Respect for the Past, Eyes on the Future!

Friday, December 1, 2017

When setting out to write Taldor, The First Empire, I found myself presented with a circumstance unlike any that I had previously undertaken: round up everything we've ever said about the nation of Taldor in the 10 years the Pathfinder campaign setting has been around, put all of that into a single cohesive document, make sure it's exciting and inspirational for readers, and lay the groundwork for a Pathfinder Adventure Path campaign that will take place entirely within the nation and deal with the inner workings of its government and long history. But if anyone could do it, I told myself in true Taldan fashion, it was me. Right?

The first major challenge was determining what tone we wanted to present Taldor with going forward, in part because we've been less than consistent on it in the past. Some sources made it out to be more like the Byzantine Empire, complete with laws dictating who could have a beard, while other sources described the court of Louis XIV, with nobles so incompetent that they couldn't even spell their own names correctly. The problem isn't with either presentation, but rather with the fact that there are a lot of fans of both sides of Taldor.

I spent much of PaizoCon 2017 chatting with the community about what they wanted out of the book, what they liked about Taldor, and what never seemed to make sense to them. The development team held a series of meetings wherein we broke down our own views of the nation and what we needed from it in the future, from NPCs, locations, and events to seed into the campaign setting for forthcoming adventures to even larger meta-plots. Then I took all of that and used it as a guideline when combing through the myriad bits we'd said about the Inner Sea's greatest nation to construct what would become the book itself.

Illustrations by Allison Theus, Mary Jane Pajaron, Raph Lomotan, and Katerina Kirillova

I'm incredibly proud of this book, and think the final result is one of the best entries in the illustrious Pathfinder Campaign Setting line. It will be headed to subscribers and game stores soon, and I look forward to hearing the what the community has to say. Check back next week, when I'll go over a few of the reasons why Taldor is the greatest nation in the Inner Sea, and enjoy these glorious illustrations as a preview of what Taldor, The First Empire has to offer.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager