Pathfinder Chronicles - Gazetteer - Asamnet

Pathfinder Chronicles
22
Gazetteer of Nations
The vast oceans of Golarion crash upon the shores
of eight continents. The smallest of these, Sarusan,
lies far from trade winds in the trackless sea and
thus remains unknown to most modern cultures, halfrecalled
in oral traditions or hidden away in the lost
literature of dead civilizations. The largest continent in
the world is Casmaron, an ocean-sized mass straddling
the planet’s northern hemisphere. Nomadic horse-tribes
span the wild central steppes, forming a buffer between
the desert empire of Kelesh and its opportunistic satrapy
states in the west and the expansionist monarchs of
the mahajanapadas of Vudra—the storied Impossible
Kingdoms of the distant east.
West of Kelesh, past the treacherous World’s Edge
Mountains, Casmaron expands into an immense
peninsula called Avistan. From devil-guided Cheliax
to the ancient kingdom of Taldor to the elven forests of
Kyonin, Avistan is a diverse land built upon the ruins of
countless lost civilizations. Perhaps the greatest of these
sites are found in the frontierlands of Varisia, remnants
of the ancient Runelords of Thassilon, contemporaries
of Old Azlant who perished in the same catastrophe.
South of Avistan, across the volatile tradeways of the
Inner Sea, lies Garund, seat of the pharaohs of Osirion and
home of the cutthroat markets of Katapesh, the unmapped
jungles of the Mwangi Expanse, and the magic-blasted
warplands between Nex and Geb. Along the continent’s west
coast whirls the Eye of Abendego, a catastrophic reminder
of the apocalypse-storms that ravaged Golarion for weeks
following the death of Aroden. A legion of pirates based in
the Shackle Isles uses the permanent hurricane as a refuge
from which to launch attacks on the world’s sea lanes.
The bravest pirate captains abandon the coastlines of
the civilized world and set off across the sea in search of
completely uncharted waters. A thousand miles west of the
Arch of Aroden is a nightmare maze of jutting cliffs, twisted
tors, and jagged channels that once formed the proud island
continent-kingdom of Azlant, first of the great human