When Tyranny was first released, I took a little time out at the beginning to address the possible concerns of the very religious in a decidedly light-hearted fashion. Now, thanks to the contents of this new sourcebook, I get to do it again.
I mentioned last time out that all the contents of Tyranny are entirely the product of my own warped little mind, and have absolutely nothing to do with your religious beliefs, my religious believes, or anyone else's. That's still true. However, it's also true that if you didn't believe me then, you're really going to be upset now.
This book here features such wonderful things as the implication that any good supernatural beings are in fact just demons in denial, that morality is a weakness, and that monstrous little girls can have the power to bring back the dead. Those would all be pretty sick things to say if all of this weren't just good clean completely fictitious fun, which, I again remind you, it is.
Towards the end of that fast and furious period in which I first created Tyranny, the seeds of Astral Light sprang into my head. I was tempted then and there to add the two demonic families which are new to this book then and there. I was tempted to add a section describing the nature of the astral plane and land of the dead. I was even tempted to go to the library, find a complete listing of every species of animal on earth, and make a child of Anshala for each one. I realized however that if I did all these things, I would be spending enormous amounts of time and energy designing a game which, for all I knew, might have absolutely no appeal to anyone but myself. Therefore, I decided to these ideas for future sourcebooks.
In retrospect, this was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Not only did it allow Tyranny to be brought into the world in a timely manner, it caused a very beneficial change in my way of thinking. If all of my original ideas made it into the original book, I would never have the urge to add to them, while now I may end up producing new material for years to come.
More importantly however, I am now forced to run with a theme and fill an entire book. Had I planted the seeds for Astral Light into the pages I was working on when they first came to be, they would have amounted to perhaps a page of text. 3 or 4 new demons, a power or two, and that's all. However, as these seeds were forced to fill an entire book all on their own, they have grown to be a good deal more.
On a less poetic note, I must note here that this is not a very heavy book at all. A few more demons, a few more powers and weaknesses, and a few details about the world. As brief as it is however, this book was also written in only a month. The next two sourcebooks I plan to write will be far far thicker, but they will also take far far far longer to write. Thus, if you find this work to be too small, I suggest you ponder the virtues of brevity, and I hope that the quality of the contents will outweigh the quantity.
Again I must give thanks to those who gave Tyranny the praise and financial support needed to justify the creation of this sourcebook. I must also sincerely thank the late H. P. Lovecraft, because while at the time I thought I was working along completely original lines, by the light of day it appears that a few elements of this book were subconsciously inspired by the hideous creatures which poured forth from his mind.
Next Section: New Demons