Has any one read (or seen the movie of) Neil Gaiman's Stardust?
I'm almost finished reading the novel (I bought it a few years ago but never got around to reading it till now sadly) and it's pretty damn good.
Also strikes me that it would be great for any Merinitia / Faerie influenced Saga - particularly as inspiration for a Saga actually set in Faerie/Arcadia...
Jarkman
The book is especially good in the sense that it shows us several different forms of magic, and hints that there are many different groups of wizards in Faerie, "far from the fields we know." For that matter, because mortals seem to come to the town of Wall for the Market, they also seem to know something about magic.
It would be child's play to put the town of Wall onto the map of Mythic Europe somewhere, and make it a playable site with occasional access to Arcadia.
I recommend "The King of Elfland's Daughter," one of Gaiman's inspirations for Stardust.
I was thinking a covenant set partly on one side of the divide between realms (perhaps the mundane covenfolk and visiting magi) and partly on the other side (the magi sancti proper) would be interesting for a primarily Merinitia based campaign.
Jarkman
I bet it would make a great saga! And, in some ways, the non-Merinita would have the most RP potential, as they would be working hard to learn the rules of the new society, they would be outsiders who did not fit in, and so on.
I wish we had Realms of Power: Faerie. Wasn't the Faerie book for previous editions supposed to be pretty good?
Waaaaay better than Pax Dei or the Maleficium, at any rate 
I didn't like Faeries: Revised (or whatever it was called) and I'm glad we'll see a solid fifth edition take on all things Faerie.
The third/three point five/fourth edition book is okay for a little inspiration but there wasn't enough there (as I remember) to really set Faerie characters apart from Magic ones. I think that's something that fifth (the materials we've all seen so far) has a knack of addressing.
IMO, Faerie would work better as a subset of the Magic Realm rather than as a separate Realm as the artificial distinction between a Magic nymph and a Faerie Nymph or say Hermes/Mercury being Magic but Zeus being Magic.
Hopefully ArM5 Faerie will clarify all this into a workable form - which is perhaps why its the last RoP book we'll be seeing?
Cheers,
Jarkman
You don't honestly think with all the hints they have given us about the Magic realm (The magic spiders in the Tremere section, comments on a possible twilight realm, etc) That we might not well see a RoP: Magic book?
Something showing us just what the Hermetic Way of magic really has cost the Magic in terms of raw power when they slightly watered down things for a universal system.
I could very well understand that book being last, as they would need to spec out several forms of undiluted magic to learn. though if my memory of Ars history serves. Flambeau was able to level a mountain. but couldn't heal or make a plant grow AT ALL. The hermetic system weakened the magic of Magi. but gave them wider access to more powers.
I could well imagine the magic of the beings of the Magic realm being EXCEPTIONALLY potent. But highly specialized and limited. and any real time spent their by non native would result in Warping ETC. You could only cross into it via twilight, or a High Regio. (7+ say)
We will see a RoP:Magic book - IIRC it is likely to be due mid next year.
This means the earliest we can reasonably expect RoP:Faerie given the current 4 books per year allocation and the various "types" is 2009.
All I'm saying is it seems like the Line Editor is working everything else out first before taking a stab at the vexing issue of Magic vs Faerie. Perhaps RoP:Magic will help somewhat with how this distinction is made workable...
Cheers,
Jarkman
I have an old Faeries book, perhaps it was Faeries Revised. It was mostly compatible (if not fully) nwith the 4th ed we played back then.
As my Maga had Strong Faerie Blood, she had access to some Faerie Virtues and Flaws, that is extra V&F beyond the usual +/-10. Even though they had to balance also, they were quite nice. Since converting to 5th ed, this has been removed from my character, since it is surely not balanced in the new version.
I'm somewhat curious about a 5th ed Faeries book, especially if they include these extra V&Fs too. But we tend to define a lot ourselves, especially about the supernatural, which become very hard to shake off if new, official rules come out.