I thought about how to rate this book. In the end I had to admit, that it is simply utterly useless to me.

First let's have a look at how the content is presented:

Everything in this book follows an alphabetical order. Seems reasonable at first glance, if only the alphabetical order wouldn't be the only kind of structure for the whole document. That means the book is a complete mess of information - kingdoms, cities, and landmarks from all over the map are mixed up together. For example the description of the Aticraulian Empire as a kingdom is followed by the description of a trail in the country of Icobor and that in turn is followed by the description of Banner Burn, a moderate city in Narcadia ... it simply isn't possible for example to just concentrate on all information about the Aticraulian Empire. The only possible focus for all the content within those pages is the hyperlinked map at the end of the book. If you manage to hit your - all too often very small - mark correctly you jump to the corresponding entry. But alas! I don't want to jump back and forth from a map, just to collect the information on a single realm little by little!!! - not to mention, that those hyperlinks are invisible and you don't even know which detail on the map has one.

To me such a structure is not worth of discussion and it makes the book unusable.

Second let's have a look at the content itself:

To cut a long story short: It's not worth mentioning. All information is just some generic fluff-talk - not even a single bit of crunch! The leader of Brom for example being a 68th level minotaur barbarian is the highest level of ingame-information you get about the leader of that realm. And more often than not it's very lackluster: For example a given kingdom openly trades with this country but doesn't like that country too much. Each entry has a small paragraph - the kingdoms often a whole row of text. Within those descriptions you get a rough idea of the country, city, or landmark in question but nothing more. Concerning the kingdoms and cities the book promises "details on each" but I consider those "details" a simple idea at best. You do not even get some rough information about population numbers - persons of interest - history or timeline - level of education - resources, crafts, or trade goods - military strength or at least its military structure - or anything else like that.

A nice fluff-idea here and there.

The Tortured South opens up many possibilities for your Demon Gate campaign. There are more locations, more classes, and more races. With the Tortured South you cannot go wrong if you're looking for a little extra to add to the Demon Gate core book. It is highly recommended.

Tortured South is a great expansion to an already great game. Adding tons of locales and interesting little tidbits of information across the southern portion of the world it gives plenty of information while leaving things open ended for the GM to fill in the gaps as they see fit. Furthermore the new races and classes are an excellent addition to an already massive roster of races and classes in the core book. If you enjoy Demon Gate this is a surefire must have of an expansion.