How to Use This Book

This book is intended as a full-blown setting for sagas and adventures, with the expectation that it will be a source for stories set within the region. The text assumes that there is no existing Hermetic presence in the area but, throughout the book, you will find story seeds that are intended to draw Hermetic magi and their followers away from their covenants and lead them to the lands of the Middle East. The following are just some of the possibilities that this book offers to players of Ars Magica sagas.

First, you may simply use the rules

here to develop exotic characters to supplement your covenant's membership, be they spirit-summoning sahirs*,* impetuous jinn*,* or mysterious Zoroastrian mobeds (see Chapters 3, 4, and 5, respectively).

Second, this book provides tools for you to build an exotic story arc, or exciting adventures set in the region or the supernatural realms it contacts, as a diversion from a conventional Europe-based saga. You may also choose to use the information on Middle Eastern magic and the Order of Suleiman to develop powerful non-Hermetic antagonists or allies for your saga.

Alternatively, you may wish to set your entire saga in the region, in the form of a new covenant of Hermetic magi striking out into lands previously unexplored by the Order, encountering the various challenges and magical traditions of the area.

Finally, and most adventurously, you can cast Hermetic magi aside entirely, playing a group of Middle Eastern mages and their companions seeking to make a name for themselves, and immersing your troupe entirely in the region.

We have not given full details on every place, creature, or supernatural item found within this book. We have given suggested statistics for some of these, but in many cases the precise statistics will depend on the power level of your saga. Thus our main emphasis has been on providing the legends and stories that may be used as inspiration.