As a result of the Pathfinder Remaster Project, past iterations of Pathfinder Second Edition books are getting a facelift. Part of the reason for this is to update spells, abilities, and terminology to coincide with the remastered lingo, but it also gives them a chance to make adjustments and enhance that content. Lost Omens Divine Mysteries takes the content of the original Lost Omens Gods and Magic and refreshes it for the remaster. Is Divine Mysteries good enough to warrant replacement of its predecessor? Let’s find out.
Lost Omens Divine Mysteries Overview
Written from the perspective of Yivali—a nosoi psychopomp who is essentially a scribe for Pharasma, Golarion’s resident Goddess of Birth and Death—Lost Omens: Divine Mysteries focuses on everything deific in the Pathfinder universe. The level of detail accomplished within these pages is staggering, considering that you won’t only be learning about the major, most well-known deities known as the Inner Sea Gods.
The entire first chapter is dedicated to musings and essays on faith and the divine, such as how to worship a dead god or how to ascend to godhood. I won’t say that these pages are necessarily common sense—because there are a variety of included historical examples to support the writing—but the meat of the book comes in the subsequent chapters.
Inner Sea Gods get the most love and attention with their multi-page spreads discussing their church, followers, divine intercessions and more. Again, most of this information has been rehashed countless times and there is plenty of published material on them already through previous works. Most players tend to gravitate towards these deities when creating characters.
What really interests me, however, are the remaining three chapters that provide an abundance of deities. Now, I can’t say for certain which ones of these are new to this book in particular, but this is certainly the definition of a one-stop-shop when it comes to Golarion’s divine suite. We even get insight into gods at a more granular scale like ones typically worshipped by giants or goblins.
Conducting a cursory spot search, it seems like most of these deities have already been introduced in one form or another, either through the Pathfinder Inner Sea Gods Campaign Setting book, or the Lost Omens Gods and Magic sourcebook. Either if this book is shaping up to be a variation on a theme, this book features new authors which means fresh perspectives.
What I really do like about the presentation is that a majority of the deities have an entry block of Devotee Benefits. These little blurbs outline the character benefits of following a deity with your character, like which cleric spells you receive or what domains they encompass. Linking thematic player options with tangible mechanical benefits is a huge draw for me because it allows players to show off a character’s backstory and personality through gameplay instead of solely through wrought exposition.
One other important change that Lost Omens Divine Mysteries presents is the Covenant deity type. I’m really drawn to this concept in terms of how it opens up character development, because it means that your character can be devoted to a broader reach of faith outside of actual deities. For example, you could be in the Covenant of ‘Waves of the Boundless Sea’, formed by spirits of water, the Plane of Water, water elementals, etc. Instead of devoting your character to a single being, you are devoted more towards an overarching collective.
Lost Omens Divine Mysteries: Who It’s For
Since the majority of this book is recycled content reframed with new verbiage, Lost Omens Divine Mysteries is best suited for Gamemasters who want a glimpse into this slice of Golarion life. Players who are making a bunch of divine-based characters would also find the sections about domains and spells relevant, but it’s such a small piece of the pie that I wouldn’t say that this is a necessary book for them.
The final 23-page Appendix is the most useful portion of the book. It’s a lengthy table of every divine, their area of concern, edicts, anathema, domains, and a handful of other associated attributes. The problem with this table is that I really just want it in a filterable electronic format like there is on the Archives of Nethys reference site. When building a character, I might want to just look at deities that are associated with the Knowledge domain, and it’s just difficult to do that using a paper table.
There are a few archetypes introduced with the book as well, like the Razmiran Priest, Rivethun, Palatine Detective, Battle Harbinger, and Mortal Herald. Mortal Herald is the most interesting of the bunch, offering rules for becoming enhanced with divine power for a character so devout that they are the mouthpiece of their deity. The majority of campaigns don’t make it to level 12—where this archetype would come into play—but that doesn’t make me any less excited about it.
Lost Omens Divine Mysteries is a really deep view of religion in Golarion. I’d chalk it up more as a reference guide than required reading in the same way that people used to use encyclopedias to find information. The full contents of the book would never be relevant in the same campaign—challenge accepted—so this book is a tool to help frame another dimension of immersion for a particular setting if your table of players is really into that.
If you’re new to the setting, then this is the latest and greatest on the topic. Apart from that, it’s probably the most lore-focused Lost Omens book, and not skewed so far in terms of mechanics. Despite the content being exceptionally interesting, it’s not going to be for everyone and most of it is not novel.
Fresh eyes will get way more mileage out of Lost Omens Divine Mysteries, but if you’re looking to dabble with the mythic rules or are a huge lore buff, it’s worth checking out.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
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