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Werewolf: the Apocalypse – Changing Breeds #9
Nagah: the Kings Under the River: A Sourcebook for Werewolf: The Apocalypse
Book by Blackwelde, Kraig, Bowen, Carl, Skemp, Ethan
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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January 22, 2025
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the biggest idiots of the World of Darkness. I came to this book because of several films and shows from Thailand featuring Nagah and I wondered what white wolf had created here. And damn I was dissappointed. Sure, not everything in this book was bad, but a lot was and the negatives outweighted the positives by a wide margin.
I had a bad feeling when the introductory comic was some nonsense connected to British colonialism in India, one of the laziest choices you could make when it comes to a breed with an indian name. And the three nagah that we meet in this book... the author chose the name Dragon Boat for a chinese nagah. Who would chose a name like that? And why a chinese guy anyway? It is not as if snakes were prominent in chinese mythology. And why would you use dragons with chinese names as patron spirits who gather in a place with a chinese name? Why not the nagah or other great serpents of mythology?
This book came out in 2001 so I will not criticize it for having dinosaurs only among the scaled courts. However, what was that lizard with six legs supposed to be? Is that just some joke? And the spirits did not want to bless a snake because it is so weak? Is there any mythology that portrays snakes as weak?
And I do wonder whether the author wrote this story being told at the start as part of a test to be the truth or a self-serving story? Because, if the "proper Nagah" never terrorized humans, why do their war form cause the delirium? And why chose Indiah as some old civilization where they lived peacefully with humans? Wouldn't that fit thailand better?
And having the Nagah be around without the other shifters knowing that they are judges and executioners sounds like a pretty dumb idea especially when they once lived so openly among the high society of india millenia ago. Wouldn't that invite superstition? And here is the War of Rage again, which is really odd, as raging as the Garou are, why rage as far as India? And considered how she talks about Garou in her story, I was suspicious.
It was weird that when they speak of europe in those old days they only speak of Crete, Ireland and England, but why those places? Did these places have some prominent snake mythology? And even the story of how apparently some corrupted naga caused the war of rage sounds a bit self-serving, somehow like "we are good but this one bad apple ruined it", even though the story also shows the flaws of their secrecy, something these morons never learned from despite the prominent calamities it has caused. And did they ever actually take out a true changing breed tyrant? Because the only one mentioned here, they did not manage to kill, someone else was faster than they are and they never name any prominent target.
And the second storyteller in the book even claims that the second war of rage showed the garou to be "pathologically incapable of working with Gaia's other children." That just reeks of self-serving myths and probably ignorance as one of the reasons the garou mistook the camazotz as wyrm followers because of their blood rituals and their similarity with the european vampires. And when the first storyteller than states that the Garou were tricked into eradicating the Bunyip by a Black Spiral Dancer and that some of the targets by the Nagah were blamed on the Bunyip says to me that the Nagah were much more involved in all of this and shows the flaw of their secrecy. And despite claiming how important it is to know their targets or how much knowledge they allegedly have, what was shown speaks the opposite. For instance, they did not even know that the Rakhasa king was a vampire and I doubt they know anything about vampires. Even the Kuei-Jin were simply referred to as demon people. And I wondered if she was deliberately written as so ignorant. If the Nagah had such a stronghold in India as claimed, how could they not know about the Ravnos vampires? That King is their founder. And time and again I wondered whether these Nagah were deliberately written as so self-righteous and ignorant or whether it was bad writing and so far I am still not sure. The storyteller also had no idea who the wizards were that ended the battle in bangladesh and claims that they have to be punished because they interfered with the natural order of events, that the rakshasa king would kill two of the kuei-jin he battled with but the third would have prevailed. And of course the dragon kings gave them the permit to kill those wizards. Considering how much they screwed up, I would not have given them any orders.
And I really don't get why they chose dragon kings and a realm associated with storms and rain as patrons of the nagah. And I do wonder why the wrote in this snipped about humans who could take the forms of fresh water fish that were exterminated during the wars of rage. That sounds as if all this association with water would fit these fishpeople better than these snakes but no other book seems to have ever mentioned them. And despite what this book claims (as a third person narrator) there has not been the association of snakes with water since the beginning of time. That is something specific to south and southeast asia, india and Thailand to be precise. And it is ironic how the naga are stated to be children of dragons when in real life lore dragons actually originated from snakes, including the many chinese tales of snakes becoming dragons.
And when we get to the storyteller again, he says that most shapeshifters are just fools who cannot hold their tongue. Which makes it even more puzzling how these snakes can even stay hidden, because in the world of darkness even the dead talk and their means to stay hidden would work in our world but not in the world of darkness.
But more on that later, for the time being the authors have some odd focus here, like writing about stopping the humans in india to pollute the ganghes any further but not caring about the yellow river. And considering how relatively little china featured in here after all, why chose apparent chinese dragons as the patrons and give a chinese named realm for them? Why not stick with India as the starting point?
And what are the other shifters supposed to learn as a lesson when they find a culprit seemingly slain in the most coincidental and fitting way? They don't even know that the Nagah are doing such stuff due to this book, so who would learn about that? Would they even know the dead had done something wrong? Because according to this book the nagah intervene when the shifters in question cannot deal with such people themselves, so there might be lots of people who hid their crimes. If this is written deliberately as "the nagah are idiots" it is very good writing, otherwise it is bad writing. And ratkin, corax and anasasi in the cities makes total sense, but Khan? The weretigers? If they are suited for that way would the Garou be "blessedly rare?" And wild wolves are not absent from India as this here claims. Did the author make a mistake or is that how it is in India of the world of darkness? Because everyone reading jungle book knows that India at least had wolves.
And why are northern china, Korea and japan essentially empty due to the efforts of the Nezumi? Why bring the Garou up anyway before? And funny, that one thai village that consists entirely of kinfolk is the only time so far Thailand was ever mentioned. Considered how prevelant naga motifs are in their temples, culture and coat of arms, you would think the Nagah would be more present there but there is nothing.
The only good part at that point was the good question how apparently everyone in the beast courts can be trusted with knowing the existence of the Nagah, even Tengu and Nezumi, but no one else especially when you consider prior statements in the book. In fact, how come nothing of the information left the beast courts? They even have contacts with mages so how do they stay hidden?
What this book says about Australia is pretty much par for the course by now with this fake environmentalism and alleged wisdom of the bunyip.
Naturally when the book talks about slavers it only mentions western africa and how their nagah kinfolk were enslaved, never mind the eastern slave trade that lasted much longer, right? And btw. why didn't their beloved Uktena also protect the Camazotz or why did no spirit tell the shadowlords that these were not vampires? And when did this book ever claim before that Nagah were diplomats of Gaia? It was suddenly thrown in but never shown or even hinted at before. And what European culture ever held the serpent sacred? They keep bringing up England and Ireland over and over but I never heard anyone speak of serpents in regard to the old celtic cultures. Or even modern british culture for that matter, the closest, geographically, that I know are the house serpents of Germany. And for a book bringing up water time and again, those Nagah are surprisingly dry.
The in-book storyteller really despises the Garou. In fact, if this is written well, this would be a hint of this hatred being necessary to cover up the failings of the Nagah, and they did fail, but the writing is not good. One of their own started the War of Rage but they take no real responsibility for it nor think of changing their ways. They claim their revealed existence would cause the garou to hunt them down, but it sounds like a lie.
And if their metis are so vulnerable to water pollution why don't they have some gifts or rites to purify water? Sure the dragon king eyes gift has some merit by granting sight, albeit dragon eyes are not associated with that, a cursing or paralyzing effect would fit better. Perhaps it is this forced dragon connection at work again. And the gift of masquerading as a mokole doesn't seem quite useful, as most mokole are not considered friendly either or even common. The gift of making someone misremember an encounter with a wereserpent surely has some merit, but would that be enough to protect from clairvoyance etc and wouldn't this misremembering as a serpentine wyrm creature, shapeshifting vampire or spirit not heighten mistrust even more by associating the snake with the wyrm and so make the Nagah even more of a target? Growing barbs and breathing poisonous vapor gifts have their uses but wouldn't it be better to give a nagah the gift to spit poison like some cobras can? And sure, making a nagah coldblooded would have some effect for infrared but it would not protect you from heatstroke, unless you are literally emiting coldness. And what on earth would controlling the tides be good for an assassin? Drowning their victims? They seem to have including this gift only because nagah allegedly were stated to cause floods and droughts in indian legend, but it has no function here and no prior water related gifts and the turn into a storm has the same problems. the gift to force someone to go into water at least has some assassination purpose. But still, not thought out well."
A gift to double the strike distance of a snake? Why? Just give it spitting venom!! They had venomous vapor after all. It is weird how the book has at once useless stuff like this but then smart stuff like a gift to hide inside the belly of a human. It is similar to the finally history section. The whole thing about snakes shedding skin and rejuvination is a mythological thing but snakes are not "often considered to be manifestations of time", not at all. Where did they get some of this stuff? The hydra warrior gift of the next page at least has some mythological truth to it. Albeit the way they introduce snake and water gifts is rather a hodgepodge than anything else. Why can the nagah walk across water after solidifying it? What use does this have? For the most part the assassin related gifts are at least decent but the snake and water gifts are dumb, a child would have come up with that, the rites later are no smarter either, they aren't even worth remembering. Later they have an nfrared vision merit but not ga ift, and this Mnesis merit pointing to a Mokole connection would at least make sense when you consider that the Nagah might be an offshot of the mokole. Because they sure as hell don't come across like a thought out serpentine and water related breed. They come across like something that was pushed into the water connection or who ursurped that role.
Using a drum to summon a target to someone is one of the better ideas of this book. but then the flood dust is another dumb idea, and the venom arrow fetish might be the dumbest of them all. Why a gift for that? That is nothing more than a common poison arrow, literally, that is what the fetish looks like.
Even the example characters were a bid odd and confusing. Was that woman with the soon to be nagah a vampire or a magician or what is that spirit serpent infecting the men supposed to mean? The text claims human, but then what was that serpent? It dissappeared the moment the nagah killed her. And the stalker in the next example comes across like a serial killer, because I am sure he gave that woman he stalked for years lethal pills.
How was another character fond by two others who allegedly kept watch on him and found him immediately? Most spirits will not help nagah so who was monitoring the guy all this time? And towards the end, the nagah who caused the war of rage is kind of a victim after all but then why do the nagah refuse to state her name?
And this old man presented here also has unexplained methods to keep an eye out for soon to be nagah, but at least he fits what I expected before: Do something wrong and he will horribly punish you. For such a bunch of idiots as these nagah, that is a necessity to keep existing an functioning.
The last part of the book was an appendix about snakes and it was as boring as before, and since they have these nagah so unserpetine why bother with data on snakes anyway?
This book was one big dissappointment with highlights only few and far inbetween. This book was not worth reading.
I had a bad feeling when the introductory comic was some nonsense connected to British colonialism in India, one of the laziest choices you could make when it comes to a breed with an indian name. And the three nagah that we meet in this book... the author chose the name Dragon Boat for a chinese nagah. Who would chose a name like that? And why a chinese guy anyway? It is not as if snakes were prominent in chinese mythology. And why would you use dragons with chinese names as patron spirits who gather in a place with a chinese name? Why not the nagah or other great serpents of mythology?
This book came out in 2001 so I will not criticize it for having dinosaurs only among the scaled courts. However, what was that lizard with six legs supposed to be? Is that just some joke? And the spirits did not want to bless a snake because it is so weak? Is there any mythology that portrays snakes as weak?
And I do wonder whether the author wrote this story being told at the start as part of a test to be the truth or a self-serving story? Because, if the "proper Nagah" never terrorized humans, why do their war form cause the delirium? And why chose Indiah as some old civilization where they lived peacefully with humans? Wouldn't that fit thailand better?
And having the Nagah be around without the other shifters knowing that they are judges and executioners sounds like a pretty dumb idea especially when they once lived so openly among the high society of india millenia ago. Wouldn't that invite superstition? And here is the War of Rage again, which is really odd, as raging as the Garou are, why rage as far as India? And considered how she talks about Garou in her story, I was suspicious.
It was weird that when they speak of europe in those old days they only speak of Crete, Ireland and England, but why those places? Did these places have some prominent snake mythology? And even the story of how apparently some corrupted naga caused the war of rage sounds a bit self-serving, somehow like "we are good but this one bad apple ruined it", even though the story also shows the flaws of their secrecy, something these morons never learned from despite the prominent calamities it has caused. And did they ever actually take out a true changing breed tyrant? Because the only one mentioned here, they did not manage to kill, someone else was faster than they are and they never name any prominent target.
And the second storyteller in the book even claims that the second war of rage showed the garou to be "pathologically incapable of working with Gaia's other children." That just reeks of self-serving myths and probably ignorance as one of the reasons the garou mistook the camazotz as wyrm followers because of their blood rituals and their similarity with the european vampires. And when the first storyteller than states that the Garou were tricked into eradicating the Bunyip by a Black Spiral Dancer and that some of the targets by the Nagah were blamed on the Bunyip says to me that the Nagah were much more involved in all of this and shows the flaw of their secrecy. And despite claiming how important it is to know their targets or how much knowledge they allegedly have, what was shown speaks the opposite. For instance, they did not even know that the Rakhasa king was a vampire and I doubt they know anything about vampires. Even the Kuei-Jin were simply referred to as demon people. And I wondered if she was deliberately written as so ignorant. If the Nagah had such a stronghold in India as claimed, how could they not know about the Ravnos vampires? That King is their founder. And time and again I wondered whether these Nagah were deliberately written as so self-righteous and ignorant or whether it was bad writing and so far I am still not sure. The storyteller also had no idea who the wizards were that ended the battle in bangladesh and claims that they have to be punished because they interfered with the natural order of events, that the rakshasa king would kill two of the kuei-jin he battled with but the third would have prevailed. And of course the dragon kings gave them the permit to kill those wizards. Considering how much they screwed up, I would not have given them any orders.
And I really don't get why they chose dragon kings and a realm associated with storms and rain as patrons of the nagah. And I do wonder why the wrote in this snipped about humans who could take the forms of fresh water fish that were exterminated during the wars of rage. That sounds as if all this association with water would fit these fishpeople better than these snakes but no other book seems to have ever mentioned them. And despite what this book claims (as a third person narrator) there has not been the association of snakes with water since the beginning of time. That is something specific to south and southeast asia, india and Thailand to be precise. And it is ironic how the naga are stated to be children of dragons when in real life lore dragons actually originated from snakes, including the many chinese tales of snakes becoming dragons.
And when we get to the storyteller again, he says that most shapeshifters are just fools who cannot hold their tongue. Which makes it even more puzzling how these snakes can even stay hidden, because in the world of darkness even the dead talk and their means to stay hidden would work in our world but not in the world of darkness.
But more on that later, for the time being the authors have some odd focus here, like writing about stopping the humans in india to pollute the ganghes any further but not caring about the yellow river. And considering how relatively little china featured in here after all, why chose apparent chinese dragons as the patrons and give a chinese named realm for them? Why not stick with India as the starting point?
And what are the other shifters supposed to learn as a lesson when they find a culprit seemingly slain in the most coincidental and fitting way? They don't even know that the Nagah are doing such stuff due to this book, so who would learn about that? Would they even know the dead had done something wrong? Because according to this book the nagah intervene when the shifters in question cannot deal with such people themselves, so there might be lots of people who hid their crimes. If this is written deliberately as "the nagah are idiots" it is very good writing, otherwise it is bad writing. And ratkin, corax and anasasi in the cities makes total sense, but Khan? The weretigers? If they are suited for that way would the Garou be "blessedly rare?" And wild wolves are not absent from India as this here claims. Did the author make a mistake or is that how it is in India of the world of darkness? Because everyone reading jungle book knows that India at least had wolves.
And why are northern china, Korea and japan essentially empty due to the efforts of the Nezumi? Why bring the Garou up anyway before? And funny, that one thai village that consists entirely of kinfolk is the only time so far Thailand was ever mentioned. Considered how prevelant naga motifs are in their temples, culture and coat of arms, you would think the Nagah would be more present there but there is nothing.
The only good part at that point was the good question how apparently everyone in the beast courts can be trusted with knowing the existence of the Nagah, even Tengu and Nezumi, but no one else especially when you consider prior statements in the book. In fact, how come nothing of the information left the beast courts? They even have contacts with mages so how do they stay hidden?
What this book says about Australia is pretty much par for the course by now with this fake environmentalism and alleged wisdom of the bunyip.
Naturally when the book talks about slavers it only mentions western africa and how their nagah kinfolk were enslaved, never mind the eastern slave trade that lasted much longer, right? And btw. why didn't their beloved Uktena also protect the Camazotz or why did no spirit tell the shadowlords that these were not vampires? And when did this book ever claim before that Nagah were diplomats of Gaia? It was suddenly thrown in but never shown or even hinted at before. And what European culture ever held the serpent sacred? They keep bringing up England and Ireland over and over but I never heard anyone speak of serpents in regard to the old celtic cultures. Or even modern british culture for that matter, the closest, geographically, that I know are the house serpents of Germany. And for a book bringing up water time and again, those Nagah are surprisingly dry.
The in-book storyteller really despises the Garou. In fact, if this is written well, this would be a hint of this hatred being necessary to cover up the failings of the Nagah, and they did fail, but the writing is not good. One of their own started the War of Rage but they take no real responsibility for it nor think of changing their ways. They claim their revealed existence would cause the garou to hunt them down, but it sounds like a lie.
And if their metis are so vulnerable to water pollution why don't they have some gifts or rites to purify water? Sure the dragon king eyes gift has some merit by granting sight, albeit dragon eyes are not associated with that, a cursing or paralyzing effect would fit better. Perhaps it is this forced dragon connection at work again. And the gift of masquerading as a mokole doesn't seem quite useful, as most mokole are not considered friendly either or even common. The gift of making someone misremember an encounter with a wereserpent surely has some merit, but would that be enough to protect from clairvoyance etc and wouldn't this misremembering as a serpentine wyrm creature, shapeshifting vampire or spirit not heighten mistrust even more by associating the snake with the wyrm and so make the Nagah even more of a target? Growing barbs and breathing poisonous vapor gifts have their uses but wouldn't it be better to give a nagah the gift to spit poison like some cobras can? And sure, making a nagah coldblooded would have some effect for infrared but it would not protect you from heatstroke, unless you are literally emiting coldness. And what on earth would controlling the tides be good for an assassin? Drowning their victims? They seem to have including this gift only because nagah allegedly were stated to cause floods and droughts in indian legend, but it has no function here and no prior water related gifts and the turn into a storm has the same problems. the gift to force someone to go into water at least has some assassination purpose. But still, not thought out well."
A gift to double the strike distance of a snake? Why? Just give it spitting venom!! They had venomous vapor after all. It is weird how the book has at once useless stuff like this but then smart stuff like a gift to hide inside the belly of a human. It is similar to the finally history section. The whole thing about snakes shedding skin and rejuvination is a mythological thing but snakes are not "often considered to be manifestations of time", not at all. Where did they get some of this stuff? The hydra warrior gift of the next page at least has some mythological truth to it. Albeit the way they introduce snake and water gifts is rather a hodgepodge than anything else. Why can the nagah walk across water after solidifying it? What use does this have? For the most part the assassin related gifts are at least decent but the snake and water gifts are dumb, a child would have come up with that, the rites later are no smarter either, they aren't even worth remembering. Later they have an nfrared vision merit but not ga ift, and this Mnesis merit pointing to a Mokole connection would at least make sense when you consider that the Nagah might be an offshot of the mokole. Because they sure as hell don't come across like a thought out serpentine and water related breed. They come across like something that was pushed into the water connection or who ursurped that role.
Using a drum to summon a target to someone is one of the better ideas of this book. but then the flood dust is another dumb idea, and the venom arrow fetish might be the dumbest of them all. Why a gift for that? That is nothing more than a common poison arrow, literally, that is what the fetish looks like.
Even the example characters were a bid odd and confusing. Was that woman with the soon to be nagah a vampire or a magician or what is that spirit serpent infecting the men supposed to mean? The text claims human, but then what was that serpent? It dissappeared the moment the nagah killed her. And the stalker in the next example comes across like a serial killer, because I am sure he gave that woman he stalked for years lethal pills.
How was another character fond by two others who allegedly kept watch on him and found him immediately? Most spirits will not help nagah so who was monitoring the guy all this time? And towards the end, the nagah who caused the war of rage is kind of a victim after all but then why do the nagah refuse to state her name?
And this old man presented here also has unexplained methods to keep an eye out for soon to be nagah, but at least he fits what I expected before: Do something wrong and he will horribly punish you. For such a bunch of idiots as these nagah, that is a necessity to keep existing an functioning.
The last part of the book was an appendix about snakes and it was as boring as before, and since they have these nagah so unserpetine why bother with data on snakes anyway?
This book was one big dissappointment with highlights only few and far inbetween. This book was not worth reading.
April 6, 2024
This is the last of the Changing Breed books. These line of sourcebooks have very good products with unusual perspectives of the world and the particular mission of each of the breeds. They were frankly an improvement to the world of darkness.
But unfortunately the formula was quite exhausted by this time, and the Nagah which had the potential to be a superb sourcebook, become somewhat stunted and in need of something truly different. They used the secrecy issue that would affect the entire sourcebook, from the Manyskins judgement which leads to the storytelling by the nest of Night’s Passage to the Sesha of the history, society and beliefs of the Nagah, to the rules and setting itself. And that is the weakness of this book.
The Nagah are the judges, juries and executioners of the kurah; they evaluate if the other changers fulfil their purposes and punish them in case of neglect or corruption. So far so good; it is a good starting point and a task that could be appointed to Cobras, but then everything starts to crumble with just the above mentioned single idea - They’re supposed to be dead and extinct to the world of darkness. Well that could had been achieved if they had retreated to a faraway Umbral realm (only shortly appearing in the material world to keep physical form) and remained out of sight. But no. They kept doing their job. Through centuries Nagah of all ranks (and many surely hadn’t all the gifts of disguise and forgetfulness) killed innumerable enemies, probably failed many others, interacted with beings with powerful divination capacities, with illusion breaking powers, true seeing gifts all used by Garou, Kindred, Mages and so many other things. Besides! Even dead foes do tell tales in the world of darkness! There are spirits and wraiths that certainly would witness the event, Garou that would travel to the battleground to find what happened to a disappeared pack member, Theurge that would ask the same thing to Celestines, the possibilities are endless. And to make the matter all sillier THE NAGAH RUN IN HENGEYOKAY PACKS!!! Even considering that all were completely honorable (which is ridiculous…all Hengeyokai through all the ages would have to be able to absolutely keep a secret, even when drunk, drugged, tortured, in bed with a lover…sure, right), it’s absurd to expect that from their enemies, and unless all their foes died in every battle they would eventually be discovered by someone (even if they didn’t assumed Azhi Dahaka form), and if just even one loosed its tongue, others would confirm that Nagah still existed through an immense variety of means (even contacting fallen victims of the Nagah, for example the Corax eliminated in the Comic that introduces this sourcebook). To make matters even worse, the nests usually explain the victims why they are going to die! Contacting the spirit of a deceased would frequently immediately reveal their existence. So the focus on trying to eliminate physical proofs of their passing is moot in the world of darkness. Not even Nosferatu managed to do that kind of disappearing act, much less an entire breed through thousands of years.
Impossible (or almost) to interact with other changing breeds, this book might make a fine campaign of investigation and mission-impossible style. The players belonging to a nest and checking events that might be failures of the Kurah, evaluating the situation, checking for responsibilities and eventual failure of their roles; then, proceeding to make a plan to punish the culprit. But possibilities for an extended campaign are slim, in my opinion. Which is a shame, because the authors putted considerable effort in the history and spirituality of the Nagah making extremely mighty and interesting gifts, rites (although with poor in-game value, they are excellent for storytelling purposes), a compelling link of events and an interesting twist to the start of the war of Rage (and the immense responsibilities in that event by the Nagah). The fetishes aren’t that strong but that is easily explained by the limited contacts and interaction with spirits by the Nagah; the advice that it will be difficult to pass through customs or possibly have problems with the authorities if a character carries a “Garland of Skulls” is quite annoying…of course they would have problems, but no more than carrying machine guns, rifles, swords or an immensity of other fetishes! It should be assumed that the players and storyteller have brains. The new Background – Ananta - is essential for the nest, and a true hideout and portable safe place; this is one of the best and interesting peculiarities of the Nagah. It also contains an interesting appendix on real snakes (very useful to improve role playing a Cobra or understanding their capabilities and limitations).
Good art fills this changing breed book that could be immensely bettered by the single expedient of the removal of the “secret changing breed” throughout the book. I can suggest that in your campaign they are rumored to survive in secluded places, but they have unknown purpose, locations and numbers (and all the mighty ones KNOW for sure that they exist).
But unfortunately the formula was quite exhausted by this time, and the Nagah which had the potential to be a superb sourcebook, become somewhat stunted and in need of something truly different. They used the secrecy issue that would affect the entire sourcebook, from the Manyskins judgement which leads to the storytelling by the nest of Night’s Passage to the Sesha of the history, society and beliefs of the Nagah, to the rules and setting itself. And that is the weakness of this book.
The Nagah are the judges, juries and executioners of the kurah; they evaluate if the other changers fulfil their purposes and punish them in case of neglect or corruption. So far so good; it is a good starting point and a task that could be appointed to Cobras, but then everything starts to crumble with just the above mentioned single idea - They’re supposed to be dead and extinct to the world of darkness. Well that could had been achieved if they had retreated to a faraway Umbral realm (only shortly appearing in the material world to keep physical form) and remained out of sight. But no. They kept doing their job. Through centuries Nagah of all ranks (and many surely hadn’t all the gifts of disguise and forgetfulness) killed innumerable enemies, probably failed many others, interacted with beings with powerful divination capacities, with illusion breaking powers, true seeing gifts all used by Garou, Kindred, Mages and so many other things. Besides! Even dead foes do tell tales in the world of darkness! There are spirits and wraiths that certainly would witness the event, Garou that would travel to the battleground to find what happened to a disappeared pack member, Theurge that would ask the same thing to Celestines, the possibilities are endless. And to make the matter all sillier THE NAGAH RUN IN HENGEYOKAY PACKS!!! Even considering that all were completely honorable (which is ridiculous…all Hengeyokai through all the ages would have to be able to absolutely keep a secret, even when drunk, drugged, tortured, in bed with a lover…sure, right), it’s absurd to expect that from their enemies, and unless all their foes died in every battle they would eventually be discovered by someone (even if they didn’t assumed Azhi Dahaka form), and if just even one loosed its tongue, others would confirm that Nagah still existed through an immense variety of means (even contacting fallen victims of the Nagah, for example the Corax eliminated in the Comic that introduces this sourcebook). To make matters even worse, the nests usually explain the victims why they are going to die! Contacting the spirit of a deceased would frequently immediately reveal their existence. So the focus on trying to eliminate physical proofs of their passing is moot in the world of darkness. Not even Nosferatu managed to do that kind of disappearing act, much less an entire breed through thousands of years.
Impossible (or almost) to interact with other changing breeds, this book might make a fine campaign of investigation and mission-impossible style. The players belonging to a nest and checking events that might be failures of the Kurah, evaluating the situation, checking for responsibilities and eventual failure of their roles; then, proceeding to make a plan to punish the culprit. But possibilities for an extended campaign are slim, in my opinion. Which is a shame, because the authors putted considerable effort in the history and spirituality of the Nagah making extremely mighty and interesting gifts, rites (although with poor in-game value, they are excellent for storytelling purposes), a compelling link of events and an interesting twist to the start of the war of Rage (and the immense responsibilities in that event by the Nagah). The fetishes aren’t that strong but that is easily explained by the limited contacts and interaction with spirits by the Nagah; the advice that it will be difficult to pass through customs or possibly have problems with the authorities if a character carries a “Garland of Skulls” is quite annoying…of course they would have problems, but no more than carrying machine guns, rifles, swords or an immensity of other fetishes! It should be assumed that the players and storyteller have brains. The new Background – Ananta - is essential for the nest, and a true hideout and portable safe place; this is one of the best and interesting peculiarities of the Nagah. It also contains an interesting appendix on real snakes (very useful to improve role playing a Cobra or understanding their capabilities and limitations).
Good art fills this changing breed book that could be immensely bettered by the single expedient of the removal of the “secret changing breed” throughout the book. I can suggest that in your campaign they are rumored to survive in secluded places, but they have unknown purpose, locations and numbers (and all the mighty ones KNOW for sure that they exist).
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