Late in this age, mortals and deities alike were shocked when the Whispering Tyrant (technically a mortal undead and certainly not a god) killed Arazni. Never before had a god been slain by mortal hand, and the gods realized they were more vulnerable than evey they had feared.
Many drew together to create the mantis god Achaekek to protect them from such threats, but for most deities, the solution was more simple—they chose to only act through emissaries thereafter, limiting their appearances to visions and images rather than actual manifestatio
Nearly a thousand years ago, the herald of Aroden was the warrior-demigoddess Arazni, patron saint of Lastwall’s Knights of Ozem and a fierce combatant.
In a great battle against Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant, the Knights summoned her to champion them. The lich turned out to be far more powerful than any had thought, and when he eventually caught her, he toyed with her for days before snuffing out her life and hurling her broken body into the opposing army
Demoralized, the Knights entombed her in their citadel. Decades later, the wizard-king Geb stole her corpse and reanimated her as a lich, seeing her as the only creature worthy of being his bride.
Now known as the Harlot Queen, she is cut off from her former divine power and cannot hear mortal prayers, though some in Geb pray to her as an intermediary to Urgathoa.
With Iomedae taking her place as Aroden’s herald and then ultimately succeeding Aroden himself, there remains very little in modern times to connect the Harlot Queen with her former glory as the Red Crusader, and only the Knights of Ozem still bear a grudge over her ultimate fate.
The faiths of Golarion have created many magic items to aid the efforts of their churches; these are but a sample of them. All of these have at least one power usable by anyone who owns the object (these powers are listed first) as well as other powers that only work in the hands of a member of the correct church.
Because none of these items require a particular religion to make them, it is possible for anyone with the appropriate item creation feat to “retune” an item for a different deity or even no deity at all.
Most religious folk frown at the idea of repurposing their church’s holy magic items, but dead religions have little say in the matter (in fact, Iomedae’s followers have been quietly altering items keyed to Aroden or Arazni for some time).
Though Aroden had long since ceased to fight his followers’ battles for them, he did send his herald Arazni, summoned by the Knights of Ozem during the long siege.
For half a decade she led his forces, yet it seems that Aroden underestimated his opponent. In a brutal display, the Whispering Tyrant humiliated and slaughtered Arazni, shaking many crusaders’ faiths to the core and extending the conflict another 5 years.
In the end, it was a mortal man—a general named Arnisant, bearing an artifact known as the Shield of Aroden—who succeeded in weakening the lich enough to imprison him beneath his tower of Gallowspire, where he resides to this day.
Though now ruling the nation of Geb as the highest-profile lich still active in the Inner Sea region, Arazni began her existence on a very different path. A thousand years ago, the woman today known as the Harlot Queen was Arazni, the Red Crusader, chosen herald of Aroden and patron saint of Lastwall’s Knights of Ozem.
A fearsome combatant, the warrior-demigoddess descended to Golarion as a champion of the warriors of light during the last days of the Shining Crusade, only to be humiliated and tortured to death by the Whispering Tyrant.
When he finally tossed her broken frame into the disheartened ranks of the invading army, the demoralized knights carried her body back to Lastwall and entombed her in their citadel.
There she rested in honor and sad glory for decades, before suffering even further indignity.
In punishment for a severely miscalculated attempt by the grandchildren of the original Knights of Ozem to purge Golarion of his own undead presence, the great ghost-wizard Geb reanimated several foolish crusaders as grave knights and sent them back to Lastwall to steal the herald’s body.
Using his extensive arcane knowledge, the undead lord reanimated the slain herald as a lich and took her as his Harlot Queen. Over the centuries, his whispers and urgings gradually turned the risen Arazni against her former followers, and particularly her successor Iomedae, until at last there was nothing left of her former personality.
Today, the Harlot Queen rules Geb cruelly and willingly from the throne in Mechitar, leaving the ghost-king free to pursue his contemplations and studies. Enjoying her station, Arazni handles all political matters, acting as the symbolic face of the nation.
She is attended by the same graveknights who “rescued” her, save for two who were put down by subsequent secret raids from the remaining Knights of Ozem. The knights claim that organs removed from Arazni while she lay entombed and kept to serve as relics still hold some control over her, but none have been used to any significant extent.
If the knights could unlock these supposed powers, perhaps they would become a true threat to the Harlot Queen, and thus she quietly does everything she can to locate and destroy them.
Yet for all their bluster, the forces in Lastwall and beyond have learned their lesson about challenging the chosen bride of Geb, and those who make the attempt do so knowing it for the suicide mission it is.
同樣是2011年的出版品,敘述上特別強調Arazni被腐化到以前的人格蕩然無存,從而 「rules Geb cruelly and willingly from the throne in Mechitar, leaving the ghost-king free to pursue his contemplations and studies.」,樂意於殘酷地享受她在蓋布的政治地位。和《暴君之握》中強調近代她試圖逃家多次但都被抓回的記述形成顯著對比。
此外這本書也特別提到阿拉茲妮是在Knights of Ozem的「long siege」期間被召喚,替這群騎士為何用魔法束縛她們的主保神做出了背景上的補充。
Over a year later, the knights returned to Vigil. Yet, rather than entering the city as heroes, they devastated the city, besieging the monument holding the body of Arazni.
Few of the mausoleum's defenders survived, with those who did telling of the black-clad corpses that were all that remained of the knights sent to Geb. The six vanished back into the dark, returning to their new master.
Refusing to give up their fallen heroes so easily, a contingent of knights marched to Geb. What they found shocked them. Arazni had been defiled, her body wrapped in the gowns of a princess of Geb and reanimated as a undead terror.
The knights attempted to destroy the newly risen abomination, but found their six brethren, reanimated as graveknights, standing in their new queen's defense.
Those few knights who returned to Vigil in subsequent months carried with them a tale of horrors, warnings never to return to Geb, and four crimson jars, each with one of Arazni's still-living organs pulsing within.
Arazni was once a demigod and herald to Aroden. As the Red Crusader, she rode into battle during the Shining Crusade. Yet her bravery and might were of no avail against the Whispering Tyrant, who humiliated her before torturing her to death, throwing her broken form amid the ranks of her army to dishearten them.
But even in death Arazni found no comfort. She lay in rest only 67 years before the overzealous Knights of Ozem provoked the witch-king Geb, who raised some of the fallen knights as grave knights and sent them to bring Arazni's revered remains to him.
Not content with her corpse, he infused deathless vitality into her and bound her spirit up in her bones, making her his Harlot Queen. She rules still in his stead. Arazni's onetime disciples in the Knights of Ozem have resolved to lay her finally to rest.
Arazni's onetime disciples in the Knights of Ozem have resolved to lay her finally to rest. The knights possess the Bloodstones of Arazni (Patlifinder Campa(gn Settin13: Artifacts &'. Le13ends 13): four of her organs kept in funerary jars, which they recovered from Geb.
Few souls on Golarion experienced Tar-Baphon’s arrogance and entitlement to the same horrifying degree as the warrior-goddess Arazni. Summoned by the Knights of Ozem to lead their war, tortured and slain by the Whispering Tyrant, and finally stolen away in response to Lastwall’s provocation of Geb and transformed into a trophy queen for its ghost king,
Arazni has lingered in rage and misery for nearly a millennium.
Forced to become a literal monster when Geb transformed her into a lich without her consent, Arazni harnessed and honed that which made her the holiest of heralds—her inimitable force of will and steadfast dedicat become the leader necessary to rule an undead nation.
While yearning for isolation, rage has forced her into breathtaking tyranny over the nation of Geb, which she administers in the absence of her forced husband. This anger drives her to excel and prove herself a better sovereign than the monster Geb could fathom.
But still, the graveknight attendants Geb set to observe her attend to her closely, bind her to her duty, and drag her back to Geb when she tries to flee the nation. Bound from raising her hand against the graveknights, and with her phylactery deliberately concealed and warded from her, Arazni is as much a prisoner as her murderer.
Even centuries later, Arazni still hears the whispers of Tar-Baphon in her mind—whispers that feed her rage and self-loathing. But now something alien stirs in her mind: hope. Not her own hope—a wretched, hateful thing she strangled an eon ago—but Tar-Baphon’s hope, felt through their tenuous psychic communion.
Those who manipulated and abused Arazni have long lingered beyond her reach. Aroden, who Arazni believes abandoned her when he hid away from the world, is now dead. Geb himself hides away and guards his timid, ethereal form behind magical wards. And Tar-Baphon has lain sealed deep in the earth—until now.
Arazni is currently the Whispering Tyrant’s greatest foe, and she is working hard to keep her involvement a secret from him, for now. Overall, the events of the Tyrant’s Grasp Adventure Path are as much about Arazni as they are about Tar-Baphon.
Abandoned by her god, failed by her crusaders, and censured for the abuses heaped upon her by those who once fought by her side, Arazni remains an inconvenient shame to a land that would eagerly sweep her under the rug.
As the queen of Geb, her influence and power allow her to refuse to be forgotten, no matter what others might wish. She rules her nation with a skillful hand even though her rule invites further insult and she is hailed by citizens as “the Harlot Queen,” as if she were complicit in her own imprisonment.
Arazni bears every indignity with a strength born of contempt, picking herself up after each humiliation and refusing to let anyone know they had the power to hurt her. No matter what is done to her or what she is forced to become, she still owns her anger—the one piece of her that can never be corrupted or stolen.
The PCs might not be willing to speak with Arazni and might even try to attack her; if so, she sadly intones, “I, too, have difficulty trusting people,” and flees by casting a quickened dimension door.
補充一下,雖然2008的書寫到阿拉茲妮的死亡導致諸神決定創造Achaekek(Many drew together to create the mantis god Achaekek to protect them from such threats) 但2019年發表的〈風歌聖約:法拉茲瑪三懼事〉是把Achaekek列為創世時首批出現的八位神靈之一。