Bertrem's Guide to the Age of Mortals review
Morten Brattbakk
week, but thought I'd post this review before I go. It's late and I'm tired,
so I might miss a few points here. Anyway, here goes:
"Bertrem's Guide to the Age of Mortals: Everyday Life in Krynn of the Fifth
Age" is the full title of this book. The title pretty much describes what it
is: A book that details more or less mundane aspects concerning the
inhabitants of Krynn in the years following the Second Cataclysm. I
applauded the release of such a book, because descriptions of people and
realms with cultural flavor is something that Dragonlance needs more of.
This book does not have game stats, and like many Dragonlance sourcebooks
the last few years, Bestiary, Palanthas and Odyssey of Gilthanas, it seems
to attempt to appeal to both gamers and readers. Considering the rather
"balance-the-two" approach of these works (all fell between two stools), I
was curious about whether this volume would succeed. Modern Dragonlance
sourcebooks are noted for their many inconsistencies towards the original
Dragonlance, and I wondered to what extent this book managed to stay true to
Dragonlance while still introducing new things to it.
I love the cover, it has a painting which shows landscape, a town, a temple
and castle in addition to a green dragon. In most DL paintings there hasn't
been much landscape or other such features, but now finally we get
visualizations of the world, not only its characters. The painting is
obscured by much text though, I would love for WotC to put the whole picture
up on their web page or something. On the inside there is a map, the same
map that was in Dragons of a Fallen Sun, but it is insufficient for this
book. There should be a map of the entire continent of Ansalon as it is in
the Fifth Age instead of just a portion of the continent.
The book is written as if existing in-world. This has been popular in the
latest years, and has been done with mixed success before. Bestiary and
Palanthas both suffer from the author (Stan) trying so hard to give life to
the narrators voice that he neglects the hard info. None of the 3 writers
have gone that far here, though, although Stan still attempts to give
personality to his narrating voice, the content is most important here.
Nancy Varian Berberick has an almost poetic and slowery style when
describing food, clothing and trade, while Paul B. Thompson's no-nonsense
style is clearly devoted to facts and the occasional anectdote.
Nancy starts off with a essay on general food of Ansalon, followed by one by
Stan on more regional versions of food, before Nancy tell us something about
clothing on various places on Ansalon. This is quite interesting, much of it
is common sense, but it does provide a sort of atmosphere to the various
races and cultures of Ansalon. I couldn't find anything to nitpick here.
Paul B. Thompson has written about education, arms and armor and politics,
describing many realms/cultures in Ansalon with firm roots in history. These
chapters are for the most part good, and are very good as source material
for both gamers, authors and other interested fans, but I have a lot to
nitpick about. Obviously, there is a great amount of material to research in
order to get a correct essay on say, the basic politics of all countries,
and Paul didn't quite pull it off.
Let's start with education. Among the elves off Silvanesti, young boys,
usually commoners, are chosen as apprentices to scribes. This does not fit
with the strict caste society of elves, and Sylvan Veil confirms this, where
Lorekeeping is held strictly within the House Cleric. Qualinesti schools
being open to all races doesn't exactly rhyme with the image of the
Qualinesti elves as given in Dragons of Autumn Twilight (and *certainly* not
second generation). Children going to schools three times a day in Solamnia
doesn't give the impression of the feudal, if good-hearted, agrarian society
that Solamnia was and is. That a universal school system existed after the
Cataclysm is particularly ridiculous, the population had other things to
worry about, such as surviving. The argument that "no one blamed the
scholars" for the universal school system surviving in Solamnia isn't very
good, when paragraphs before it is explained how the Knights of Solamnia was
the glue that tied the social and political structure, schools included, of
the country together.
I also believe that the various churches, mostly before the Cataclysm but
also to a more limited extent during the years following the War of the
Lance, had a hand in education. The monasteries of Majere and the church of
Gilean would be central I think, and the Library would also be a center of
learning, even if it isn't all that accessible. But the Orders were, before
the Second Cataclysm, certainly *the* number one educator in Ansalon, and
should definately have been mentioned.
The arms and armor chapter is better and more thought through, with less
mistakes, even though it talks about the early dragon wars as something
entirely un-Krynnish (use DLA as source instead of TotL!), and has a few
obvious wrong references such as Theros living at the time of Huma and
Laurana and Stum battling Dark Knights at the Battle of the High Clerist
Tower. Overall it provides a believable history on the development of
weapons, and a good guide to what weapons are favored among the various
races today.
The chapter on politics is OK, but lots of nitpicking here as well. In the
coverage of Qualinesti, the Senate is not mentioned, even though its
importance is obvious to anyone who's read Second Generation and The Puppet
King. Description of the rule of current-day Blöde isn't complete without
the titans, and descriptions of political rule on Mithas includes an
oligarchy but mentions no Emperor, the long-lived Chot Es-Kalin. The kender
are less anarchial (sp?) than I would believe them to be. Otherwise, this
chapter is quite good, with interesting politics. I particularly liked the
section on Estwilde, giving us a glimpse how this obscure region works.
Next Nancy offers us a good treaty on trade and commerce, mostly a coverage
on trade routes on Ansalon. Very good as an overview. It does mention King's
Road as a paved road, but I don't think it is useful. It is elevated, and
clearly broke after the Cataclysm (the first one) and must be useless. For a
picture of it, look at the painting between pages 672 and 673 in Annotated
Chronicles, and it is broken there. Otherwise, a good chapter.
Next Stan briefs us on celebrations and festivals, some celebrated over most
of Ansalon, some more regional and/or racial. This is good, with a solid
foundation in earlier material, but updating it to the 5A and not copying
it, but still getting the essential info. The only ceremony I cannot imagine
exist is "Khara's Shame", in which each year a dwarf of Thorbardin shaves
off his beard in memory of Kharas doing the same during the Dwarfgate War. I
believe that dwarves would gather to shave off their beards as much as I
believe that Casanova, Don Juan, Hugh Hefner and Bill Clinton would gather
to cut off their manhoods. Otherwise, good chapter.
The book ends with a section on Popular Games, and is a treatise on children
games, tournaments, Khas, card games and the like. A presentation of the
Talis deck, the cards that are used on Krynn and with which they play many
games, including Dragon Wars and, presumable, Knight's Quest, would be in
order.
All in all, this is an interesting book with lots of litle details. Still, I
felt that it had a bit too many inconsistencies, particularly in the
sections of Paul B. Thompson, and often it wasn't thorough enough. Few of
the peoples and cultures got a comprehensive description. Personally, I
think that the problems could have been fixed (or at least there would've
been improvements) by organizing the book differently. It was organized
thematically, but organizing it by country and race would have been better.
The information could have been more thorough, the author's research would
have been much easier (ie. if you write about the Thorbardin dwarves, you sh
ouldn't have trouble finding and reading all the info you need, but if you
write about the politics of all nations on Ansalon, you do), and for gamers
and authors who need information it would have been much better for the
information to be in one place. If I am to prepare a game featuring the
Neidar dwarves and want to find out all about them in this book, I am in for
some serious detective work.
Even though the book should have been organized differently, it is a good
and interesting source of information on Ansalon. Despite some
inconsistencies it has, overall, managed to capture the flair of Dragonlance
and often has a good eye towards details. It is essential for Dragonlance
authors and also for DMs who want to spice up their descriptions and even
maybe get some ideas. No author should ignore this book (but check it
against other sources, of course.)
So, should you buy this book? The back cover answers that question. "If
you've ever wondered what kender children learn in school, what the dwarves
of Thorbardin eat for breakfast, how the people of Solace elect their mayor,
this guide is for you." If, on the other hand, 300 pages of such information
seem dry and unappealing (and not very useful), then this guide isn't for
you.
Morten