The Book of Madness

The Book of Madness is a first edition look at the major antagonists of mages, the Nephandi, Marauders, cults, and various umbrood. It is outdated because a lot of the mechanics have been reprinted in Mage 2nd Edition. However, information regarding culture, beliefs, and practices were abundant. This book really broke the anagonistic groups down so that storytellers can come up with more unique antagonists rather than relying on the cardboard-cutout villians with badass powers who are bad simply because they are. The book explains the reasons why they are badasses and what they believe in.

This is THE most useful Mage sourcebook there is. Get it at the same time you pick up 2nd edition Mage and you'll be away. It explains (in fact theorises about) the nature of paradox, spirits, marauders, nephandi and so on, and gives handy hints on how to flesh them out into plausible adversaries rather than monsters to magick to death. It is excellently written and well thought out, typically Phil Brucato (who is by the way the most worthwhile member of White Wolf by a mile) and will improve your chronicle. Trust me (as Jodi Blake might say)

Like the Technocracy, the main Mage rules do little to explain why the Fallen Ones or the Mad Ones are supposed to be feared and hunted by the Archmages or even the majority of ranking mages in Traditional or Technocratic circles. Aside from the Nephandi having evil powers and the Marauders being almost completely immune to the limiting effects of Paradox, they simply functioned as human-sized dragons in Mage, good for destroying large chunks of real estate or frightening small children.With this book, we now have information about running and playing these kinds of characters that turns them into actual characters, rather than scary set-pieces. You didn't just sell your soul to a Hermetic mage gone bad, you sold it to Jodi Blake, with a distinctive style all her own. And so on.I recommend this book as a starting place for any storyteller (or, heaven forbid, a player) who wants to include one or more of these folks in a Mage game.