Canon

The canon of Ars Magica refers to the official rules and setting of the game, as presented in the Ars Magica product line. This is in contrast to unofficial fan fiction, House Rules, and the like.

Importance of Canon

Canon is only as important as you want it to be. It's common and acceptable, even encouraged, for troupes to change the canonical setting a little to suit their own tastes. Robbie's Mantra takes precedence over canon.

The fan community often talks about canon simply because it forms a common point of reference for everyone's game. Because the canon is by definition the collection of what's published and "official," everyone more or less understands what it is, so it helps players talk about the game.

Canon and Game Editions

The canon of Ars Magica has evolved over time; every new product published adds to it. For example, when First Edition came out, the Houses of Hermes hadn't been written into the game. They became part of the canon in Revised Edition when the supplement, Order of Hermes was published.

When ArM5 was released, Atlas Games started over in defining the canon. Sourcebooks from past editions are no longer canonical in Fifth Edition. They are still perfectly usable in play, but there is a chance that some current or future ArM5 product will contradict them.

The correspondence of canon to game editions works something like this:

ArM1: There were not a lot of supplements for First Edition, so canon wasn't really well established yet.

ArM2 through ArM4: These shared a contiguous canon that was mostly self-consistent, though it got very complicated over dozens of supplements.

ArM5: Atlas Games started over, though a lot of the canon from past editions was quickly re-adopted, sometimes with changes. The major elements of the Order of Hermes, Hermetic history, and Mythic Europe are unchanged, but noticeable details have been altered. For example, the portrayal of House Tremere and House Flambeau have changed quite a bit, and Fifth Edition contains no reference to the covenant of Doissetep.

About the Term

The word "canon" literally means "the body of ecclesiastical law" -- note that it is spelled differently from "cannon," a large gunpowder weapon. Taken figuratively, "canon" refers to a body of material that is accepted and sanctioned by some recognized authority. In the case of Ars Magica, the authority is Atlas Games.

Related Topics

• A non-canonical rule that players devise for their own games is called a House Rule.
• The acronym RAW ("rules as written") is sometimes used to refer specifically to the official game mechanics.
• Games set in non-canonical world are listed under Alternative Sagas

Related Sites

• Wikipedia: Canon (Fiction)

Legacy Page

The history of this page before August 6, 2010 is archived at Legacy:canon