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The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie is my second-favorite supplement for Castle Falkenstein (after Comme Il Faut) because it is the only other supplement I consider nigh-essential for running a CF campaign in New Europa. Plus, it provides a lot of information about the background and cosmology of Castle Falkenstein, and I'm a junkie for that sort of thing. Be warned that it does contain what might be considered spoilers, so GMs may want to shoo the players away from the first 38 pages or so. (I'll warn you of any spoilers in the review.)

The setup for this book is that Auberon is telling the story of the origins of the Faerie and a good chunk of the history of the world of Castle Falkenstein. This means that some parts of the book are "narrated" by him, which is a nice touch. Since Auberon is supposed to have been present at many great events, I didn't find this obtrusive at all, and it fits with the premise that the game is designed by the characters in this alternate universe.

There are only 2 main "sections" in this book, and they are easily summarized:

The Faerie Veil

This section begins by describing the faerie veil (the homeland of the faerie) and some of the domains within. These domains are basically "pocket dimensions," largely inspired by Celtic myth. They don't get much more than a blurb, but I don't expect you'd need much more to use such lands...they're all pretty one-dimensional. We also learn the origin of the faerie, which I very much enjoyed reading. More on that in the "spoilers" section below.

This section also contains more detailed (but simple and unobtrusive) rules for faerie powers, faerie "death," and explanations of traditional faerie weaknesses, and their need to keep promises.

I was very impressed with the sensible and logical way in which the forms and weaknesses of faeries were explained, but it's a bit of a spoiler so I'll explain below.

SPOILER WARNING!

The Faerie were originally formless, unconscious energy beings in a primal dimension of energy, until a "hole" in their reality appeared for no particular reason. Proximity to the hole somehow triggered the development of identity and consciousness among the faerie, and eventually, some of them pushed through to the other side.

They ended up in Ireland. Well, sort of. It was yet another alternate Earth. Here we learn why the faerie in CF are primarily based on Celtic myths...they learned how to achieve material forms on the Ireland of this Earth, and based the forms roughly on what they saw and the stories they heard. They also picked up their odd weaknesses and vulnerabilities based on their experiences here (with the notable exception of Cold Iron...I think that's just inherently harmful) because the faerie are fundamentally unimaginative and fairly static, even from generation to generation.

I thought that this was a good way of explaining why one particular culture's faerie mythology turns out to be "true" in Castle Falkenstein.

To make a long story short, the faeries destroyed this Earth in an orgy of sensation and wild abandon.

They went to another Earth (that contained magic) where the division between Seelie and Unseelie began when Auberon decided that he would not permit the destruction of other Earths.

The next Earth they visited was in the far future, and contained high technology, alien beings, and psionics, which is cool because some of the beings and technological wonders from this dimension were stashed away by the faerie...and Auberon got his hands on a book of Earth history. That leaves open quite a few fun possibilities for GMs.

The Fourth Earth was known as the "Faerie Hell" because all iron on this world was Cold Iron. It is implied that this one was the "real world" that you and I live in.

Finally, Auberon discovered CF Earth, many years before human civilization began and dragons ruled the Earth. On this world, dwarves were created, and the First Compact was signed once the Adversary and the other Faerie caught up to Auberon. I'm sure all CF players know the rest...

I love alternate universes, quasi-scientific origins for mystical beings, background information, and the possibility for introducing far-future sci-fi stuff into Castle Falkenstein, so as you can imagine, I was as happy as a pig in...an amusement park for pigs. ;-)

However, genre-bending is not for everyone, so be warned if you don't like that stuff.

END SPOILERS

A Field Guide To Faerie

This section provides colorful descriptions of and generic stats for the various types of faerie.

It also explains some of the reasons that faeries are truly alien beings and should be role-played as fundamentally different from humans. For example, their immortality and glmaour abilities render them unable to understand aging, unatractiveness, and poverty, which explains some of their behavior. It's only a page, but I wish more alien beings in RPGs had little explanations of their "otherness" like this one. A nice touch.

I don't know what to say about the massive catalogue of faerie types excpet that I found it useful. Pretty much every type of faerie you've ever heard of, some you haven't heard of, and some non-faerie (at least in our legends) critters are in here. Fomorians, Leprechauns, Pookas, Brownies and Nymphs, are included, as are some Russian "demons."

Their appearances and behaviors are described, their basic stats/abilities are described, and some of them are given unique abilities, such as the "Lake Ladies'" ability to control the weather. If you are interested in using faerie other than Daoine Sidhe in your Castle Falkenstein game, then I think you should buy this book. Of course, if you're the type that doesn't want a book to tell you how to play your favorite mythological beasties, then perhaps it's best avoided.

My one complaint about this section is the inclusion of Vampires, including Count Dracula, as Daoine Sidhe (or "Dark Lords" as the Unseelie ones are known). I thought that that was silly...why not just have Vampires be Vampires? All a matter of taste, I guess. (Rules for true undead "vampirs" are in "The Book of Sigils" sourcebook, by the way.) I suppose the basic paradigm for CF reality was that everything supernatural except dragons and magic was faerie-based, but they threw that out the window in "Six Guns and Sorcery," so why shortchange the poor undead bloodsuckers?

Finally, they give us stats for the Adversary and Auberon. Suffice to say that they are impressive.

Other Stuff

There's no index, but the table of contents is sufficiently detailed that I don't imagine you'd need one.

The book is solidly constructed, and doesn't look like it will fall apart.

Unfortunately, I didn't care for the art. The pictures I liked were few, and were mostly of various women in Auberon's life. It wasn't that the artists weren't talented (they were), it's just that I didn't care for their vision of the Faerie. Most of the non-humanoid Faerie looked like twisted, bizarre, fleshy, amphibian things....closer to HR Giger paintings than to European folklore, IMO. Fortunately, they are so bizarre and detached from their descriptions that you don't have to worry too much about the images sticking in your mind and becoming your default mental image for the Faerie in question.

Since the layout of the book was pretty basic and probably impossible to screw up, the only basis I have for judging "Style" is the art...since I didn't like that I'll give it a 3 in Style.

I didn't notice any typos in this one.

Overall

Like I said, my second favorite CF supplement. I would say that if you're going to include a big Faerie element in your game, this book is pretty much essential. (In a way that "The Book of Sigils" is not essential for magic, "The Steam Age" is not essential for tech, and "The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci" is not essential for engine magick.) If you're a big fan of origin stories and in-game cosmology like I am, you'll definitely want to pick it up and learn some of the big secrets of the CF universe.

It's pretty much all setting info, with minimal game mechanics, but the few game meachnics parts are simply more detailed descriptions of how to use basic faerie powers, which I found useful but may turn off the most ardent followers of the "rules-light" school.

This is one of the 2 Castle Falkenstein supplements I wholeheartedly recommend to all players. While I like them all, I could get by quite well with the Main Book, Comme Il Faut, and this one. Like all of the books, it is out of print, but I've seen it more often than "The Book of Sigils" and "Six Guns and Sorcery" and less often than the other 3. Grab it if you see it.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Castle Falkenstein: The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie
Author: Jeff Grubb, Lisa Pondsmith Category: game Company/Publisher: R. Talsorian Games Line: Castle Falkenstein Cost: $18 (?) Page count: 128 ISBN: 0-937279-64-1 SKU: CF6051 Playtest Review by The Metallian on 04/06/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Historical Horror Far_Future Space Conspiracy Post-apocalypse	The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie is my second-favorite supplement for Castle Falkenstein (after Comme Il Faut) because it is the only other supplement I consider nigh-essential for running a CF campaign in New Europa. Plus, it provides a lot of information about the background and cosmology of Castle Falkenstein, and I'm a junkie for that sort of thing. Be warned that it does contain what might be considered spoilers, so GMs may want to shoo the players away from the first 38 pages or so. (I'll warn you of any spoilers in the review.) The setup for this book is that Auberon is telling the story of the origins of the Faerie and a good chunk of the history of the world of Castle Falkenstein. This means that some parts of the book are "narrated" by him, which is a nice touch. Since Auberon is supposed to have been present at many great events, I didn't find this obtrusive at all, and it fits with the premise that the game is designed by the characters in this alternate universe. There are only 2 main "sections" in this book, and they are easily summarized: The Faerie Veil This section begins by describing the faerie veil (the homeland of the faerie) and some of the domains within. These domains are basically "pocket dimensions," largely inspired by Celtic myth. They don't get much more than a blurb, but I don't expect you'd need much more to use such lands...they're all pretty one-dimensional. We also learn the origin of the faerie, which I very much enjoyed reading. More on that in the "spoilers" section below. This section also contains more detailed (but simple and unobtrusive) rules for faerie powers, faerie "death," and explanations of traditional faerie weaknesses, and their need to keep promises. I was very impressed with the sensible and logical way in which the forms and weaknesses of faeries were explained, but it's a bit of a spoiler so I'll explain below. SPOILER WARNING! The Faerie were originally formless, unconscious energy beings in a primal dimension of energy, until a "hole" in their reality appeared for no particular reason. Proximity to the hole somehow triggered the development of identity and consciousness among the faerie, and eventually, some of them pushed through to the other side. They ended up in Ireland. Well, sort of. It was yet another alternate Earth. Here we learn why the faerie in CF are primarily based on Celtic myths...they learned how to achieve material forms on the Ireland of this Earth, and based the forms roughly on what they saw and the stories they heard. They also picked up their odd weaknesses and vulnerabilities based on their experiences here (with the notable exception of Cold Iron...I think that's just inherently harmful) because the faerie are fundamentally unimaginative and fairly static, even from generation to generation. I thought that this was a good way of explaining why one particular culture's faerie mythology turns out to be "true" in Castle Falkenstein. To make a long story short, the faeries destroyed this Earth in an orgy of sensation and wild abandon. They went to another Earth (that contained magic) where the division between Seelie and Unseelie began when Auberon decided that he would not permit the destruction of other Earths. The next Earth they visited was in the far future, and contained high technology, alien beings, and psionics, which is cool because some of the beings and technological wonders from this dimension were stashed away by the faerie...and Auberon got his hands on a book of Earth history. That leaves open quite a few fun possibilities for GMs. The Fourth Earth was known as the "Faerie Hell" because all iron on this world was Cold Iron. It is implied that this one was the "real world" that you and I live in. Finally, Auberon discovered CF Earth, many years before human civilization began and dragons ruled the Earth. On this world, dwarves were created, and the First Compact was signed once the Adversary and the other Faerie caught up to Auberon. I'm sure all CF players know the rest... I love alternate universes, quasi-scientific origins for mystical beings, background information, and the possibility for introducing far-future sci-fi stuff into Castle Falkenstein, so as you can imagine, I was as happy as a pig in...an amusement park for pigs. ;-) However, genre-bending is not for everyone, so be warned if you don't like that stuff. END SPOILERS A Field Guide To Faerie This section provides colorful descriptions of and generic stats for the various types of faerie. It also explains some of the reasons that faeries are truly alien beings and should be role-played as fundamentally different from humans. For example, their immortality and glmaour abilities render them unable to understand aging, unatractiveness, and poverty, which explains some of their behavior. It's only a page, but I wish more alien beings in RPGs had little explanations of their "otherness" like this one. A nice touch. I don't know what to say about the massive catalogue of faerie types excpet that I found it useful. Pretty much every type of faerie you've ever heard of, some you haven't heard of, and some non-faerie (at least in our legends) critters are in here. Fomorians, Leprechauns, Pookas, Brownies and Nymphs, are included, as are some Russian "demons." Their appearances and behaviors are described, their basic stats/abilities are described, and some of them are given unique abilities, such as the "Lake Ladies'" ability to control the weather. If you are interested in using faerie other than Daoine Sidhe in your Castle Falkenstein game, then I think you should buy this book. Of course, if you're the type that doesn't want a book to tell you how to play your favorite mythological beasties, then perhaps it's best avoided. My one complaint about this section is the inclusion of Vampires, including Count Dracula, as Daoine Sidhe (or "Dark Lords" as the Unseelie ones are known). I thought that that was silly...why not just have Vampires be Vampires? All a matter of taste, I guess. (Rules for true undead "vampirs" are in "The Book of Sigils" sourcebook, by the way.) I suppose the basic paradigm for CF reality was that everything supernatural except dragons and magic was faerie-based, but they threw that out the window in "Six Guns and Sorcery," so why shortchange the poor undead bloodsuckers? Finally, they give us stats for the Adversary and Auberon. Suffice to say that they are impressive. Other Stuff There's no index, but the table of contents is sufficiently detailed that I don't imagine you'd need one. The book is solidly constructed, and doesn't look like it will fall apart. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the art. The pictures I liked were few, and were mostly of various women in Auberon's life. It wasn't that the artists weren't talented (they were), it's just that I didn't care for their vision of the Faerie. Most of the non-humanoid Faerie looked like twisted, bizarre, fleshy, amphibian things....closer to HR Giger paintings than to European folklore, IMO. Fortunately, they are so bizarre and detached from their descriptions that you don't have to worry too much about the images sticking in your mind and becoming your default mental image for the Faerie in question. Since the layout of the book was pretty basic and probably impossible to screw up, the only basis I have for judging "Style" is the art...since I didn't like that I'll give it a 3 in Style. I didn't notice any typos in this one. Overall Like I said, my second favorite CF supplement. I would say that if you're going to include a big Faerie element in your game, this book is pretty much essential. (In a way that "The Book of Sigils" is not essential for magic, "The Steam Age" is not essential for tech, and "The Lost Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci" is not essential for engine magick.) If you're a big fan of origin stories and in-game cosmology like I am, you'll definitely want to pick it up and learn some of the big secrets of the CF universe. It's pretty much all setting info, with minimal game mechanics, but the few game meachnics parts are simply more detailed descriptions of how to use basic faerie powers, which I found useful but may turn off the most ardent followers of the "rules-light" school. This is one of the 2 Castle Falkenstein supplements I wholeheartedly recommend to all players. While I like them all, I could get by quite well with the Main Book, Comme Il Faut, and this one. Like all of the books, it is out of print, but I've seen it more often than "The Book of Sigils" and "Six Guns and Sorcery" and less often than the other 3. Grab it if you see it. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Castle Falkenstein: The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie