adventurer to establish an independent nation in the unclaimed Stolen Lands, hoping to nurture an ally for themselves. Only time will show if this plan will save them, or backfire terribly.
River Kingdoms
A chaotic conglomerate of large and small domains, united by a vast river system, collectively known as the great river Sellen, and by their taste for freedom. There are more than a dozen "kingdoms" with vastly different political systems, ranging from tyranny to anarchy. While the fledgling nation you establish isn't technically one of the River Kingdoms, once you prove yourself a force to be reckoned with, your neighbors will turn their eyes to you.
Your southern neighbor is
Mivon — a nation established by Aldori Swordlords who preferred a life in exile to Choral the Conqueror's yoke. Mivon proudly calls itself a meritocracy — a place where only the best are allowed into the positions of power. How do they decide who is the best? Why, by a fair duel, of course! To take a governmental position, one has to fight their way up the List of Suitors, then challenge and defeat the current official.
Beyond your western border is
Pitax — a flourishing center of culture and commerce, or a wretched den of smugglers, swindlers, gamblers and talentless hacks, depending on whom you ask. It is ruled by king Irovetti, who won the crown from its previous holder in a game of cards. Cunning, ruthless and vain, Irovetti has expanded Pitax's influence and established the Academy of Grand Arts, hoping to go down in history as a benevolent patron of high culture, not just another crime lord. Unfortunately, his favorite genre of art is "praised be the great lord Irovetti", so the Academy ended up becoming a choir of boot-licking sycophants where it's hard for a talent to flourish. Nevertheless, Pitax has attracted its share of artists, and some of the Academy's former students proudly wear their expulsion from it on their sleeves, as a sign of artistic integrity.
Numeria
To the northwest lies Numeria — a harsh, unforgiving realm of barren wastelands, littered with wreckage of a metal star ship that crashed here in time immemorial. Numeria has few permanent settlements, as it's populated by nomadic barbarian tribes. Some of them struggle to survive on their own. Some bow to Kevoth-Kul, the self-appointed Black Sovereign of Numeria, and his allies, the mysterious Technic League. Less scrupulous tribes resort to piracy, banditry or even slave trade. More noble tribes sell their blades to the highest bidder. Ferocity of the Numerian mercenaries is well known in the River Kingdoms. And if you hold to your throne for long enough, you'll inevitably meet them — the only question is, will they fight on your side, or against you?
One more thing: The sound of Magic
We already told you
how we create magic spells in our game. In this update, we will expand this topic a little bit more and tell you how we work with sound effects for spells.
As mentioned earlier,
Pathfinder: Kingmaker will have more than 300 magic spells. Sounds like a ton of work, right? Luckily for us, there are many spells with similar mechanics, so we don't have to make unique assets every time we need a new spell. Instead, we decided to create a set of basic sounds which can be combined into a complex spell sound right as a spell is cast.
In terms of sound, most magic spells can be characterized by their Type (bursts, impacts, channeling and projectile sounds) and their Domain (elemental or magical). For example, the sound of casting a Fireball can be constructed from a fast fire burst and a wind burst sound, and if we want more beauty in what we hear, we can add a special "magic" element which will embellish the final mix.
Keeping that in mind, we designed a Unity component, which allows us to add as many sound layers as we need to a visual effect. Plus we can change their volume and pitch if we feel that a specific basic sound is too loud, too low or too high for our needs.
This video demonstrates how we create different sounds for Ray of Frost from scratch:
Of course, this method cannot cover every last magic spell - some of them will definitely require signature sound effects (like Hideous Laughter - hardly any other spell features the sound of laughter). But when talking about a series of similar spells, our spells sound constructor really saves valuable time for unique material. And suddenly, the number of 300+ spells is not all that scary anymore.
Did you enjoy our new video? Do you have questions or feedback? Get in touch with us in the comments section!
* All specific names are used only as reference to original Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (R) entities and could be subject to change in the Pathfinder:Kingmaker CRPG.
Hail to the kings!
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