"Is the Will of the Multiverse directly intervening to tell me this?" Is it a God? Something above Gods?

She holds up her book.

"No; it's in the standard summary.  I think I've had one person choose Muddy Archaic, and he was a real history fan who didn't care about magic.  And she successfully avoided dying in childbirth by ending up losing and not getting married at all.  I think she had a somewhat decent time in the convent she got sentenced to."

Oh, good, it's not a terrifying miracle from an unknown source. What sort of insane Evil person dooms a whole world to "inconvenience, misery, and less magic" out of a love of history??

(He makes a note that getting sentenced to a convent, where he would presumably get to study lots of theology, is apparently a possible failure condition.)

"I think we can move on from it, then."

"Next up is the Dawn of Progress!  It sounds like your world is starting to get here - I'm reading that global trade and travel is increasing, and" (she quickly flips to another part of the book) "some alchemists in somewhere called Alkenstar have built guns without using any magic?  And some other countries are having everyone elect the government?  The Dawn of Progress is where more things like that keep happening and building upon themselves.  Technology develops beyond individual craftsmen; the world starts coming together into one global civilization; people start feeling themselves part of a nation beyond just a village."

Golarion definitely isn't "one global civilization," but it's good to hear that Andoran's fledgling democracy is part of some sort of worldwide feedback loop that will make all of Golarion better. And if all the world eventually unites... But he has to focus on this new world where he can make a difference, at least for now.

"That sounds good. Is the next option what happens after this process completes?"

"Yes!  Or, it never fully completes, but when it gets to the next stage.  That's Industrial.  The nonmagical machines producing nonmagical things like guns - and now all sorts of household items too, that can do things like make light and hear messages from far away and keep food cold and heal illnesses and all sorts of other things - the machines making them get bigger, and changing faster.  War gets worse, and the countries with more of these machines can oppress others, and people's lives get worse in some ways - but there're more people and their lives get better in lots of other ways too."

...can he just make a world that's actually good?? But the nonmagical machines sound amazing, depending on how much resources they take to construct and whether the majority of people can actually benefit from them.

"And after that?" Iomedae, please let there be a Paradise option, or let him make efficient use of whatever leeway he has with the worldbuilding team.

"Next is Steampunk.  That's one way the Industrial era can go - the society and government usually don't change that much, but the devices become better, more advanced, more intricate, and more involved in bringing daily life in new directions.  It's named because, at this point, they're usually powered by steam... though you can change that if you want; I've seen worlds focused around diesel, animal biology, and one woman even insisted on calling it 'waterpunk' and designed a whole original geology and climate cycle for her world!"

She lowers her book and adds, because she thinks this might be something Lac would really care about, "Also, I mentioned nonmagical healing getting better.  Sometimes it happens in the Industrial Age, sometimes in whatever era comes after it - but sometime around here, for the first time, maybe three-fourths of human children can expect to survive their childhood without any magic."

That's beautiful, and it makes this one the best yet. But let's see if he can save all the children.

"That puts this on my shortlist, then." Smile. "What's left?" And the thing about designing a geology and climate cycle implies he has a decent amount of design control?

"Next is the Global Age.  That's one other route worlds often take from the Industrial Age.  With the advancing technology, society gets even more mobile; there're often countries where less than half the people stay in the village or even area they've grown up in.  The world develops computers:  they're nonmagical machines that can project illusions and communicate across vast distances and store information.  Far enough into the Global Age, just about everyone carries a computer with them in their pocket, and they can talk with people across the world whenever they want - and of course, that has vast impacts on culture.

"And because of all this, society starts placing much less importance on social rank or family ties or gender.  Though, social rank will still be important in some ways in Villarosa - that's one of the limitations the Will puts in here.

"... And also" (since he cared so much) "in the Global Age - or sometimes far enough into Steampunk - maybe nineteen out of every twenty human children survive without magic.  Or even more.

"Though you can get that in other eras with magic, too, if you choose to have more magic in your world and specifically say you want good healing spells everywhere!"

Yes! And maybe those could cure disease too!

The "computers" sound like nonmagical wands of sending? Could he instead have magic but with wands of sending being really easy to make, like you make one by casting a cantrip on a stick, or something? Would that actually be straightforwardly Good? It would probably make it easier for an empire to take over the entire world, for a start.

"Good to know!" So social rank outside of Villarosa can be less restricted. Sounds like he's doing the sacrifice play, and putting as many people as he can outside Villarosa. "So what's next?"

"Cyberpunk is one possible future from the Global Age.  In it, computers get even more advanced, to the point that they can keep track of just about everyone and everything, and you can maybe live in their illusions almost like they were reality.  And at the same time, maybe people can augment their bodies in nonmagical ways."  She flutters her wings.  "But I mentioned the factories to make things like computers are very large?  In a Cyberpunk era, businesses like that have very vast power, and there's usually a vast gulf between the rich and poor.  Social ranks can emerge again."

"... Though just like with Steampunk, you can pick and choose the elements you want, and design twists if you want them.  There was one woman who designed a cyberpunk world without any rich or poor people at all, or at least not to the point that had any meaning inside the computer illusions.  She had a very fun time, and made friends with the Heroine in the end after they'd each beaten each other in different illusionary worlds!"

Or not a sacrifice play?? Maybe Villarosa could be an illusory world, and then everything outside it can be real?

A vast gulf between rich and poor sounds like a bad idea unless the baseline level of wealth starts at "minor royalty."

"What's the next one?" He needs to learn what a "computer" is in more detail than it being magic without the magic.

"Space Opera!  This's the final choice on the list.  It's another way things can go, either from Steampunk or the Global Age.  It involves more technology than any other era we've gone through - building ships to travel through space between planets and stars without any magic, and often building..."  She pauses, searching for the word "... nonmagical golems... as well."  She peers quizzically at a page in her book.  "I'm told there's one country on your home planet that actually has these nonmagical golems already?  Numeria?"  She shrugs.  "Anyway, space opera usually involves exploring different planets and, er, rocks in space; or wars between different planets; and developing new technology often plays a major role.

"The social structure could in theory have gone any direction - though our Worldbuilding Team really likes to make it less egalitarian than the Global Age."

"Spaceships travel through the space between planets and stars? Can you elaborate on that?" 

"On what part of that?  Do you know about how the stars are the same thing as the sun with planets going around them... er, that is the case in your world too, right?"

(She glances down at her book, flipping rapidly through the pages.)

"It is, yeah. Portals to the Positive Energy Plane, with planets orbiting? Would it be the same plane that Golarion uses, or somewhere different?"

"Uh, not exactly, but the important part's the same..."

"Since the other stars are just like the sun, and some of them have planets where people can live - and they're all in the same plane - you can get between them!  You can teleport, or you can just travel really fast and bring your air with you just like food and water!  Spaceships are basically ships that can do that, without magic."

"That's really cool."

"Yes!"

There's so much potential there for so many sorts of stories!

An interstellar civilization could have a gigantic population!

"Could there be multiple planes, as well?"