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Disclaimer II: This review contains spoilers. I feel that I have to spill some of the book?s secrets in order to give a comprehensive overview of its contents. If you are currently playing Exalted and you have reason to suspect that your ST has access to the sourcebook, you should stop reading now!
Overview
Kingdom of Halta (KoH) is a perfect-bound book with 96 pages. The cover, done by UDON, was already circulated on various message boards, and shows an attack on a Haltan city high in the trees. It looks very dynamic with all the flaming arrows and leaping warriors, and is certainly one of the best of all the Exalted covers so far. The interior layout is typical for White Wolf, with two columns of text and a good number of black and white illustrations, some of them also done by UDON. Unfortunately, the editing is also typical for White Wolf, which means it could have been better. There are three chapters and a short introduction, and I?m glad to report that no pages were wasted with fiction vignettes.
Introduction
KoH explores the wooded Haltan Republic, far in the northeast of the Threshold, where the inhabitants live high in the redwood trees with their sentient animal companions. There are locked in an endless struggle with the Linowan tribes to the west, but surprisingly, the book has an even greater focus on the military campaign of a Solar Exalted conqueror called the Bull of the North, which is problematic (more on that later). The introduction tells us what to expect from KoH, lists a number of other useful Exalted books for reference, and gives us a short glossary of Haltan terms. This lexicon is ridiculous because it just contains three expressions unique to the Haltan people among a list of NPC names that are introduced anyway later in the book. Frankly, I do not see the point.
Chapter One: The Kingdom of Halta
Chapter one is aptly named The Kingdom of Halta because it contains the bulk of the background material. In the honoured tradition of most Exalted books, it also throws out plot hooks left and right. Haltan cities are built among the redwood trees, and although the writers give their very best to describe such strange settlements, they do not show us a map as example. The drawing on page eight still provides the best illustration, but otherwise, I could not get the picture of an Ewok tree village from Return of the Jedi out of my mind while reading this part ? and this is not a good thing! The Haltan Republic has a rather large population and its capital, Chanta, houses over a million people. Other highlights in this chapter include the description of ruined Sal-Maneth, a floating city from the First Age that may still hide secrets from times gone by, and some truly strange settlements in the far east ruled openly by spirits and God-Blooded. Next, we delve into Haltan culture and learn that two Lunar Exalted taught them how to live in harmony with their forest environment. This was particularly refreshing for me to read because I always had a problem with the "civilization-kill-smash"-attitude attributed to them. Unfortunately, we get neither descriptions nor stats for Rain Deathflyer and Silver Python, although they seem to be still around. However, the chapter goes into much more details about trade, travel, drug use and the Haltan government, and I even felt like the writers went a bit overboard with their material. It was a dry read for me, but I assume most storytellers will have their bases covered when they have to describe Haltan daily life to their players. Warfare between the Linowan tribes and the Haltan Republic is also described extensively, with notes on forest tactics, military strength and types of missions.
Before chapter one finally comes to a close, we get to the most problematic section of the sourcebook: The Bull of the North. We get a timeline of his campaign and a rather lengthy discussion of his tactics, resources and military achievements. While the subject material is certainly interesting and relevant, the execution could have been better, more adaptable to individual campaigns. The character of the Bull is a blatant violation of one of the game?s cardinal rules: This time, the player characters ARE the metaplot! He is a Solar Exalted with a head start of about four years compared to groups that begin in the "canon" year of 768, and he has access to Second Circle demons, warstriders and (probably) even Solar Circle Sorcery! I would have liked him as an optional element, but unfortunately, no suggestions on how to remove him from the timeline are given. True, the destruction of the Tepet Legions was mentioned first in Scavenger Sons, and obviously, Mr. Grabowski felt he had to solve a continuity issue, but still, the execution was not really helpful for storytellers who have other ideas for the northeast of Creation. Also, I don?t understand why they did not focus on the previously established conflict between the Linowan and the Haltan. Instead, they brought in the Bull completely from the left field. This part covers seven pages that could have been used much better.
Chapter Two: Magical Beings of Halta
Chapter two opens with backgrounds and stats of various gods and elementals that make their homes among the redwood forest. These descriptions follow the format previously established in Games of Divinity and Ruins of Rathess. All of the spirit creatures are certainly useful and well written, but a few of them stand out as especially nifty examples: Bloody Sky is a lesser elemental dragon of fire who is responsible for, well, forest fires. He also takes great pride in his job, and his fiery manse is only accessible to visitors who can stand the heat. Another notable being is the ancient earth elemental Kola that speaks words of wisdom to everyone who solves the stone riddle surrounding its rocky domain.
Three Exalted characters are presented next, and the Last Hunter of Xaal, a No Moon Lunar and former lover of Raksi, is certainly the most noteworthy of the bunch because he has a quite unusual totem beast ? a spider. Played to the hilt, he can be a scary, scheming opponent, especially if one considers his loyal tribe of beastmen children illustrated later. I had just a small gripe with his stat block: The writer wastes three lines telling us that the Last Hunter rarely uses his close combat skills instead of just giving us his exact attack values for fist, bite or whatever he has available. Of course, I can calculate them myself rather easily, but why bother with a comment that belongs in his description above?
My favourite piece in KoH is without a doubt the pair of ghosts called the Silver Child and the Shade Tiger. No, I will not spoil their secrets, but rest assured that they can form the basis of an intriguing adventure focused on mystery and investigation. Their tale is sad and, dare I say, romantic, and a satisfying resolution to their plight will take more brains than brawns. Kudos to whoever came up with this idea! The deadwood ghosts, on the other hand, were quite amusing because I read their entry after watching The Two Towers and immediately thought "cool, undead ents!" I know, it is not entirely accurate, but you get the idea.
Finally, we move into a lengthy discussion about the three unique Fair Folk nobles residing within the boundaries of Halta. This is extremely useful material because it shows that KoH could easily serve as a foundation for a campaign centred on these enemies of Creation. The three rulers, who do not get along well with each other, are again elementally aligned, which means (well, at least to me) that we can expect the same system for Graceful, Wicked Masks later this year.
Chapter Three: Beasts, Manses & Sundry Wonders
A grab-bag of miscellaneous material not covered previously awaits us in the final section of the book, chapter three. It opens with a detailed explanation of the san- and ata-beasts that form an important part of the Haltan culture. The former are "just" unusually bright animals with the intelligence of a four year old child; the latter, however, are truly sentient beings and considered citizens under Haltan law. We also get descriptions and a table with stats of animals commonly found in the redwood forest of the northeast similar to the ones in the core rules and Savage Seas. Three new breeds of beastmen descended from hawks, snakes and spiders are covered as well.
Three Manses are extensively featured: The Proving Ground contains a number of Demesnes of varying strengths that are considered sacred by the Haltan people. No one is capping them with Manses though because most of them are used by the Fair Folk, one Lunar Exalted and the earth elemental Kola mentioned earlier. Xaal, the Manse of Spiders, acts as the seat of power for the Last Hunter, and although the place is described in lavish details, there is no map. Still, the Hearthstone has a nifty effect and would be well worth the effort of conquering Xaal. Finally, Yesrik the Hawk God makes his home in a minor Manse, aptly named Yesrik?s Aerie, with the aspect of wood sitting high among the redwood trees.
Of course, what sourcebook would be complete without a few legacies from the First Age scattered around? In the case of KoH, we get Vengeful Thunder, a unique warstrider that has a spirit bound into its frame (think artificial intelligence and you get the picture). There is quite an epic story surrounding the ancient war machine, and it will most likely take some adventures to hunt down the clues and find a satisfying conclusion. The remainder of the artefacts include the Cold Wind Knives, an assassin?s wet dream, and the Iron Puzzle Box, an obvious, but welcome, reference to the Hellraiser movies. The chapter closes with the Sky-Cutter, a magical thrown weapon similar to a boomerang that is always made from one of the five magical materials. This is especially welcome because so far, we only had the Lightning Torment Hatchets from the core rules as examples of artefact thrown weapons.
Conclusion
KoH is clearly aimed at Storytellers who are about to run a campaign in the far northeast of Creation, and at fans of Exalted who just want more toys... more gods, beasts, artefacts and other things like that. Although it is not stated explicitly, I also got the impression that the authors had a freshly created Circle of Solar Exalted in mind when they wrote the book because more experienced characters will solve many of the plot hooks rather quickly. Mind you, this is no criticism on my part, I just thought to point it out. However, I?m not entirely pleased with the limited scope of the location books so far. Ruins of Rathess failed to provide us with the complete character creation rules and powers for the Dragon Kings, while KoH shows us only one half of a bigger picture. I know that the approach of White Wolf is valid, but that does not mean I have to like it. KoH could have been a much better sourcebook without the annoying Bull of the North and an increased page count of the more usual 128. That way, they could have detailed the Linowan tribes on, say, 39 pages and focused solely on the central conflict between the two neighbouring states. Therefore, I call it a missed opportunity and can only justify a Substance rating of 3.
The artwork of the Exalted line in general got consistently better with each release thanks to UDON Studios and other talented artists, and KoH is no exception. In fact, I think it is one of the best-looking sourcebooks so far. However, I have to lower the rating by one because of the bad editing and the typos, which results in a solid 4 for Style.
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