This provides a "crunchy" way to show that Do is a way of life, not just a way of kicking butt. Revised edition Do deserves a bit of a special mention in this review, because it is very complex, compared to other skills, requiring the student to have a certain number of dots spread throughout the eight "limbs" of Do before a new rank can be bought. Just make sure that your storyteller knows what you mean when you ask if its okay to learn that third dot in Lokhadhatu.įinally the chapter fleshes out Do, the Akashic Record, and other foci for the Brothers. These are great if you want to really add some flavor to your next play session. We are also given the Tradition's names for generic Mage terms and the Spheres. Oh, and the Factions are further sub-divided into Organizations, if you ever wanted to hone your Brother's description even further. A short mention is also given to the Wu Lung, but enough has already been said of them in the Revised Storyteller's Companion and Dragons of the East. Last, but not least, the Vajrapani are Kung-Fu fighters. Jnani are inaccessible hermits, mysterious wanderers and possibly assassins. The Kannagara are the shaven monastics, who spend much of their time cloistered away with their brethren. We are first presented with the details of the major/canonical Factions of the Brotherhood. Also, since the Akashic party line states that all creatures may work towards Samadhi (remember the Lexicon?), their outlook on some of the -ahem- less humane groups may be a bit more accepting than the average magus. Including the Brothers' outlook on the soon-to-be-released Mummies makes for a nice little teaser. These are more-or-less reverse-engineered from the religion section in Dragons of the East, but the specific nature of the interplay between the religions and the Akashic outlook is much appreciated.įinally, the section on the other supernatural "critters" gives all the other things in the WoD. All your favorites from Eastern Religion 101 are here: Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, and more. We also get some information on how the Brothers mix with world religion. If you've ever read any "History of the Traditions" from any other Mage book, you'll recognize a few of the major events, such as the Grand Convocation, making token appearances. We also get the rivalry between the Brothers and the Euthanatos (or, as they are referred to throughout this book, the Chakravanti). This is a history of the Akashic Brotherhood, not the history of Asia, though there is some solid information about the old intra-tradition rivalries, which, in typical White Wolf fashion, blend into historical conflicts between nations. Dragons of the East fleshes out the WoD's Asia from the Mage's perspective, so don't expect a lot of help with that here. Sheppard takes the reader on a trip through the Akashic Record. This really adds to the flavor, but sometimes it would have been nice if Sheppard had just called a spade a fricking shovel.Īnd by working without self-advancing thought, The introduction provides the all-important Lexicon, which the careful reader may find themselves referencing every time they forget what Sam Chien means. The prologue pulls us into the story of Smoke Tiger and Peter, two Akashics just trying to do what they think is right. The Tao Te Ching claims that "With wise administrators, all can exist in unity, each with the other," and author Malcolm Sheppard proves himself to be among the wisest of administrators. TB:ABR, like a great many White Wolf books, follows a story, with the "crunchy bits" tucked into sidebars. However students who are wise enough to recognize their unreadiness for this lack of comparison should read the review by Amado Guzman. I'll start by saying that I never bought any of the original tradition books, but then, the Tao teaches:Īnd just as relative to he who makes them,