Theocracy of Canceri is a sourcebook for the Arcanis campaign setting by Paradigm Concepts. The zipped file is almost exactly 8 megabytes in size, and contains two PDFs, which are the main file itself and a printer-friendly version, each of which is roughly 6.5 meg in size. Both PDFs are 146 pages long, with two pages for the covers, one page for the credits/legal/table of contents, and a page for the OGL. Both have a table of contents and bookmarks.
The book is, like most Arcanis products, filled with rather stunning artwork. The front and back covers are the only examples of full-color art, with the interior work being black-and-white, though it?s no less spectacular for it. Each page has a gothic-looking pillar as a border on alternating sides, and at the top of every page is a border saying what chapter and subsection you?re in. Ironically, while the printer-friendly version has the borders removed, it keeps both the covers and the interior artwork. This means that printing this will certainly be easier than the full version, but at some points you may still have to print a picture or two.
The book begins with an introduction, which briefly describes the nation of Canceri before it deals with some metagame issues. A brief note here explains that this book pulls no punches in the vile darkness that it presents; the authors don?t shy away from the practices of slavery, cannibalism, drug abuse, and worse depicted herein. It then covers what other books this one works in conjunction with, and has a brief overview of the chapters. The introduction closes with a short bio of the author, and special thanks, before ending with a sidebar noting what in here is of interest to Living Arcanis players.
The first chapter presents the history of Canceri, presenting ten pages covering everything from before recorded history to the most tumultuous events that happened within living memory. No game mechanics are presented here.
Chapter two deals with the specifics of Canceri society. As with the preceding chapter, there is no crunch here, but this chapter is still rich in details for anyone wanting to examine an evil nation closely. This chapter covers Canceri?s castes, birth and death customs, entertainment and games, holy days, coinage, language, and law. It then offers a look at eight different secret societies, giving the headquarters, leader, religion, alignment, and symbol of each group before discussing them in more detail.
Opposite the last chapter, chapter three deals with the geography of Canceri. Opening with a map of the nation, it briefly discusses the nation as a whole before looking at major features. Here we start to get some hard stats, as the very first area, the Blighted Mire, has several new diseases. After over a dozen of these features, we then start examining major cities and sites. Each city has its game rule information (DMG-style) given. Seeing places like Stanivel, whose major industries consist solely of prostitution, drugs, slaves, and bound fiends, drives home what sort of place Canceri really is.
Chapter four is a short but interesting section about player-characters that are fiends or undead, instead of one of the more traditional races. It opens with a discussion of Dark-Kin, expanding on their PHB-style racial information, before giving brief description to the playability of several fiends from the MM. It then presents the dretch in full PHB-style, giving its fluff information and PC racial information. After this, roughly a page of text is given to discussing playing an undead character, with the three most powerful (and popular) forms of undead; the mummy, vampire, and lich, being discusses in particular. The chapter closes with the Undead template, which simply consists of a character?s type becoming Undead, with all of the ensuing changes (as opposed to becoming a specific undead creature).
Chapter five deals with new base and prestige classes. It opens with three new base classes, the Conflagration Knight, Nerothian Reaper, and Sarishan Knife. Each of these is an unholy champion class, presenting the evil counterparts to the holy champion class from the Player?s Guide to Arcanis. A sidebar discusses the relevant details of playing an unholy champion. Each class also has a sidebar presenting their epic level information. After this, five new prestige classes, Blight Bearer, Cortasu Tomb Raider, Dark Consort, The Master of Incandescent Flame, and The Ventaka Razor, are given. All of these are exceptionally vile in their own regard.
Chapter six presents almost three dozen new feats. The majority of these are general feats, but there are a few metamagic, psionic, and spelltouched feats also. While not all of these require an evil alignment, many of these still deal with dark subjects (such as feats that let you resist the effects of overdosing on drugs).
New non-magical materials are the province of chapter seven. Innovatively, this chapter opens with a guideline on modifying prices to normal items. Since Canceri has few resources, and must therefore trade with other nations, prices have naturally been altered for various things. A pair of tables shows the price adjustments. After this come several new alchemical items, along with information on crafting them. This is followed by a variety of new drugs and poisons, with the relevant information on creation and use, along with a sidebar reiterating the information on drugs. Finally, chapter ends with guidelines on purchasing slaves. Steps are given for calculating a slave?s price based on age, ability scores, race, class, and level, with a table giving some of the most common slave listings.
New magic spells and items are covered in chapter eight. Opening with spell lists for the new spells, along with a sidebar discusses new components (such as conditional components, environmental components, etc.), over forty new spells are given here, including cool new spells that are the opposite of the traditional buffing spells; you can now give an opponent a -4 Strength penalty with the Child?s Weakness spell, for example. New magic items of every stripe follow afterwards.
Chapter nine presents new monsters. There are a total of twenty new creatures here, which includes five templates. Challenge Ratings vary from 1 to 19, with many of them being new fiends or undead. As with the rest of the book, some truly vile material is presented here, particularly in the new types of undead (the Flesh Swarm, in particular, is exceptionally gruesome).
The last chapter presents people of Canceri. The first half of this is stats for non-specific characters, such as local necromancers or assassins. Each of these is 5th-level, and has a full stat block along with discussion about their place in Canceri society. After this are over a dozen specific individuals who are important in the nation. These people only have brief mechanical information given (gender, race, and class), with most of their entries being a discussion of who they are and what they?re up to.
All in all, Theocracy of Canceri shows us the best of the worst, and does so with a no-apologies attitude. It?s not afraid to deal with material that some may find objectionable, and does a remarkable job showing a society built on evil and depravity. Whether you?re looking to expand your knowledge of the most evil land in Arcanis, or are cherry-picking new badness for your own game, Theocracy of Canceri is a must-have for vile material.
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<b>LIKED</b>: There's a lot in here that I loved to hate. From the rules on slavery, to the new drugs and poisons, to the exceptionally wicked and foul monsters, this book has what's necessary to torment your player-characters, or reward them if they descend into evil.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It was slightly odd how the printer-friendly version of the book retained not only the color covers, but all of the interior artwork as well.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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