Ascendant Court
Perhaps no part of Absalom encapsulates its nature, contradictions, and complexities quite so thoroughly as the Ascendant Court. Located at the hub of the city’s thoroughfares, the Ascendant Court is the geographical and metaphorical heart of Absalom, and from the day of its founding, all the city’s life has pulsed through it.
Past and future rub shoulders here. The city’s oldest cathedrals and most venerated ruins stand in the Ascendant Court, but its streets are also crowded with new arrivals eager to write their own legends through the Test of the Starstone. The architecture of the Ascendant Court is a palimpsest of its history, with ancient temples to long-dead gods scattered among modern additions in a crowded, colorful mosaic that shows the influence of innumerable faiths that rose, evolved, and fell across the centuries. The district’s landscape is dominated by the Starstone Cathedral, which is ringed by an enormous pit. Around Starstone Chasm stand the grand but inevitably lesser houses of other deities, arrayed like jewels haloing a central diamond in a matriarch’s ring.
Here, in the Ascendant Court, four humans bested the Test of the Starstone to become living gods, and no one knows who might be next. Since no one can predict which upstart might prove to be a deity in the making—and, thus, the author of the next chapter in Absalom’s ever-unfurling glory—the denizens of the Ascendant Court treat all of them with care. Even hopefuls destined for failure are often wielders of rare power and best treated with caution. At the same time, more cynical and unscrupulous locals are keenly aware that for every true candidate for godhood, there are a thousand self-delusional fools just begging to be gulled with false maps of the Starstone Cathedral’s interior and fraudulent prophecies purporting to reveal its riddles. Should a cheated victim come back in outrage, a merchant can always claim that the wisdom of the ancients was simply mistranslated, and then charge all over again for a “more accurate” interpretation. While not all of Absalom’s citizens approve of this bustling sideline in fraud, most of them accept that no true candidate for the Test of the Starstone would be so easily fooled, and that the grifters who ply the Ascendant Court might even be viewed as the first of its tests.
Others lack the luxury of cynicism. The Avenue of the Hopeful is crowded not only with hucksters and con artists, but with penniless wretches who want nothing more than something true to believe in. These desperate, earnest souls gather daily along the Ascendant Court’s avenues in search of a worthy guide, and every day they are confronted with a cacophony of would-be gods and their nascent cults, each one shouting louder than the next for the crowd’s attention.
Most of Absalom’s longtime residents ignore these pretenders, but few antagonize them. Even if some claimants are obvious frauds, their cultists believe in them, and it isn’t worth the trouble to unmask one false god when a hundred others are waiting to seize the same pillar. Similarly, because Absalom prides itself on recognizing and respecting every deity in Golarion, the Ascendant Court holds not only grand temples to the primary gods of the Inner Sea, but shrines to obscure figures known nowhere else on the continent. The general view, among locals, is that any god who can stake a claim is welcome to it, and the fanatic followers of rival deities can be relied upon to ferret out the liars.
It’s said that nearly every deity with an interest in Golarion has a temple in the Ascendant Court. Some of these deities are merely unfamiliar—in particular, the vast Vudrani pantheon is fully represented in the district, as are many divinities virtually unknown outside distant or isolated realms like the Mwangi Expanse, central Casmaron, Tian Xia, and even more distant realms of the Great Beyond. While the actual list of gods worshipped in Absalom isn’t quite comprehensive, it’s close enough that a local scholar could make a lifelong study of their variety and never run out of subjects to choose from. If a deity is not mentioned here, it’s safe to assume that at least a minor shrine or church to the divinity can be found somewhat off the beaten path.
With so many ill-understood (and in fact outright diabolical) religious zealots packing the district, it’s easy to see a demon in every shadow, and a villain in every pilgrim bedecked in pentagrams. Absalom outlaws the practice of most evil religions, but restricts malign actions, rather than indecent thoughts. Simply professing to worship an evil entity is not grounds for arrest or even casual bigotry—Absalomians never wish to be seen as small-minded— but murdering, sentient sacrifice, fiend-summoning, and similar crimes gain no leniency for being religiously motivated, and see little tolerance from the public at large.
Past and future rub shoulders here. The city’s oldest cathedrals and most venerated ruins stand in the Ascendant Court, but its streets are also crowded with new arrivals eager to write their own legends through the Test of the Starstone. The architecture of the Ascendant Court is a palimpsest of its history, with ancient temples to long-dead gods scattered among modern additions in a crowded, colorful mosaic that shows the influence of innumerable faiths that rose, evolved, and fell across the centuries. The district’s landscape is dominated by the Starstone Cathedral, which is ringed by an enormous pit. Around Starstone Chasm stand the grand but inevitably lesser houses of other deities, arrayed like jewels haloing a central diamond in a matriarch’s ring.
Here, in the Ascendant Court, four humans bested the Test of the Starstone to become living gods, and no one knows who might be next. Since no one can predict which upstart might prove to be a deity in the making—and, thus, the author of the next chapter in Absalom’s ever-unfurling glory—the denizens of the Ascendant Court treat all of them with care. Even hopefuls destined for failure are often wielders of rare power and best treated with caution. At the same time, more cynical and unscrupulous locals are keenly aware that for every true candidate for godhood, there are a thousand self-delusional fools just begging to be gulled with false maps of the Starstone Cathedral’s interior and fraudulent prophecies purporting to reveal its riddles. Should a cheated victim come back in outrage, a merchant can always claim that the wisdom of the ancients was simply mistranslated, and then charge all over again for a “more accurate” interpretation. While not all of Absalom’s citizens approve of this bustling sideline in fraud, most of them accept that no true candidate for the Test of the Starstone would be so easily fooled, and that the grifters who ply the Ascendant Court might even be viewed as the first of its tests.
Others lack the luxury of cynicism. The Avenue of the Hopeful is crowded not only with hucksters and con artists, but with penniless wretches who want nothing more than something true to believe in. These desperate, earnest souls gather daily along the Ascendant Court’s avenues in search of a worthy guide, and every day they are confronted with a cacophony of would-be gods and their nascent cults, each one shouting louder than the next for the crowd’s attention.
Most of Absalom’s longtime residents ignore these pretenders, but few antagonize them. Even if some claimants are obvious frauds, their cultists believe in them, and it isn’t worth the trouble to unmask one false god when a hundred others are waiting to seize the same pillar. Similarly, because Absalom prides itself on recognizing and respecting every deity in Golarion, the Ascendant Court holds not only grand temples to the primary gods of the Inner Sea, but shrines to obscure figures known nowhere else on the continent. The general view, among locals, is that any god who can stake a claim is welcome to it, and the fanatic followers of rival deities can be relied upon to ferret out the liars.
It’s said that nearly every deity with an interest in Golarion has a temple in the Ascendant Court. Some of these deities are merely unfamiliar—in particular, the vast Vudrani pantheon is fully represented in the district, as are many divinities virtually unknown outside distant or isolated realms like the Mwangi Expanse, central Casmaron, Tian Xia, and even more distant realms of the Great Beyond. While the actual list of gods worshipped in Absalom isn’t quite comprehensive, it’s close enough that a local scholar could make a lifelong study of their variety and never run out of subjects to choose from. If a deity is not mentioned here, it’s safe to assume that at least a minor shrine or church to the divinity can be found somewhat off the beaten path.
With so many ill-understood (and in fact outright diabolical) religious zealots packing the district, it’s easy to see a demon in every shadow, and a villain in every pilgrim bedecked in pentagrams. Absalom outlaws the practice of most evil religions, but restricts malign actions, rather than indecent thoughts. Simply professing to worship an evil entity is not grounds for arrest or even casual bigotry—Absalomians never wish to be seen as small-minded— but murdering, sentient sacrifice, fiend-summoning, and similar crimes gain no leniency for being religiously motivated, and see little tolerance from the public at large.
Type
District
Location under
Included Locations
- Avenue of the Hopeful
- Azari Palace
- Bank of Absalom
- Black Mask
- Blackfinger Temple
- Catacombs
- Cayden’s Hall
- Chelaxian Embassy
- Church of Asmodeus
- District Courthouse - Ascendant Court
- Erastil’s Alehouse
- Gerig’s Workshop
- God’s Market
- Gorumarrux
- Hall of Holies
- Pitview Pub
- Pleasure Salon of Calistria
- Seventh Church of Iomedae
- Shrine of the Failed
- Starstone Cathedral
- Stoneshield House
- Tempering Hall
- Temple of the Shining Star
- Tower of Twin Truths
Owner/Ruler
Additional Rulers/Owners
Ruling/Owning Rank
Owning Organization
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