Paizo Inc Announce Upcoming Tian Xia Releases

Mar 7, 2023

Paizo Inc has revealed the Tian Xia region of Golarion will be a big focus for a series of upcoming Pathfinder RPG releases. Two Tia Xian Lost Omens sourcebooks and four adventures are on the horizon.

From Paizo Inc:

Paizo, publisher of the Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying games, has announced starting this fall, Pathfinder will be turning the globe a bit as it heads to a region that players have been waiting for—the setting of the next few Pathfinder projects coming down the road: Tian Xia! Starting at the end of this year and continuing into 2024, Pathfinder will dive into this region like never before to bring adventures, stories, and character options inspired by this land!

First, the narrative team will kick things off with the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path in October of 2023 horror-themed campaign is set in the haunted land of Shenmen and begins just after the small town of Willowshore celebrates the Season of Ghosts—a local festival to appease Shenmen’s many evil ghosts and spirits and ensure safety for the coming year. Yet this year, something’s gone wrong, and the PCs wake to find their hometown of Willowshore has fallen under a sinister curse and been invaded by monsters. In the months to come, the heroes must help the people of Willowshore prepare for winter while working to discover the cause of the curse that’s cut them all off from the rest of the world. Is it the work of a fiend? The machinations of vengeful spirits? Or is it something much, much worse?

Season of Ghosts will take your PCs from 1st to 12th level over the following volumes!

The Summer that Never Was, by Sen H.H.S.
Let the Leaves Fall, by Joan Hong, with additional articles by Tan Shao Han and Grady Wang
With No Breath to Cry, by Dan Cascone & Eleanor Ferron, with additional articles by Jeremy Blum, Dana Ebert, Joshua Kim, and Michelle Y. Kim
To Bloom Below the Web, by Liane Merciel, with additional articles by Jeremy Blum, Joshua Kim, and Michelle Y. Kim

You might notice that this is Pathfinder’s first four-part adventure path, for a very good reason! Each of this Adventure Path’s volumes take place over the course of a different season, starting with the rainy summer and ending in the spring. With each season’s passing, the stakes the heroes face escalate, and the revelations in store will shock the townsfolk of Willowshore to the core! Will your group of adventures be able to save their hometown from a mysterious supernatural horror, or will your hometown simply become the next of Shenmen’s haunted ruins?

Then, in 2024, prepare for not one but two Lost Omens books from the rules and lore team!

The Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide covers the many diverse nations and cultures that inhabit Tian Xia. Snippets of Tian Xia’s lore and history have come to Avistan via merchants and immigrants, but this book will present a look at the whole picture, from the elemental hegemony and yaoguai wars that shaped the landscape in ancient times to the return of Hao Jin in the modern era. Learn the secrets behind the undying emperor of Yixing, whose return is still awaited in Po Li. Offer a small prayer to the local kami, anito, or kaiju. See if you find satisfaction in the service of the Empress of Heaven, Shizuru, or in the explosive rivalry between the dancing gods Mugura and Nrithu.

In an age ruled by heroes unfettered by prophecy, change is sweeping across the continent. Some of you might have helped Ameiko Kaijitsu depose the Jade Regent and ascend to the throne of Minkai—now witness the new Ondori era under her rule. Step into the nation of Bachuan, now that a Po Li oracle has convinced it to ease its restrictions and open its borders; Hao Jin’s tapestry people now live here too, descendants of a past once thought lost for good. Amanandar, a nation now as Tian in heritage as it is Taldan, has declared its independence with the blessings of Queen Eutropia and renamed itself as Linvarre—visitors from Avistan may delight in its Grogrisant lion dances or pick up a few words of its national language of Taltien. Journey the perilous Valashmai Jungle and find your way upon the Valash Raj, flourishing among the ruins shattered by giant beasts and monsters. The World Guide will lead you through these nations and more before giving GMs a bestiary containing the continent’s monsters, from the ferocious, four-horned aoyin to the aristocrat-eating yeongno.

After finding a nation or city that sparks your interest in the World Guide, it’s only natural to want to make a character from there! The Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide will introduce new rules options to bring your characters to life! The book will contain six brand-new ancestries and numerous backgrounds to provide the seeds for new PCs. You’ll also find expanded heritages and feats for existing ancestries that might be more common in Tian Xia than in other areas, like the peachchild leshy heritage, which might have come from a fruit that floated down a river, or the bakuwa lizardfolk heritage, possibly responsible for eclipses over Minata when they eat the moon! The book also contains numerous character options to flesh out Tian adventurers, whether that’s skill feats to prepare elemental Tian medicine or a new magus hybrid study that lets you leap weightlessly through the air with your cultivated magic, before your sword strikes home.

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Jeff McAleer

Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...