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- Oct 16, 2024
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Welcome to Katapesh: The City of Endless Hungers
In the world of Golarion, where the fantastic is as commonplace as the sunrise and the mundane teeters on the edge of nightmare, Katapesh stands as a vibrant, intoxicating paradox. This ancient city, nestled in the far south, is a crucible of commerce and heresy, where the air hums with the promise of wealth and the peril of desire. Its skyline, a jagged dance of onion domes and minarets, shimmers through a haze of dust and incense, beckoning adventurers, merchants, and dreamers alike to its restless heart.A City Alive with Appetite
Katapesh is no mere city—it is a living, breathing entity, driven by an insatiable hunger for flesh, fortune, and power. Its streets pulse with the rhythm of trade, where every deal is a heartbeat, every sale a breath. The air is heavy with the scents of rosewater, saffron, and the metallic tang of freshly minted coin, weaving a sensory tapestry that captivates and overwhelms. Katapesh is a city of contrasts, divided into distinct districts, each with its own seductive allure and shadowed vice.- The Lower City: A gritty labyrinth where street children appraise gems with a glance and beggars trade secrets as freely as their own wounds. Here, the gutters run with brine and ambition, and survival demands a sharp eye and a sharper tongue.
- The Dawn Gate: A gleaming enclave of banking houses and shrines, where the devout worship a dual-faced goddess of profit and ruin. Merchants traverse bridges of glass and bone, their silks flowing like liquid heat, while altars burn with offerings of promissory notes and salted ledgers.
- The Outer Bazaar: A sprawling, chaotic maze of tents and shanties, cloaked in perpetual twilight. This is where Katapesh’s wild heart beats loudest, a cancerous sprawl of stalls and hawkers where every transaction is a gamble with fate.
The Lifeblood of Trade
Katapesh thrives on its relentless economy, a churning engine fueled by ambition and excess. The narcotic pesh, glowing saffron-bright, flows from the fields beyond the Pale Mountain, a deadly trade that binds the city’s soul. Slave markets hum with the fates of captives from distant lands—Tianese alchemists, Chelaxian gladiators, Osirian scribes—each life weighed and sold by the pound. In Katapesh, currency is more than gold; it is hope, fear, and the fleeting glint of desire in a buyer’s eye.Above it all, the Pactmasters rule with an unseen hand, their authority as silent as it is absolute. These enigmatic arbiters, never glimpsed but ever-present, maintain order through their enforcers, the Aluum—shadowy figures whose gaze cuts like a blade. Guildmasters and thieves alike bow to their will, knowing a single misstep could erase a fortune or a family. The city’s laws are few but ironclad: commerce is sacred, speech is free, and all debts, whether coin or blood, must be paid.
The Fleshfairs and Nightstalls
Katapesh’s darker desires find expression in the legendary Fleshfairs, spectacles of decadence where creatures mundane and mythic are displayed in cages of mythril and bone. Here, a gnoll pack-lord might barter for a dwarven concubine or wager on a duel between a changeling assassin and a Galtan executioner, each clash a bloody ballet of profit and loss. The air crackles with anticipation, drawing even the most jaded merchants into its electric embrace.Yet the true enigma lies in the Nightstalls, hidden markets that awaken under the second moon’s blue-black glow. By day, they pose as sellers of silks and spices, but by night, they unveil their forbidden wares: chained angels, undead scribes, smuggled unicorn horns. Entry is granted only to those deemed worthy by masked gatekeepers, who measure a customer’s value not in gold, but in the shadows of their soul. Here, every transaction is a descent into Katapesh’s deepest hungers.
A Crucible of Stories
Katapesh is a paradox, thriving in the tension between chaos and control, desire and discipline. The Pactmasters permit its excesses but prune them carefully, ensuring the city burns bright without consuming itself. Disputes are settled over tea or in shadowed back rooms, their outcomes rippling across continents. Every street corner hosts a drama—a pickpocket’s daring, a vendor’s boast, a whispered bargain at midnight.This is Katapesh: a city where every transaction is a wager with fate, and every life is shaped by the tides of intrigue and longing. Step into its streets, and you enter a crucible where dreams are forged into gold—or burned to ash. Welcome to Katapesh, where the story of your ambition begins, and the city itself is the greatest gamble of all.
Classes (pick one)
Conscript (spheres of might, highly customizable combatant)
Warrior of the Holy Light of Abadar (bruiser variant paladin)
Treasure Seeker (spheres of power, rogue with some casting)
Incanter (spheres of power, highly customizable magic user)
Tactical Leader of Abadar (Inquisitor Commander)
Mage Knight (spheres of power)
Devoted Disciple of Abadar (spheres of power, warpriest variant)
Companions: pick 4
Zara the Coin-Caller a Human Bard (Archaeologist archetype) – Support/utility caster.
Silas the Dust Whisperer a Human Ranger (Skirmisher archetype) – Versatile scout and archer.
Vesper the Shadow Broker a Human Rogue (Underground Chemist archetype) – Sneaky alchemical saboteur.
Garrick the Relentless Levy a Human Conscript (Spheres of Might) – Martial adaptable fighter.
Ronan the Dune Reaver a Human Barbarian (Armored Hulk archetype) – Martial heavy hitter.
Lira the Mercy Weaver a Human Arcanist (White Mage archetype) – Healing-focused arcane caster.
Elara the Mirage Mystic a Human Incanter (Spheres of Power) – a unique magical specialist.
Harlan the Lawkeeper a Human a Human Cleric of Abadar (Lawspeaker archetype) – Lawful support caster and enforcer.
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