I never knew Rakshasa were that interesting in the Pathfinder cosmos, I love them! Thanks for the awesome video. I definitely have to use them in the future.
I don't even play anything Pathfinder or TTRPGS. I've looked through PF lore books and have always been intrigued. I discovered your channel a couple weeks ago and been binging. Thanks for all you do. Looking forward to watching everything eventually.
im not gona lie, im not afraid to admit it. i see the thumbnail and i click, then around min 7 i kinda zoned out and knocked the fuck out. good video keep up the good work. P.S. tomorrow ill be playing my very first pathfinder game & TTRPG game. very excited about it.
Thank you for another great summary! Is all of this lore up to date with the remaster? I'd heard a rumor that the backwards hands hadn't survived Monster Core but hadn't bothered to confirm
The source material here was primarily 1E sources. I think there have been some minor lore changes (like the backwards hands thing) but this should still be mostly accurate.
I think it would be cool if you did a Heavy Spoilers series, where you walk through the stories of 1-shot Adventures, Adventure Paths, and Pathfinder Society seasons. There are so many that I will never get to play through, but would love to know about.
Thanks for the video! There was a lot to get interested in for it's length. The linked souls/reincarnation idea is neat, the characters are interesting, and I kind of like (in an academic sense, not ethical) the idea of forgoing worship as a source of power in favor of direct consumption. I found Otikaya the most darkly amusing in that he splits himself into 1,000 clones because he wants to do as much evil in as many places as he can manage. When you really want to murder but just can't pick who needs to die the most... Are there details on what point the reincarnation occurs - i.e. do Rakshasas ever get to the Boneyard and get judged by Pharasma or do they hit the afterlife and dip before then? This seems like yet another way mortals subvert/avoid the natural order of things. All I can say is: given all the creatures you've detailed who work against the natural order of things (undead, scavengers on the River of Souls, now Rakshasas and so on) an average Psychopomp's day must be very busy indeed. It's a good thing most of them have wings because they probably have to be everywhere at freaking once with all the rule breaking going on :)
Hey, thanks for the support as always!!! No specifics that I could find on the lifecycle of a soul for a Rakshasa but I think we can extrapolate a little. If I had to guess I'd say that the soul untethers from the body and enters the astral plane on death, but doesn't enter the river of souls. This is similar to what happens to mournful ghosts who refuse to move on. But where ghosts remained tied to their place of death a Rakshasa will seek out a new baby to reincarnate into. I think this could even be the hostile take-over of new soul stuff pulled from forge of creation. I also think the Raksahsa's soul is so powerful that it can probably be born into an animal (it won't need a human host) and it will grow to maturity very quickly and rapidly reacquires its old skills and memories. Recall that Surpa the vengeful killed all of the men that killed her only months after her death, so the reincarnation process can be shockingly swift. (She's also an Immortal... so maybe time varies between lives.) But this is speculation. Exact details are not provided on this. Someone trying to permanently kill a Raksasha would need to bind and destroy their soul. Not an easy feat.
@@TheMythKeeper Thanks for your thoughts on that :) It reminds me a bit of the Star Wars meme that "Somehow, Palpatine returned" and it would probably feel like that to PC's that didn't have access to detailed Rakshasa lore. Definitely potential there for a campaign-long thorn in the party's sides until they are strong enough to take the steps you mentioned.
In pretty much every fiend video I've done I've ended up skipping some breeds. Partly this is because as a living world, they are _constantly_ adding new breeds to the various known fiends and its impossible to be completely exhaustive, but partly its to control video length and repetitiveness. For whatever reason when scripting this video I must have decided this was the most discrete set.
These religion guides may actually be my favourite series on the channel, and rakshasa in particular are always a personal favourite! Though I also tend to think that rakshasa would be rather well suited to being used as a more neutral type of outsider (similar to the myths they're based on). I suppose you could lead to some interesting stories there if you have these beings, good and bad, that just reincarnate again and again... Well, maybe it's time for some worldbuilding for my homebrew setting again😂
What I love most about the religion series is that they’re also kind of creature features, since you discuss all of these monsters in addition to deities (at least since you got into doing the demigods and the Outsiders). Rakshasas almost seem like they shouldn’t be considered “Outsiders” since they’re strictly natives of the material universe. But they are technically post-mortal entities, so I guess they count. Whatever, they’re compelling, near-invincible bad guys, with the addition of the “Renouncer” caste to add some complexity to them overall and possibly making for some interesting allies or employers for PCs.
That works for me! Especially since one of my favorite homebrew worlds (of which I have too many; what the heck is wrong with me?) is one governed by the many Pathfinder demigods rather than “true” gods (except Sarenrae who is still counted among the Empyreal Lords in this setting). So, learning more about the various pantheons of demigods is always extra nice for me.
AmT¹.... Pharasma places them amongst vampires and First World beings. Psychopomps won't miss the chance to bring their essence into the River of Souls yet this never goes above their current task's priority. ￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣ ¹At my Table....
There are innumerable options here. Start with the non-mechanical things first - where are they from, what’s their background, how’d they find their way to the faith. The choice of deity can flow from there
That's a _great_ video concept. Pretty much all of the gods have a Herald, and all of them are unique and interesting in their own ways. Haha! There is not enough time in the world for all these videos!
With the remaster happening, will you make a seperate video for all the changed lore once it's done? For example, I think they gave rakshasas normal hands and made them into unholy spirits that are the incarnation of evil. Not to mention the whole cosmology renames.
Mighty Mythkeeper, any chance of a video specifically on the Cyclops and their magic, items, history, and great works? My Wizard needs more secret lore on the old magic.
I would suggest my Western Mwangi Expanse video (for the history of the Ghol-gan Empire), my Northeast Avistan video (for the Koloran Empire) and my Giants Creature Feature (for general cyclops stuff) for now. I've actually talked about the cyclops a lot now in my various videos, so I think it will probably be a while before I decide to do just a cyclops video, but who knows, as I exhaust subjects I may do this. I do love me some Ghol-gan.
This might be completely random but I want you to know that currently there is a "DND Monster Smash or Pass" happening on Tumblr (I know the video is for pathfinder, but there's a lot of overlap) and Rakshasa are winning. So this video coming out now is very funny haha
I am at a loss how any GM can run a game world populated with over 100 active divinity, each meddling in the world often and brazenly. I envy those GMs who can!
Great video. Rakshasas are one on my favorite monsters in Pathfinder. I just how deceptive and and cunning they are. Really additions to intirgue-heavy campaigns. Also, I love the art of the tiefling with the tiger fur on her red dress. The one at around 6:35 of this video where you were talking about the paradeshi. Where did you find the art?
Great video! Thanks for all you do. I don’t know if this is a thing people have asked for or if it is something you would do but a video on all the name changes due to the remaster would be a nice video
I was originally planning to do this, although what I've discovered is that most of the lore changes are cosmetic - like name changes and so on - and very little of the old lore is gone, its just been reworked slightly. That makes it a pretty difficult video to make, but its in the backlog to be worked on. I think it probably won't be a 2024 video - put it that way - but it may be something I do once Remaster has a bit of mileage on it.
When Pathfinder releases Adventure Paths the will often also include a deep dive look at some creature type or another relevant to that AP. Rakshasa for example get an article in both Curse of the Crimson Throne and War for the Crown. The Immortals are also discussed in the Book of the Damned linked in the video description. Rakshasa are also discussed in the Lost Omens: Impossible Lands guide as well. Essentially I'm pulling together content from 6-7 sources for a video like this.
@@sjoerddz don’t ask me to pick between my babies! I like them all! I don’t know what my fave is but Skull & Shackles (1E) was the most fun I think I’ve ever had as a GM
@@TheMythKeeper genuinely though did you just use the art from Raid for Jetni and Venomage because they fit the vibe and look cool, or is this another example of Raid taking/buying images of characters from other IPs? They use Nott the Brave's character art for the common champ Ranger's portrait, for example.
I love my Rakshsas. While I don't use the Pathfinder lore in my DnD campaign, admittedly a rarity, I do enjoy it. The current big bad of my campaign is a Rakshasa, so it's always exciting to see them covered.
This is another great video. I'm really curious how you're going to handle the new monster core and the changes that various monsters have gone through? Rakshasa have been changed quite a bit in their overall lore, with Hags and Dragons also having gone through a pretty intense change themselves.
Not sure yet but I think probably a "lore patch" video, where I summarize all the major lore changes in one single video. I can't imagine remaking all of these.
@@TheMythKeeper that makes the most sense I think. The dragons might warrant their own video at most, but otherwise, a lore patch video for everything else sees reasonable. I'd certainly enjoy seeing yhe new lore compared to the old stuff.
