Customer Reviews

The Marches: Revelations 2 (In Nomine)

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Like its predecessor, "Night Music", this book is a combination of source book and adventure module. "The Marches" focuses on the Ethereal realm as opposed to "Night Music's" focus on the corporeal realm. The book is broken down into the following sections:

1 - Superiors
2 - Sorcerers
3 - The Ethereal Realm
4 - Denizens of the Marches
5 - Blood and Circuses (Adventure)
6 - Ethereal Resources

Part one explores four of the official superiors from the In Nomine continuity: Blandine, Archangel of Dreams; Gabriel, Archangel of Fire; Beleth, Demon Princess of Nightmares and Belial, Demon Prince of Fire. Each Superior write-up covers similar territory such as hostiry, personality and outlook, their respective Words, dissonance and organsiation. This section also introduces a new Angelic Choir (Menunim - Servitors of Blandine) and a new Diabolical Band (Pachadim - Servitors of Beleth). All enteries have sample Servitors, with Gabriel having an unusal four examples.

Part two covers Sorcerers. Sorcerers are mortals who are trying to harness the supernatural forces through the use of Summoning, Focus and Command skills. Depending on the skill level involved, Summoning can beget random Ethereal spirtis or up to named Demons directly from Hell. Focus is a "general" magic skill that lets the Sorcerer create Protective Wards, Siphon Essence or create Ethereal Anchors among other things. The Command skill doesn't actually allow the Sorcerer to command Demons, merely to awe them (and then only at the highest of levels) or to actually command mortals and ethereal spirtis. Finally, it should be noted that for the purporses of the In Nomine game world, Sorcerers are veiwed as "evil" because they seek to impose their will upon others which is a selfish act and therefore associated with the Hellspawn. There is also a multitude of additional rules and various game mechanics for things that Sorcerers can do (which is a change from Night Music where new concepts weren't fully explained).

The Sorcerers section finishes off with a short discussion on the nature of Demonlings (1 Celestial Force Demons). These are weak and ineffectual entities that populate Hell in their millions. Included in this section are several tables useful for rolling up random Demonlings...some of the combination can be very humuorous (and going by the nature of the narative, I suspect they are provided for comic relief).

Part three covers the Ethereal Realm. It should be noted that the In Nomine game world is divided into three separate yet interlinked realms: Celestial (Heaven and Hell), Ethereal (The Marches) and Corporeal (Earth). This section covers all aspects of the Marches, such as entering and leaving, ethereal combat, dreamscapes and dream-shaping as well as descriptions of the The Border Marches and The Far Marches. The section is acutally begun with a description of the Old Gods (i.e. all of our mythologies) and the Purification Crusade which saw the destuction of most of the Ethereal entities which our dreams give life to.

Part four covers the denizens that call the Marches home. This covers everything from the aforementioned Pagan Gods, ethereal remnants, and Dream Soldiers. It also covers the major pantheons and the realms (all carved out of the Dreamscape by human dreaming). As an aside, if the material provided by In Nomine isn't enough, then I would recommend the old TSR book Legend and Lore which details many of the Pagan pantheons. This part also covers primal (read: Elemental) spirits and creatures of myth (i.e. Pegasai and Griffins). Finally, there is a short description of Ethereal Spirits in the Corporeal Realm, such as the former god Thor.

Part five is titled "Blood and Circuses" and is the adventure part of this book. To call this part an adventure is being very generous. This is not so much an adventure as a setting for possible adventures. While it features a signifcant antagonist and a host of minor characters (stats provided), the adventure is guilty of the standard In Nomine sin (pun intended) which is lack of structure, maps, etc. In slight redemption, the writers do provide a plot and hooks using the Blood and Circuses setup, but at two pages it is a nothing but a seed, with alot of GM work to make the "adventure" playable.

The last section is titled Ethereal Resources, and like "Night Music" is really intended for GM's in that the only 'resources' it contains are three new forms of dissonance and one new song.

Please note, as with all In Nomine game products they provide interpretations of religious themes that some people may find disturbing or offensive; so mature readers only please.

Enjoy.