Review of Blood Treachery

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In Brief: Reading like a cross between a medieval morality play and a Greek tragedy, Blood Treachery chronicles the Order of Hermes in the Final Nights. The main storyline involves the Order of Hermes declaring war on House Tremere. More on this later. The first three chapters is written and staged like a Greek Tragedy. In these three acts, the Spheres (in this drama, they take the parts of the choragus and the Greek Muses) interact and react with the other members on stage. In the later chapters, the play ends and the audience steps outside the play and learns about how the Hermetics are dealing with the loss of Doissetep, and Horizon. In the Appendix, The Blood Curse, there is the Storyteller mechanics and character details.

In Detail: In the opening fiction, entitled Prelude: Enthralled, an Avatar is tormenting "her" host. The mage, Johann Kurtzwell bani Tytalus, is fighting with his avatar over Vampire blood. He does not want anymore, but she does. Eventually, he gives in and goes on a raid to a Vampire (hereafter referred as Messesa) safe house.

In Acts 1, 2, and 3, entitled Wizards March, Hidden War and Blood Treachery respectively, we learn about the Second Messesa War: its origins, its climax and its resolution. According to the Spheres, the Messesa War started because a young Hermetic becomes afraid after one of his experiments fails. He thinks that it is because he is not reciting the Rote correctly. He goes to ask his teacher about looking at the first editions. He tells them that they were on Doissetep when it blew up. The master jokingly tells them to go ask the Tremere. The Mage organizes a raid against a Messesa Chantry. This is the first blow in the Second Messesa War. As a side note, House Thig, after making a successful raid on a Technocratic lab, discovers about Project Ragnarock, the plan to destroy a Messesa in India. In this battle, Control authorized the use of three Prime- enhanced Neutron Bombs. This frightens the Thig because it shows how far the Union will go to protect their paradigm. In these chapters, we also learn about what the other houses are doing in the Final Nights. Houses Flambeau and Thig are fighting the Technocracy using its own paradigm and in doing so, becoming the two most powerful houses in the Order. House Tytalus have sold its soul for Messesa Blood. The other Houses are completely oblivious to what is going on. In fact, even some of the Messesa are oblivious to the war. In one of the scenes, a Messesa and two humans attacks a Hermetic chantry. In the ensuing chaos, three Mages and one Ghoul is killed. The surviving Mage refuses to kill the Messesa, and both leave without another word. There are many more details in the first three acts, but I have said enough. Buy the book if you want to know more.

Act 4, Pawns and Bishops, talks about the Hermetics, the Messesa War, and the Ascension War in general. This chapter and the remainder of the book is written from the omniscient eye of god. This section is the practical applications of the Messesa war and how it affects the Vampires and other Traditions. This chapter has a lot of general information, and not enough in-depth details. Basically, the Hermetics have given up, sought out refuge outside of reality, or searched out evil from the shadows. The Mages are blaming everyone but themselves. This is important because it proves that the Mages are human. They are fallible and lash out at everyone but the people in the mirror. Anyway, this chapter has a little information about how to play a Hermetic effectively. To them, Magic is separate from their personage, unlike a Cultist, or a Chorister. They use their tools because they are controllers of magic.

In the Appendix, The Blood Curse, there is a lot of information about making a Vampire/ Mage crossover work. The first section is about Ghouling a Mage. The benefits are enormous, as are the detriments. The benefits are great: Increased Stats, Learning Vampiric Disciplines, and Using Vampire Blood as a source of magic. The detriments however are just as bad. Vampire Blood is physically, mentally, and spiritually addicting. It addicts your avatar, and depending on how strong your avatar is, it will torment you until it gets its fix. There are new Merits/Flaws, as well as new Rotes for the Messesa war. I enjoyed the rotes, especially Chaos Butterfly and Golden Apple. However, because I do not like the idea of Merits and Flaws, I did not read that section.

Final Thoughts: As a whole, I enjoyed Blood Treachery. This book has given me a huge shitload of ideas for campaigns involving both Vampire: the Masquerade and Mage: the Ascension. It also gave me a new appreciation for the aftermath of the Ascension War. The Hermetics were too busy looking for an outside cause that they did not see the real culprit. They are also fighting valiantly trying to save a dying dream. This is their struggle. A word of warning: If you like having new ways to blow things up, this is not the book for you. Look somewhere else.