Order of Hermes (book)

This article is about the second edition sourcebook. For Order itself, see Order of Hermes.

Order of Hermes

Product Information
Rules Edition:	Second
Abbreviation:	OoH
Product Type:	Sourcebook
Author(s):	Jonathan Tweet
Publisher:	Lion Rampant
Product Number:	LR1020
ISBN:	None; Order of Hermes was published by a small press and has no ISBN on the cover or title page
Release date:	1990
Format:	Softcover, 126 pages
Availability:	PDF only

Subject and Contents

Order of Hermes was the seminal supplement for Ars Magica Revised Edition that defined most of the game's canon for the first time. It was the first book to present the Houses in detail, to enumerate the Regional Tribunals, to discuss the Peripheral Code and Hermetic politics. The influence of this book cannot be over-stated. It laid out the essential elements of the Order of Hermes; later supplements have primarily focused on expanding and elaborating on the ideas that were first printed in this book.

Much of the content of Order of Hermes had previously been developed and published in White Wolf magazine.

Order of Hermes was very well-received when it was published and received a warm review in Dragon issue #170.

Table of Contents

The table of contents gives a clear idea of what the book covers.

• Preface 4
• Introduction 7
• Life of a Magus 9
  • Before Apprenticeship 9
  • Apprenticeship 10
  • Peculiarities of the Gift 13
  • Becoming a Magus 14
  • Life as a Magus 15
  • Covenant Relations 16
  • House Relations 17
  • Friendship 17
  • Titles of Honor 19
  • Wizard's Twilight 23
• History of the Order 28
  • Ancient Origins 28
  • Legend of the Old Ones 30-31
  • The First Tribunal 31
  • Hermetic Magic 32
  • The Seekers 32
  • The Early Days 33
  • The Schism War 34
  • Magic of Pendule 34
  • Legends of the Order 36
• Politics 37
  • The Code of Hermes 37
  • The Peripheral Code 39
  • Crime and Punishment 41
  • High Crimes 41
  • Low Crimes 41
  • Wizard's War 42
• Tribunals
  • Customs of the Tribunals 42
  • The Leader of the Tribunal 43
  • Voting 44
  • The Quaesitor 44
  • Topics of Debate 44
  • The Grand Tribunal 45
• The Thirteen Tribunals 46
  • Tribunal of the Greater Alps 46
  • Hibernian Tribunal 47
  • Iberian Tribunal 47
  • Tribunal of the Levant 48
  • Loch Leglean Tribunal 48
  • Normandy Tribunal 48
  • Novgorod Tribunal 48
  • Provençal Tribunal 49
  • Rhine Tribunal 49
  • Roman Tribunal 49
  • Treaty of the Roman Tribunal 51
  • Stonehenge Tribunal 51
  • Thebes Tribunal 51
  • Transylvanian Tribunal 51
  • Covenants of Hibernia 52-53
• Outside Relations 56
  • Relations with Society 56
  • Non-Hermetic Magi 57
  • Relations with Faeries 58
  • Demons 59
• Houses of Hermes 60
  • House Format 61
  • House Bjornaer 62
  • The Magical Hand Gestures 67
  • House Bonisagus 68
  • Classic Puzzles in Magic Theory 69
  • House Criamon 72
  • Riddles and Markings 76
  • House Diedne 78
  • House Ex Miscellanea 79
  • House Flambeau 83
  • House Jerbiton 87
  • House Mercere 91
  • House Merinita 96
  • House Quaesitor 101
  • The Quaesitoris as Judges 102
  • House Tremere 106
  • House Tytalus 112
  • The Runes of Verditius 116
  • Timeline of the Order 122-123
  • Number of Living Magi, 1199 A.D. 123
• Hermetic Glossary 124-125

Community Reviews

FAQ Rating: **** (21 reviews; 0 *, 0 **, 5 ***, 16 ****)

• As essential as its Houses of Hermes reincarnation. One needs one of those two books for any saga.
• The original guide to the Order, now replaced by Houses of Hermes and the WGRE.
• Ought to be accurately updated. A core element and theme for the game, concentrates on the Order instead of the individual, without losing the individual in the process.
• Details and background of the Order. A must have.
• Great stuff about the Order.
• The single best product for Ars Magica, and the most comprehensive overview of the social and professional lives of magi. Essential to almost every Saga. A 'must have', even if you have Houses of Hermes
• Superior to the revised edition.
• Excellent.

Please edit this page to add your own comments about this book.

Availability

Order of Hermes was out of print for a very long time. However, by 2016, a digital version was made available at Warehouse 23. The link is here.

The long delay before an electronic version is explained in this thread on the official forum. In a nutshell, it no digital "master" existed, and existing physical copies were collector's items that no one wanted to sacrifice to produce a high-quality digital scan. It's unclear how this obstacle was overcome, but the PDF is available now.

Related Topics

• Order of Hermes
• Houses
• Code of Hermes

Related Products

• Wizard's Grimoire
• Wizard's Grimoire Revised Edition
• Houses of Hermes

The edit history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:order_of_hermes_book.