Codex Anathema changed to... Lords of Madness?

[Chant in the Box]

The name change is a good move.

To be honest the old title was just enough for me to take the decision not to buy it. And the ugly cover made it worse. I mean that the first impression was bad enough that I would not have read any excerps or whatever WotC would have posted anywhere in the world to promote it.

With a name change for a much better one and a cover that will hopefully not remind me of some 2nd edition bad product, there is a chance that I will pay some attention the product. Buying it is another matter.

 

[Staffan]

Because aberrations are not all from the Far Realm. It would be a bit too Eberronish to assume they all come from the same plane, otyughs, carrion crawlers, beholders, and yuan-ti all alike...

They're not all from Xoriat (or created by Xoriat-folk) in Eberron either. Lots of them are, but there are exceptions.

 

[shadowlight]

It sounds like the name change heralds a heavy focus on Eberron in the book, with the Quori being the titular 'Lords of Madness'. Not that this is a huge surprise I guess, but I hope the book isn't too narrowly setting-focused. I was thinking of picking it up to flesh out the minions of Elemuar (10 points if you recognise the name!)

If this were the case I would go from 0% interest in this book to 100% going to buy this book... I doubt it's the case though...

 

[Richards]

Originally posted by Gez:

And all this time, I thought the beholder's white central eye was actually its grinning mouth... Because the central eye was necessarily closed for it to use its eye-rays in front of it...

Actually, given the lack of a pupil in that central eye, I'd imagine it was a beholder mage instead of a generic beholder. Beholder mages must blind their central eyes to gain wizard-like spell abilities through their eyestalks.

For the record, though, I also prefer Codex Anathema to Lords of Madness. It sounded much cooler.

Johnathan

 

[Non-human Resources]

I suspect the name change is a result of confusion about the contents. When I first heard about it I had no idea what it was about.

And secretly I hope that it means that they are reserving "codex" for something like Codex Constructus.

For aberations (sp?) I would have prefered Tome of Horrors myself. I wonder why they decided against that? Or maybe Mishapen Manual.

 

[jester47]

Perhaps someone pointed out all the nearly blatant phalluses in the art. The Head of the mind flayer, the shape of the beholders eyestalks, the shape of the beholder's head, the general appearance of the mountain behind them. Not to mention the position that the victim is in. Also Anathema and Aberration are two words used to describe homosexual acts in the bible. There are definite hentai overtones in the picture and with the names of the book I think someone might have complained. It could all be coincidental and I am prone to seeing this because I just read Leviticus 18. But who knows.

Aaron.

 

[Chronosome]

A shame. I liked Codex Anathema better.

 

[Chroma]

Perhaps someone pointed out all the nearly blatant phalluses in the art. The Head of the mind flayer, the shape of the beholders eyestalks, the shape of the beholder's head, the general appearance of the mountain behind them. Not to mention the position that the victim is in. Also Anathema and Aberration are two words used to describe homosexual acts in the bible. There are definite hentai overtones in the picture and with the names of the book I think someone might have complained. It could all be coincidental and I am prone to seeing this because I just read Leviticus 18. But who knows.

Well, that's Baxa for ya... I'm really not that fond of his/her art.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Lords of Madness actually leaves me more confused. The first thing that pops into my mind is the Lords of Darkness book for FR. The initial impression I get is a similar type book for Eberon. Also I am confused about how the word "lords" properly fits, Creatures of Madness I could understand, I just don't see the hierarchy in aberations that the word implies.

 

[jester47]

Monstrum Insaniae would be a better title.

As for the reasons for the changes I think it was bits of all of the above.

Aaron.