Pathfinder campaign setting

Golarion, the primary planet of the Pathfinder campaign setting.

For other meanings of "Pathfinder campaign setting", please see Pathfinder campaign setting (disambiguation).

The Pathfinder campaign setting, also known as the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting and Lost Omens campaign setting, is a campaign setting designed by Paizo Inc. first for Open Gaming License-compatible roleplaying game systems and later for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

The setting focuses primarily on the world of Golarion and more specifically, the Inner Sea region of Avistan and northern Garund, but there are at least eleven additional planets in the setting and a wide array of other planes.

History

Pathfinder Chronicles

Cover of Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer.

The campaign setting was announced in April 2007 shortly after the announcement that Paizo would no longer be publishing the official Dungeons & Dragons magazines when their license from Wizards of the Coast expired. The first products to feature the world of Golarion were D1: Crown of the Kobold King and D0: Hollow's Last Hope in June of that year. The main kickoff to the world, however, occurred 2 months later at GenCon 2007 when the first Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rise of the Runelords, debuted. Subsequent product lines supporting the setting have since been released, including the Pathfinder Chronicles, Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Pathfinder Player Companion, and Pathfinder Lost Omens lines, as well as multiple forms of fiction under the Pathfinder Tales brand.

The first book to thoroughly detail the Inner Sea region and define the setting as a whole was the Gazetteer, released in April 2008. The 64-page book was later expanded into a 256-page hardcover—the Campaign Setting—which released in August 2008. After the advent of the Pathfinder RPG, the Campaign Setting went out of print, and was replaced with a revamped and expanded hardcover written for the Pathfinder RPG—The Inner Sea World Guide—which released in March 2011.

The three core setting books of Gazetteer, Campaign Setting, and Inner Sea World Guide respectively won the Gold ENnie awards for best setting in 2008, 2009, and 2011.

Beginning with the publication of Adventurer's Guide, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game product line also began incorporating Pathfinder campaign setting details into its works. Prior to Adventurer's Guide, rulebooks intentionally remained setting-neutral.

Age of Lost Omens

Cover of Lost Omens World Guide.

With the release of the Pathfinder Second Edition ruleset, the campaign setting product line shifted from Pathfinder Campaign Setting to Pathfinder Lost Omens to provide a more evocative name for the setting, and the timeline canonically advanced to resolve the events of all Adventure Paths, Paizo Organized Play campaigns, and other player-driven plotlines to that date.

The first book of the renewed line was the Lost Omens World Guide, which retained a focus on the Inner Sea region but also covered a broader part of Golarion. Subsequent books each focused on a subject related to the setting, such as The Mwangi Expanse, Impossible Lands, and Tian Xia World Guide; prominent locations, such as Absalom, City of Lost Omens, Grand Bazaar, and Highhelm; notable organizations, such as Knights of Lastwall, Pathfinder Society Guide, and Firebrands; and notable figures, such as Legends and Monsters of Myth. Works like Divine Mysteries, Travel Guide, Character Guide, Tian Xia Character Guide, and Ancestry Guide provided cultural and social information alongside character options.

Tian Xia World Guide won the 2024 Gold ENnie award for best setting.

Inspirations

Much of the feel of the setting is reminiscent of classic genre elements present in other settings such as Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk, and even setting-neutral modules from the earliest days of the game. Many elements of the world were mined from the homebrew campaign worlds of the Paizo staff, especially Erik Mona and James Jacobs.

In large part, the setting aims to provide a "home" for campaigns of all flavors, with distinct regions themed around different genres and styles of play, from horror-themed Ustalav to steampunk Alkenstar, from high-magic Nex to the low-magic Realm of the Mammoth Lords, from the jungles of the Mwangi Expanse to the Egypt-inspired deserts of Osirion. Many of the setting's themes and specific details are inspired by pulp fantasy and science fiction by such authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Jack Vance.