As a free game, there is few better. I was able to read through the entire rulebook in a couple of hours, including making a sample character in the process. The system is a simplified version of Ars Magica in feel and flavor (I'm unsure if there is any affiliation, but the inspiration is easily seen if you are familiar with the both games). The artwork is donated, but that does not detract from the professional feel of the layout. In summary, given that the game is free, there is no reason not to give it a read through and full marks for world-building.

If I had to find flaw with the game, it would come from two directions. The first has to do with editing. There are at least a half dozen or so fairly obvious gramatical or copy errors throughout the work, which at under a 100 pages seems like it could have been avoided. It is so blaring as to make the work unreadable, but it can pull you out of the zone. This is most especially true when you are reading about the world in someof the narrative elements of the book. The second is that the game screams for detail. The write-up is designed with brevity and simplicity, but in doing so it leaves a bit too much, in my opinion, to the architect. That isn't the end of the world, but there is too much of a great idea going on here to not fill it out with more detail. This game needs expansions! The short least of player classes it reminiscient of the old Basic Box set for D&D, with demi-humans being used in the same way as a class. Again, I understand the desire for "short and sweet" but I would have liked to seen more. In summary of the flaws, the game is a powderkeg of potential that is begging for detail and expansion.

The world the game is built on is amazing. It is a classical fantasy game with many of the elements we have come to expect: medieval timeline, fuedal structures, magic, demi-humans, monsters, magical revealed religions, knights, swords, nothing surprising there. The magic system is quick and fairly clean (though it is open ended and in need of care from the architect/GM). The combat system is fast and lends itself to easy combats that don't take half your game night. Weapons have interesting stats that make choosing between a sword and a hammer interesting without bogging down the system. Religion is revealed, leaving little open to interpretation. Overall fairly systematic fantasy roleplay.

Where this game truly excels is in the worldbuilding. In the world of Vaena has been flipped. While many of the elements of high fantasy are present, including it's many anachronisms, the game is set in a dark age between the reign of elves and dwarves, and the reign of humans. Travel is difficult, language is all important, knowledge is cloistered and hard to acquire, and the natural world is a significant challenge. But to make matters worse, magic is present in the world naturally in the form of fonts, places of planar connection between the divine realm and the natural world. If these fonts go untended, they can cause corruption of the natural world, unleashing monsters, demon and fae. Enter the Novarium, a hand-picked party of mages and hireling. Their task is to tame and tend these fonts and use the magic released to return the world to its natural state. Oh, and if you thought you would be playing in a world in which physical might and male-dominated societal structures were prevelent, you would be wrong. The gift of magic was given to women, who have turned that to their advantage. What history tells us about how women were treated in the Dark Ages of our own world are not mapped onto men, who have no access to magic. Of course there is valuable social commentary here, but that isn't the only way to look at the game. As a work of fantasy, it is yet another twist that pulls us out of what we think we know and how we view the world and allows us to fully immerse in a world with avery different point of view. It is no different than trying to imagine dragons or fireball spells. It's a novel approach and can be a great game for living vicariously and imagining a world very different from our own.

Of course, as I have noted so many times before, this amazing world-building is in desparate need of fleshing out, either by the publisher (time permitting) or by individual groups (though that can be a distraction from getting a game going).

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the game and building a character. The very quick playtest with my family seemed reasonable and easy to understand. The world is very interesting and fresh. It just needs more meat!