Editing Golarion (section)

==Other Planets and Planes==
Being that Golarion could only carry off as much D&D loot as OGL permitted, one of the things they had to do for themselves was come up with their own distinctive [[multiverse]]. The result was the [[Great Beyond]], which largely imitates the [[Great Wheel]] as closely as possible, but changes around a few planar concepts to avoid being sued. Which the Beyond does by stealing from the ''also''-proprietary [[World Axis]]: the First World, a [[Plane of Faerie]], was added in as a major component to the Great Beyond, mirroring the [[Feywild]], whilst the Beyond's [[Outer Plane]] of True Neutral is the [[Boneyard]] of [[Pharasma]], which functions as a sorting house for the spirits of the multiverse's dead, ala the [[Shadowfell]], rather than as glorified [[Transitive Plane]] (and dumping ground) like the [[Outlands]]. Great going, lads.

[[File:Golarion solar system.jpg|frameless|right|The Solar System. If one planet and multiverse isn't enough adventures for you.]]

One big change that Golarion made, referencing its drawing heavily from the [[Science Fantasy]] and [[Sword & Sorcery]] traditions, was the addition of other inhabitable planets to the solar system and intergrating these into its setting lore. This wasn't unprecedented, both [[Greyhawk]] and the [[Forgotten Realms]] had done this before, but the fact there were other planets in the solar system was generally ignored unless you were playing [[Spelljammer]]. The Solar System is given full attention in Pathfinder's Sci-Fi spin-off [[Starfinder]], although in that game a lot of things have changed since it's set in the far future of the setting.

Golarion's solar system features eleven planets (including Golarion itself) and an asteroid belt, and starting from the sun, they go like this:
* Aballon, the Horse - On the face (heh) of it this system's Mercury but really its ''Vulcan''. That's the scorched and lifeless pseudoplanet which Einstein's General Relativity removed from consideration but may still lurk in old pulp fiction. This one nevertheless houses ancient ruins because pulp.
* Castrovel, the Green Planet - Pulp Venus; hot, tropical jungles and swamps. Home planet of the [[Lashunta]]; pulp-styled [[elf]]-women and [[dwarf]]-men. Also, the ''actual'' Elves! 
* Golarion - Have you even been [[derp|paying attention]]?? In this context is detailed its moon, which has been terraformed... by ''demons''.
* Akiton, the Red Planet - Pulp Mars(particularly the ''John Carter'' series); a cold, arid world of red deserts, inhabited by tribes of four-armed lesser giants called [[Shobhad]]-neh, [[lizardfolk]], red-skinned Humans, and technologically advanced [[ratfolk]] called the [[Ysoki]].
* Verces, the Line - Pulp Mercury. Tidally locked planet, meaning one side burns under perpetual day and the other freezes under perpetual night, with life being confined to the inhabitable twilight zone of the equator. You know and I know that Mercury rotates in a 3:2 resonance, but Isaac Asimov didn't know. That's how much our knowledge has improved since WW2. Anyway Aballon is taking on ''modern'' Mercury's role, so Paizo has moved Verces out here about where Vesta would be.
* The Diaspora - The asteroid belt. The asteroids are boring; the ''space'' is being used for Verces and Eox.
* Eox, the Dead Planet - Ceres, sort of. Home to the remnants of an ancient [[magocracy]] that survived a magical war that went so apocalyptic it blew off the planet's atmosphere by converting themselves into sapient undead. Here the stories about "Damocles" or "Minerva": the Titus-Bode Law predicted something between Mars and Jupiter, but all we got were shattered rocks, so the pulps imagined a cosmic act of destruction.
* Triaxus, the Wanderer - Hey, kids; ever wanted to live on a comet? Or have you read Brian Aldiss' ''Helliconia'' series? Triaxus runs on an irregular and elliptical orbit, which gives it centuries-long and climatically extreme summers and winters. Its native humanoids, the Triaxians (later called [[Ryphorian]]s), thusly have a trimorphic nature, being born as distinctive subspecies depending on which part of the orbit cycle they are born in. The other notable inhabitants are Dragons, Not only the usual Chromatic and Metallic versions, but also [[Dragonkin]], Horse-sized dragons that form telepathic bonds with humanoids that they allow to ride them. 
* Liavara, the Dreamer - A Saturn-esque colorful and many-ringed gas giant.
* Bretheda, the Cradle - Largest planet in the system, and abounding in native life on its moons.
* Apostae, the Messenger - Based on ... well, we don't even know. In ancient times this planet wasn't there; it was captured by the Sun's orbit. (Here in our real solar-system we weren't aware of captured extrasolar objects at the time this fantasy book was published, although SF authors like Alastair Reynolds and "James Corey" had made hay with the concept. Nowadays, ''cf.'' Namouni / Morais "high-inclination Centaurs".) While it looks like a lifeless rock from outside, it is filled with arches with portals to other planets, and it's rumored to have unactivated portal to other solar systems, left by a mysterious civilization to younger ones to discover. The other thing are massive metal doors on its surface, unbeknownst to the rest of the worlds, inside there is an entire civilization of aliens known as the Ileee, with their owns societies and tribes. On the forbidden core of Apostae is the truth: The Worldheart, a massive engine operated by an AI that keeps the planet inhabitable, revealing that the "planet" is actually a spaceship and the Ilee are its crewmen, forgetting their ancient purpose.
* Aucturn, the Stranger - Yuggoth aka pulp-Pluto. A mysterious planet with a very strange orbit. What is even more strange is that the planet's appearance is seemingly inconsistent for different observers: some see a variation in size, others see that sometimes is a lifeless rock and others see a poisonous atmosphere covering the planet in clouds, but most agree is roughly twice the size of Golarion. People who stay long enough on/in the planet realize it's ''alive'', some theorizing it is an egg of an unborn Great Old One. It is inhabited by strange beasts and cults worshippers of the [[Cthulhu Mythos|Dark Tapestry]]. It comes remarkably close to Golarion for a period of 4 months every 56 years, during which time Golarion's elements and [[elemental]]s start acting strangely. Back in Lovecraft's day everyone thought Pluto was knocking the Neptune / Uranus orbits. Nowadays, some of us bide our time for "Planet Nine"... hoping to be eaten first.