The Book of Madness

Mage: the Ascension

by White Wolf Publishing (Editor), Richard Dansky, Heather Grove

In Madness Lies Magic

It's not for the weak-willed, magic. It'll blast the sanity right out of you, tear the innocence from your soul, devour the shreds of humanity from your heart. The cogs of the universe spin on axes too vast for humans to grasp, and once you open the door to magic, you open yourself to the baggage that comes along for the ride — maddened Marauders, necrotic Nephandi and the strangeness of spirits that predate humanity. A little frightened? A little worried? Too late, they're here.

And From Deceit, Truth

Here at last, a revised and updated look at the other major factions of Mage conflict: The crazed Marauders whose fragmented Avatars give them insane visions of magic gone awry; the terrifying Nephandi who hope to end the miscegenated cosmos in bleak, utter nothingness; and the cryptic spirit hosts that serve needs and places humans have never imagined. All expanded and ready to include in your chronicle.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Urban Fantasy, World Of Darkness, Gaming

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2001

About the author

White Wolf Entertainment AB, formerly White Wolf Publishing, was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine (est. 1986 in Rocky Face, GA; it later became "White Wolf Inphobia"), and was initially led by Mark Rein-Hagen of the former and Steve Wieck and Stewart Wieck of the latter. White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with CCP Games in 2006. White Wolf Publishing operated as an imprint of CCP hf, but ceased in-house production of any material, instead licensing their properties to other publishers. It was announced in October 2015 that White Wolf had been acquired from CCP by Paradox Interactive. In November 2018, after most of its staff were dismissed for making controversial statements, it was announced that White Wolf would no longer function as an entity separate from Paradox Interactive.

source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is, without a doubt, the best resource for Marauders in Mage. It's also the second best for Nephandi and Infernalists, only beaten by Infernalism: the Path of Screams. However, the Umbrood chapter is...bad. It contradicts basically everything ever written about Umbrood/Spirits in WoD prior to this (and after it), it's almost entirely epistolary to allow the "unreliable narrator" excuse whereas nothing else in the book is. It's greatest crime, though, is a mechanics-free section titled "Umbrood Systems." Read for Chapters 1-3, ignore Chapter 4. Chapter 5 is ok.

[Valerie Ciraulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, The Book of Madness is good book if you would like ideas for antagonists for a Mage Chronicle. The chapter on the Umbrood was a slog, but getting through it (or skipping parts of it) rewards the reader with a surprisingly insightful, final chapter of the book, the Storytelling chapter.