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The Marches

The Marches is an important In Nomine supplement; it fleshes out the Ethereal realm, which was very sketchy in the main book. It's got its flaws, but it's generally well-done.

The Marches, like all of the Revelations Cycle, includes a number of separate components. One of the pleasant things about The Marches is that the components are related: the title is the theme of the book, and it discusses the nature and denizens of the Ethereal Realm, Superiors include Beleth and Blandine, and the Sorcery loosely ties into the Ethereal realm as well.

Superiors

Blandine, Beleth, Gabriel, and Belial are all fleshed out in this book. In addition, it includes a special Choir devoted to Blandine: the Menunim, angels of hope; and its Fallen equivalent, working for Beleth: the Pachadim, the demons of fear.

The Superiors were all well-done. I could take or leave the new Choir and band; they're not suitable as PCs.

The Ethereal Realm

This details the Ethereal geography: humans dream in the Vale of Dreams, which is loosely divided into Blandine's and Beleth's realms. Beyond that lie the Border Marches, which is just what it sounds like, and the Far Marches, where the Ethereals reside.

In addition, this section describes the history of the Marches, Ethereal combat, individual dreamscapes, larger domains within the Marches, and lucid dreamers and their special powers.

I really liked this section. It told me what I needed to know, and it did it with style.

Denizens of the Marches

This section briefly describes the nature of pagan gods, dream soldiers, pagan rites, and so on. It then goes on to describe some of the major remaining Ethereal powers: the Norse gods, the Greek gods, Faerie, the Aztecs, the American Indian spirits, the Australian Dreamtime spirits, the Egyptian gods, the Shinto kami, the African loas, and generic primal spirits.

I had very mixed feelings about this section. It's certainly useable if none of the players are experts about the relevant pantheon(s). But a lot of it's off -- not badly enough to be really painful, but badly enough to make me twitch. In particular:

Of course Odin doesn't think that Uriel's Crusade was Ragnarok. The prophecies about Ragnorak are very specific and include Earth-shaking events such as the death of the sun, Odin himself, et cetera. No one would have thought Uriel's Crusade was Ragnarok.
Why do they say Loki was tied up under the serpent before Uriel's Crusade, anyway? That's traditionally something expected to happen in the future, not the past, and it makes more sense that way.
What's this about the Shinto kami being driven out of Japan? They're still worshipped extensively.
The Hindu pantheon, which is worshipped throughout Indian and ought to have been untouched by the Crusades, is conspicuously absent.
The book really whitewashes the loas. I don't object to some voudounistas being willing servants of both the loas and Heaven, but some voudounistas ought to be servants of the loas and Hell, too. (In particular, in the In Nomine universe many voudounistas who primarily focus on Erzuli ought to also serve Andrealphus....)

Now, for all of my grumbling this section is decent, and parts of it are good. The errors of aren't glaring. And there are a lot of nice touches:

The Unseelie have taken over the Faerie, who pay a tithe to Hell in the form of spirits who help Beleth torment dreamers. It fits beautifully.
The Greek gods have logical members killed and change the character of the pantheon from the classic myths while still having it make sense and the individuals fit the classic myths.
I liked the fact that the Norse gods seemed to hate Hell at least as much as Heaven; Odin's more than canny enough to know that Beleth egged Uriel on.
Though I complain about whitewashing, voudoun often being combined with service to Heaven is a nice touch; there's an old saying that Haiti is eighty percent Catholic and a hundred percent voudoun.
Most of the Egyptian gods are dead, but "[r]umor has it that Isis works in secret to gather sufficient Essence and Forces to bring Osiric back from death as she did once before". It's a very nice touch.
The Dreamtime spirits were spared the worst of the Purity Crusade because they acknowledged a Creator god. They're suffering greatly from the destruction of the Australian Aboriginal culture, which fits nicely.

All in all, this section is reasonably good.

Magic

This section describes what magic can do, why it doesn't work on angels, and why most Sorcerers serve Hell.

It's okay. It's based on standard stereotypes of sorcery more than any given actual magic system, but I think that fits the In Nomine universe of angels and demons. My praise is grudging because I think it could have been so much better given more space, more research, and more time.

Blood and Circuses

This gives the background of two circuses, owned by brothers, which are Tethers to Heaven and Hell. It also presents a two-page possible adventure involving both circuses.

This was my least favorite part of the book. I just didn't warm to either circus. The concept of mobile circus-Tethers is interesting, but I didn't like either of the two circuses described here.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)