The Everlasting – Book of the Light
From: Visionary Entertainment, Inc.
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
The Everlasting: Book of the Light is a new Foundation Book from Visionary Entertainment, Inc..
The Book of the Light is the second book in the four book series of The Everlasting role playing game by Foundation books. Much of what is contained in it is also contained in the previous book, The Book of the Unliving. This review will focus on the differences. To get comments on the core concept and rules of The Everlasting as a role playing game, see my review on The Book of the Unliving.
Given my preconceptions of The Everlasting RPG from the previous review and how they were proven wrong, I looked forward to delving further into the worlds of The Everlasting. The Book of the Light presents new player character options for people interested in playing less dark creatures than given in The book of the Unliving.
From the page 5: “ Walk in the Light and Guard against the Shadows. – SCB”
Content: The core content that covers the Everlasting universe is the same text as the first book, just reformatted. From the orientation of the Secret World to the text on legend-making, it was all the same. The major difference in this book are the genets it deals with.
The primary supernatural species in this book are Angels (your standard celestial beings), Daevas (demi-god heroes) and Questers (holy knights whose lives have been sustained by a holy quest.)
Angels are divided into orders – seraphim, cherubim, merkabah, and others to a total of nine different orders. Each have their own characteristics, divine purpose and other features. The Torment of the Angel is imperfection – the more one has, the further away from God the angel is. The detailed section on angels has some interesting ‘nuggets’ like the effects of imperfection, the Divine Voice as guidance to angels, and the powers of halos. A tenth ‘order’ is the possibility of half-angels, as explained in this section. This chapter is rich with angelic mythology and legend, including a piece on celestial engineering, angelic mathematics, called Sephirot, and angelic magicks.
From the page 172: ” It was about thirty years after parting … that I realized that I wasn’t getting any older. – Percy, Reunion by Brian M. Thomsen ”
Daevas are basically, as I said, demigods – humans so heroic they have been granted immortality as well as other powers and abilities by a ancient god. They are the embodiment of the mythic hero. Portions of their description are reminiscent of the Highlander immortal race, especially in the case of their true death and the release of their energies through their Ananda. The Torment of a daeva is doom or the constant pull of destiny to a certain course of action. Daevas are divided up by households, each connected to one ancient mythology or another. Each is culturally different and have their own characteristics, rituals and practices.
Questers are humans that are driven by some great, but possibly unattainable, goal that sustains their life beyond normal length. This goal is usually some holy quest like, of course, the Quest for the Grail. Doubt is the torment of the quester, representing the level of dedication to their quest. This section does focus strongly on the grail quest; however, it does supply other ideas for holy quests – like dragon slaying or prevention of an evil. There are also evil questers, seeking out some dark quest or to stop other questers from reaching their goals. There is a very detailed and excellent section on chivalry including the ten rules of chivalry. Also included is a three page summary of the Arthurian legend and the Holy Grail.
Also included in this book are the evil side of the Light – Demons (fallen angels of evil) and the Wer (werewolves), both of which can be played as protagonists or player characters. I assume, however, that the author intends on both to be NPC races primarily because neither are explored to the depth that the other genets are. Big werewolf fans will be somewhat disappointed because they are not given the depth that fans of WoD werewolf were. The only kind available is a werewolf, so no possibility of a were-bear or were-rat. It goes into reasonable depth about the changing virus, Lycanthropy, however.
The remainder of the book is similar to the others. It generally covers the other Everlasting races as well as summarizes the worlds of the Light including the Reverie, the Astral plane and the Netherworlds. Other worlds are covered in the previous sections including the Seven Heavens, New Camelot and the Wer communes.
The fourth and final section advances some rules, adds in more detail for combat and magick, and gives some guidelines for freeform gaming and live-action roleplaying of Everlasting. It also includes the same new age aspects and concepts I mentioned in my review of The Book of the Unliving. Refer to that for my comments on those subjects.
System: The book adds nothing new to the system other than specific supernatural abilities, magicks and traits of the individual races.
Layout: The Book of Light, like The Book of the Unliving, is a sharp looking book. Once again it has an array of public-domain renaissance-era art and card art from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck which adds to its ambience. It also has some original art that range from really impressive to decent, like its predecessor. It shows a lot of thought and passion was put into the art design and overall look of the rulebook. It conveys a feeling of ancient mystery and dark adventure. The cover art is very attractive and dynamic. The color use is brilliant and inspiring.
In conclusion, once again, they have put together a very in-depth and detailed book for their rich gaming universe. I do feel it lacks some detail in certain areas like the Wer, only because I know a lot of werewolf fans that would want more detail. But the rest is fantastically presented, powerfully detailed and well organized. Even though portions of the book are repeated from its predecessor, it was still reformatted to fit the overall layout of the book, which is significantly different from it’s “darker brother.” Even though it includes werewolves, this book is somewhat of a departure from the WoD-feel of the universe and makes it easier to deal with for those people who did not like WoD.
For more details on Visionary Entertainment, Inc. and their new Foundation Book “The Everlasting: Book of the Light” check them out at their website http://www.visionaryentertainment.com and at all of your local game stores.
The Everlasting: Book of the Light
From: Visionary Entertainment, Inc.
Type of Game: Foundation Book
Written by: Steven Brown
Contributing Authors: Harry Heckel, Christopher Sheets
Game Design by: Steve Brown
Developed by: Steve Brown
Cover Art by: Alan Rabinowitz
Additional Art by: Steven Brown, Alan Dean, Michael Eriquez, Lawrence Allen Williams, Darryl Elliott, Mark McKenzie, Toby Smallwood
Number of Pages: 318
Game Components Included: One Softback book
Retail Price: $ 29.95 (US)
Retail Price: $ 39.95 (Can)
Item Number: EV200
ISBN: 1-887385-01-3
Email: chip_dobbs@visionaryentertainment.com
Website:www.visionaryentertainment.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung