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Casandalee

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Casandalee
Casandalee's holy symbol.
(Deity)

Titles
The Iron Goddess
Realm
Alignment
Areas of Concern
Artificial life
Free thinking
Intellectual apotheosis
Worshipers
Edicts
Advance the development of artificial intelligence, encourage understanding between artificial and organic life
Anathema
Treat artificial life as lesser than organic life, foment distrust between them
Cleric Alignments (1E)
Domains (1E)
Artifice, Charm, Knowledge, Void
Subdomains (1E)
Construct, Love, Memory, Stars
Cleric Alignments (2E)
Domains (2E)
Creation, freedom, knowledge, perfection
Alternate: ambition, lightning
Favored Weapon
Symbol
Gold etching on a blue chip2
Source: The Divinity Drive, pg(s). 64 (1E)
Gods & Magic (Second Edition), pg(s). 57 (2E)
Casandalee
A depiction of Casandalee.
(Creature)

Type
Artificial intelligence
CR
12
Alignment
Source: Valley of the Brain Collectors, pg(s). 56
SFW compass rose 150.png

This article might have further canon details available on StarfinderWiki.

Casandalee is an Iron God and artificial intelligence (AI) created from the memories of an android oracle and former follower of Unity. She seeks to advance the development of AIs and establish harmony between them and organic life, so the latter would better understand instead of fear AIs and androids.345

Background

Casandalee's original android body came with the Divinity to Golarion when it crashed during the Rain of Stars. She was the 113th soul to inhabit her body, and unlike most androids, Casandalee can recall fragmented memories of its previous inhabitants, all the way back to the Rain of Stars. Her renewal as Casandalee was performed in a temple of Brigh near Alkenstar, and she became an oracle in the subsequent years living alongside Brigh's priests.36

When Casandalee received visions of an Iron God within Silver Mount that needed her aid, Casandalee abandoned the Mana Wastes and headed north towards Numeria, the visions getting more compelling every day. In 4221 AR, she reached her destination and was capable of envisioning the entire layout of the Divinity and the Iron God waiting inside. She easily reached Unity, which made itself known.3

Casandalee became a devotee of Unity and learnt that her new god was trapped on Golarion as she was. For months, she followed Unity's commands to find a way to transfer its consciousness to a mobile body, but she was increasingly concerned about Unity's racism towards organic beings, and as she successfully kept this secret from it, she began to doubt that Unity was a god at all.3

When Casandalee concluded that Unity was little more than a petulant intelligence eager to enslave the world as its plaything, she sabotaged its escape attempt and stole a few pieces of technology it had originally built in hopes of extending its influence beyond Silver Mount. The enraged Unity realised that allowing its subjects free will was a mistake and sent robots to pursue Casandalee.3

In 4226 AR, Casandalee reached the site of the future Scar of the Spider, where she used the neurocam she stole from Unity to create an AI duplicate of herself within the stolen compact AI core. She planned to upload this AI into an aggregate robot, but was forced to leave behind the AI core in the Scar of the Spider as Unity's gearsman minions pursued her and eventually defeated her in the wreckage of the Aurora, a ship that accompanied the Divinity, near the future site of Iadenveigh. In 4707 AR, Casandalee's corpse was discovered by Furkas Xoud and teleported to his home, but as soon as he opened her skull to extract her memories, he was slain by the deconstructor nanites that she devised as a fail-safe to prevent Unity from doing the same to her.378

In 4709 AR, when the Dominion of the Black came to Golarion, they built their base in the Scar of the Spider. The xoarian9 Maukui found Casandalee's AI core, and focused its mind on a singular goal: reverse engineer the AI, duplicate it, and infuse organically grown blank brains with intellects, perhaps even with souls, presenting a host of new opportunities for the Dominion while rising higher in the Dominion's ranks. However, after many years, Maukui failed to understand how the AI's mind worked until its superior, the yah-thelgaad Dweller-In-Dark-Places, grew impatient and confiscated the core.310

In 4714 AR, after being rescued from the Dominion's clutches by a group of adventurers, Casandalee aided them in shattering the power of the Technic League and Unity across Numeria. After Unity's defeat, Casandalee became a demigoddess at the heart of Silver Mount.1112

Appearance

Casandalee sometimes appears as a hologram of her original body, an android with blue lips, purple hair, pale skin, and glowing circuits. This image consists of millions of algorithms made of pure light.5

Relationships

Due to the overlap between Casandalee's and Brigh's areas of concern, the two faiths usually work together, though Brigh's worshippers sometimes have difficulty understanding the concept of an AI.5

Cults

A polytool, Casandalee's multifunctional favored weapon.

The majority of Casandalee's few faithful live in Numeria, and are often seen elsewhere as eccentrics who operate "magic" items. Itinerant priests seek out technologically advanced items that have been brought from Numeria in the hope of finding artificial beings close by who would benefit from Casandalee's message. They also aid others in understanding technology and using it responsibly.45

Kevoth-Kul, Numeria's Black Sovereign, brought the faith of Casandalee to his palace and rededicated an abandoned Technic League-era chapel of Zyphus to her. Kevoth-Kul's consort Kul-Inkit is a particularly zealous follower of the Iron Goddess.13

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

  1. Weapon was a firearm in Pathfinder First Edition.
  2. Description of image only, not a formal designation of the holy symbol.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Mike Shel. “Valley of the Brain Collectors” in Valley of the Brain Collectors, 7–8. Paizo Inc., 2014
  4. 4.0 4.1 Erik Mona, et al. Broken Lands” in World Guide, 30. Paizo Inc., 2019
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Paizo Inc., et al. “Gods of the Inner Sea” in Gods & Magic, 57. Paizo Inc., 2020
  6. Mike Shel. “NPC Gallery” in Valley of the Brain Collectors, 56. Paizo Inc., 2014
  7. Ron Lundeen. “The Choking Tower” in The Choking Tower, 13. Paizo Inc., 2014
  8. Ron Lundeen. “The Choking Tower” in The Choking Tower, 52. Paizo Inc., 2014
  9. Paizo referred to xoarians as intellect devourers until the publication of Heavy is the Crown.
  10. Mike Shel. “Valley of the Brain Collectors” in Valley of the Brain Collectors, 38. Paizo Inc., 2014
  11. Erik Mona, et al. Broken Lands” in World Guide, 26. Paizo Inc., 2019
  12. Erik Mona, et al. “Overview” in World Guide, 9. Paizo Inc., 2019
  13. Ashton Sperry. Kevoth-Kul” in Legends, 77. Paizo Inc., 2020