Let Loose Your Imagination! Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia Character Guide Reviewed

Sami YuhasAug 27, 2024

Title: Pathfinder Lost Omens – Tian Xia Character Guide

Authors: Eren Ahn, Jeremy Blum, Logan Bonner, Alyx Bui, James Case, Banana Chan, Rick Chia, Hiromi Cota, Dana Ebert, Eleanor Ferron, Basheer Ghouse, John Godek III, Sen H.H.S., Joan Hong, Daniel Kwan, Jacky Leung, Jesse J. Leung, Monte Lin, Jessie “Aki” Lo, Adam Ma, Ashley Moni, Collette Quach, Christopher Rondeau, Joaquin Kyle “Makapatag” Saavedra, Michael Sayre, Shahreena Shahrani, Kienna Shaw, Philip Shen, Tan Shao Han, Mari Tokuda, Ruvaid Virk, Viditya Voleti, Grady Wang, and Jay Zhang

Artists: Ekaterina Gordeeva, Mylene Bertrand, Yanis Cardin, Nicholas DeLuca, Fabio Gorla, Sammy Khalid, Vira Linevych, Paulo Magalhães, Alexander Nanitchkov, Guilherme Nery, Arthur Oliveira, and Sandra Posada

Year: 2024

Genre: Player facing character options book for the Tian Xia region of the Pathfinder roleplaying game

Pages: 136 pages

MSRP: Hardcover $47.49 or $29.99 in PDF

With the cultural and historical overview covered by the Tian Xia World Guide, it’s time to take a deep dive into its peoples with the Tian Xia Character Guide.

The Tian Xia Character Guide takes multiple identifiable inspirations from real world cultures. Rather than feel like gross appropriation, however, the source materials have been treated with care and respectfully integrated. Professions like silk farmer, acupuncturist, and eagle hunter are intimately tied to the current and historical realities of various east Asian peoples; their inclusion as character options recognizes and venerates that fact. Likewise, the inclusion of imagery directly lifted from actual cultures, such as the prayer wheel, feels rooted in honest homage rather than performative Orientalism.

Both the World Guide and the Character Guide have taken care to enshrine the message that players should approach playing Tian Xian characters as fully-embodied people, rather than preconceived stereotypes that tend to accompany Asian and Asian-inspired media in the west. While never heavy handed or pedantic, the message is clear: yellow face is not welcome here. Given that this is a Paizo product, that’s hardly a surprise, but it’s still good to see.

The importance of nuance appears throughout the Character Guide, even in more subtle ways. For example, when describing how different professions are perceived, the text acknowledges the importance of individual context, circumstance, and history, refusing to engage in the reduction of any group into an easily digested monolith. The writing team has even gone so far as to note the differences in view among the Asian diasporas and the native populations in their respective origin nations, highlighting something that may or may not be front of mind for readers. The book’s art also takes care to subtly reinforce this message. The human denizens of Tian Xia are shown to be as ethnically diverse as the real people who inhabit eastern Asia – there is no single “Tian Xian” look.

In addition to character options, the guide also provides further grounding the cultural impacts of Tian Xia’s unique connections and beliefs. With the re-emergence of the planes of Wood and Metal, the understanding of the elements forged through Tian Xia’s elemental cycle leaves its scholars and philosophers perhaps the best prepared in all of Golarion to interact with these energies. These insights deepen and enrich the setting for everyone at the table, players and GMs alike. The book is an excellent resource for those interested in crafting or playing campaigns within the setting, as well as being a standout example of how to riff off of reality in a way that doesn’t feel exploitative.

It’s important to note, the pricing for this volume seems quite out of step with the page count. Fewer than 140 pages for nearly $50.00 is not a trend most gamers want to see continuing from Paizo. Even though this is a great player facing volume its pricing is extremely steep.

The Tian Xia Character Guide is also just plain old fun to read through. The world lives and breathes and the team has done a wonderful job of conveying that. The accompanying art is warm and wonderful and it’s a treat to see how inspiration has transmuted the real into the fantastical. It is a book meant to provoke the imagination and it does so with aplomb. Even for gamers on the fence about the setting, the Tian Xia Character Guide is a worthy addition to any Pathfinder library albeit a rather expensive one.

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Sami Yuhas

Writer, gamer, and necromancer bard (at least in D&D). Sami focuses primarily on board and tabletop gaming, with a focus on sci-fi and fantasy, as well as worker-placements and co-op titles. She prides herself on the ability to overthink world building in games, and cites a three post manifesto on the costuming of XCOM 2 as among her greatest nerd achievements.