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Forwarded from alias “houses_of_hermes_mystery_cults” to page “hohmc”.

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults

Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults is a supplement for Ars Magica Fifth Edition published by Atlas Games in 2006. It details the four Mystery Cult Houses (or Exoteric Mystery Cults) of the Order of Hermes in the canonical setting: House Bjornaer, House Criamon, House Merinita, and House Verditius. HoHMC was written by Erik Dahl, Timothy Ferguson, Matt Ryan, and Mark Shirley.

The book was published before The Mysteries Revised Edition, but functions best alongside it. TMRE presents further details on the initiation rules, and provides complementary Mysteries occasionally alluded to as options in HoHMC.

The chapter on House Bjornaer describes the canonic house, but further provides rules to represent mundane beasts, a system categorizing them according to their humour, and a discussion on shapeshifters.

Perhaps the most discussed issue in relation to this book was its unique take on House Criamon, which seems to illicit a hate-it-or-love-it response. It presents a specific interpretation of what the Enigma is, and has been criticized as overly restricting Criamon character concepts. On the other hand, it has also been praised for providing a unique and original philosophy and concepts that serve as tools for protraying truly alien-thinking Criamon magi.

The section on House Merinita included a treatment of Nature Lore that expand on the concepts of Forest Paths and Forest Lore presented in Guardians of the Forest. A noteworthy Inner Mystery is Becoming, a method of ganing immortality by transforming oneself into a Faerie being, that has been criticized for allowing PCs to gain a lot of power by remaining only partially fay.

House Verditius's description includes the concept of Verditius Hubris, a mechanic that was criticized for making all Verditius alike (at least in their pride and jealousy over their creations). The concept of vandetta is also explored, with Verditius fallen to a mundane family's vandetta. The Inner Mysteries presented include Automata, which has been criticized as overly complex and is similar in concept to the rules presented in Ancient Magic. ??

In addition to its information on the four Houses, HoHMC provides the basic rules for Initiation into the Exoteric Mysteries, and for Potent Magic.

References