My first copy of this book was missing 18 pages. My second had two pages glued together. The editor missed a number of mistakes, mostly repeated half phrases and such. The "Dargon Below" was about where I reached my limit.
I liked the content that was there but it left me wanting more. My perspective on the Sovereign Host changed, I have a much better idea of how the Vassals would view the world and interact with the players, but I really wanted more legends and lore. If there is any book that should explain how the Shadow became separated from Aureon, shouldn't it be this one? And while I have a better idea of how the Silver Flame religion shapes the people of Thrane, I wanted to know how the ACTUAL silver flame that's burning in Flame Keep effects the place.
The descriptions of the church hierarchies and member names (like Cardinals and Vassals) was just enough detail for me to hang my own plot elements on.
I can't see the Lord of Blades as a religion, unless I take the option they presented of making the LoB an abstract entity. Otherwise what happens when a cleric becomes higher level than Blade himself? Likewise the Inspired church actually creating clerics.
I need to re-read the Druid sections. I can't buy the Children of Winter accepting and creating undead, or the Greensingers wanting to "manifest" all the other planes but spending all their time and devotion on just one. I can see people doing those things but I can't call them Druids. Still, reading that section put me in the mood to create some "dynamic clashes" for the Eldeen Reaches.
One of the gems that really made me think was the second paragraph of the "Areni and the Divine" side-bar under the Undying Court. That's a creation myth I can hang nearly all the other religions on. I want more of those!
There were a few points where I felt that the new content contradicted the ECS. For instance the ECS says Blood of Vol "believe that blood is the source of life and that undeath is the path to divinity" and makes it sound like becoming undead is a way to cheat death, but FoE says undead have made a sacrifice to serve and are pitied (because they have no blood) and have missed "the door to life everlasting". The ECS says Deathless are "strongly tied to the plane of Irian...the birthplace of all souls" but FoE says "the Areni claim no knowledge as to the origin of souls". More than once I felt like FoE drifted away from the themes I picked up in ECS.
Overall, FoE made me think, it gave me some ideas, but it wasn't up to the standard set in ECS.