a nice historical primer for nephandi in the modern mage setting. given the focus of the sorcerer's crusade line on religion, this very much is the 'ebil satanic cultist' flavor of dark magick instead of the wider options that you get for nephandi as antagonists in book of the fallen. not a huge fan of that flavor myself, but if you want some boogeymen for your sorcere's crusade game, this is where you'd get it.

The book opens with a very strong piece of short fiction, a testament by one of the Fallen in a dungeon about to be executed. They gloat over their crimes and then escape, to go commit new ones. It's well written and tightly set, and quite evocative, setting the tone for the book as a whole quite nicely.

Chapter I includes a general overview of the beliefs of Infernalists and how they relate to the more mainstream beliefs of the time. The creation story is strong, and, as intended, tempting to go along with before you think it through, as such a thing must be to make those who DO go along with it compelling. The chapter does have a few problems, mostly around inconsistencies. Not inconsistencies in the in-world material, but some of the text and the sidebars contradict each other about real world beliefs! For instance, the (very Christian, and if I recall correctly, Catholic and Protestant, not Orthodox Christian) view of Satan/Lucifer is given as belonging to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, whereas a sidebar (correctly) points out that Satan in Judaism doesn't work like that. Similar issues occur with mentions of hell: at first they're attributed to the religions of the Book, even by name, but then a sidebar or later bit of text clarifies that hell is a thing in Christianity and Islam, but not Judaism.

Chapter II starts a problem throughout the book that can be laid at the feet of layout, rather than the author: the chapter titles are wrong! The headers on individual pages are correct, but Chapter II is correctly "The Devil's Own" but listed as "The Order of Reason" right at the beginning. It describes how one becomes an Infernalist and what the Path of Screams consists of, often drawing parallels with the right-handed Path of Thorns occasionally referred to in the core books (and which refers to Ascension). It gives many examples of character archetypes for Infernalists and then some special ones, including Jodilynn Blake, who continues to show up in the modern nights of the game line.

Chapter III is again mislabeled on its title page (it would be really nice if they took the opportunity of PDF publishing to fix that) but is about the Ars Maleficarum. It covers the powers that demons can bestow onto their mortal playthings, merits, flaws, rotes and wonders. It closes with a discussion of various Infernal cults, including the Nephandi who are less all-encompassing in the Dark Fantastick than in the modern World of Darkness

The final chapter covers infernal beings other than Infernalists. Creatures possessed by demons, demons who have been summoned, some as unique individuals and some as archetypes. The appendix continues, listing infernal beings whose power is effectively limited only by the ST's desires, beings that the Infernalist likely never meets, but pays homage to.

Overall, the book is extremely well put-together, describing how Infernalists think and act without making any of it seem attractive or like a good idea, even for a PC. The inaccuracies about real world beliefs seem to be contained to a small corner of Chapter I, and even then, most of them are corrected in other places within that chapter. This book is a must have for any Mage ST, especially any who are looking to run things set in the Renaissance or those looking for a more in-depth approach to handling the Fallen, in a page count that even the two versions of the Book of Madness can't match (given that they have other things to discuss).

This product is a supplement to WoD: Sorcerer's Crusade, which is itself a supplemental or "period" sourcebook for Mage: The Ascension, one of the core-books of the Classic World of Darkness game lines from White Wolf Game Studios. I'm very glad that titles such as these are available through Onyx Path & Drive Thru RPG.

The product arrived in good condition, although I noticed that a few title pages - the actual headers of each chapter - were misprinted - the headers themselves were printed as if they came from the Mage Sorcerer's Crusade Companion, although the content itself - the material that followed, in each chapter, in paragraph form, was not affected by this & was all still pertinent.

This supplement is useful to me as a GM / ST / DM - someone who runs a table-top pen & paper role-playing game. I had been running a game of Mage set in the late Renaissance, near the time of the swashbuckling era. This supplement was helpful because it allowed me to set up some "cultist" adversaries & to explore 3-dimensional "villains" or antagonists or anti-heroes to oppose the player-characters. The supplement deals with so-called "witch-craft" & "devil-worship" in a mature way, allowing players of a fantasy-historical-fiction game who are using Faith, Magic & Science to combat "evil" as they see it - allowing players & their characters to run up against villains who are three-dimensional, complex & worthy of metting the players on the metaphorical game board.

I enjoyed the book & felt it came in handy several times, & although I am not longer running that game set in the Renaissance, I would probably use this book again to develop sub-plots & "foes" to thwart the characters if I were to run a game like that again. :)