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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN num: 9781588464224
ISBN number: 1588464229
Label: White Wolf Publishing
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: May 15, 2006
Publishing house: White Wolf Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 533052
Studio: White Wolf Publishing
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Some Things Are Best Left Forgotten
The exiles of Atlantis hoarded their artifacts in magically sealed and guarded redoubts, hidden from Sleepers and common spells. The masters of these storehouses are long gone, but their enchantments remain, enigmas to confound all who would seek them - but seek them some do. Mages obsessed with the power of the ancients scour the material and Shadow realms for these places, ignorant of the things that still guard them. Few of these explorers ever return.
A chronicle book for Mage: The Awakening
Surveys the hidden temples, storehouses, libraries and refuges of the ancient Atlantean mages
The legend of Atlantis and how it has changed throughout the ages, including many forgotten theories about the Awakened City
Temple guardians, enchanted items, and all manner of beasts found near Atlantean ruins
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Rated by buyers -
One of the major themes of Mage the Awakening is exploration, and one of the major areas for that exploration is the ruins of ancient Atlantis. This being a World of Darkness book, there's a lot more to it, of course. The myth of Atlantis is the defining myth of the Mage worldview, whether they accept that and believe it or not. The very first chapter delves into the myths and stories about Atlantis. Quite a lot of players from the old World of Darkness despised the choice to make the origin for true Mages. Part of that, perhaps a large part, was that it gave a clear and fixed beginning for Mages ... supposedly. The very first chapter is a mind-spinning recounting of Mage research on Atlantis. Where was it? An island in the mid-Atlantic, of course. Or the continent of Antarctica. Or the Americas. Or New Zealand. Or in East Asia, the Middle East, the Sahara, the Mediterranean, Britain (that was new to me), Iceland, Scandinavia ... pick a location on land or sea, and some mage has evidence Atlantis was there. Then there the theories of a hollow Earth or a planet where the asteroid field now is. It is a wonderfully written chapter, and most of it is based on real-world claims, too. The best part of it may be that it links mages together, through time and across continents, in their research and travels because of Atlantis.
The second and third chapters get into the fine details of exploration. The second chapter deals with the concepts of exploration, why mages go looking, how they get leads to lost ruins or artifacts. There are extensive descriptions of all the types of things that could be in a ruin: challenges, guardians, other explorers, weird creatures that escaped from experiments or were attracted to an uninhabited ruin, and of course pages of descriptions of all kinds of traps, magical and sometimes not. Naturally, there are also descriptions of all the kinds of treasures and artifacts and such the explorers may find. The third chapter goes into specifics, setting out example guardians, spirits and weird creatures, and example items and artifacts.
The fourth chapter is still about exploration, but not so much about Atlantis. It is about the Astral Realms, a topic not covered in much detail by Mage books at this point. This section goes into considerable detail about the Temenos in general and various realms in particular. I find the concept itself fascinating, and the image of thousands of generations of mages exploring here and constructing citadels, libraries and universities is awe-inspiring. Then the chapter moves on to the creatures of the Temenos, and how those things can escape into the material world, and it inspires fear as well. Any player or storyteller interested in the Mastigos and inner demons should find this chapter really interesting and useful.
Rather unusually, the book has an appendix which contains a conclusion rounding off the book as a whole. The appendix is about Atlantean High Speech, and goes into technical but clear details of how languages are constructed. It is also about the efforts of mages to reconstruct that language. There is subtle but powerful theme running through this section: in Atlantis, whatever it was, one mage feuded with another, but as a group they were united. Until the Celestial War divided them, that is. Now the main goal of plundering a ruin is to gain magic items and spells that can empower one cabal, or one lone mage, against all the rest. But recording and translating the High Speech would enhance the lives of all the Awakened - with the catch that they have to work together to even begin such a project. It is a sobering reminder that knowledge is power when you hoard it, but can become wisdom when you spread it around, a very fitting image for this game.
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