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With that aside, I'll warn upfront that this isn't going to be a terribly flattering review.
This review will also assume some basic knowledge of the game - but you should be able to pick up the basics from threads on the forum.
The book starts with 8 sides of intro fiction, about some mages awaiting an attack. It focuses on their experiences in encountering their watchtowers. As this book focuses on the specific paths, it goes set up the following information, although the conclusion of the story is, well, inconclusive.
The introduction (p12-13)includes a correspondence table of symbology. Detail on mostof the correspondences are given in the chapters that follow, each of which going to a particular path (ie: a chapter each for Acanthus, Mastigos, Moros, Obrimos and Thrysus).
Speaking of the chapters, they follow a similar layout. Each is introduced with a little bit of blurb, and then a discussion of the theme (which is actually the Tarot card for each path) and the 'mood' of each path. The moods tie in somewhat to the stereotypes of the paths, but it isn't really that over-bearing.
That said, if you really want to explore stereo-breaking character concepts, you aren't likely to find it in these books. Mages on any given path are often spoken of as if they all share a fairly restricted outlook.
Each chapter also contains a section of 'Mythic history' - ie: history since Atlantis in the eyes of the path. Some chapters are better than others for these histories - some had me gritting my teeth at the bad history. Yes, to an extent this is a game about the world we know not being the real world, and of false histories. I suppose that the main reason I'm peeved is because White Wolf seemed to have been doing much better than in the old World of Darkness series.
(Incidentally, as a warning, there is religious 'bashing' in this book. I quote now from p141:
'When the young Christian religion needed to give form to its Devil, Christians chose the image of the horned and goat-legged Pan, because they could think of nothing more terrifying (and because they had to come up with an image more frightening than the religion's own omnipotent, schizophrenic and judgemental deity).'
Charming, no?)
After the history section, each chapter focuses more specifically on the individual mage, for example appearance(which doesn't usually add a great deal more beyond the main book).
The chapters follow with a description of the Nimbus that a mage invokes with magic (somewhat like an aura, or a 'feel'). Most of the chapters look at a range in bullet point form, seperating ideas out nicely. For some reason, the Obrimos chapter does not do this.
There's a brief section on sanctums, some of which can be quite interesting. For example, while the book says many Mastigos have very tidy sanctums (because they're allcontrol freaks, don't you know?), it is also pointed out that with Mind and Space, there are some Mastigos who just leave things in piles or at random, knowing that they can always find what they need.
The section on oblations and dedications may prove quite useful to anyone needing help choosing one/ finding inspiration. Several vows and dedications are detailed for each path, some of which do actually present ideas for characters (or at least they did for me). For example, one of the Mastigos oblations involves endurance, ie exercising more or less solidly for an hour, whilst the Thrysus can take eating as an oblation (and there's a good rationale for this is a spiritual act). Disappointingly, the Obrimos are the exception as far as oblations go - apparently it's all ritual for them. However, more ideas are explored with Obrimos dedications.
You'll notice that there are some exceptions with the level of detail a section gets, between the paths. I'll return to this later.
One of the sections I found disappointing, mostly, was the view each path takes of the other paths, and of the orders. For the most part, there's not much expansion on what the main book says, just more words. However, the Acanthus section is a wonderful exception. The Acanthus still get the usual stereotypes from the main book repeated regarding other paths, but each is followed by a dissenting view, which presents a different relationship between the paths. (It would have been nice to see this also done with the Acanthus views of the orders, but this was a step in the right direction).
Unfortunately the Acanthus chapter came first, so after raising my hopes in this manner, the book disappointed me when no further chapter provided real alternatives to the stereotype views.
Each chapter finishes up with character concepts, a new legacy for the path, and some sample NPCs.
The Legacies are okay - I'm not sure that I'd want to use any of them, but you might differ. In case you want an idea of what you'd be getting, they are:
Storm Keepers (Acanthus): It's all about the weather.
Liberatores (Mastigos): In theory it's about freeing people from their 'chains' but (and this appears to be intended) it looks a lot like brainwashing.
Bokor (Moros): Raise zombies.
Ascended Adept (Obrimos): attempt to discipline their minds. They get some interesting effects, like permanent mind shields and multi-tasking.
Neocologists (Thrysus): They believe the natural world is doomed, so they try to adapt life to this. Largely this involves putting spirits into things, creating changes in the 'container.'
I should note that some of the paths get new Merits. Which is to say, the Acanthus get none, the Mastigos get one (Daimon, which works a bit like Dream), the Moros get none, the Obrimos get one (Higher Calling, which gives a bonus to Resolve in certain instances), and the Thrysus get TEN. I would guess that that particular writer was quite enthusiastic, which isn't a bad thing. However, the book might have been improved with a more even spread.
Which brings me back to the consistency. I don't normally spot these things, but even I could tell that each chapter was written independently. I appreciate that this is how things are often done, but it seems to me that a little checking could have kept things consistent(ie: whether or not Nimbus is addressed as bullet points, or a single paragraph, whether every view of another path should be treated in X way, etc).
The consistency is not a deal breaker for me, although at times it did lead to disappointment, when one chapter did something well, only for that method to not get repeated.
Now, would I recommend you purchase it? If you can get it cheap, why not? There is some interesting information and fluff, although the history section can be a bit dry. Where the history focuses more on enormous duels and grudges, and less on pagan matriarchies, triple goddesses of the moon, etc, the book reads better.
You might not want all the information on the correspondences -be prepared for a small paragraph on why X plant is associated with Y path. The correspondence might liven up an Awakening, or give you something to drop in as a hint, but I found the detail a bit much.
The oblations and devotions are good for the most part. Like the section on the Nimbus, these usually give ideas that you may want to pinch (don't expect too much from the Obrimos section). The Legacies are variable.
There is interesting material in here, but there's quite a lot of stuff that is less interesting. I wish that the writers had focused more on breaking out of the path stereotypes - this remains left to the reader. There's something of an expansion of the stereotypes presented in the book, as far as character concepts and views of the other Awakened, but if you want something to challenge these stereotypes, you'll be left wanring (although the Acanthus chapter does much better at this).
On a nitpicking level, I hope White Wolf stays clear of bad history and religious bashing. So far I don't think I've seen any in the (admittedly few) other NWoD books that I have read. This shouldn't stop you buying the book if you are interested, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Okay, to summarise: This isn't an awful book, but there's a fair bit of material that probably wasn't necessary. There's interesting fluff, and a few new bits of crunch. I'm not sure that it's worth the regular retail price, but if you can find a cheap copy, you will probably get at least some ideas from this. If you want anything that breaks the stereotypes for path mages, you'll probably have to look elsewhere.
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