Ars Magica ("The Art of Magic") is the award-winning roleplaying game by Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen that focuses on wizards who are as powerful as those we know from legend and literature; in the land of Mythic Europe, those legends are real. The rules encourage players to develop their characters over long periods of time, and make the covenant -- the home base of the characters -- central to the stories. Troupe-style roleplaying allows players to take on the roles of multiple characters, so that the players have equal access to power even though the characters do not. This new edition is rewritten to improve the rules for existing players, and to be more attractive and accessible to new audiences. It features all-new graphic design, two-colour interior printing, hardcover binding, and a special introductory price.

The Misty Palace is a place of danger and self-reflection, where the characters' actions determine whether they live or die. They must face themselves on a footing where there is less difference between magus and mundane, deacon and ditch-digger, grog and grape-grower than in Mythic Europe. The characters must learn more about themselves in order to survive.

Ordo Nobilis is a survey of Mythic European nobility. It looks behind the stereotypes, presenting a detailed picture of the noble life by defining what a noble is, what various noble ranks and titles mean, how nobles interacted with each other, and how they interacted with broader society. It examines their concerns and interests, how they lived, what they did with their time, and how they did it.

Ordo Nobilis includes a number of new mechanical options for combat (especially knightly combat), introduces a new system for monetary record-keeping based on the Mythic Penny, contains a system for resolving legal conflicts, and presents three scenarios that take full advantage of these options.

A Medieval Tapestry: Personalities of Mythic Europe is a 160-page sourcebook, featuring dozens of unique characters to be added to your Ars Magica saga, plus informational inserts and story ideas, as well as magus archetypes. A Medieval Tapestry serves several purposes:

Legends tell of the mighty wizards of the past, sorcerers with powers that dwarf those of the magi of the Order of Hermes. Hyperboreans whose spells lasted a generation, necromancers of Canaan who could summon any of the dead, rune magic that brushed aside Magic Resistance like cobwebs; all these stories circulate in the Covenants of the Order. Other forms of magic are so ancient that even the legends have become rare. The Seekers are those magi of the Order who search for these secrets, aiming for the glory of being the one to bring the power to modern magi.

This book contains descriptions of nine forms of ancient magic, and rules for integrating their secrets into Hermetic theory. From the frozen north to the westernmost edge of the world, from humankind's earliest homes to grand temples of the classical world, the quest can lead your characters anywhere in Mythic Europe, and even beyond. How far will they go for knowledge?

The magi of the Order of Hermes are not the only scholars and artists in Mythic Europe. In the Greek and Muslim lands, traditions of learning stretch back unbroken over centuries, while scholarship has emerged from long centuries of neglect in the Latin West with great vigor. From parish schools to the new universities, learning and creativity are everywhere.

Nor is this learning entirely theoretical. Doctors can cure many illnesses, and preserve the health of their charges. Natural philosophers can manipulate substances in a way that appears magical to the ill-informed, and gain some hints as to the future from the positions of the stars. The natural laws of Mythic Europe are very different from those of our world, and many strange things can be achieved by those who understand their secrets. Artists create the great cathedrals, but also more humble paintings, songs, and sculptures. The greatest of them draw the attention of the supernatural, and become part of the legends of the land.

Art & Academe provides background on the academic life of Mythic Europe, and rules for activities reaching from the astrology and alchemy of the natural philosopher to the regimens and treatments of the medic, from university disputations to the creation of masterpieces of art. Art & Academe takes your saga to the very limits of medieval scientific knowledge.

In the thirteenth century towns and cities are growing all over Mythic Europe. Covenants that were once in remote forests find themselves within sight of city walls, and regions that were once cut off from the world are now visited by traders from distant parts. For many covenants, cities are a great opportunity; craftsmen and merchants can provide anything that the covenant needs, and buy its surplus. Some covenants are even established within towns, or as small towns.

This supplement for Ars Magica Fifth Edition provides background on the facts of life in the towns of medieval Europe, and rules for craftsmen and traders. Clever magi could become the greatest merchant princes of Europe, or gain renown as suppliers of the most valuable tapestries. Less clever magi could find themselves manipulated by existing merchant princes, or tricked into buying shoddy goods. With an emphasis on stories rather than accountancy, this book opens a new stage for your Ars Magica saga.

The covenant is the home of magi and the heart of an Ars Magica saga. Much more than just a base camp, its prosperity determines the power and safety of the characters who live there, and the challenges faced by a covenant shape the whole saga. The Covenants sourcebook includes:

There are those within the Order of Hermes who transmit secrets of magic incomprehensible to outsiders. Pre-eminent among them are the four Mystery Cult Houses, gatherings of magi Initiated into the same Mysteries. This book details the Mystery Cults, including full details of their Inner Mysteries.

An Ars Magica Player's Sourcebook

The third and final volume in the Houses of Hermes series, Societates covers Houses Flambeau, Jerbiton, Tytalus, and Ex Miscellanea. These houses are formed of wizards who have come together out of shared interests and philosophies.

The True Lineages are the backbone of the Order of Hermes. In these four Hermetic Houses, each magus was taught by a magus of the House, and that master-apprentice relationship goes back to the founders. This sourcebook details the four True Lineages, including rules for original research, unique forms of magic, and new Virtues and Flaws.

Of the four realms of power in Mythic Europe, Magic is at once the most familiar and the most alien. It's the source of power wielded by Hermetic magi, but it cares nothing for human concerns. Elementals are the essence of the elements given form; what are emotions to them? Dragons are ancient beyond belief; why should they concern themselves with the affairs of men? Spirits are bound to the phenomena of the natural world, not to the creations of humanity. And even those humans transformed by Magic have their own strange ambitions, divorced from the petty desires of mortals.

But despite this indifference, creatures and places of Magic are inexorably drawn into the lives of magi, as the members of the Order of Hermes hunt for vis, familiars, covenant sites, and the mysteries of the Magic Realm.

This book shows how to create creatures of Magic of all kinds, as player characters or antagonists. Extensive examples are included, from the Beasts of Virtue that exemplify animals to the spirits of emotions, from great fire-breathing dragons to tiny fire-breathing mice, and from elementals born of matter untouched by human hands to the walking corpses of the unquiet dead. Delve into these pages to uncover the secrets of vis, magic auras, and even the Realm of Magic itself!

God is the patron of the Jewish people, his chosen people, guiding them through history and ultimately back to the Promised Land.

God is three and one, incarnate in Christ His Son, and offers salvation to all equally.

God is pure unity, with no parents or children, saving all who submit to His Will.

God is beyond human understanding, and all the above statements are true.

But the Divine Realm is not completely beyond human comprehension, and this book explains the power of God in Mythic Europe. From descriptions of each of the three great Divine religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, to rules for Divinely-empowered wonder workers and angels, this book contains everything needed to include the Divine in your Ars Magica saga.

Demons work to corrupt all the people of Mythic Europe. They take on attractive forms, but ultimately they seek to drag all of humanity down into damnation with them. No matter the nation, the creed, or the race, they are the true enemy.

The thirteen chapters of this book cover all of the manifestations of the forces of the Evil One. The purest appearances are the infernal auras, regiones, and vis, all of which taint those who merely come into contact with them.

Almost as pure are the demons of hell. The central section discusses the nine Orders of demons, providing rules for creating your own demons, as well as examples of demons from every Order and with different motivations. Some demons seek to corrupt, others to deceive, and still others simply to destroy.

Finally, there are rules for human characters caught up in Hell's plots. Whether demons have shaped their lives since before birth, or they have foolishly bargained for infernal powers, these chapters show how to use them as foes in your saga.

Be ready to fight, with sword, spell, and faith.

Secrecy is Power

There are Mystery Cults beyond the four Houses within the Order of Hermes. They keep their secrets from other magi, revealing their knowledge one piece at a time to those who undergo grueling initiations. This book reveals all, from alchemists seeking immortality to theurgists trying to become gods. Now your magus can also walk the path of The Mysteries.

Guardians of the Forests details the birthplace of the Order of Hermes, Mythic Germany. From the sinister faerie heights of the Black Forest, home to Durenmar, through the prosperous and venerable cities of the Rhineland, to the fog-ridden Harz Mountains, to the lowland plain and Crintera's island retreat on the Baltic coast, the northern Holy Roman Empire is a diverse landscape of countless magical and faerie forests, interspersed with a patchwork of powerful realms, where prince-bishops vie with dukes and merchant gilds for temporal power. This is the land of the epic Nibelungenlied, the heroic conquests of Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa, the miracles of St. Boniface, the splendour of the Imperial Cathedrals, the gifts of minstrels and wood-wives, and the curses of witches and the Wild Hunt.

In much of Mythic Europe, magi build covenants in remote wildernesses to avoid contact with mundanes. In northern France — the Normandy Tribunal — this is all but impossible. The wildernesses have been tamed and plowed under, the Church plants monasteries in the wastes, noble lords build castles to enforce their rule, and great cities grow up where once was nothing but fen. The magi of the Order of Hermes have adapted to living closely with mundane society in Normandy, even distributing their limited magical resources by way of contests modeled on the chivalric tournaments of the nobility.

But while magic is under pressure in Normandy, it is far from dead. Ancient megaliths stud the landscape, faeries control many forests, and caves and burial mounds hide relics of the past. Demons and monsters imprisoned in ages past by saints and sorcerers stir uneasily in their confinement, and magi wield potent and spectacular magic throughout the land.

The Lion and the Lily provides full details for the Normandy Tribunal, where magi must balance the demands of the nobility, cities, Church, and Tribunal.