This is a brand new campaign as you well know but it's also a new start for the gaming group (I hope).  What I mean is that we're going back to the beginning and starting at level 1.  It is this Dungeon Master's hope that starting from beginning will reignite the passion that all got us playing this game long, long ago.  Further, it is my hope and intention that starting at 1st level will encourage a sense of care about your characters and help develop their goals and personalities slowly, over the course of the campaign.  Finally, as always, it is my hope and strong desire that this campaign actually stick around for a long time.  I've said it too many times in the past and I've meant it every time.  Let's try to make it work this time.

When creating your new characters please use the Pathfinders Player's Guide to assist you.  I will have copies for everyone plus it is available as a .PDF free of charge here.  Also, please try to make your characters either from Sandpoint or where ever it would make sense (in the case of an elf or dwarf).  Plan on being in the town of Sandpoint when we begin.  Whether or not you all know each other is up to you though, obviously, that would help.  Remember you're first level so you don't have many, if any, adventures under your belt but that's no reason not to be looking for some adventure.

Golarion is a world rich in magic.  It is also a world that has only recently started to recover from a series of cataclysms that nearly destroyed the world and everything in it.  Many ancient ruins remain throughout the world potentially hiding many secrets and great treasures from a previous era.  They are all ripe for the picking just awaiting a bold group of adventurers brave enough to delve into cursed lands and haunted ruins.

Brief Race Information

There are three distinct races of humans dwell in Varisia: the expansionist colonists of Cheliax, the tempestuous tribes of the Shoanti barbarians, and the enigmatic Varisians. 

The majority of the dwarves of Varisia live in the iron-walled town of Janderhoff. Having settled in the copper-rich foothills of the Mindspin Mountains centuries ago, with the coming of foreign interlopers the dwarves have seen their home change from a simple mining village to a bustling trading town. Despite Janderhoff’s fortress-like exterior, its people welcome any visitors who seek to do honest business and who don’t cause trouble. 

While it’s well-known that the gnomes of Varisia make their homes in the Sanos forest, few can truthfully say they’ve ever seen an actual gnome community. Whimsical but secretive—despite their seemingly good natures—the gnomes of Varisia rarely speak of their homes. 

As they tend to throughout the world, the halflings of Varisia live among the other races of the lands they inhabit. They are most commonly met in the southern lands from Magnimar to Korvosa. 

Born of extraordinary and often unfortunate circumstances, half-elves face prejudices of both their parent races. While some find it easy to disguise their mixed heritages in the teeming human cities of southern Varisia, a considerable number discover a harsh sanctuary among the cutthroats and outcasts of Riddleport. Some half-elves dwell on the fringes of the Mierani Forest where they are, at best, pitied by their elven kin or, at worst, shunned. A few half-elves have come to live among Varisia’s wandering natives: the Shoanti see no difference between them and full-blooded elves, while Varisians prove all too familiar with the scorn of their “civilized” human cousins.

Half-orcs are seldom found in Varisia. Members of this rare, bastard race most commonly come to Varisia alongside marauders from the Hold of Belkzen, which frequently raid Shoanti tribes and pillage the sparse resources of the Cinderlands.