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The Order of Hermes has one of the longest histories of any role playing organisation. It began in 1987 with Johnathan Tweet (of DnD3e fame) and Mark ReinSPLATHagen (of the World of Darkness fame). When Lion Rampant, original publisher of Ars Magica, was absorbed by White Wolf, certain aspects of the Order of Hermes (namely the Tremere) was ported over to the new Vampire: the Masquerade game. A few years later, the first edition of Mage: the Ascension was released, revising the Order of Hermes for a modern setting.
For a long while, Mage: the Ascension Revised has needed a revised Traditionbook: Order of Hermes (TB:OoH). They, more so than any other Tradition, define what Mage is all about. They were instrumental in a huge number of key events in the World of Darkness, the founding of the Tradition Council, the primary army in the war against the Technocracy and the originator of most of the world’s now deceased Archmages. Since Revised Mage was released, there has been precious little on this pivotal Tradition. For three years we’ve had to make do with Blood Treachery, the chronicle book detailing the disastrous war between the undead House of Tremere and the collapsing Order of Hermes.
So what were we needing from TB:OoH?
Firstly and most importantly, we needed a description of how the Order functioned, how it ran and its internal structure, the Houses, Tribunals and chantries.
Secondly, we needed to see why the Order, hated, feared or disliked, had survived since the Mythic Age, through the costly wars against the Technocracy, to remain the preeminent Tradition. What about them made them the most effective group of Awakened Mages? How have they dealt with the Avatar Storm and the seeming victory of the Technocracy?
Thirdly, we needed an explanation of their paradigm. How did they do their magic? What did they believe? What special types of magic did they use to maintain their position? These things should include their specialisation of Enochian, the language of the Umbrood, their supposed mastery over the Spirit world, and most importantly, their deep understanding of Certamen, magical, non-lethal dueling.
Some details
TB:OoH comes in at 100 pages, soft cover, with that Christopher Shy picture from the Revised book, showing a Hermetic holding a glowing green amulet. It is written by Stephen Michael DiPesa (who co-wrote Blood Treachery) and Phil Brucato (long time Developer of Second Edition Mage, Sorcerer’s Crusade and author of books from those two lines). Bill Bridges is the Developer. It would seem therefore that this Traditionbook is in good hands.
Prologue
A single page of fiction, titled “Renegage”, it describes a Tytalan bringing down an insane Flambeau. Short and to the point, the story neither succeeds nor fails in summing up the Order in its current incarnation. This really sums up the entire book.
Introduction
The Theme of TB:OoH is supposedly Rebirth. The old, dusty and staid aspects of the Order have been purged, allowing for a new and vibrant generation to rise and take over. The magic of the Order is now undergoing a renaissance. Alchemical and Kabbalistic allusions are strong and omnipresent here, from the philosopher’s stone to Adam Kadmon, the primeval man. The two authors are obviously well versed in the basics of “real world” Hermetic tradition, and in particular, in Kabbalism.
A note here, because it irked me: the correct spelling is ‘Massasa’, which refers to vampires. Some sloppy editing sees this term gain every possible variation, from Massassa, to Masassa.
Chapter 1
This is the history section. Rather than go through it, I’ll give my likes and dislikes.
Firstly, the history is complete. It takes us from the Creation, to the current times. It goes through each of the major points concisely, using dot-points as emphasis. It is also a pretty good occult history, mentioning Shekinah, the Kabbalistic female aspect of God, covering the Qlippoth, the creation of humans, the Tree of Life and a brief explanation of each Sephiroth. It is really a history of Hermeticism, rather than of the Order of Hermes though, so we are told of the First Convocation in Egypt under Isis and Osiris. One of the major themes here is the Tower, constantly being built, destroyed and rebuilt. The Tower here represents knowledge and wisdom, but also isolation and arrogance. It is a measure for the Hermetic Tradition of their cyclic rise and fall, from the Tower of Babel, the Library of Alexandria and then later, Mistridge and Doissetep. The occult-ness of this history is a major boon. It gives an interesting cosmology and a deep and diverse history for which PCs playing Hermetics can draw upon. Sidebars explaining the role of Hermes, Sophia and Gnosticism aid this tremendously. Things get interesting when we finally get to the ‘real’ Hermetic history, the history of the Order. This is also mostly good. We are told why the Order was founded, the role of the Founders, and then the events of the Mythic Age, from the Schism War, the first Massasa War and the rise of the Order of Reason. A summary of the history of Dark Ages: Mage and Sorcerer’s Crusade is here, and the theme of the Tower is always present. A list of the original Founders rounds things out, and dot points raise the existance of new Houses and important events. (Also a good thing is the now complete separation of the Order’s M:tA history from that of Ars Magica, since not only does a lot of the Mythic Age history differ from that of Ars Magica, it outright contradicts it. The stupidity of the Second Edition argument that the Ars Magica Order of Hermes was a hedge-mage ‘public face’ is now gone.)
The end of the chapter is also successful in explaining the current position of the Order, the rebirth of Hermes as the Trickster God of the Information Age. No longer are the Order technophobes. Events of recent years, most importantly the Week of Nightmares and the Second Massasa War are explained briefly to describe the new composition of the Order. Finally, right at the end there is a big list of all of the Houses, past and present.
Unfortunately, everything that was bad about Second Edition Mage is here. We are given a history of Big Names and Big Events, and a lot of historical events are described in terms of the manipulation and control of mages. Rarely, they react to events, such as the World Wars, but there is a real back step in terms of how the World of Darkness has been portrayed in most Revised settings. Additionally, a large amount of space was given over to the Creation story and the ‘prehistory’ of the Order. While Reed and Cup are important, altogether too much time is spent on them. This is a failing, since it takes quite a while before we actually get to the history of the Order, rather than the history of Hermeticism. In terms of Big Names, Porthos and those old Masters from Second Ed are given a lot of time-- to much in my opinion. They are not the only ones: the Masters who orchestrated the Tradition Council are given a fair whack of attention.
While I approve of the nature and tone of the occult history here, I take issue in its generalities and vagueness. A lot of names and beliefs are flashed and bandied around. While I may know who Apuleius is, and the story of Simon Magus (who fought Peter, not Paul by the way), they are supposedly important figures and events given no explanation or reasoning. And despite the obvious erudition of Brucato and DiPesa, they did miss out on a lot of occult goodness, either by accident or design. For example, Hiram is not mentioned, despite the apparent love for the Temple of Solomon as a forerunner of Hermetic Towers. Plotinus is mentioned, but not Porphyri or Iamblichus, and later, Erasmus, Cagliostro, Zosimus and so on are neglected. Shekinah, Sophia or Psyche, the feminine aspect of God, is given cursory treatment, but the possibilities around the power of sexual union with her is missed-- this sexual union is not only an important part of a lot of Gnosticism, but is also key to Kabbalism. Furthermore, I’d have liked to see most of the history actually be referred to. While it’s all very well that Daedalus, Zoroaster and Plato laid out pillars, let’s see those pillars mentioned later in this chapter, or indeed in later chapters. The Kabbalistic Sephiroth are given pride of place, but apart from a cursory mention in the Sphere’s chapter, their entire purpose as aspects of Divine that allow mortals to become as God are ignored. It is constantly mentioned that Hermes said, men can become Gods, but this is never followed up. How can a Hermetic become a God? What are Hermetic paths to Ascension?
Chapter 2
This chapter, with a title “The Will and the Word” that calls into mind the David Edding’s fantasy series, deals with the body of the Order: it’s ranks and Houses. I mostly approved of the ranks chapter, a neat division of three ranks of three, and a description of how the Order recruits. One of the better parts of this is the point that the Order is the only Tradition to systematise the Awakening process, by gathering a large number of possible Awakened (in the past through the auspices of House Fortunae, but now at the discretion of individual Hermetics), they are given a lot of training to harness their Willpower and resolve. The bonus of this system is that even if the candidate doesn’t Awaken, the Order still benefits from the person being an adept Hedge-Mage (who under Revised have a fair amount of power). The Order of Hermes is an order of Hermeticists, not of Awakened Hermetics. Thus, hedge-mage Hermetic sorcerers can still rise to positions of prominence.
The politics of the Order is also a good chapter, explaining how not only how the Order deals with boons and favours, but also how they deal with the Law, and Code of Hermes. No details are given on the Peripheral Code, but that was to be expected, given its supposed size. Justice is also here, including the interesting fact that the Gilgul rite has been performed at most only 15 times. I must say that I approve of the side bar that explains the name of the Gilgul rite, named after the Jewish concept of the transmigration of souls (ie, reincarnation). Certainly food for thought. This section falls down with the Tribunals and the actual pan-organisation of the Order. It does not explain how the Order is structured over the world. It has Houses, but Tribunals are given a paragraph, and Tribunal positions, such as Praeco and so on, are not mentioned. Given the importance of this structure in any long term or grand Hermetic chronicle, it was a disappointment to see it missing.
Finally we get to the Houses, and an in depth description of them all. Here I must pause and mention the Art. While up till now the art has been quite good, we unfortunately have here House portraits by Jeff Laubenstein, which are, to say the least, crap. They really mess up this section, and bring the tone down as only really bad artwork can.
Be that as it may, the writing of this section is solid. Not only are we given a history of each House, we are told their philosophy, their goals, magical styles, internal organisation, how one is initiated into the House, who their Primus is (most Houses don’t have a Primus at the moment) and what their Words typically are. I’m not sure how large a concept the Hermetic Word was in the First Edition OoH book, but in this one, the Word is quite prevalent. It is a concept that each mage chooses to define themselves and their magic.
Most of the House descriptions are good, but some fall into the trap of being one-dimensional and dull. This is especially the case of the Quaesitors, who are still portrayed as “Law and Order” control freaks. Another problem is that some aspects of the history chapter are not carried through here, most particularly the branding of all living Tytalans. This is obviously an important event, but it is not explained how the currently disparate Order was able to organise enough to find and brand every living Tytalan, given the chaos among the Higher Ups.
The strongest section of this chapter is the Paradigm and Belief, which goes through the Spheres and explains them. They are given funky Latin titles that have been referred too constantly prior to this. The bad Latin of prior editions is explained as an In Character thing, and while I honestly can’t say whether the new titles really are correct, having an in character debate over terminology is something that I approve of. There is also sample Resonance Traits, and a side bar on the Tenth Sphere, which refers back to the Sephiroth, but it is really wasted space since it tells us nothing other than a possible name “Ars Unitatis”-- ooh, the Art of Unity. Fantastic.
Rounding out this chapter is some system tools. Enochian and Umbrood Protocols make appearances, but neither Ability is really useful for anything. Enochian allows you to speak to spirits in their own tongue, but it doesn’t aid you in summoning or controlling them, despite what the ability fiction would have you believe. Umbrood Protocols claims to be used for Spirit Pacts, but the systems for that ultimately leave the rolls as using Leadership or Intimidation.
Four rotes are given, two subtle and two powerful. Betrayal of the Burning Arrow (Cor 1, Forces 3) is useful for any Hermetic fighting the Ascension War, as it causes guns to explode, doing a lot of damage. Caesar’s Due (Cor 3, Entropy 2, Prime 2) is a rote that allows for payment of bills without leaving a paper trail. The most impressive rotes are Occlude the Seal of Power (Matter 2, Mind 2, Prime 4) which suppresses your Resonance traits for a time; and Vulcan’s Hammer (Forces 3, Life 4, Matter 3), which turns the Hermetic into a living 1000 degree molten metal statue-- obviously incredibly vulgar. There are two Wonders, a level 6 and a level 8, both are interesting but not that adaptable for a variety of games. Hermetic True Names are given a system, which I really approve of. A Hermetic with a True Name is affected by Correspondence on the range table as “no connection” so long as the enemy mage does not know the True Name. The Spirit Pact section is also a good addition, something that was really needed. However, it is fairly vague, and a fair bit of space is taken up with fluff about how the negotiations play out.
As pointed out by other reviewers, there is a notable lack of Certamen rules. I honestly cannot say if certamen was covered in Guide to the Traditions, but given the Order’s role in using certamen, it noticeably missing. Likewise, there is nothing on Alchemy or Kabbalism, despite both of these things importance in the history section, and in the general themes and moods of the book as a whole.
Chapter 3
Here we have some sample characters, a sample Hermetic cabal and finally, the Templates. None of the characters here are inspiring or really all that interesting. They are archetypes, with flashy terms such as ‘powerful force’ and ‘perfected and universal justice’.
The interesting section here is the too-short Hermetic Chronicle, which describes how the Order could be used for an all Hermetic game. Most notably, the incredible diversity of the Order is given as an excuse for mages of differing beliefs and magic types to be involved with one another. It’s all very inspiring and should have been longer.
Likewise, the Hermetic Myths could have been expanded, in particular the concept of the City of Pymander, the Hermetic Utopia, and the bogus conspiracy of the end of the Mayan Calendar in 2012 (dealt with in Dead Magic).
The Templates that round out this chapter are unfortunately neither inspiring nor interesting. They are all one dimensional, such as the really smart Bonisagus, the Fortunae investor, the Lara Croft rip-off Verditius (ooh, gadgets) and the Quaesitor obsessed with order and harmony. All of the Templates have tabletop and Mind’s Eye Theatre character sheets.
There is a 4 page Hermetic character sheet at the back.
Conclusions
Ultimately, TB:OoH is a mixed bag. There is a lot of good work here. But there is also a lot of missed chances, scarce information and a lack of focus. The tone of the book is definitely back in Second Ed territory, with cosmic reorganisation and rebirth the theme of the day, with grand and sweeping histories that encompass everything. There is a lot mentioned and very little followed up on.
This Second Ed flavour is typified with the artwork, which really shows a nineties feel. Most of it is good, although I must confess to hating Leif Jones in any shape, manner or form; and Jeff’s House portraits are abysmal. The full-page chapter pics are great however, and really convey the feeling that Phil and Stephen were aiming at: an Order in the pangs of cyclic rebirth.
I’d have to say that TB: Order of Hermes is a definite must for troupes who want a Hermetic focus or have Hermetic PCs. It is not the paragon we all hoped for, but it is a damn good book, with a great deal to commend it, and some sticking points that bring the overall tone down.
Style: 3
Substance: 4
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