Adrift on the River of Dream is simply a pure pleasure to read and review
Adrift on the
River of Dream is simply a pure pleasure to
read and review. This not simply
fanboyish gushing here – the book manages to avoid the pitfalls of just about
every other “magic sourcebook” to date by spending time explaining the
interrelation between magic, the characters, setting and plot of the Tribe
8 game.
For those not
familiar with Tribe 8 – it’s a
dark fantasy game set in a post-apocalyptic Earth (well, Montreal and environs)
where a much humbled humanity lives a tribal existence and for whom the world is
much more spiritual, more shamanic, than it was in the past.
Spirits live within everything, the Z’Bri (the spiritual antagonists of
the setting) are spirits locked in stolen human flesh, a great calamity in the
past prevents the healthy flow of souls leading to more and more walking dead in
the world, and the whole thing is ruled by a holistic binary of the Goddess
(feminine, life, reason, creation) and the Seed (masculine, selfishness,
passion, destruction/entropy). Magic
in this world is not the “wing a fireball” type of spell casting but a more
intuitive lucid dreaming called Synthesis (and the Z’Bri use a reality warping
destructive version, Sundering).
Overview
The book is
much bigger than the usual T8 book.
At 144 pages it is on par with the Vimary
and Horrors
of the Z’Bri books – and unlike other T8 materials it paces itself wonderfully (other books had a tendency
of running out of pages before they ran out of material).
The cover artwork is about the usual for Tribe
8 – some computer generated art on a mottled background.
The pattern this time is much more… different (I have a really hard
time describing colour) – showing the River of Dream (the grand spiritual
architecture of the universe in T8),
elements of water and barriers abound. The
interior artwork is up to the usual high standard for Dream Pod 9, mixing small
column art with the occasional half- and full-page illustration.
Like other DP9 products, and Tribe 8
in particular, the bulk of the book is done in shifting first-person narratives
with all the GMing and system elements tucked in at the end of the book, with
the occasional sidebar for hypertextual elements (character stats for the
narrators, information on a particular social group, etc). The book’s events seem to take place before Vimary Burns and Revanche
– the two previous cycle [metaplot] books, making it somewhat out of order
metaplot-wise. The narrative in
this book follows a circle of three tribals who are seeking the hidden truths to
the nature of the spirit world – from their research within the Nation of the
Goddess in Vimary, to their banishment and exile to the 8th Tribe and
beyond to their spirit quest and their eventual return from the River itself
(sort of).
Chapter One: Drift We To The Dark
And so our
story begins, with the ending – a group of Fallen hunters find a human skin
(and nothing else) floating in the river who then take it to a wise woman who
begins to read the tale of Elias Japth’on, a young Terasheban advocate with a
particularly strong connection to the River of Dream. Elias is inducted into a secret order within his tribe –
the Blind Eyes – who use their synthesis to conduct investigations that would
otherwise be impossible. He makes
the acquaintance of two other tribals who are equally touched by the dream river
– an Evan healer/shaman and her husband, a particularly spiritual Joanite
warrior. The three then begin their
quest to investigate the River’s nature through the various tribal
interpretations, rituals and teachings. A
sort of “comparative theology” experiment. The chapter gives short narratives about how each one of the
seven tribes perceives of the River and their place or role in the grand scheme
of things. Here we see how much,
and how little, the Nation knows about the powers they are given from birth, by
their god-like Fatimas. Elias and
his friends soon come to the disconcerting truth that the Fatimas are hiding
some important truths behind not only the River but also of Synthesis in
general. The chapter ends when the
Fatimas (and their cliquish priesthoods) catch up with our trio and subject them
a particularly significant banishment and maiming.
This chapter
quickly recaps everything previously presented by other books about how the
seven tribes use their powers and indoctrinate their members, then quickly goes
into the rest of the iceberg, showing us for the first time the how
and why behind these – how each Fatima has molded her tribe and how
each tribe’s function, as expressed through their tribal Eminences (the two
broad powers – such as Tradition, Life, or Fate) coloured their perception of
the River. The analogy of the river
is everywhere – and how the three main narrators see their explorations of the
River (images of the boatman, swimming and feeling it as a flow of emotion
rather than a tangible substance) was incredibly illuminating.
I also loved how the Nation can be both oppressive and liberating –
their research was tolerated, even encouraged, but as soon as they started to
question established orthodoxy, then the weight of the Nation fell on them,
making their banishment extremely emblematic of the larger problems within the
Nation under the control of the Fatimas.
Chapter Two: Wyrd, Unshriven
This chapter
catches up with Elias, Linna and Thomas during their exile – and introduces a
new character, the Fallen Agnite dreamer Bartholomew, “Bart the Child” for
short, who helps the three exiles get over their initial depression and set back
to work with their research, now unshackled by the political and philosophical
blinders of the Fatimas. Through
this new cell (Fallen group) we get a tour of the 8th Tribe’s
various outlooks and those of the mysterious Guides.
This chapter
has perhaps one of the best explorations of the psychological impact of
banishment ever seen in the game. Banishment
in Tribe 8 is more than just the
launch point for your campaigns and has a much more profound spiritual impact
than simply “please move to that island” – it is a Gordian knot of
betrayal, suicidal depression, rage, sadness, confusion (especially if in your
mind you did nothing wrong), and general hurt (since, as part of the banishment
the goddess you have lived and loved and served with every fiber fo your being
since conception rips her lover away from you, leaving your spirit raw with pain
and every teaching you have ever had said you are now without salvation and
little more than a soulless animal). This
goes well beyond White Wolf angst, since the whole idea is the move on with your
life, to realize that you are not simply the walking dead, to incorporate this
event and its consequences into your life without losing yourself to it
completely. The look at the how the
Fallen lose their tribal eminence, how (and which) they retain the other one,
and the general “how Fallen outlooks view things” is almost worth thew price
of the book alone for any T8 Weaver
(GM). One problem is an omission
– the group never contacts a Child of Lilith (a metaplot development), while
this makes sense from a certain perspective (keep metaplot to a minimum) it is
also something of a disappointment.
Chapter Three: Out Of The Cradle
Our cell,
called The Ferrymen, and now united in purpose and in body once again.
They begin their investigations once more. Along the way
they get captured (and released) by Olympian Keepers.and come
across a Keeper ghost, almost obliterated and drawn into the ever-growing Sea of
the Lost (Wraith: the Oblivion fans look for paralleling imagery here).
The ghost bargains his knowledge of where a Nomad is located in exchange
for letting one of the Ferrymen to become, in effect, his cheval
(a term from Voodoun, essentially a medium who allows the spirits to speak and
act through them, a sort of possession). The
location of this Nomad is deep in the Outlands (the wilderness beyond Vimary).
Nomads are important for a number of reasons – first: they are Z’Bri
who never went insane, second: they were the first of the Z’Bri to manifest on
Earth and therefore have memories about pretty much the whole history of the Tribe 8 setting, third: they are incredibly powerful and
knowledgeable about the Grand Architecture of the universe, and fourthly: they
were the ones who constructed the spiritual barrier known as the Fold which
prevents the dead from passing on to whatever comes next and which keeps the
Z’Bri locked into flesh and in the material world.
The real
pleasure of this chapter comes during the imprisonment of the Ferrymen by a
group of Keepers, those descendants of survivalists and scientists who try and
live a rational, scientific existence in the midst of what is ostensibly a
fantasy world. Keepers also have
partial access to the Dreaming (which they perceive according to New Age
paperbacks and half-understood sub-quantum theory) through a hermetic power
called ‘Technosmithing’. The
problem for me has always been “if they dismiss all things magical and
spiritual, then how do they explain what they do when they use technosmithing
formulae?” I hear through the
grapevine that an upcoming splatbook, Word of the Keepers, will talk about this in some detail but the
little bit in this book makes me very excited already.
Spoiler: think about the headspace you get into when it’s 4am and you
are still working on that lab report for 3rd year physics or
engineering theory when your whole consciousness is focused on just trying to
make your project work and the science of it is racing through your head, albeit
a bit fuzzy from too much caffeine and too little sleep.
That’s technosmithing.
Chapter Four: The Dread Voyage
The Ferrymen travel into the Outlands west of Vimary looking for their
Nomad, guided only by the ramblings of some dead Keeper who last took a breath
about ninety years ago. Eventually
they end up in Squat territory, the Horse Squats in particular.
Squats are Tribe 8’s catch-all term for any human not fromVimary, not a
Z’Bri serving Serf, or a Keeper. The
term is highly derrogatory (the Nation sees Squats as soulless animals with
opposable thumbs, see a pattern yet?) but the Squats don’t much care what a
few thousand children on a small island want to call everything. The Squats and the Ferrymen learn to weave their Synthesis
together to construct a sailing ship with which the spirit of the River will
take them materially into the River of Dreams and the spirit world to travel the
rest of the way to their journey’s end.
Squats have been portrayed as barbarians (in the Viking/Visigoth sense),
as human animals, or as noble savages – one element that has been missing from
all of these: their spiritual side. The
book paint their spirituality in loving detail, drawing on roots of Native
American mythology. Simply put the
Tribes of Vimary perceive of Synthesis in concepts (Truth, Wisdom, Inspiration,
Vengence), whereas the Squats deal more with the spirits of things –
rock-spirits (such as Mountain), horse-spirits, fire-spirits, all the things
that Vimary merely pays lip service to through Fatimal totems (those animal
spirits who represent/serve/adopt various Fatimas and, by extension, their
tribes). The chapter also has a
great example of what ritual synthesis (large ritual magic) looks and sounds
like.
Chapter Five: Dreams Of Fire
In order to repay the Squats and their patron spirit, Mountain, the
Ferrymen take a detour to combat a powerful dream demon.
The demon turns out to be a real threat, not just to the Squats or the
Ferrymen, but to the whole Great Architecture itself. Not since their Fall have the Ferrymen faced their absolute
destruction at the hands of
something as powerful as Elatha. I
won’t go into much detail (since I think Elatha will be making an appearance
in future T8 books as a longterm
metaplot antagonist), but needless to say their boat is destroyed, spirits are
killed, the Fold is attacked (but it holds), and the Ferrymen are almost killed
(twice, actually). Only the timely
appearance of Dove (a bird spirit) rescues them from certain death (or merely
eternal torment in the spiritual firewall that surrounds Rhantoh [Toronto]).
Here we get descriptions of what the River actually seems like – a
virtual treat for the senses. The
detailing of Elatha is something really dangerous.
One of the few things in this book that deliberately has no stats
associated with it (even Mountain, a whole friggin’ mountain!, has some). Elatha, power level-wise, is on par with a Fatima (if the
Fatima knew what she was doing, had her Totem spirit on hand, and a few hundred
of her most powerful followers too. A
Guide or three … dozen… wouldn’t hurt either).
I really hope to see Elatha in future products – mostly so that at some
point a scenario presents itself and the PCs can kick its butt).
We also get to see a little about the Z’Bri (most of their spirituality
is described in Horrors of the Z’Bri),
most importantly, why that wall of spirit fire (first introduced in Into
the Outlands [DP9-8XX]) is there in the first place – anything that
makes things like Elatha put up giant walls to hide behind is something to
really be worried about. We also
get our first real look at the Fold in this chapter. The Fold is something who’s effects are always perceived
but the Fold is never itself discussed (except in the books where the Z’Bri
keep trying to break through it, even then it is more of an off-scene presence
than something that N/PCs interact with directly).
Chapter Six: Starlight, Starbright
With their
escape from Elatha the voyage of the Ferrymen culminates in the manifestation of
something even beyond anything they had imagined before.
Like the last chapter most of what’s covered here is really big,
abstract, metaplot material so I won’t go into much detail except to say that
the metaphor of the river only describes part of the Great Architecture, and
above a river shine stars bright and beautiful.
The Ferrymen are forever changed, and one sacrifices himself so that his
record (his own tattooed skin) can return to Vimary to impart what they have
learned, and to warn Vimary and anyone who will listen, about Elatha, the Sea of
the Lost, and the disastrous consequences of the Fold in reality.
I know a lot
of people will be angry that I’m telling you everything (or that I’m not
telling enough), but part of the problem here is that the story needs to be read
to be really understood. Past
events – the Z’Bri corruption, the Fold, the deaths of Joshua and Mary, the
Falling Plagues (meteorite strikes) – all of these are merely the few symptoms
of a universal-level problem that we as limited, mortal beings, can perceive.
The Universal spirit, the Song of Stars, is dying, the Great Architecture
is falling apart – growing like a cancer in places (like the Sea of the Lost)
while being starved in others (the Well of Souls, and the home of the Z’Bri).
The problem is that only those at the highest level can see everything
all at once, but when one reaches a level of abstraction sufficient to perceive
the whole of the problem, then you are also so far removed from it that you are
incapable of taking any for of direct action.
Everyone can feel that something is wrong, but that level of malaise only
influences their limited understanding of the universe.
The fate of
the other three Ferrymen is left unknown, but it is suggested that they are
somewhere back on Earth (the text hints at the Pacific or Indian Ocean and
making landfall somewhere around there). This
reminds us that Vimary, for all the depth of the plot and conflicts around that
island, is only a very small part of the larger physical world and an even
smaller part of the whole of the universe.
Chapter Seven: Around the Fire
The story of the Wanderer is at an end, and the storyteller’s fire is
dying. The Fallen around the circle
are left with a decision about what to make of the wisdom imparted. The story of the Ferrymen is over, the story of the Humanity,
of the Nation, and the Z’Bri may have only just started. The chapter is
all of three pages long so there isn't much to comment on.
Chapter Eight: Substance of Spirit
This is the Weaver Resources chapter, where what has been hinted at or
explicitly mentioned is written out for the less perceptive and the anti-narrativists
out there. Don’t think that just
because it starts on page 98 that it is unfinished – it still have over 40
pages of description and advice about how to use Sythesis, the River, and
spirits in your Tribe 8 games.
It takes the time to review every bit of the metaphysical reality of the
setting – including River geography, Shallows and Anchors (two elements
introduced in previous books), the role of various spirits (and how they
interact), totems and eminences (paragraph long write-ups for each eminence and
its effect on how the dreamer perceives the River, organized by tribe and
outlook) and themes and moods for Synthesis.
One portion of this chapter deals with an explanation of how
conjunctional synthesis and aspect synthesis (the two basic ‘spell-casting’
forms) work – including why it is so hard to do anything in a
combat/quick-cast type of situation. Another
deals with religion among the Keepers (not all of them are agnostic/militant
atheists in severe denial).
For the power junkies there are a number of new Aspects (both Synthesis
and Sundering), and Technosmithing formulae – all dealing with the River,
Dreams or spirits. The power level
of these things is about on par with other Tribe
8 books. What many will really
like is the section on “missing” Aspects – including Magnum (Joshua),
Blessing (Marian) and Nitrous (Magdalite – mentioned in only one character
description of a Withered Rose diplomat in Horrors
of the Z’Bri). There are
also rituals for Tribal, Squat, and even Serfs alike, again with an emphasis on
the social function of the rituals and not just mechanics and effects.
There are also new modifiers for Synthesis and Sundering (things which
have already been hinted at in previous books – like the status/power of the
Z’Bri and the number of them having an impact on the Threshold to resist their
spiritually destructive atmospheres).
The end of the chapter has more guidelines for spirits, with 4 more
spirits (in addition to the 5 described in the narrative’s sidebars).
Appendix
Finally,
perks and flaws that include spiritual ones – including ‘Spirit Patron’,
our long lost ‘Totem’ perk (to use the powers of the Spirit Totems, like the
Order of the Black Owls, Tera Sheba’s ultra-conservative reactionary secret
police). The perks are not cheap
(most being about 3 points, a full fledged Totem being 6 points), and the flaws
are nasty (moreso for Tribal characters since the others have them to some
degree or another by default). Actually
a couple of them remind me of Ars Magica’s hermetic virtues – making one
type of magic use easier while making others harder or just impossible.
And for those
who like completeness the appendix also includes an alphabetized list of all the
aspects printed in other books, complete with mechanics and book/page reference.
Between this and the Horrors
of the Z’Bri’s write up on various Atmospheres (the passive auras of
the Z’Bri, a manifestation of their wrongness)
you have just about every bit of information on everything supernatural in the
whole Tribe 8 setting to date!
Conclusions
I loved this book. I waited
impatiently for it, read it cover to cover, and loved every single minute of it.
Other games list spells and powers, but few take the time to explain what
the impact on a setting’s society (which leads to cities full of PC-made
anachronistic features and magical item assembly lines).
The integration – from birth to sleep, rituals marking periods of life,
and eventually death and the afterlife is there, and it’s all done with
sufficient space for groups to use it however they want.
But such avid fannish devotion is not without reservations about obvious
omissions – the Guides. I know
that Hilary and the DP9 crowd want to keep the powers of the Guides a secret
(all we know is that they are all born disfigured in some way, they use the
Z’Bri heartstones to see the past and the future, they seem to know more about
the River and Synthesis than even the Fatimas, and they have access to any and
all Eminences and Aspects as needed by the metaplot). But this is the second
book that claimed to discuss them, to “reveal their secrets” (Harvest of Thorns, a Book
of Legends, was the other one) only throw out a few more tidbits instead of
explaining them in detail (like say, sufficient detail for Weavers to make their
own alternatives to Den-Hades and Halos, hint hint). Since the book is already jam packed I’m not angry about
their continued mystery, but maybe the next time you put “explain the
Guides” somewhere in the promotional blurb, you could actually do just that?
All in all this is a great, even essential, addition to the Tribe 8
library. Go out and buy a couple of copies (one for the Weaver, one for
players) today, right now. Go go go go!
Ratings - Substance: 5, Style: 5.
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