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In Short

The Good: Some of the faction descriptions are interesting and could be fun to introduce into a Chronicle. The Ministries are well done, as are the Exarchs.

The Bad: The Seers just aren’t very interesting. Little guidance is provided for running Seer-based Chronicles, which is a major issue since they have so much infighting. Some writing tends to be long winded and repetitive. Much of the new content, such as the Legacies, is generic.

The Physical Thing

Under the Cover

The fall of Atlantis was a time of great difficulties for the Seers just as it was for the Diamond (Pentacle) mages. After the fall, once the Exarchs had ascended to godhood, some mages began receiving visions. They regarded the Exarchs as gods, or at least as very powerful beings that may reward their service, and began acting as they were instructed. Above all they were told to protect the new Abyss that separated the realms, and they set about doing so with brutal means.

In addition to their task of guarding the Abyss, certain mages received visions from the Exarchs indicating that humanity was a threat because of its ability to Awaken and other unstated reasons. This would eventually become the driving force behind the goals of the Seers of the Throne, and the source of most forms of conflict within the organization. The Seers set about trying to control humanity, in one way or another, and have never stopped their manipulations.

Eventually a war between the Diamond mages and the Seers prompted a sort of truce, though the two groups would continue to spar throughout history. Seers had a more serious problem to deal with at the time, that being internal strife. To resolve this problem they created the Methodologies, autonomous factions generally working towards the same ends, and established hierarchies within those Methodologies in order to at least lessen factional infighting.

With Methodologies established the single great division between the Seers began to emerge. Some wanted to unite humanity under one rules in order to most easily control the entire world at once. Others felt that breaking down organizations was a better idea, taking control of some of the small governments that would be allowed to exist instead.

Internal problems weren’t the only issues Seers had to contend with over the years. The Diamond mages often struck from the shadows, and even more alarmingly they occasionally attempted to rebuild Atlantis, destroy the Abyss, or otherwise implement powerful works that could threaten the Exarchs. Sabotage, assassination, and control over pockets of humanity managed to counter these threats though the Seers always took them seriously.

In addition to the background material, Chapter One also provides a summary of Seer activities in the modern world by region. The big downside to all of this is just how unremarkable the Seers are, especially considering what we already know. While I do appreciate the book noting that, as written, the Seers aren’t the Illuminati-like power they wish they were the sad truth is that it results in an intensely bureaucratic villain group with little of interest going on. Some receive visions that they act on out of pure faith while others are happy with ruling over a small slice of life.

As far as the historical background goes, the best I can say is that there are a few neat ideas in a sea of words. This chapter suffers from plenty of words but few interesting ideas, resulting in lots of reading that goes nowhere. The general history presented here is good enough to provide a Storyteller with the background on the Seers but not enough to inspire a person to want to incorporate them into a game.

Chapter Two Kings of the Lie - 62 pages.

Of the entire book, Chapter Two is the best. It offers clear goals and interesting factions for the Seers to belong to, along with better defining the Exarchs. If the whole book were up to this level of quality then this would be a much better product. The Exarchs tell their servants to Conquer the Watchtowers, Control Magic, Divide Humanity, Destroy the Pentacle, Enslave the Gods, Protect Humanity, and Regulate the Abyss. Don’t mind the protect humanity bit. As the book points out, what are masters without slaves?

The Exarchs have a wonderfully strange feel to them. Eleven in total, the major Exarchs also serve as ideals to which the Methodologies have aligned themselves. The five major Exarchs are The Eye, The Father, The General, The Unity, and The Gate. The six lesser Exarchs are The Chancellor, The Nemesis, The Psychopomp, The Prophet, The Raptor, and The Ruin. Each has one or more paragraphs of good supporting description, just enough to flesh them out a bit in concept but leave them mysterious. Most Exarchs are associated with a specific type of magic, reflect a certain role in society, and possess an unpronounceable rune-name.

New concepts introduced here include using Status: Seers to gain visions from the Exarchs, avatars of the Exarchs sent to Earth to perform specific tasks, the Ministries, and Prelacies. Chapter Two wraps up with a few example cults and organizations attached to the Seers along with how the Seers interact with the many other entities of the World of Darkness. Let’s take a look at the Ministries and Prelacies since they have such a strong impact on Seer characters.

Ministries are large scale political organizations built around beliefs that reflect a specific Exarch. The day to day work is done by local Pylons which may be composed of Seers from a variety of different Pylons. The Ministries often fight among each other, though when the Exarchs send visions all will jump to make their will a reality. Status is encouraged for specific Ministries and mechanics are included to make it a more attractive Merit by offering access to other Backgrounds through it.

The four great Ministries include: The Hegemonic Ministry (uses government and nationalism to control), The Ministry of Panopticon (ever present observation for control), The Ministry of Paternoster (uses religion to control), and The Praetorian Ministry (control through war and violence). I like the nature of their control mechanisms and how each group has been stronger or weaker at various moments in history. All said, the Ministries are well done and serve as a very reasonable way to organize the Seers.

While Ministries offer a political backing for a character, they also offer power through Prelacies. These are initiations into various arcane secrets and techniques that augment the mage’s powers. Split into Crown (innate powers), Sword (spell modification), and and Temple (soulstone-based area of effect powers). The bonuses provided by these Prelacies can be quite strong and are purchased through Status and experience points.

With a god-being whispering in your ear and a power boost a few conditions are attached. Let’s look at the information on serving the Exarchs next!

Chapter Three Serving the Exarchs - 46 pages.

Obedience, Service, Vigilance, Discipline, Understanding, Courage, Lie-Maintenance, Controlling Magical Knowledge, and Destroying the Pentacle are all major topics here and focus in on the duties of Seers of the Throne. On the one hand they’re useful in that they provide the reader with a better idea of how the Seers function on a day to day basis. On the other hand the entries are a little lengthy for the information they convey, and a shorter section covering the same material would have been welcome. Generally speaking, if you’ve read Mage: The Awakening then the very nature of the Seers should make most of this material intuitive to you.

The rest of the chapter focuses in on the hierarchy of the Seers. On the one hand the hierarchy is very logical, if intensely bureaucratic. It sprawls and it’s not at all clear who has authority over a given entity, at least not all the time. In this way it makes sense because it’s realistic, and it does fit well with an overarching organization that is dedicated to control.

On the downside, there are aspects of this that may not be fun for everyone. It really is a sprawling bureaucracy, and the only time you’ll need this much detail is if you’re running a Seer-focused game. A lot of us have had our fill of unworkable bureaucracies in the day to day, so just be aware that this may be far too much detail on the administrative aspect of the Seers for some folk. It’s there if you want it, but if you don’t then that’s quite a bit of wasted space.

Chapter Four Heads of the Hydra - 38 pages.

A few concepts initially introduced at the start of the book are elaborated on here, those being Hostels and Proxies. Seers are a paranoid lot, and for good reason. Advancement within the super-bureaucratic structure can be smoothed with a few well placed thrusts of a knife, and most Seers keep a sharp eye out on ways to get ahead. Because of this these two traditions have emerged. Hostels declare safe locations where all those currently in the structure must defend all others from attack, making them ideal for business. Proxies are nothing more than other people sent in the place of a given Seer, often backed by Mind or Space magic so the Seer can observe what’s going on without the risk of actually going to a face to face meeting.

Chapter Four focuses in on organizations of Seers, specifically the close to the ground Pylons that get the day to day work done. A variety of well considered Pylons are introduced, any one of which could work well as a potential antagonist or as a supporting NPC group for a Chronicle. I like these because I think they provide the best view of how to use the Seers in a game, and hopefully they’ll be useful to you should you choose to run a Seers game.

Legacies are always of interest to players, and since the Seers are so philosophically different many existing Legacies don’t work as well for them. A list of appropriate Legacies from other books is included alongside a host of new Legacies. Those Legacies include: Architects of the Future (future monitoring), Chrysalides (socialites), Masters of Destruction (they… break things), Princes of the Many Masks (spies), Secret Order of the Gate (Abyssal summoners and heretics). With the exception of the fascinating Order of the Gate I find these to be a little generic and needlessly focused on one simple concept while lacking interesting ideas, but for those that just want more raw Legacies these can work for Seers or non-Seers campaigns.

Chapter Five Gifts of the Exarchs - 20 pages.

Simply put: a discussion of magic follows a host of new Rotes. Just like the Legacies, books like Seers of the Throne have to have plenty of mechanical goodies to entice players. Among these Rotes, very little suggests why any one of them makes sense for Seers to use and anyone else not to use. That said, I like Rotes and I enjoy reading these. If you’re pleased with the thought of having more example spells and faction specific Rotes to add to your game then Chapter Five won’t disappoint.

Appendix Antagonists - 18 pages.

A variety of different adversaries are included, neatly fitting various roles so that a Storyteller can easily find one to fit a needed spot in a Chronicle. As with other White Wolf products, these NPCs come with brief, generic information along with full stat blocks that enables the Storyteller to easily use them for a variety of different encounters.

My Take

The bottom line for me is that this is a functional book if you really want to incorporate more Seer activity in your game, but if you’re just looking for more cool ideas for a Mage Chronicle then there are better supplements out there.

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