 And here is where the Amethyst experience so very much differs from most other campaign settings. The conflicts of the world - tech vs. magic, human vs. fae, Good vs. Evil - are purely subjective and even, at times, contradictory. What is right and just to one group might be the bane to another, and yet both sides remain reluctant to acknowledge the shortcomings of their own points of view. In a world where the source of light, magic, and creation is also the source of chaos, mutation, and entropy, would we expect anything less? The new racial options for players are a clear indication of Evolution's commitment to giving real choices to players rather than mere variations on what they already have in other another book. A race chosen from Evolution will yield for a player a radically different gaming experience than any race from Foundations ever would. The pagus are the pawns of Ixindar and its syntropic will. Considered “monsters” in Amethyst Foundations, the pagus had thoroughly earned their reputation as killing machines after centuries of senseless brutality under the whisper of Mengus. True to the spirit of the challenging philosophies that permeate the world of Amethyst, the pagus weren’t watered down for this edition or given some retroactive pseudo-heroic characteristics. They are ever the cruel beings. In fact, in the section on creating and playing a pagus, it’s suggested that if a player enjoys “single-minded warmongering,” the pagus is the right choice of character! This is, indeed, a bold decision on the part of the designers. Often, “barbaric” characters are sweetened with a touch-o-nobility to make them more easily digestible to a general audience. In Amethyst Evolution, the pagus remain as vicious in nature and as hated by all other fae as they originally had been described in the first book. And with an incredibly short lifespan, a pagus is a character that expects to burn out in a blaze of battlefield savagery before growing mad in its “old age.” Thus, a pagus player won’t be considering building a stronghold at level 9 or becoming a famous warrior chief; the will of Mengus whispers through every inch of pale pagus flesh, and the ironically violent urge to further Ixindar’s drive for conformity and order in a land of wildly chaotic differences makes the pagus a very unusual character to play! To enhance the possibilities further, pagus do not generate that magical field that disrupts technology, thus they may safely use or interact with technology. So, a player looking for sessions of unmitigated bashing, smashing, and demolishing without worrying about his or her character suffering from pillager’s remorse the next day could craft one hell of a pagus brute! Similarly, the kodiaks, a race of bear people magically evolved by the effects of Attricana, are all about roaring, running, hunting, and doing only slightly more advanced bear stuff than ordinary bears. They’re a simple lot, and about as "neutral" as any character can be in Amethyst making their presence in a story all the more intriguing. But if it’s complexity that a player is looking for, the new subterranean tenenbri fae race offers some very special opportunities for the kind of depth of characterization that only the world of Amethyst can provide. Considered by the narros to be defilers of their shared religion because they had dug into the earth far deeper than the narros believed that their god had wanted, the tenenbri are a fascinating blend of zealotry, defiance, and raw passions – and they’re all blind. Blindsight and their penchant for crusading make the tenenbri more than capable of compensating for the lack of ordinary sight, and they’ll need both because their ages-old war with the narros have continued into the current times. So successful have the blind tenenbri been in their conflict with their subterranean brethren that they now control their holiest-of-holy sites on the planet as well as the city that stands above it despite the fact that they rarely ever occupy a building above ground. The tenebri are a people of extremes, combining fierce selfishness with equal amounts of devoted loyalty. They are quick in battle (Zatoichi fans – check of their Ichi ability!), sense deceptions with ease, and can employ trickery with deadly consequence. But it is their physical blindness and religious fervor that make them a nearly poetic choice for the creative gamer. Here are a people engulfed in darkness yet thriving in a world where most others exist in varying states of unacknowledged ignorance. So much of the setting of Amethyst is a mystery, and everyone from the humans to the fae to the spawn races are little more than stumbling through the mire of inscrutability that has engulfed the planet since the return of enchantment. Yet, the tenenbri hold fast to what they believe, regardless of what anyone else believes – even other tenenbri – and there is great strength in such conviction. They “see without seeing,” and that distinct character trait makes them a unique choice for any player. With an ever growing number of tenenbri adopting a xenophobic stance and embracing their own greatness in the process, the very essence of what it means to be a tenenbri makes for a complex combination of personal, social, and philosophical choices. A tenebri adventurer could be a crusader seeking more enlightenment, an exile whose view of the faith is unpopular, or a being with a decidedly sinister agenda. Whatever the case, the character will be rich, multi-faceted one whose interpretations of the world will forge his or her view of everyone and everything else – whether the world likes it or not.  Possibly the most tempting of all new player choices is the option to use negative magic from the black gate of Ixindar. Here is a source of enchantment that does not generate EDF, that side effect that renders technology useless. In essence, a practitioner of negative magic could also employ tech to its fullest, enjoying the best of both worlds in Amethyst. Add to that the unchanging Ixindar's ability to confer immortality to human beings struggling to survive in a land of long-lived fae, and the temptation is extremely difficult to pass up. Negative magic is the ultimate equalizer for humanity and, in terms of competition, possibly the only hope for humanity, too. But oneness with Ixindar comes at a heavy price, and the countdown toward total corruption begins the moment a character first taps into negative magic. Is the loss of identity, individuality, and free will a fair price for victory? Is the character making that choice bold and self-sacrificing or desperate and self-serving? Hard questions are the hallmark of the Amethyst experience, and everything is subjective. Amethyst Evolution brings so much to the gaming table - new lifepaths and destinies, new vehicles and weapons, alternate classes and paragon paths - that the book is well-worth its price and then some. But what Amethyst Evolution brings to truly engaged role-players is utterly priceless: the opportunity to create deep, complex, and memorable characters whose questionable motives and ideals will keep the players' campaign conversations heated and intense long after they have left the gaming table! Get all the info on Amethyst Evolution at the official site. |