This review is based on the PDF of Kobold Press’ Book of Ebon Tides. Although tailored specifically for their Midgard setting, it offers an interesting plethora of characters for the Shadow Realm, which is a demiplane that is made of equal parts of Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales, eastern European legends, D&D famous’ Demiplane of Shadow, and the Feywild (but as if seen through a delightful darker glass). The Shadow Realm was discovered by the goddess of moon and magic Hecate who, after fashioning it more to her liking, populated it with goblins, shadow fey (the Scáthesidhe) and their servants, besides bearfolk, human night worshippers, and other races.
After that brief history, the book details the eerie and mutable nature of the Shadow Realm. This is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the plane. Unlike the Material Plane, the only things that are eternal in the Shadow Realm are, well, shadows. Everything else is affected by the so-called ebon tides, which produce slow and dream-like but constant changes: rocks, trees, and other physical landmarks, even entire forests and mountains, inexorably change their location and even aspect. The natives discovered ways to bind or hold certain places together through unique magic and materials, such as wood taken from the holy wood of Hecate. These isles of stability are connected through the equally magical Shadow Roads. The book provides a table with suggested manifestations of the ebon tides to increase the setting’s weirdness. The Book of Ebon Tides also provides further details on holydays, weather, gods, fey etiquette, and customs.
We next get to “Umbral People and Heroes”. Here we get new races: bearfolk (the shadow bearfolk subrace), darakhul (the Midgardian High Ghoul, with new templates for bearfolk and shadow goblin), the famous shadow fey, the luminous lunar elves, the rare sable elves, the cunning and provocative shadow goblins, and umbral humans (with the subraces changeling and gifted). We also get stats to play with the fey-like quicksteps, the squirrelfolk ratatosks (with the subraces ekorre and tradvakt), erinas (spiritfarer), shades (Stygian), ravenfolk (sublime), satarre (unbound), and gnomes (wyrd). In terms of Midgardian lore, the sable elves are probably the most interesting one, presenting a decadent and weakened branch of the ancient elves that once shaped worlds like Midgard itself. Mechanically speaking the most interesting entry is the Gifted Umbral Humans, which represent mortals who made some pact with the fey in exchange of power or a perk. The ratatosks are a bizarre mixture of themes (squirrels, celestials, Yggdrasil… you name it) that are not only remarkably original but offer some very fun options as a race (specially the tiny ekorre). Finally, it is worth mentioning that all the races receive the most recent D&D 5E mechanical treatment, with flexible options for ability scores for example.
The Book of Ebon Tides also offers plenty of new options in terms of subclasses. We have the Circle of Shadows (druid), the College of Shadows (bard), the community-based Keeper Domain and the mandatory Shadow Domain (both for cleric), the original (and unexpected) Light Weaver Origin (sorcerer), the poison-obsessed Mother of Sorrows (warlock), the Shadow Arcane Tradition (wizard), the smoke/mist-based Shadow Gnawer (barbarian), the Umbral Binder (rogue), and, finally, the charismatic Way of the Prophet (monk). Seeing in darkness or similar forms of darkvision are, obviously, ubiquitous here. And yes, I did miss a new Fighter archetype.
The next part of the book is about magic. First we get rules on how illusion spells (with the shadow and illumination keyword) are empowered in the Shadow Realm. There is even some advice on how to describe the malleable nature of that plane through some spells. I wished that the book devoted more attention to that last bit, as I feel it is what makes the Shadow Realm so unique and different from other planes, Shadowfell, or Feywild. After that we get into the meat of the chapter: new spells! I am more mindful of flavorful then merely tactical spells and the Book of Ebon Tides did not fail me. There are plenty of awesome magic here, such as the 1st level Blade of Blood and Bone (you can create and store a magical dagger made of your bones and blood) and the grotesque 7th level Charnel Banquet (a disgusting but invigorating repast). There are a lot more of those: Child of Light and Darkness, Conjure the Ferryman, Conjure Giant, Deep Roots of the Moon, Doom of Poor Fortune… originally, I ended listing basically 90% of the new spells here. Usually, I can’t bother even reading magic chapters in most book as they are so bland, but the Book of Ebon Tides is simply otherworldly (no pun intended) when it comes to magic. I would buy the PDF for this chapter alone.
‘The Nature of Shadow’ feels like a continuation of the book’s introduction, further detailing the weirdness of the fey plane. How to get in (and out) of the Shadow Realm, its beasts, features, hazards, traveling, and my favorite one: Shadow Corruption. The Book of Ebon Tides builds its planar corruption mechanic upon the chassis of one of D&D 5E’s most neglected (but potential) rules: Exhaustion. So, here we get a 6 levels chart of progressive Shadow Corruption that gives not only disadvantages but also a few perks, such as (surprise!) darkvision. It is a simple but flavorful way to build a new mechanic and I quite like it. The chapter also details a few specific locations.
The next bit of the Book of Ebon Tides is all about intrigue: we get more details on the fey courts and their servitors. These courts are like locations and are more detailed than the previous chapter. Some are little more than a giant manor, while others are basically cities. Among those there is, of course, the one ruled by my favorite Midgard NPC/villain: the Court of the Moonlit King. This is one of the biggest chapters of the book and there is a lot to process here, all pure campaign setting. There are even details on fallen courts. In ‘Realms Beyond the Courts’, we get further places to explore, such as Fandeval, the City of Goblins, and Merrymead, the City of Revels. Again, there is a lot to use here.
Next, we reach the deities of the Shadow Realm, each one with a full description, including some good DM advice, such as Midgard’s wonderful approach to gods and goddess trough masks, which lend a lot of mystique back to religion (something that I sorely miss from most D&D books). ‘Monsters and NPCs’ comes next with 25 new entries, including stats for a lot of ready-made NPCs such as bearfolk, elves, goblins, among others.
The Book of Ebon Tides, like any other D&D sourcebook, has its own chapter of magic items. Like spells, these are usually things that I usually pass by, but the magic paraphernalia lovers are for a treat with some 80 new items among weapons, armors, artifacts, and wondrous items. I often feel that good magic items are more about telegraphing to the reader the unique flavor of the setting than just “kool powerzs” (although I also like nice powers), and the Book of Ebon Tides sets a good example. We have the Book itself as an in-world wondrous item. Remember that bit about the Shadow Realm being flux and malleable? Well, the Book of Ebon Tides is how you funk with that. Other examples of flavorful or just outright awesome magic items are the various memory philters, the illusion seeds, Hecate’s Lantern, and my all-time havoc-unleashing favorite: the collapsing mountain (yeah, your read that right).
The Book of Ebon Tides closes with three Appendixes. The first one has tables describing lesser magic items. These are pure gold and I love when authors take some time to create these trinkets, as they always are a lot more flavorful to a setting than endless lists of new magic swords or staves. There is also tables on fey pranks and tricks, court fashion, pets and mounts, food, cantrips, omens, secrets, lore and weird servants. The result is that these tables (and the awesome art) manage to pack more flavor than a lot of chapters put together. More importantly, they are useful to any fey-themed campaign.
The second Appendix has encounter tables, while the third Appendix has a list of monsters separated by terrain (very good) and CR (not very useful in 5E). We also get some battlemaps for generic locations, such as a fey court, roads, and dark woods.
Before I forget, the Book of Ebon Tides (to my surprise, given the flux nature of the place), also has a beautiful two pages color map of the Shadow Realm (of the type that you would love to have printed and hanged on your wall).
The Book of
Ebon Tides is a refreshing surprise in terms of 5E sourcebooks as it manages to
be not only an original reading (in crunch and flavor) but it is useful both
for players and gamemasters. The Shadow Realm’s planar nature makes it easy to
attach it any world or campaign. For old Midgard fans, it is a must, providing perhaps
a first full picture of the world, especially for those like me that love to
play around Zobeck and the original locations of the campaign setting (where
the shadow fey have a strong presence).
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