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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2009727" data-attributes="member: 172">Calastia: Throne of the Black DragonCalastia: Throne of the Black Dragon is one of the various regional sourcebooks for the Scarred Lands setting by Sword & Sorcery Studios. Calastia is a major militant nation said to be the single greatest threat in the Scarred Lands after the titanspawn.Calastia is written by World of Darkness developer Justin Achilli.A First LookCalastia is a 120 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $17.95. This is relatively inexpensive for a book of this size.The cover of the book depicts a King Virduk and Queen Galeda of Calastia in their throne room, with the queen casting a baneful spell on a hapless visitor. The cover art is by Jim Nelson.The interior is black and white, featuring artists John Bridges, Melissa Uran, and Tim Truman, and cartographers Rob Lee and Ed Bourelle. The artwork varies from mediocre to very good. Rob Lee is, as usual, an outstanding cartographer. Also as usual, I am rather unimpressed by Melissa Uran's sketchy, sloppy-looking artwork.The interior text density is high, with a conservative sized font, and closely spaced lines and paragraphs.A Deeper LookCalastia is split into four chapters plus an introduction and an appendix.The introduction sets forth the basic concepts behind Calastia. The author boasts that Calastia departs from traditional fantasy in that it has both a tyranical ruler and a comfortable populace. I'm not too sure how different that makes it save versus the most melodramatic and cliche settings. Suggested adventures in Calastia include intrigue and possible backstabbing to get ahead.The first chapter is entitled Calastia at a Glance. It covers the major topological features of Calastia, along with its duchies. Each duchy features a coat of arms, along with a few paragraphs characterizing the duchy and its ruler, plus general details on the major settlements, population, and resources in each. There are a few adventure ideas embedded in the descriptions.The second chapter, The Dragon's Tale, outlines the history of Calastia, from the time deep in history when the region was a province in the legendary empire of Lede, through the ascension of various kings, to the rise of king Virduk, the so-called Black Dragon. As you might guess for such a treacherous figure, Virduk ascended to the throne after he disposed of his ineffectual father. While Virduk was treacherous, he also paves the way to recovery of his beleaguered nation.The third chapter, Denizens of the Dragon's Lair, outlines details of the people of Calastia. The humans of Calastia have swarthy complexions and have green, gray, or hazel eyes. As with other Scarred Lands products, humans may take a set of racial modifiers in the place of their bonus feats. For most Calastians, this is +2 to charisma and -2 to wisdom.The chapter also defines the role of other races in Calastia, which is rather marginal. Except for Charduni, dwarves are rather rare and marginalized in Calastia. Elves are outright despised, and halflings are simply not taken seriously.The primary faith in Calastia is that of Chardun, the militant lawful evil deity of the Scarred Land. This should help provide a picture of the militant, tyranical nature of the nation. Other faiths are discussed as well, including the inevitable worship of titans.Calastia has a comfortable style of living compared to other nations in Ghelspad, keeping in mind that the rest of the world is still recovering from a huge cataclysm. Calastia is still a very strict nation with strict laws and harsh taxes.The fourth and largest chapter is entitled Throne of the Black Dragon. It goes into deeper details of each of the major regions of Calastia, complete with maps, details on settlements, and encounter tables. Many settlements have a number of well-developed adventure seeds. One of the more exotic locales is the village of Keress-Lien, in which everyone is born mute. The sinister secret of Kress-Lien demonstrates what a fiendish place Calastia really is despite its face of decency.The chapter also describes a few sites such as the grove of Galeda and the Ruins of Ophidiseth, an abandoned city built by an unknown race. Finally, the chapter provides some details of some secret societies that have a strong influence in Calastia, such as the Kilharman League, a group of nobles displaced by the reorganization of power in Calastia that turned to organized crime, as well as the Calastian military and Calastian Battle-Mages.The appendix provides more rules-related material including new feats, prestige classes, spells, and important NPCs.New feats include Battle-Mage Training (a dual skill enhancer that provides a +2 to concentration and spellcraft checks) and Thousand Chain Style (a signature style of a order of monks devoted to Chardun that allows the user to wield a spiked chain as a dual weapon instead of a reach weapon.)The prestige classes are:- Calastian Battle-Mage: The Calastian Battle-Mage has full spell progression, moderate attack progression, and a number of abilities that enhance their combat prowess such as reduction in arcane failure percentage in increasing range of spells. The good class abilities and attack progression are probably too good to warrant a full spell progression.- Dragon Knight: Dragon Knights are elite members of the Calastian military that ride mock dragons. Their class abilities allow give them a good synergy in combat with their mount.- Halfling Stalker: Another elite member of the Calastian military, Halfling Stalkers are specialized in guerilla tactics and missile weapons.- Kilharman League Envoy: A member of the Kilharman League, the envoys are highly placed "fixers" with a talent for navigating the Calastian underworld.- Monk of the Sacred Chain: Members of the Order of the Sacred Chain, Monks of the Sacred Chain are devoted to Chardun. Monks of the Sacred chain continue to improve their fighting style with the spiked chain. - Thorned Purifier: The Thorned Purifier is a cleric of chardun specialized in interrogation and torture.NPCs defined in the appendix include King Virduk, Queen Galeeda, Anteas (master of the Calastian Battle-Mages), and Guylan Gaeth Gavriel (Galeeda's champion.) Some of these statistic differ from the statistics that appeared in other products. For example, Anteas was not originally defined as a member of the Calastian Battle-Mage prestige class as it did not exist when The Wise and the Wicked was printed.ConclusionGenerally, Calastia delivers a good amount of material for the money. The writing is clear if somewhat dry.  If you want to run a game in Calastia, it is an essential resource. However, the book failed to capture my imagination the way that other books in this series (like Burok Torn and Hollowfaut) enough to make me want to run a game in Calastia.-Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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