The Godsrain Prophecies
From left to right, row by row from top:
| Erastil ("safe") | Iomedae | Torag | Sarenrae |
| Shelyn | Cayden Cailean ("safe") | Desna ("safe") | Abadar |
| Irori ("safe") | Gozreh | Nethys ("safe") | Pharasma ("safe") |
| Calistria | Gorum | Asmodeus ("safe") | Zon-Kuthon ("safe") |
| Norgorber | Urgathoa ("safe") | Lamashtu | Rovagug ("safe") |
- This article covers the real-world series of flash fiction stories. For the in-universe texts, see Godsrain Prophecies.
The Godsrain Prophecies was a flash fiction series written by Erin Roberts1 and presented as false prophecies about the deaths of deities in the Pathfinder campaign setting. They were posted to the Paizo Blog in support of War of Immortals and the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project, as well as a novel and other products announced on April 16, 2024.2
The 10-part weekly series was written as in-fiction documentation of the Godsrain Prophecies being collected and annotated for presentation to Pharasma by the nosoi psychopomp Yivali,2 who was previously announced as being the point-of-view character for Divine Mysteries. The deity featured in each article was also designated as one of 10 core deities that would not be killed during the canon events related to its tie-in products.3
On April 16, 2024, Paizo announced that The Godsrain Prophecies would be compiled into an e-book format with additional content.4 The collection was released on September 23, 2024.
“It isn't often gods die, but Aroden's enigmatic demise on the eve of his prophesied return, when he was said to usher in an age of glory for humanity, had more ramifications than his simple death. For when Aroden died a century ago, prophecy died with him. Since that day, in what has come to be known as the Age of Lost Omens, foretelling no longer works as it should, and a prophecy is more likely to be completely inaccurate than hold even a sliver of truth.
When Yivali, a nosoi psychopomp in the service of the goddess of death, uncovers a series of foretellings called the Godsrain Prophecies as part of her research into the nature of divinity, she uncovers a vast web of predictions of the forthcoming death of another deity, and the ramifications of such.
Follow along as Yivali digs into the prophecies, noting their contradictions and unsettling suggestions, and learn about the mysterious seer who penned them. Explore the secrets of the Godsrain, an event strangely absent from the prophecies that bear its name, yet which is detailed in such Pathfinder Roleplaying Game releases as War of Immortals, Prey for Death, and the Curtain Call Adventure Path, as well as the Pathfinder: Godsrain novel by Liane Merciel. Dig into the exciting world of Pathfinder and the War of Immortals event today!
Originally published as a series of blogs on Paizo.com, this collection includes expanded annotations by Yivali and brand-new content exploring the identity of the mysterious seer behind the prophecies.
”
Releases
- Part One (Pharasma, February 7, 2024)
- Part Two (Asmodeus, February 14, 2024)
- Part Three (Cayden Cailean, February 21, 2024)
- Part Four (Urgathoa, February 28, 2024)
- Part Five (Erastil, March 6, 2024)
- Part Six (Nethys, March 13, 2024)
- Part Seven (Zon-Kuthon, March 20, 2024)
- Part Eight (Desna, March 27, 2024)
- Part Nine (Irori, April 3, 2024)
- Part Ten (Rovagug, April 10, 2024)
Trivia
In-universe books referenced by Yivali in the story include:
- What Comes Down: A Treatise on Mortal Falls2
- The Peculiarities of Prophetic Speech, a work with an "excessive number of footnotes"5
- What the Future Holds: The Ethics of Prophecy6
- Beyond Aroden: Failed Foretelling in the Age of Prophecy78
- The Windsong Corollaries7
- Another Absalom, "tales of spies and skullduggery"9
- Notorious Names and Narrative Novelties: Navigating the Nuance of Nomenclature, "a book that could easily have been 150 pages instead of over 700"10
- To Scream Is Divine: My Year at a Nidalese Temple and its "somewhat more uneven" follow-up, Kuthite Lullabies11
- Written Yesterday: Collected Notes on the Parabolic Nature of Time12
Yivali also refers to the following in-universe concepts:
- The Windsong Paradox: "each individual prophecy exists independent of the others"13
- The Dueling Quills Incident, a debate among psychopomps over impartiality in research6
- The Fatal Four "disaster", in which wordplay in a minor historical prophecy resulted in two assassinations10
- Lorminos, who advised Yivali in her early studies10
- The Fate's Chain theory, "which holds that any action taken to prevent a foretelling only hastens its speed and effects"8
- Tirvan's Principle, in which the more contacts one has, the less time one has to contact them14
- The Inquisitive Method of Research, in which insight is found by exhausting all possible questions without answers15
References
- ↑ Mark Moreland. (February 21, 2024). Comments on The Godsrain Prophecies Part Three, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Erin Roberts. (February 7, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part One, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ Mark Moreland. (February 7, 2024). Comments on The Godsrain Prophecies Part One, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ Mark Moreland. (April 16, 2024). War of Immortals announcement stream. Streamed on Twitch.tv.
- ↑ Erin Roberts. (February 21, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Three, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Erin Roberts. (February 28, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Four, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Erin Roberts. (March 6, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Five, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Erin Roberts. (March 27, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Eight, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ Erin Roberts. (March 13, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Six, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Erin Roberts. (March 20, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Seven, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ Erin Roberts. (April 10, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Ten, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ . The Godsrain Prophecies, The Death of Pharasma. Paizo Inc., 2024
- ↑ Erin Roberts. (February 14, 2024). The Godsrain Prophecies Part Two, Paizo Blog.
- ↑ . The Godsrain Prophecies, The Death of Cayden Cailean. Paizo Inc., 2024
- ↑ . The Godsrain Prophecies, The Death of Nethys. Paizo Inc., 2024
External links
- The Godsrain Prophecies tag on the Paizo blog