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.
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.
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😂
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.
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.
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 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.
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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!
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
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....
@@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.
Rakshasa: One of things that can cause a zeal-off between the Paladin, Cleric, and Druid in the party. Thanks for the video.
Omg i just wanted to say thank you so much for this video. i love rakshasa. I'm glad i got to see this one before my deployment.
Hey, you're so welcome! I hope I do them justice here. 🙂
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.
My pleasure!
Just in time! Super excited to use them in Curse of the Crimson Throne.
Yes!!! They are sooo cool in that AP! You will have a great time
That chapter, and AP, is so much fun!
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.
They are totally combo videos! Get some creatures and some new demigods all in one
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.
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😂
Well remaster is doing away with alignments, so... evil is now in the eye of the beholder!
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.
You'll have a great time tomorrow ;-)
I love all Mythkeeper videos, and Rakshasa are one of my favorite fiends to use. Great video!
Thank you, and they are among my favorites as well 🙂
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.
Hey welcome to the channel! Glad you’ve found something fun in my detailed diatribes!
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
Yeah, eventually I'll do a "lore patch" video that tries to collect all the lore changes in one place.
I was planning on using rakshasa in my campaign but this gave me SOOO many ideas to go with it! Thank you kindly good sir
You're very welcome! Glad you've found it useful for your games 🙂
Really enjoyed this background.
Also using Windgrace (from mtg) as the photo for Jyota was appropriate, but a bit of a whiplash due to Windgrace being a bit of a NG hero in MTG lore.
@@46jerdboy Yeah, appropriate picture visually, not so much in temperament
This is amazing ! A video for which I have long awaited !
Glad to hear it! Hope it lives up to your expectations!
Paizo made rakshasa ms much more interesting
Agree :-)
The pimp cat, who now with the remaster can punish re-rolls
Top tier as always. These are definitely way more varied and in depth than I gave them credit for! Shout out to MythKeeper for the wonderful coverage.
Thank you for the kind words
Thank you for this. I have one running the criminal underworld in my campaign.
The perfect place for a Rakshasa to be ;-)
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.
Nice! Glad to see my channel is reaching all sorts!
A girl: Ilyn Payne, Joffrey Baratheon, Cercei Lannister, Tywin Lannister..."
Surpa: " That's adorable! Granted!" 18:52
Haha! That's right. Surpa has many names ;-)
Nice video.
I would like to see something about the Heralds from The pathfinder gods. And how to adapt Them for 2ed.
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!
Vudra sounds magical. Thank you ✨🙏🏽✨
I'm going to round out a few more Inner Sea nations first, but some Casmaron and Tian Xia content coming in the not too distant future now!
Absolutely banger video as always 🔥🔥
Appreciate it!!
got to save this for tomorrow but this is going to be good, soon it will be oni time
Getting closer all the time
I've been waitin' on this one - my favorite creature/faction to run
One of all my time faves too ;-)
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?
It’s from the Lost Omens: Impossible Lands source book!
That was great, thx for the video!
You bet!
Ill like to request skelm
Wow this is an awesome faction….nice work
Thank you!
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.
Always enjoy your content. Very nice to get this one today, and excellent information about Vudra as well.
Hopefully more Vudra content coming soon
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.
I will eventually do a "lore update" video with all the lore changes between editions, but I need to wait longer for all of that to settle
great job! thanks for this information!
My pleasure!
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.
That's definitely something I'm planning, and now its not too far away.
I'd really like to see a video or videos on the Iconics. I think that'd be a really cool thing to explore
I will see what I can do ;-)
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.
👏👏👏
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.
Positive comment
Positive reply
I am curious, do you have any plans to cover the lore changes that has come with the Remaster? With a multipart series, or long feature?
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.
@@TheMythkeeper Making at least a primer is likely a good idea.
Good video overall, rakshasa are one of my favorite friends. I am curious though, why skip some of the rakshasa breeds?
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.
@@TheMythkeeper Fair enough. Like I said earlier, still a great video
Would you consider doing some of the lesser known races like the Iruxi?
My friend - ua-cam.com/video/6FghaBXCiPM/v-deo.html ;-)
@@TheMythkeeper fantastic! Thank you!
So if i was a cleric focused on Vermin, mostly rats, what diety would i worship in PF pantheon? Lamashu? and if were talking a non evil one?
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
Where do you get all your lore from? Are there any story books I haven't been able to find because the wiki is quite barebones most often
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.
@@TheMythkeeper ah figures, I've only dmed 2 p2e adventures. Do you have a favourite pathfinder adventure path?
@@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
Rakshasa are great schemer villains! also Vudra episode soon?
Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to round out a few Inner Sea nations first, but some Casmaron and Tian Xia content coming in the not too distant future!
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!
Just deal with the ones relevant to your story and your players!
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
Hah! Thanks for sharing
I wonder if a Raja Rakshasa would impersonate an agathion to better lead mortals astray, since both can have animal like appearances?
That sounds like a great plan for a cunning rakshasa
Bunda in portuguese means "ass" so I was taken by surprise by hearing it all of a sudden
Oof, Pharasma is not going to be happy about this…
Haha, no she's not, but she has her hands full with all those undead types running around.
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....
@@CooperativeWaffles I like this
Hudima AKA Jetni the Giant?
Haha! Yeah, her alter ego ;-)
@@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.
It seems this method of immortality is the same path as the ghouls and ghast, just that ghouls and ghast botched the process.
That could well be the case actually!
Casmoran desperately needs its own lore book from Paizo.
I have a Qadira video coming up soon that will scratch that Casmaron lore itch you’re feeling. Stay tuned ;-)
That thumbnail, Rakshasa or Pimpshasa?
Por qué no los dos?
So much of this art is missing the backwards hands.
They are shapeshifters so their hands don’t always have to backwards ;-)
Cat man with a human harem?