At the base of the Kyffhauser Mountains stands a withered apple tree. The tree is closely guarded by men-at-arms, and it is said that whatever prince succeeds in hanging his shield on this tree will become lord of all the West. The tree has been cut down three times by successful challengers (Clovis, Charlmagne, and Frederic Barbarossa) to prevent others from copying their feat, but it has always sprung up again as luxuriant as ever, only to gradually wither with the fortunes of those men. The next time it blooms into leaf, a terrible battle will begin; when it bears fruit, the future king will hang his shield upon it…
A new leaf has bloomed, and the Mongol horde has overtaken Poland. The fate of the West hangs in the balance.
If you liked the above text, you’ll probably like Guardians of the Forest: The Rhine Tribunal. It describes the Rhine Tribunal, which is an area roughly corresponding to Germany in 1220, but with mythic elements strongly woven in. In Mythic Europe, the setting of Ars Magica 5th Edition, the mighty spirits of the ancient forests work against their dissolution by Christian expansion; a Roman legion is still trapped in the Teutoburger Forest, its soldiers unable to escape the timeless eternity in its depths; an old pagan priest toils to awaken his fallen god and rekindle pagan faith on the island of Rugen; and the goddess Danu lies forgotten at the source of the Danube river. I can go on, GotF has 137 pages of this stuff.
Of course, this isn’t a d20 product, it’s an Ars Magica product. The background is still great regardless of system, but much of the book will be useless outside of Ars Magica. But that’s why I’m telling you of it here - so maybe you’ll have a taste of that fine system and setting. I’ll assume, then, that you’re not familiar with Ars Magica, but this review should be useful whether you are or aren’t.
The focus of GotF is to support an Ars Magica saga (campaign) in the Rhine Tribunal. It spends much effort in describing the Hermetic society of mages that resides there, detailing some of the most ancient and powerful covenants (covens of magi) in Europe (in Ars Magica, players mostly play mages, or “magi”). It offers a division into journeyman, master, and archmagus status, and “gilds” that serve as political parties. It presents a mechanic to detail a “Forest Spirit”, and follows through with numerous examples within its pages. It poses a new mechanic of discovering the mysteries of the Forest Paths, allowing magi (mages) or even those without the Gift of magic to acquire unique abilities through communion with these spirits.
It also spends much effort to describe the setting where these magi function. This includes a few history lessons and short descriptions of numerous locales, but the focus is kept on facilitating a saga. Some locations and ideas are described for completeness, but any occasion is spent to instill them with mythic elements (even if not ones amicable to magi, or ones that will rarely come to bear). For example, a long paragraph is devoted to describing Speyer (its foundation, growth, the jewish quarter, and the bishop’s protection of them), but an even longer paragraph describes how its bells toll without any mortal hand setting them to announce an imperial death. Even if the mythic details sometimes seem not usable within a particular saga (campaign), I found them to add greatly to the flavor and make for an interesting read. Some “bland” descriptions of facts remain, of course, this is unavoidable if any semblance of real Europe is to remain. Frankly, I mostly skimmed them, but I’m sure I’ll read them thoroughly to come to grips with the locales the PCs visit.
The book describes some 75 magi and 10 covenants (covens of magi, remember?), although it says the tribunal contains some 130 magi. Some NPCs are given full descriptions, most a paragraph of roleplaying notes, and a few are mentioned in passing. In so doing they set the power levels of the powerful NPCs in the setting, by presenting several archamagi. You’re left to invent the missing magi (if you so wish), including the PCs. There is plenty of places to put them in, but to be honest putting them in while preserving the politics of the tribunal will require some forethought. Said politics include generic issues that can fuel an epic plot (which are the focus of the gild’s agendas), but also idiosyncratic matters involving the nature of each covenant. For example, magi of the Roznov covenant lead their covenfolk as mage-priests of a pagan religion, and as members of the Ash gild may actively support pagan practices as part of a plan to make magi accepted in society. They are also involved in human sacrifice, which if discovered will probably bring the wrath of all the other magi upon them (even their fellow Ash gild peers and other members of their covenant). This is a rather extreme example, but nearly all covenants are likewise enmeshed in both global and particular politics.
The book presents several good magical and faerie opponents (or allies), including forest spirits, malign faeries, guidelines to portraying werewolves with core Ars Magica rules, and more. Although the slow encroachment of divine power (the Christian dominion) is the major threat to Hermetic power in the tribunal, hardly any specific divine threats are presented. I think only a holy tree, a relic staff, and an undetailed mention of the Knights of the Sword are presented as specific, individual, threats that can be handled. The divine is largely represented through the mention of relics and the assignment of divine aura to certain places. Threats of the infernal type are not presented at all; indeed the only two I can think of are a diabolist mage and short paragraph noting what an Infernal forest will feel like. Although I believe one of the saga outlines is of an infernal threat (see below). That said, there is nothing particularly extraordinary or local about the divine or infernal threats, so I suppose the GM will have to make do with core Ars Magica or topical supplements.
I didn’t read the last two chapters of the book. These include saga outline suggestions, and further ideas to implement all the previous information. Since I’m going to join a saga set in the Rhine in the nearby future as a player, I didn’t read them so I can’t comment on them at all.
It ends in three appendices. Appendix A talks about spoken languages and names, appendix B provides a timeline of historic and mythic events (from 53 BC to 1299 AC; the setting is set at 1220), and appendix C is a page of bibliography and suggested reading (including many internet sources). There is no index, but the table of contents is reasonably detailed, though far from exhaustive. I think it will be hard to find something you only vaguely remember in this book, unless you remember where it is at geographically.
The book also contains a map of the tribunal, which I found serviceable and detailed but rather bland.
I am very impressed with GotF. It presents the Rhine area well, and does an even better job at embellishing it with mythic details and an interesting Hermetic society. Its focus on supporting gameplay rather than presenting a setting is evident with numerous plot ideas and suggestions. It offers several problems for specific covenants, overarching problems for the whole Hermetic society along with several hints how they may be solved in different manners, the wonderful idea of forest spirits, some truly inspiring mythic places, entities, and situations, and a coherent, believable description of Hermetic society with its many magi and covenants.
I’m hard pressed to find any flaws in it. Certainly it could be larger and include more details, and divine threats are a bit lacking (perhaps infernal ones too), and a few of the details added flavor but were not very applicable to most sagas, but for the most part I think changing that will distract from the whole. There are few goofs in the presentation, such as the “Alliance” title on page 31 being in the wrong font or the subpar picture on page 25 (most of the art is reasonable to good, and the graphic design follows the slick 5th Edition style), but these are rare and insignificant.
It isn’t quite perfect, though. Some spark, some star quality, is missing, I can’t quite put my finger on it. I’d give it a 4.7/5 if I could, but I’m not too distressed to round that off to 5. It may not be a perfect 5, but it’s pretty close.
