Look it’s been a while since I posted, but this product, combined with all the fallout from the badly handled OGL 1.1 announcement and then OGL 1.2 non-apology and the possibility of an ArM5 SRD… well I just thought it was time to say something again. Plus there are links to parts of this blog with compatible material some people may want to use.
So I’ve always loved Iberia as a potential Ars setting and felt that the ArM3 Iberia product was a bit… lacking in usable details other than a few key concepts (for me these were Covenant of Barcelona and the Shadow Flambeau plot although please less demons everywhere). I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person to think this and it’s well recognised it is a product of the times (White Wolf era, 1993 )
Well, it was certainly not lacking in demons admittedly, but these were ArM3 demons and not the more usable ones developed by RoP: the Infernal. There were quite a few things really missing for me that made it disappointing such as… umm, most of Andalusia / Granada. Also nothing much about the Balearics or Canaries.
Sure we’ve since had a few official Iberian tidbits such as Relegare’s “reformation” in RoP: the Infernal, Marko’s almogovar template in Grogs, and depending on how you argue the toss of the coin, the ruined covenant of Val-Negra in the Pyrenees is also “Iberian”… except that we stuck it in Faith & Flame so it’s actually in Provencal canonically.
Sorry about that. Marko insisted. And you know what he can be like when he gets talking about how he sees Flambeau history…
Look I’d argue Timothy’s take on the Mythic Canaries (Ancient Magic 89-102) is also sort of Iberian right? Or maybe I’m projecting modern sensibilities onto an imaginary 13th-century Europe. Of course none of us have ever done that before LOL…
So anyway, I was therefore *very* excited to hear that back in Nov 2021 a group of Spanish Ars fans with the awesome company name of Holocubierta Ediciones plus some American ring-in called Ben MacFarland was putting together an Atlas-endorsed Kickstarter for ArM5…
…but in Spanish.
I mean, of course, makes perfect sense right? Great to hear. More power to the guys for not only translating ArM5 material into their native tongue, but also *generating* new material / updating the ArM3 Tribunal Book into the latest edition (and IMO best, but I’m biased).
Except also… #@%$ and damn.
Very awkward for me because I am sadly a lazily monolingual* Australian and Spanish is therefore not my native tongue – so I lost track of the project and hoped it would do well because the cover and the intro YouTube video looked great.
Anyway, it’s now delivered and has been the topic of significant discussion over the last month thanks to a post started by @Valerian over on the Atlas Forums.
Frankly, I’m an idiot for not backing this for only €45.
I mean look at this beautiful map:
I mean I could have even just backed the PDF-only tier. <facepalm>
But I completely forgot to even back this level of the project.
Honestly, to the authors, I’m really sorry I didn’t support you on this.
Look I can say it was probably something real-world and COVID related but that’s just a poor explanation, not an excuse, because I backed some much less worthy Kickstarters over the time window, and have since.**
Hopefully, it will be available (in print and PDF fingers crossed) from their store soon enough to idiots non-backers like me in the near future and I can check it out properly.
There is some talk of officially endorsed translation… at which point I may have offered to perform a Mystery Script initiation if needed to get my hands on it as agreeing to an Infernal pact is still prohibited by the Code David tells me, although the sentiment was appreciated…
So for my part, I’ve collated all the usable “Iberian” stuff on the blog here for any amazing bilingual Spanish/English people to enjoy with this new tribunal book.
* OK, I learned a lot of Latin in secondary school, but that hardly counts. ** I regret nothing. Mushrooms are amazing in all ways. Certamen over it.
Resources for use in ArM5 Iberian Tribunal Sagas:
These links to posts and resources below may or may not be useful for Iberian sagas using Finis Terrae as I freely admit:
1) I actually don’t own the book as I can’t read Spanish and foolishly didn’t even back the Kickstarter for the art / maps (see above rant)
2) they were written a few years ago mostly as sidelines for the Provencal and Mythic Middle East projects I was involved in
Most of it is collected in an earlier Andalusian Magi page. Your mileage may well vary, as they say, noting that a lot of this material was written over 5 years ago now and I haven’t gone back over it. I may have missed a few specifically Iberian pieces, but this is most of the directly relevant stuff – if you’re using jinn or sahir there is other material scattered around the site that you might want to adapt for an Iberian Tribunal Saga.
Books & Languages
- Languages of Iberia (old, has probably been covered by Finis Terrae)
- Abbas Ibn Firnas, the Last Mechanician?
Characters / Magi
- Societas Flambonis (by Mark Faulkner, hosted with Permission)
Covenants
- Dar al-Nujum covenant (formerly a Sub Rosa #5 article of mine)
My Life as a Grog 