Dominions

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

The series in a nutshell

Not to be confused with the more directly /tg/ related card game Dominion

The Dwarf Fortress of turn based province conquering strategy games.

Dominions, 1 through 5, is a fantasy game about gods wanting to become the supreme lord of creation. And not the lazy, stay-at-home gods that get fat off prayer and nota blambrosia. No, it's about angry gods who are willing to take a shit on the entire world to become head honcho. Much like the Soviet Union, the various nations despised each other but were held together by a powerful leader known as the Pantokrator until he disappeared. By killing everyone else or claiming the Thrones of Ascension, they can become the true god. Your life is measured by your belief dominion (represented by white candles) and the number of provinces you control. Once you hit zero in either, it's game over. You may also lose if any enemy captures enough Thrones of Ascension, or win if you capture said Thrones of Ascension.

Anyways, what's unique about these gods and the factions they lead is that they tend to be more based upon world mythology and culture than your Tolkien-esque elves and dorfs (though it could be argued he stole it from Norse myth anyways). So there's your Irish Fae, Greek Hoplites, Roman Legionaries, German barbarians, tribes of Gaul(Ancient France), Phoenician demon-worshippers, Egyptian Lizardmen and their mummies, Irish giants, Norse giants, Biblical giants, Sumerian giants, Japanese oni, Russians, and more! The exceptions being most noticeably R'lyeh and their Aboleths and Illithids as well as Abysia.

Add the fact that every, EVERY unit has its own stats, afflictions, sicknesses and status(simply like having thorns or being hungry or diseased, or regenerating, hundreds of unique statuses), the game rivals Toady One in terms of coding detail.

And yes, you can have totally ridiculous battles like Cthulhu vs Spanish Inquisition vs Monkeys vs Zombie Jesus vs Jewish Cannibal Giants of Apocrypha vs Tibetan Legendary Shadow Umbrals. And yes, you can cast totally ridiculous spells like making a second sun (or turning it off), freezing the oceans, accelerating time so everyone ages to death, poisoning all the magic in the world so otherworldy horrors eat all mages (except the bloody ones), etc. Battles in the game tend to start off pretty tame with small armies hitting each other using puny mortal sticks, then big armies throwing magic artillery at each other, and then huge armies led by insane ancient undead gods while the sun goes off or goes up twice, and entire cities are nuked off the map via horrors inspired by Earthdawn (Shadowrun's ancestor).

It's primarily a multiplayer game, since the AI was too moronic to comprehend what to do and just throws shitty units at you...Until Dominions 5. Now it's competent for a knife fight in a phone booth (especially in Silent Seas, the iconic starter map in Dominions). With the last patches it can make reasonable "thugs" (Above-average leader units kitted with efficient magic items to be on par with a giant or a dragon, mass producible) but no supercombatants (Insanely invested single commander units kitted with extremely powerful items and often imbued with specific magic paths, LITERAL one man armies. Cast Claws of Kokytos on one for extra trolling) It also has a small but dedicated modding community, with mods existing that nearly double the game's (already massive) total content, and even some that port over factions from Warhammer Fantasy into the game.

Game Mechanics, a.k.a Why is /tg/ creaming its pants over this vidya?

Everything is turn based, and battles are concluded rapidly with a very complicated calculator which takes every bit of detail of every unit, formation and spell into account. (Which is like Dwarf Fortress on crack level detailed, but you need to pre-program a combat routine that can't be changed after end of turn) And we mean every unit with its uniqueness: yes, it is possible the 102nd nondescript human archer in your army might have his arm amputated due to an infected wound from an incoming arrow or spell, and you might see him in a siege stabbing people with one arm if you actually care to read the details. Every unit out of millions in the game has its own character sheet and experience.

Armies move similar to those in the Heroes of Might and Magic series, heroes followed by armies of dependent on their leadership limits. The "heroes" themselves aren't necessarily badass, sometimes it's just a dude with some leadership and maybe magical skills, but they can be outfitted in every part of their bodies.

This is where the game goes crazy modular. Wearing Chi boots and a shield on each arm can simply make your hero kick while blocking like a Muay Thai instructor. Heroes also often have 2 auxiliary magic item slots allowing you to stick a third arm on his chest for another sword arm, or even replace his heart with a magical one. Maybe a crystal battery for magic, or a heart made from sacrificing several virgins, pumping with extra life, like a magitek Frankenstein. If you have an Ettin, you can use two helmets on him, if you have a hero that lost an arm, better make a small dagger for the fella or make a replacement if he is valuable. Oh, you have a Hindu avatar with six arms? Put stamina boots on the legs, speed amulets on the neck and give him SIX SWORDS OF SWIFTNESS to make a threshing machine that eats curry and shits gamer tears. Giant snakes can only wield crowns or laurels, whereas more angular-skulled beasts can wear helmets. Every blow and corresponding protection is calculated for every unit in combat, like Dwarf Fortress. The amount of magic items, spells, abilities and status effects are in the thousands, impossible to count here.

You don't do much in terms of empire building. Basically, it's the strategic map of the (Shogun/Medieval 1) Total War series where you buy units in each territory and attach them to heroes or leave them to defend. Your national units can only be raised in fortified territories, and you can recruit unique quirky units in territories you inhabit and if you like, add them to your national ones, for example Niefelheim giants joined with the local human territory's cavalry since giants don't come with fast horses but could use a few supporting swords. You can fortify a territory to boost production and buy national units, buy a temple to spread your Dominion (which is your primary goal), or a laboratory for using magic rituals and recruiting mage commanders in said territory.

That's it, destroy neutral unit filled territories and spread out. The rest is up to you to be the One God.

The Modding

The game has a super simplistic approach to modding, mostly because the game has super ancient graphics, and as such anyone is able to take a notepad and any graphic editor to make alpha channel .tga files and mod it. The modding community is almost as large as the gaming one, which speaks volumes. Aside from a literal shitton of balancing mods, varying from minor ones to powercreep fantasy ones, there are huge numbers of mods that add entire nations, new spells or events that make the game even deeper than expected.

It has a pretty big manual and even bigger one for modding events, but luckily the community has extracted most of the game and made a so-called mod viewer, making it much easier than poking things with a stick until an error show up.

MP games usually don't run mods other than the balancing ones, because large modpacks have even a more wicked learning curve and add vast quantities of things to play with to an already overpoweringly huge game.

The Magic

There are 8 (technically 9, if you count Holy) paths of magic and 9 schools of magic. Magic rituals are fueled by magic gems (or virgins) and take a monthly action to perform. You get these magic gems mostly by searching the land with your mages for magic sites. Once found, they automatically generate these gems once a month. Most spells cause a mage fatigue, and the most powerful ones use gems.

The Schools

Conjuration

Summoning magical monsters, mainly. They vary from fire drakes to bane lords to otherworldly abominations. Most notably, the spell Tartarian Gate is in this school, allowing you to summon insane ancient undead gods to fight for you.

Alteration

Changing yourself, do alchemy, warp the battlefield, or reality itself to fit your needs. Many buffs and debuffs are located in this school, like Ironskin and Petrify. The absolute gamebreaker spell is Wish, which has a rather wide utility. No, you can't wish to win. But you can wish for girls! On the safe side, you can turn fire and earth gems into cash.

Construction

One of the schools that is pretty much mandatory, though getting it up to level 8 is sort of a give or take. It primarily deals in the forging of magical tools, weapons, and armor. There's also your giant golems and mecha dragons, which make pretty decent combatants.

Enchantment

Sort of a brother to Conjuration and Alteration, this school is notable for letting you flip the bird to all the other players through the use of global spells like flooding all the coastal provinces or drilling a hole to the earth's core to harvest its riches. Many mass defensive spells are also included from keeping your guys safe from fire, or shielding an entire province from enemy spells. Also, enchanting corpses to give them false life. (As opposed to Conjuration which brings pre-existing undead from their native realm IE ghosts)

Evocation

Good old pew pew. The school of zapping, burning, and icing motherfuckas. Start out shooting sparks and end with lighting the entire battlefield on fire. Out of combat spells include making a volcanic eruption, hurricanes, and tidal waves that all wipe out population.

Thaumaturgy

The "gimmick" school. A lot of it is based on fucking over or seizing another faction's magical or undead creatures and fucking units with low magic resistance. Most famous for the Communion spells, that allow your mages to combine their powers to become one mega mage, although it is also home to mind control (including a battlefield wide mind control) and Soul Slay, which instantly kills anything that fails its save (and makes it impossible for immortal units to return to life).

Blood

Both a school and a path, it deals with mainly the summoning of demons and extremely harmful spells. Demons are nothing to sneeze at and are a LOT harder to banish than undead due to having generally higher health and magic resistance. There are also spells that can completely fuck a nation's production through Rain of Toads or Send Horror. In the fluff this is considered heretical by the most nations and is the only magic you could call objectively evil since it requires human sacrifice - it uses virgins instead of magic gems to fuel its spells. You get virgins by forcibly kidnapping girls, and yes, the province will get unrest, you'll disrupt life and ruin people, reducing the population. Its spells, however, are incredibly powerful, up to the point of poisoning ALL magic in the world or summoning greater demons that run over entire armies. Got hit with a nerfstick FINALLY: when your nation has no initial blood magic, spending virgins to boost your wizards' blood skills hs a very high chance of damnning said spellcaster with a Horror Mark, a debuff that doesn't go away and has a chance to attract a Horror trying to kill you.

Divine

The only school you can't research, as all the spells are researched already. While some nations have their own unique Divine spells, divine spells are generally blessings, banishments, and smites. Blessings are the real thing here, as depending on what your Pretender has for magic, it can either be a minor aid or the focus of your nation. Used only by priests, though some priests can be mages too, and now can cast elemental-hybrid prayers and blast their way to victory. Blessings only affect sacred units, however, the variety and availability of which varies from nation to nation.

In the latest game, Dominions 5, divine spells get even more attention in form of hybrid schools, like water-proficient gods giving their priests power to drown land-based units, stellar-able gods' priests invoking starlight to burn undead and so on.

The Paths

Fire

What does it sound like? Mainly oriented around flinging hot stuff at enemies, it's one of the premier paths for battlemages. Heat nations like Abysia benefit from the battlefield wide spells like Heat from Hell and Fire Storm which fucks everyone without fire resistance. It is usually considered the worst path, since it isn't very flexible unless mixed with other paths. However, it has nice synergy with archer-focused nations at higher research levels, it turns even crappiest casters into living artillery platform, and it absolutely decimates even the largest human armies. If your enemy is Abysia though, well...fuck it.

Every level makes the wielder more powerful in leadership and fire resistance but also reduces the wielder's lifespan by a few years.

Water

Water is flexibility oriented rather than being straight up magic Dakka. Often called the weakest path due to the fact that many of its spells are only effective underwater or are completely uncastable unless beneath the waves. It does offer some pretty good ice based battle spells. When taken on your pretender god, it provides great buffs for sacreds, and make its wielder more able to block melee attacks. If you're playing a cold nation, then spells like Murdering Winter, Niefel Flames, and Living Water (water elementals become ice elementals in colder environments) can trash unprepared armies pretty well. You can also UNLEASH THE KRAKEN, or summon a Troll King and his bodyguards who can swim in oceans, which in turn can summon more Troll Kings, resulting in a swarm of amphibian coral spear wielding, regenerating trolls who don't need food that can take every oceanic territory and can pop up out of nowhere, so good luck landfags.

Air

Air focuses on zapping fools with lightning and breaking minds with illusions, resisting lightning and flying around like a jet. Air battle magic is extremely powerful largely do to 3 spells, storm, storm power, and thunder strike. Storm completely ruins projectile accuracy and allows the casting of storm power, a self-buff that boosts air magic by 1, allowing air 2 mages to spam the otherwise hard to cast air 3 thunder strike. Call of the Winds is an incredibly annoying spell that sends a flock of giant birds to harass provinces. Spamming it in an enemy empire's tender, undefended provinces can snag his entire lands in a single turn.

Earth

Flying boulders and sharp blades when it comes to battle. Most notably known for having the best when it comes to forging and construction. You can also summon tons of trolls, just like the Troll King of Water Path. It is a premier battle magic path with amazing buffs and is powerful when mixed with fire since they have devastating magma spells. Each level makes the wielder's skin tougher by one damage resistance, which is extra nice on XBOXHUEG pretender gods that can just stand there looking at enemy troops squirming around, trying to find a gap in the armour (and RNGesus tells us it will happen, because exploding dice and Magic Duel shenanigans). Also home for the most of armour increasing and decreasing spells out there, so if you want to see enemy army get naked, covered in rust, you go earth.

Nature

Revolves mainly around summoning big dudes (or many little dudes) that can take tons of damage, and then berserking and buffing the mofos. You can also summon tarrasques, and if you really want, you can make them tarrasque wizards with magic items on their bodies. Best part is every level of nature magic makes your caster feed 10 human sized units by sheer existence. Moreover, forging magical limitless wineskins, soup cauldrons and magical food swords make you support entire armies without draining territory supplies, fuck logistics and march through lifeless deserts to fuck your enemy's territories who thought they were safe. A crowning achievment of trolling is The Kindly Ones, who are three supercombatant women from Greek Mythology. Anyone who sacrificed a girl or is a blood mage will have to roll for Anal Circumference per month until someone kills them in nightly duels or dispels the spell. For even more trolling, cast Wild Hunt, a spell that causes the master of the fucking Wild Hunt (ie. the Horned God) and his minions to appear out of thin air and start assasinating enemy priests world wide!

Death

Zombies, skeletons, disease, rot, spooky scary faggotry. Pretty much what you think necromancers are, sans the obligatory evil flavor. Some of the wielders are actually "good" like C'tis necromancers or enchantments that drain all the pain in the world, make everyone happy and give you free death gems, or practical like Late Age Agartha's necromancers which use them for domestic labor. It sees most use in hands of middle age Ermor and late age Lemuria, who use it omnicidally against the living. Spells mainly revolve around summoning undead creatures, manipulating the "corpse" resources in a territory, and if you feel evil, making the living die in mass numbers or draining life out of enemies... Is probably the second most powerful path after blood, especially in the late game, due to its ability to summon immortal Not!Ringwraiths and liches, and as endgame units, *bugfuck insane* imprisoned Titans that will make enemies bite the pillow.

For every level in Death Magic for a commander, chances to get sickness and afflictions in old age is reduced, making the character a wizened old man who still looks spry and maliciously strong. Pass level 5 and the wielder scares approaching enemies into running away.

Speaking of neutral morality regarding death magic, it has a mundane spell to handle the dead like sending crows to eat dead bodies, turning the crows into death gems when fattened and keeping the territory plague free. Nifty, huh?

Astral

The "first" magic, and where you get all the smart technical spells like communions and luck, and artifacts that simply make specific actions more efficient. Mainly based around mind control and debuffs/buffs. Astral magic most often directly attacks the enemies magic resistance, ignoring armor entirely. Spells like Soul Slay and Magic Duel can be instant death to a single target. The true power comes from the super strong rituals like Wish, Acashic Knowledge (reveals all magic sites in a province), Gateway (mass teleport) Arcane Nexus (you get a fraction of all gems used to cast all spells), and Mind Hunt (assassination spell) are the big game changers. Best part is, however that Astral masters can easily forge magic crowns and sticks to supplement leadership and inspiration value of commanders, turning your shy, asocial platoon leader into a reincarnation of Creed that can lead magical beings by sheer force of will. Or forge a sacred linen that grants the wearer blessings of your god's powers even if he wasn't sacred to begin with. Yes, it works on giants, have fun speeding up ettins. While astral is reasonably powerful on its own, where it really shines is when combined with another path, since even one level of astral enables the mage to use the Communion spell to combine their power. Even a weak earth/astral mage, for example, when backed up by a large enough communion, can start dropping comets from the sky on enemy armies mid-battle.

Blood

Unusual as you don't require gems, but rather female virgins. Virgins can be found anywhere (more above 5000 population territories) as long as you got guys hunting for them. Since your people don't really see eye to eye with their daughters getting rounded up and sacrificed to infernal forces, you have to know how to juggle unrest and hunting, so your income doesn't go down the drain. Blood spells are all in the Blood school, so you don't have to split up your research for it, which is useful considering it's a massive investment. Blood can do a bit of everything. It can heal and it can hurt. But its speciality is summoning demons, which are pretty beefy and cheap. Rain of Toads is also a good spell to completely fuck someone's income and recruitment in their most productive provinces. Claws of Kokytos/Infernal Prison will send someone straight to hell, where they have a 99% chance of not surviving. And that's without mentioning you can poison the arcana with horrors from Earthdawn setting, or summon gigantic demon lords that can steamroll entire armies, seduce people to give their virgin daughters for free, cast unspeakable spells from a flail or kill thousands per night with diseases. Widely agreed to be the most powerful path in the game, especially in the late game, thanks to the fact that you can gather blood slaves everywhere with good population while other paths rely on non-growing specific areas on the map. When combined with death, it gets especially powerful, thanks to the ability to summon endlessly respawning vampire lords. An attempt at balance is made: artificially increasing blood magic skill, a gimmick known as "blood bootstrapping" now damns your spell casters who go through sacrificial girls like popcorn and will very likely attract Horrors every turn. This "feature" is not mentioned in game, so if you empower your God with virgin blood...

Factions

There are three ages in the game: Early, Middle, and Late. They progressively get more grimdark and less magical as time goes on. Mythical races get replaced by humans, the number of factions dwindles and steel becomes more common, along with death and blood magic. We'll put small summaries for Factions so you get the picture of what you'll be using.

Ermor

They're essentially Rome right after they adopted Christianity as a state religion, complete with Jesus expy. The fire worshipers from before got kicked out and were replaced by the church of Eldregate, though the old faith priests called Flamen eventually get accepted as "worshipping God wrong but with good intentions" and you can recruit them in frontier territories. They tend to have better infantry than average, so they can mow through the early game pretty well. Their priests are pretty strong, and their mages have access to mainly fire and astral magic, the "reformed" Flamen recruited outside of your cities even better at fire. They also enslaved lizardmen and learned a lot of death magic from them, leading to their state in the Middle age. Apparently resurrecting their Jesus expy leads to Death itself appearing. Oops.

In the Middle Age, they split into three factions. Sceleria, Pythium and Ermor. Middle Age Ermor is basically Rome, but with a zombie-skeleton apocalypse. It is one of the most powerful nations in the game, and in multiplayer is generally dogpiled by everyone due to how dangerous they are in the late game, because active campaigns against them are a horrible attrition game. Also incredibly frustrating to play against unless you have nature magic, since the land in their dominions withers and dies, leaving behind a worthless hellscape with no value and with no supplies. Basically, if you are attacking Ermor in the late game on their own turf, prepare for a large portion of your army to starve to death unless you have nature magic and well-guarded food artifact carrying commanders. Regions held by it (and has the God's dominion over it) die off quite rapidly, and the dead population is raised as zombies or ghouls with a side of replaceable skeletons, and SKELTAL LEGIONARIES OF ROME if a fortification is present. Sceleria is Rome but with undead kept under control through priests and put to work and fight back Ermor's own undead. Somehow manages to be even more powerful than Ermor. Pythium is Byzantine Empire, complete with magic Gregorian chorus and Eastern Roman unit designs. Late age Pythium is for some reason based on pre-christian rome, and has a bunch of heretical mystery cults that and snake/hydra worshipers.

In the Late Age, Ermor is finally destroyed by Marignon, Sceleria becomes Lemuria, a ghost apocalypse faction when its citizens have grown lazy fuckers and wanted more free skeleton slave-workers, causing the literal gates of the underworld to crack open. Again, population dies, Spectral Roman Legions spawn. Because Rome is retarded like that. Not as horrible as skelly-undead, but horribly nasty to fight against if you are not prepared, with everything being ethereal and thus 75% likely to just go NOPE when hit with anything that isn't magic. Get your priests, slinger swarms and Fire-Astral undead cleaners on if you want to survive.

Oh hell no. HELL NO.

Mictlan

Fantasy Aztecs, with all the religion and blood it carries. Rank-and-file are typical Aztec-expies with atl-atl javelins, maces, obsidian blades and spears. An important feature is their insane need for blood: every temple needs a virgin a month to function: which makes a nightmarish management problem compared to ALL other nations. They have a lot of sacred units though, fitting their religious theme, which brings a lot of possibilities in blessing them with crazy powers. Nature, Blood, Fire, Water and Astral magic are available, and every priest is a capable battle mage as well.

Middle Age turns them good...ish as blood magic is banned, and a new ruler named Lawgiver (who is a kind-hearted Couatl in disguise) turns the kingdom to a better place...not for long. Standard light-to-medium Aztec soldiers, again. Most notably, the powerful blood magic from EA is exchanged for temples that function without sacrifice.

Late Age has refugees from Atlantis taking over, seen as rain gods, they use their power to re-enact the blood cult. The lawgiver is defeated and exiled, and virgins are being butchered again. Sacred units are now include Atlantean Rain Warriors, showing that being a woobie is no excuse for being an asshole.

All in all, no metal army with low quality equipment that has predictable outcomes facing well-ordered, well-armed enemies. Their one-trick-pony is, in all ages, a little feature called memebless. Basically anyone foregoing mundane bonuses in income and supplies can boost their God's innate magic to extremes, so the soldiers with "sacred" feature get absurd, game breaking combat bonuses. And since Mictlan is a theocracy and sacred soldiers are everywhere...

C'tis

Why be just dinosaurs when you can also be Skaven Necromancers

First and last interaction C'tis had with foreigners

A race of Egyptian lizardmen that perform necromancy. Unlike most races though, they tend to perform it responsibly and know when to show limits. That doesn't mean you can't cause accelerate aging in the entire world populace and have them die off in a few years, but all fair's in love and war amirite? They're lead by powerful priest-kings and Sauromancer mages. For troops, they have your skink-like lizardmen soldiers and the more dinosaur-like slaves troops. Got pwned by Ermor earlier and was forced to teach them said necromancy. In the Middle Age they have a swamp theme, with poison guilds and fucking strong crocodile anthro warriors named Sobek. In the Late Age, they go back to the old Egyptian theme with mummies. Best known for their love for Mustard gassing entire armies and wonky holies that ALSO mustard gas the battlfield with explodey slings and bladder sticks.

• 
• 

Arcoscephale

Ancient Athens side of Greece. No hoplites yet, but heavy myrmidon infantry, chariots, and pegasus riders. Their mages are very powerful, and are great and sieging and defense. One of the more unusual commanders is the sceptic, essentially a stealthy atheist that reduces dominion. Compared to other nations, not much changes in Middle or Late age, though they are kinda based on Alexander's Macedonia in Late Age. Oh, also elite sacred units after the early age are Theban Lovers' Brigade: literally gay men buttfucking each other(and can't be seduced by succubi).

Pangaea, Asphodel

Furry, horny, drunk side of Greece. Satyrs, Fauns, Pans, Dryads. A literal faction of Greek Monstergirls (their menfolk are also monsterboys), with Satyr rank-and-file, Harpy scouts, Minotaur heavy hitters and Dryad and Pan priests. Pans are ram-headed Otherkin who attract naked women who go nuts and charge at the enemy.

Asphodel in Middle Era is like Ashen Ermor mixed with misanthrope hippies, forests slowly killing all civilized people and bringing them back as plant based zombies, with Death Magic being on the menu. Pangaea itself is always present and separate, however, getting more civilized throughout the ages but remaining primitive compared to humanity.

Mekone, Phlegra

Sparta 300-Cyclopean side of Greece, with a good backstory and decent unit build, and actually "ascended fanon" from a mod called Arga Dis for the third game. All Spartans are Giants bigger than Jotnar, and have a heavy backstory of hating all Gods. They have a hilariously funny missile unit who is basically a nude olympist who throws bronze discs without breaking aesthetics. The rank-and-file (chaff units) are Helotes, state owned human slaves, and Krypteia, slave murder season is a game mechanic. Still, the giants allow their humans to be freed with enough combat service and give them good living standards(another game mechanic, Helotes leveling up get more upkeep and remove slave status), so it's hard to find a decent pragmatic villain faction like this. Their national spell is Gigantomachia, which starts to scare all enemy Gods' believers, increase giant training rate and make all weapons capable of harming enemy divine creatures easier. Their capital province has the Cyclopes, who increase metal production and help you steamroll the enemy with giant hoplites.

They are hit with the ugly-retard stick in Middle Era and become Phlegra. Utterly fucking deformed and mentally unstable, all Gigantes are now disheveled, potbellied retards who hit hard but are armed with sharp sticks. Humans are treated like shit, no hope of freedom and no decent living standards, and horrible equipment. On the other hand, human opressors, descendants of rogue Theurgs of Pythium are true rulers of the Phlegra. They mastered the art of enslaving mages using slave collars that turn unfortunate slaves into perfect communion batteries. Powerful (but potentialy suicidal) communions, good crafting, cheap numerous and solid line troops and one of the best supercombatant chassis in the game are all strong points of MA Phlegra.

Everything's even more fun in late ages. The oppressive Tyrants just disappeared, well deformed spartan giant ones anyway. Cyclopes, far less skilled and civilized than their ancestors, became new head honchos of Phlegra after the human rulers needed their help with a rebellion. Oppressors still rule from the back seat, though a bigger back seat now, whispering "advices" to the cyclops rulers who run the military and the smithing business. After years and years of experimenting, the human rulers mastered the art of crafting magic slave collars, exceptionally strong and brave slaves are now "promoted" to unbreakable cannon fodder controlled through magic, and magical neck laden explosives. But that is not all...fun begins after ~2 years in game, when the volcano in your capital explodes, killing thousands, and then THEY return... You thought hobo Gigantes were bad? I present you Laestrygonians, titanic monstrosities of scales and hatred. Basically they are the -again- losing Gigantes with *extra* mutations, locked up under the mountain until it breaks apart so that they can blow off some tardrage steam. Off the scales stats, combat caster traits, abnormally powerful fear aura, access to the best magic paths for supercombatants usually makes them most powerful unit on the battlefield, as well as being water-breathing, boulder tossing, hair and -twice- legstriking giant with "berserker" trait, a sack of boulders and a giant log, easily steamrolling every neutral in the vicinity. The downside is Laestrygonians kill the province population, completely damaging your infrastructure by mere existence.(latest update really nerfed them though, an irate lizard shaman whacked my berserking Enceladus with a simple mace)

Mechanically, LA Phlegra has the same strong points as MA counterpart, with even more focus on powerful supercombatants, and more manageable middle-grade giants that don't murder population randomly. And even their weedy human slaves are decently outfitted, there's crossbows for heavy duty armor breaking, supported with unbreakable magic controlled soldiers and Mouflon cavalry, basically giant sheep cavalry that provide milk on the go, so Phlegra is a serious powerhouse. Of course, you can always turn it up to eleven by casting Gigantomachia and recruiting the Laestrygonians as foot soldiers, 3 giant per turn to make the rank-and-file even more Cheese...Provided you can deal with the population killed by said giants.

Oh, the Laestrygonians are led by their first Lae- fuck it, Legsnake dude (Maybe Laestriwhatever's legsnake for Greek, sounds similar) Enceladus, who is himself an even beefier, crazier, faster Legsnake.

Ulm

Germanic barbarians in Early Age. They field all kinds of leather-to-scale armored units dual wielding axes and swords. They can also recruit Steel Warriors, which are very Conan(The movie version though). One of their 3 mages specializes in construction magic, but their commander units aren't that great at fighting anyways so pimping them out is a limited option. Unless you summon a powerful creature and give it equipment to make a duel wielding, regenerating, never tiring, 2 extra mechanical arms with shields having, magic self buffing, flying, iron skinned, awe inspiring, terrifying, bat-shit insane, way to many resources leeching, undead god. Well, maybe not all of that stuff but at least like, 5 of those things. The real strength in ulmish forging isn't for it's warriors. Magic belts can reinvigorate mages so they can cast more, bottles of fire will summon fire elementals to every battle, magic owl quills help with research, and all of them cheaper for Ulm than anyone else.

In Middle Age, they are boring as fuck, now Medieval Germany without technology, but simply crossbowmen, cavalry and usual heavy armored dudes, their spellcasters either magical warsmiths, or dark, glum Catholic-expy priests that use Earth and Fire magic. No sacred units, people don't give a shit about God and just get on smithing.

But if you're not a faggot and can appreciate the simple things in life, Ulm has been patched with amazing perks. Now it's smith mage-priests can increase steel production in a region(which is an *extremely rare* perk that uniquely increases your recruitment per turn), resulting in having the best-armored army in the game with full plate for everyone, monstrously powerful arbalests and short swords even for your archers and amazing battle mages that can throw iron rods at the enemy, each being basically a souped up unit of crossbowmen with a beard and a hammer, and forging even cheaper than EA ulm is pretty fun. Watch and laugh as your enemies mighty spells bounce off of your earth buffed heavy infantry, and your cavalry caving heads in even being not holy and thus not having a ton more buffs yet keeping up regardless. You might get totally blown out by most other nations in the late game though, because no matter how large an army of obnoxiously panzer-clad infantry you have, your entire army can be wiped clean off the board by a single nasty lizardman with mustard gas spell or an elven impossible-to-hit-cavalry-brigade just ignoring you if you forget to mass-produce magical crossbows with splitter shot machine gun cranks.

In Late Age, shit hits the fan. Some dickhead has once again caused a death cataclysm and the wave of NOPE has avalanched across the civil war torn country, making it full of Vampires, ghouls, and werewolves, only saved by a dark Inquisitor clergy. Now the heavy cavalry are religious sacred units that are literal tanks asking for a memebless. The rank-and-file are the same, PLUS cheap crossbow rangers and stealth bandits to break the annoying blobs. There are ghoul halberdier guards that cut through enemy sacreds better than just about anything, there is a vampire hero as a Dracula-Expy (and MORE summonable vampires who spam mindless farmer meatshields as they reap the command lines behind), a cannibal ghoul general hero, and evil fortune-telling gypsies can be recruited in the capital to avoid the misfortune domain meme. So, there is a kind of Romanian-German mix going on there, complete with dark forests, bandits and grim, cheap and crossbow toting rangers marching alongside evil Templars from Darklands, German cannibal ghoul guards, supported by Illuminati wizards, grimdark Catholic expy priests, werewolves and legendary vampire counts, making Ulm not boring and FUCKING AWESOME GRIMDARK GOTHIC HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE.

• 

  "Even in Death I still serve"

  – populare Dreadnought saying

• 

  Ulm through the ages (represented by girls).

T'ien Ch'i

Warring states era China in Early Age. Units are boring but practical; Pikemen and spearmen with shields to hold the line, archers for dakka, glaives to deal with giants and other high-HP creatures, horse archers to harass the enemy, and noble charioteers to break the enemy line. Armored from leather, to light scale, to heavy scale. The big selling point is that their mages have magic from every single path besides blood. Easily one of the most versatile nations, throughout all ages. They also have a powerful sacred warriors of the five elements, notably of only one variety, all the elements, along with ancient heroes from tales that fly and are ethereal.

In Middle Age, it's the fucking Imperial China, with perfectly ordered and regular units, as well as sacred cavalry who are one of the thousands of bastards of the Emperor, and incredibly diverse spell users who got every last technical(and sometimes nonmagical) gimmick available from alchemy to affliction healing, from auto-province defense spamming, tax-collecting eunuchs to spy consorts.

In Late Age, it's Kublai Khan's China. Elite sacred cavalry that launch screaming arrows loaded with negative energies, slightly less orderly Imperial Army and 3 kinds elderly priest mages resurrecting ancestral worship. Now recruitable anywhere, that means even without forts, are incredibly good Mongolian cavalry and their high leadership khan leaders.

Niefelheim, Jotunheim, Utgard, Vaettiheim

Like these, but in the hundreds. Those guys are FUCKED.

Norse ice giants. One of the most powerful nations in the Early age, specifically because of the dreaded Niefel frost giant, which come in commander and basic unit varieties. The Niefel giant and his commander counterpart, the Niefel jarl, is the size of an elephant and can take on entire provinces by themselves due to their cold aura which simply freezes incoming soft units to pieces. This allows them to expand at unbelievable speeds, also known as a "Niefel rush". Besides the Niefel giants, they also have their smaller (but no less huge) Jotnar cousins. Since they live in extreme cold lands, spread your power and cool the world for trolling Abysia; they will do the same to you. Get ready to find nature magic casters for producing food generating items: Jotnar eat a LOT.

In Middle Age, it becomes Jotunheim, with small Vaetti goblins as small unit screening for the huge giants: about fucking time they got screeners for their walking tanks. Not many other changes. The tiny goblins are recruitable in forests outside of forts and up to 2 can get in melee alongside a giant in each sqaure. Don't forgetti your vaetti!

In Late Age, it's Utgard, Vaetti replaced by humans, and giants are less common. Human witches, Seithkona replace most casters, vikings et cetera.

There is another Late Age contender, Vaettiheim. Goblins of Vaetti woods plus some Jotun, as well as frost goblin sacreds, basically mini-Niefl giants.

Hinnom, Ashdod, Gath

Whomever drew this made a perfect rendition of Hinnom's last spell.

Biblical giants OP as fuck, or easily swamped depending on the situation. From the smaller Horite cave dwellers and civilized Avvim, to the larger Rephaim, to the humongous Nephilim, the theme of Hinnom is cannibalism and blood magic. The Avvim giants are eaten by their larger children, the Rephaite giants, who are in turn devoured by their larger fathers, the Nephilim. Their units are well armed and armored with the addition of spammable Enkidu and Horite meatshields, tempered with blood magic, their downside is that their elite units and commanders eat people, gobble up supplies, and cause unrest. Fortunately (or not) said elites are the most badass in the game, but even the cheapest rank and file is a superhuman giant that comes with supplementary javelins to skewer incoming enemies. Since javelins are stronger the thrower is... They can also summon the badass fallen angel lords of civilization such as Azazel in the late game. It costs 177 innocent female virgins to summon one, and it's worth it.

Middle Age Ashdod has the Nephilim and their daddies, the Grigori permanently sealed in Sheol. Anakim, their descendants become less Edgy, don't eat anyone, and basically giants degenerate a little. Humans are now migrating, and enslaved and put to work. Necromancy is now common, and not only Ditannu, undead Anakim can be summoned, but also kind, righteous beings that heal everyone and spread peace and justice, Old Testament angels with four faces, or flaming wheels with eyes. Bashanite Rephaim can go berserk, and you do NOT want to face a berserking giant with horns and a big fucking sword. Their sacreds are the best early game sacreds in the game to the point people will often dump every other ability on their pretender just to go for a memebless strat were they rush the nearest player and snowball from there.

Late Age Gath is back on the blood magic evil bandwagon. Humans are now twelve Jewish tribes (down to Benjaminite tribe which is spared genocide), free and working alongside their former enslavers, the morons. All the twelve tribes and giants practice human sacrifices to the same God that brings merciful angels and heals people, even though the said God struck down the Nephilim for their evil and turned Hinnom to Ashdod. You can even be the last Nephilim who summons angels but rapes and eats them.

Multiplayer doesn't see Hinnom as much since its admittedly brutal units tend to get swarmed by smaller units due to size and resource inefficiency, but Gath has holy human-sized warriors to screen said giants, so it's more liked. Hinnom's lore is basically taken directly from the Book of Enoch and the Book of Giants without much modification.

Tir na Nog, Eriu, Ys

Irish elves. All of them are invisible on the strategic map, and have a glamour that makes them incredibly hard to hit in melee. Their magic is relatively simple, mainly focusing on nature and air magic, but is still incredibly strong as they can blast you with mass lightning, or buff themselves so that a well equipped elf commander can take a province single handedly. Are considered to be dicks generally.

In Middle Age, they are Eriu, and Kher-Ys(which is spoken like Caerys, yes, the Eldar Farseer). Eriu is basically same Tuatha nation now less powerful, by Kher-Ys is a real powerhouse and interesting nation. Home region is underwater but EVERY unit is amphibian, have amphibian Abe Sapien expies as underlings, and themselves became Merrow, water fairies, whose Princesses ride flame-breathing amphibian fae horses that hit like a truck, have an inbuilt, infinite ammo flamethrower and a GOLDEN lance. Holy shit.

Ur, Uruk

Good old Sumer (Babylonian in later ages). Take Enkidu from Gilgamesh, and make it not one man but a race of them. Then put the Epic of Gilgamesh, make every character "an" Enkidu, and you get the picture.Their King and Queen commander units need to fuck in spring once a year, so if you don't keep at least one King and Queen commander in the capital, people will be sad. Yes, their royals must bone in public for happiness which is a historically accurate custom (And they say Middle East doesn't have good culture). The rank-and-file waves Bronze axes and spears, with supporting high accuracy, high strength rural archers and three, THREE nature-skilled shamans for enormous food and nature magic bonuses. Not too shabby, not too great either, their strength comes from the fact that Ur can support practically endless troop supplies with Enkidu shamans and their people are 20% stronger than a baseline human, allowing a solid shield supported by incredible missile fire with good investment. If you need more info, look at Ancient Sumer. They got Sirrush, wingless swamp dragons as sacred elite units. One good part is their clerics can mourn HARD if your God dies in combat, bringing back your dead god avatar earlier.

In Middle Age, the cities unite, and the iron age comes in full force a la Hittites, with similar chariots and shortswords, and astral magic added to the arsenal. Good thing is now they got a fuckhuge chariot drawn by a Sirrush-dragon and spear wielding sacred girls. Bad thing is, Enkidu shamans aren't as powerful anymore, so you need more micro to spam nature.

Caelum, Nazca, Ragha

Caelum is a nation of weak troops and strong mages, all with high mobility (since nearly everything flies). They have excellent access to Air magic, lesser access to Death, and minor access to Fire, Earth, and Water. Many of their troops resist cold and have extra Protection in cold.

They have two lines of national summons based on the good and evil spirits in Zoroastrian mythology. The good line requires Astral, which the evil line requires Death with a Fire crosspath; neither is accessible to any recruitable Caelum mage, so if you want access to these, you will need to create a pretender with S, D/F, or both. The commander summons in both lines are mages who provide an excellent and useful selection of paths. In Middle Age, death wielding crow-winged Harab Caelians are exiled and Seraphs take charge. In Late Age, Harabs return violently and kill the Seraph leaders, taking over the helm.

Notorious for an entire nation of winged people, they shatter as soon as you breathe on them but can move fast as the winds. Sub-nations are:

Nazca people(look up Nazca of South America) who receive the exiled Harab Seraphs and assimilate them to their necrocracy. Sentient mummies who love money lead the nation, human Inca soldiers and flying Caelian refugees(though armed with mundane equipment since ice magic is lost) fight side by size. Generally regarded as OP as fuck, due to being able to spam tons of sacred condors and ghosts. They also have one of the most powerful (and also one of the most expensive) mages in the game, but human rather than a certain Frog.

Ragha, fantasy Seljuk Turks-Iran combined: Caelian refugees from wars between Caelum and Abysia settle down with refugees from Abysia and establish a dual kingdom. Turan, the Abysian descendants are a plenty when the air is hot, and when it's cold, Seraphs are prolific meaning you get to recruit Turan elites in summer, and Caelian elites in winter (assuming you keep your dominion weather in the middle). Turan are half-Abysians that chop you up and hit like a truck but are cheap and fast, Caelians are described above. Have one of the most powerful sacred units in the game, platemail-clad griffon riding Abysians named Sipahbed. Bless them and order them to attack rear to instantly annihilate the enemy command in 2 turns.

Abysia

Being a race of raw elemental fire does have its downsides

Elemental King Rhuax's children, literally beings made from lava. So they can't use cheap weapons, but have to use steel heavy plates and giant fucking axes. It's as amazing as it sounds, so you can say the faction is "lit as fuck" or "their mixtape is fire" as your religious influence itself turns the world so hot that snow will be nonexistant. Huge fucking lava men and women are Mage-Priest multiclassed leaders, but there are also warlocks who promise more power by using... blood. So you can field cheap sword fodder servants made from breeding women and demons with Abysian blood by the ton as well...But you will realize that mixing demon blood with purifying flame isn't a good idea. Summon sun-and-fire hating Heliophagii and check out their description. (Spoiler: They have sent one of theirs to Abysia to extinguish Rhuax' presence by corrupting the kingdom from within) So by the end of the late age Abyssia is a horrible blood cult with Dr.J.Mengele style breeding blood magic going rampart and causing creation of half-humans who breed so fast that not even Paris Suburbs are as horrible as it goes.

Fight Niefelheim and start heating the world for extra hilariousness.

Kailasa

Yavanas are so fabulous their rippling muscles and oiled skin gives them +1 awe

Kailasa is a realm of intelligent apes ruled by Yakshas and Yavanas, divine beings living on the Sacred Mountain of Kailasa. On the sacred Mount Kailasa, beings from an earlier era still linger. They are blessed with mystical powers but are few in number. With the emergence of the New God they have mustered aid from a most unsuspected source. Deep in the forests below the Sacred Mountain, apes of uncanny brightness have evolved. The apes are uncivilized and have only recently mastered the mysteries of metalworking. Basically Planet of Apes led by buff, shiny Hindu homosexual spirits, or Pillar Men from Jojo.

In Middle Age, the shiny faggots are gone, so white apes are hermit kings leading the nation. In Late Age, they have Naga Princes and Princesses leading them. Not much changes otherwise throughout ages.

Machaka

An accurate depiction of a Machakan Lion Warrior, nicknamed Colossus in other regions.

Machaka is an old sacral kingdom divided into totemic clans. The clans follow their totemic spirits and worship them as bringers of civilization and tell myths about their interactions with men. For centuries the Lion Clan has dominated the others and formed a unified kingdom under their wise rule. The Lion Clan is blessed by Lion and are superior to other men. The Great Men of Mababwe(definitely not Zimbabwe), called 'Colossi' by Arcoscephalian historians, have ruled the plains since Hyena was coerced to teach metalworking to men and Rhino was defeated by spears longer than his. From Great Mababwe, the semi-divine Colossi of the Lion Clan rule their lesser kin as sacred Kings and Queens. There are many totemic clans, but some have been more influential. Hyena, Rhino, and Spider all serve Lion with their totemic masters' skills and guidance. Fantasy Zulu with animal tribes banded together. The Spider Clan takes over in Middle Age, Compe Anansi takes the wheels. The Lion Tribe is now homeless and destroyed, and spider cavalry is the dominant force.

Fomoria

The bountiful land of Fomoria was claimed by giants who once guarded the dark and stormy ocean realm of the drowned dead. With death ever near, their loyalties had changed and their malice grown. With the ascendancy of a previous Pantokrator, they were punished for their sins and banished from their dark home. The full effects of the Curse became evident when the Fomorians settled in a fertile land. Their offspring were short and cursed with monstrous appearance. The few surviving Fomorian giants saw their once proud race degenerate and die. Then came the Invasions. Partholonians, Nemedians, Fir Bolg and Tuatha all claimed the land of Fomoria. Twice the Fomorians were all but defeated by foreign magic, but twice they conjured a plague that slew the invaders. The third wave of invaders, the Fir Bolg, accepted Fomorian rule and aided the giants in defeating the Tuatha. Now Fir Bolg compose much of the Fomorian population. Fomorians are skilled shipwrights, powerful storm crafters and have a legacy of mastery over the dead.

Basically quasi-viking'ish, Irish ugly giants and Fir Bolg, bearded forest folk. Since they are bearded, they are not gay, and therefore, not Elves. Once again, taken directly from Celtic mythology.

R'lyeh

Even Aboleths can be seduced according to game mechanics.

In the deepest of oceans lives the strange fishlike race called the Aboleths. These beings are highly intelligent and the older Aboleths called Mind Lords can enslave lesser beings with the force of will alone. Having this power means they have enslaved Mermen and Deep Ones to do the daily work and to fill up the ranks of their armies. In a deep gorge the enslaved workers have built a score of small but magnificent cities for their rulers. In this gorge live the greatest of the Aboleths. Shore regions, if fortified, can train Androleths, Aboleth spawn inserted in human bodies for a painful puppeteer warrior.

In Middle Age, a star smashes into R'lyeh, bringing...You guessed it, Illithids! They replace Aboleths, but one or two linger alive, and don't mind rolling along with similarly brain raping amoral assholes from beyond. Not much changes, but the new bosses are amphibian and can blast your brain either way. Shore territories, when fortified, spawn free half-spawn, Deep Ones from Innsmouth, and can pay to train stronger half-spawns with armor.

In Late Age, it's Middle Age with an extra twist: population dies in your Dominion, and is "raised", brought to your army as crazed Cultist swarms. Have fun juggling 100 territories in multiplayer and get starvation reports when no one tends the fields and busy drooling and chanting and shitting themselves, including your leaders, and eventually even your own God! Yes, madness is a mechanic in game, every turn your insanity rating may cause your leaders to freeze in their province and shit themselves, babble, or jack off, and no, it's not R'lyeh specific. Your commanders who eat mercury as a Chinese cure may grow younger...or go nuts. We told you the game has every cultural aspect in history!

For the record, their unique God avatar, Uttervast which is an expy of Yog-Sothoth is an utterly indefeatable combat monster and can never start in the game before five years' time.

Lanka

On the dark and densely forested island of Lanka, Rakshasas, demon ogres from an earlier era, still linger. Gifted with tremendous strength, they once fought the Devatas of Kailasa, but since then the most powerful of the Rakshasas have left this world for the Nether Realms. The remaining Rakshasas have captured and enslaved the monkey people of Kailasa and made them serve as warriors, hunters or food. The Rakshasas had no use for the peaceful White Ones and Kala-Mukhas, Rakshasa halfbreeds, lead the monkey people of Lanka. Since the enslavement of the apes, the ancient conflict between the Devatas of Kailasa and the Rakshasas of Lanka has been renewed.

Basically not-gay Kailasa remake, with badass demon monkeys. Sacred units in every territory, and priests can raise random dead as a pastime. Free undead spam screening ass wrecking demon monkeys led by demons that don't need food. What fucking else do you want?

Atlantis

For centuries the seas have been the domain of the Tritons, but recently a nation of beings resembling a cross between fish, frog and human has emerged in the deepest gorges of the oceans. The race is not entirely unknown, for there are a few of them who have made shallow coastal reefs their home, but the Triton Kings never imagined that they were numerous or powerful enough to form a nation. These Atlantians of the deeps never stop growing and will live for several hundred years unless killed. The Atlantian society is organized in a strict hierarchy of size and age. The oldest and most cunning Atlantians have made themselves kings and queens of The Basalt City in the deepest reaches of the ocean. The Atlantians of the deeps use weapons of enchanted basalt made by the Basalt Kings.

In Middle Age, R'lyeh destroyed the Basalt City so they relocated. Refugees also settled in Mictlan(Aztecs) and Xibalba caves(Mayans), the latter turned real frog-like, named Muuch people by locals.

In Late Age, R'lyeh destroyed their new city, AGAIN. Now they are seriously barking mad, turn into Inuit-themed death cultists who stole ice technology from Caelians and settle on a frozen shore, intending to destroy R'lyeh while riding undead polar bear cavalry. If you return to the seas, you get madness-resistant priests and mages who were hiding and training against R'lyeh's void power.

Marverni, Marignon

Marverni is a nation of tribal chiefdoms guided by Druids and religious magistrates. The tribes have a long history of war and infighting, but recent developments have joined the tribes in pursuit of a single goal. The most prominent tribes are the Marverni, the Ambibates, the Eponi and the Carnutes. The Sequani, though a small tribe, are influential due to the large number of Druids among them. The smiths of the Marverni tribe are reputedly the inventors of chainmail and most nobles of the tribes use it. Lowborn warriors fight bare-chested. The Ambibates are known for their martial skills. The Eponi nobles fight on horseback and are the only cavalry available to the nation. The Carnute tribe guards the Sacred Forest of Carnutes where the Druids gather every year. The Carnute warriors are able to go berserk when wounded. Boars are a sacred symbol to the Marverni nation. Basically Asterix' Gauls. Now with Sauromatian Magic Tattoos!

In Middle Age, Roman...err Ermor conquest makes them into Feudal France with Inquisition and gilded knights and oppressed peasants. But now that Ermor is a zombie apocalypse, it's up to them to fight who civilized them earlier. Like Ulm, with higher morale and standard Medieval Catholic attire.

In Late Age, they go full Grimdark (As do most of the Late Age nations to be honest). Using Ars Goetia, they make pacts with demons to destroy undead Ermor. OK, Ermor is gone, now what?

It's Satanic Catholic Hypocrisy time! Religion is the same, but on Sunday, churches sacrifice virgin girls in public to scare the populace and instill order. Demons are regulated, the same Inquisitor who would burn you for witchcraft would let a Demonologist snatch your daughter and kill you for interfering. Ships are sent to the west to convert heathens, and snatch a virgin or two to feed to the demons.

Therodos

Cretan Empire post Theran eruption. Illwinter sure does his homework.

The Telkhine empire of Therodos was vast and powerful, the Telkhines themselves were almost god-like beings which had the appearance of giants with dog heads and seal flippers for arms whom had the less powerful but still significant Daktyloi as servants, whom in turn were served by the humans of the region.

To give the brief of it, the previous Pantokrator thought the Telkhines were getting too big for their boots with their investigation into death magic, specifically a concoction using sulfur and water from the river Styx that killed vast swathes of animal and plant life. So he first cursed all those Telkhines involved with an aura mimicking their concotion(The Telkhine Malediction), then decided it was not enough and banished all but the non-involved Telkhines(three), plus sunk the islands of the empire.

Fortunately the Daktyloi were amphibious, and the ghostly human dead refused to be dead due to ignorance, so they set about rebuilding the empire from one tiny little sunken island. Crunch wise, it's a nightmare to play as you use living economy and units but your realm kills population, and every national unit you recruit is sacred. Interesting design but fuck-all viability in big maps.

After the update they have become downright powerful, now they can build forts to spare most of the population, their specials don't need as much money, and even their wizards are quite capable of surviving themselves. Plus they have magical fumes in the battlefield all the time to poison the enemy with freespawn ghost warriors, so they have become a considerable force.

Berytos, Phaeacia

The people of Berytos are the descendants of a civilization created by the Telchines, titanic storm demons defeated by a previous Pantokrator. The Telchines taught shipbuilding, sailing and metalcrafting to the human ancestors of Berytos. When the Telchines were defeated, the humans fled to the sea, led by the Storm Callers, disciples of the Telchines. With the knowledge of ironcrafting and the magical might of the Storm Callers, new colonies were founded on distant shores. Like a phoenix, the dying empire was reborn. But the Telchine gods were dead and the humans sought divine leadership. They found the Melqarts of Hinnom. One of the colonies was situated near Ashdod and the bloody cult of the Melqarts soon spread through the Phoenix Empire. In the capital colony of Berytos, a great temple to the Melqarts was built. But soon another power found its way into the cult. Refugee Colossi, great men of the Machakan royal family, arrived in Berytos and established themselves as rulers of the bloody cult. Their sorceresses claimed divinity and called themselves Brides-in-Waiting. Now Berytos is a seafaring people led by sorcerer queens from the great temple in Berytos, and ruled by King Ba'al Hammon of the Melqarts and Queen Makelo, one of the three remaining Telchines.

In Middle Age, Berytos is pawned by Arcoscephale and Phaeacia is founded by surviving Machakan Lion Men and refugees from both Berytos and Mekone. An Island kingdom, it's a crazy gameplay with Phaeacia as your God's dominion freespawns magical black ships that transport all units across seas as long as the majority of a region believes in you, letting you conquer EVERY shore in a year if you build underwater temples at shores as well. Pirate Carthaginians married to giant Africans who eat immortality apples and use magical linen armor strong as chainmail. It's as fun as it sounds.

Sauromatia

Sauromatia is a nation of nomadic warrior tribes ruled by women. Men and women fight side by side and all prominent tribes are ruled by warrior queens. This is a legacy of the Sauromatians merging with the Amazon tribes in times past. The Amazons leaders were not accepted, because they were not warriors, but they influenced the Sauromatians and women warriors gained power and prestige. Only the tribe of the Androphags has totally rejected the notion of female leadership. The Androphags are ruled by ancient Witch Kings who introduced cannibalism and man-flaying to the Sauromatians. The Androphags also use hydras from the Marshes of Pythia in warfare. Conquered by Ermor in Early Age, apparently and made into Pythium. Army is fairly simple and deceptively strong, horse archers, horse lancers and cataphracts, as well as lizard riders and raptor riding women supported by male archers, some of them (Androphag tribe) using poison bows. They look weak except a little feature called...

...Magic Tattoos. Every, EVERY Sauromatian unit is tattooed across his/her body, and a level 3 faction spell can awaken the tattoos on the battlefield, granting them extra stats, and ten percent or similar chance to shrug off the entirety of a blow. Needless to say, your average human Strength grade men and women who are mostly a tick above the neutral region units can steamroll entire armies, considering Sauromatian leaders often have immense nature magic to feed soldiers for free.

Loosely based off of the ancient Sarmatians, grandchildren of Amazons and Scythians around the Black Sea, who supposedly practiced ritual cannibalism (old Roman maps showed a tribe named Androphagi) and flayed defeated foes alive. On top of that, it has been suggested that the ancient Scythians were the basis for the Greek stories of Amazons, since their male shamans wore women's clothing during their ceremonies.(Enarie)

Helheim and Vanheim

Basically, Scandinavian magic elves (if you can call Vanir elves), one dark and one -relatively- light. Of course, they are Vikings, so both sides practice plenty of blood magic. Helheim has Valkyrie who fly, but then, since everyone here knows The Poetic Edda, there isn't much to write here.

Rus, Vanarus, Bogarus

Early, Middle, and Late Age respectively, Russia-expy faction is the middle ground faction. Early age has them Chude and Humans (there is no damn reason to hire humans when Chude soldiers are far better and almost the same price.) living side by side. Some strong human and chude priest-mage magic units are existent. Soldiers have bows, spears, javelins, and some berserker units, units have roughly the same setup as Ulm, except they have fucking sacred skinchangers who can turn into werebears!

In Middle Era, Vanir conquered Rus (In a similar fashion to the formation of the historical Kievan Rus') and now there are three roughly same races living together. Unit variety is more or less same with Vanheim, but with more death, and with non-sacred werebear skinchangers

In Late Era, Bogarus becomes a truly unique faction at last. Now the Russia under the Knyaz princes united in Muscowy, it has a wild variation of human wizards, steppe horses and infantry similar to Kislev in Warhammer Fantasy. A fucked up magic user commanders is Fivefold Angels who are pacifistic and protected by their God from harm. Basically a priest (or priestess) is so high on piety she removes her breasts (or he removes his balls) and takes skin off their backs and hang it like angel wings, before removing their own hands... The skin and flesh strips off their backs are hung with scaffolds and are often get infected. This is based on a sect of Christianity called Skoptsy.

Just stick to Starets elders, Alchemists and Astrologues to sparm storm, alright? Them angels are sick fuckery.

Man

The England expy, Man is a feudal kingdom founded by a human tribe called the Logrians who invaded the lands of the Tuatha and discovered the Forest of Avalon. In the Middle Age, they have a heavy Arthurian theme, with knights, longbowmen, and witches who specialize mainly in Nature and Air magic. MA Man is unique in that it has access to Choir Master and Choir Slave, N1 Thaumaturgy spells that allow you to duplicate the effects of a communion using Nature instead of Astral. They can also do some fancy espionage tricks with their Monks and Bards. Unfortunately, they don’t have a lot of magic diversity and their only Sacred unit is pretty useless.

In the Late Age, the Witches step on a twig or something and Man gets placed under a curse that banishes magic from the realm. As far as “curses” go, though, it’s pretty much all upside - the Witches get replaced with Magisters, who can research under Drain dominion and have much better path selections. LA Man’s heavy infantry are armed with crossbows, and Magisters Arcane are one of the very few Main Battle Wizards who can be recruited from any fort in a single turn, so they can force the enemy to walk into a meat grinder early on, and then switch to communion battle magic in the late game.

Pelagia, Erytheia

The most strictly underwater underwater nation, Pelagia is ruled by Tritons (think Merfolk, but with two tails instead of one), who rule over actual, shapeshifting merfolk. The Tritons themselves are stuck in the water, but the merfolk can go on land. In the Middle Age, not much changes, since they were the only underwater nation to not get completely fucked by the Fallen Star.

In the Late Age, however, the Tritons start dying out and the merfolk seize power in a civil war, allying with humans from Arcosephale and creating Erytheia, an amphibious kingdom that fields human, merfolk, and Triton hoplites, and is ruled by an enormous incestuous, perpetually backstabbing royal family, who you have to rely on for your best mages. This means all sorts of events where the princes and princesses try to kill each other off, and it also means that you can field twelve-year-old magical mermaid princesses. Erytheia is loosely based of Egypt under the rule of the Greek Ptolomys, who where known for being inbred, incestous backstabbers even by the standards of most ancient monarchs.

Ind

Based on the stories of the Prester King John and his wondrous kingdom. The kingdom is made up of many vessels ruled over by evangelist with their dominion Hideing your provinces. The capital is always the pinnacle of order and piety, made up of only Holy units that auto-bless themselves. No priest you have is below lv2. So get your memebless templates and start breathing heavily: you'll need them.

Outside of forts, there are Cannibal Barbarians with their blood rituals but will rally to the call of wandering Bishops.

The fun increases as forts yield new vassel units.

• Warriors women of the Great Feminie, descendants of the Sauromatian women who went all knightly, with good archers.
• Piconye, horned halflings with a yearly birdemic problem. Fucking useless except for nature magic wizards, and the yearly bird attack isn't worth it.
• Cynocephalians: Savage Dog men led by powerful Magog matriarchs. Undisciplined but savage.
• Traped Giants: Descendants of Giants from Hinnom, trapped in their home province by ancient curse. Useless for attack but can be hired en masse to plug their homeland like crazy.
• Forest knights of Great Orionde with slave satyrs and centaurs, and Great Huntresses that tame multicolored lions.

Na’Ba & Ubar

You like Arabia? You got Arabia.

Ubar is the Grimdark one. Djinni of the smokeless fire from Quran and pre-Islamic Sabean faith run the city, humans are all slaves. Said Djinni really are powerful but iron really hurts them.

Na'Ba, the middle age civ taken from Nabatean Arabic city of Petra, the giant dam magic site and all, focuses on enigmatic/half jinn Giantess' running around throwing combat magic and glamours, but like the nation itself, that's just an illusion. Avvim refugees from Hinnom came and yes, like in the Quran they are named A'd Tribe. So we got half-Djinni A'dite leaders, Djinni queens and Djinni-Human hybrids when a human hero married a lot of Djinni women and pop up hero general sons for leaders, and A'dites and human warriors for foot soldiers. But the real secret is the Camel Raiders who provide the best smoke grenade ever; these guys summon a raven each at the start of battle, which means while the enemy is struggling with the murder the Queens will nuke their armies. If they make it through that, then they still have a wall of camel raiders to slog through. If that doesn't work, well, you've got some sacred Jinn with glamour, but once that goes, any iron weapons will split roast them. Stock up on A'dite bodyguards for your spellcasters.

So remember the following: Camel Bros, and Camel Toes, all gang up, on Camel Foes.

Agartha

Based on the hollow earth myth of Agartha with possibly some Tibetan mythology. Children born of deepest parts of earth and a giant Earth Mother Goddess and the Pantokrator's boning make an amazing faction. The Pale Ones are children of Earth who consume rocks for sustenance and can swim everywhere, guardians of the imprisoned gods of an earlier era.

Early age is based on you using semi giant amphibians called Pale Ones who all have perfect darkvison, allied with Olms, some kind of similar rock-eating amphibian with Illithid-like mindblast to mix up the bag. If there is a nation you want the utter dark spell, this is the one. Their combat skills are mediocre but waves of dirt-eating (meaning no food) amphibian bronze-armed Pale Ones mean you can conquer everywhere simultaneously with no logistics needed, and obsidian glaives of sacreds and trampling land borne troglodytes will make you steamroll fast. There is one spell that will make you shatter the giant seal that keeps the ancient gods of the last game prisoner, who will rampage across the world and kill everything. If you are a multiplayer asshole, go for it. It also gives a massive horde of undead ethereal Pale Ones that will gladly serve you tired of playing prison warden to bugfuck insane gods and lets you summon/hire a fuckton more. Its "fuck logistics, fuck seas I'm a rock-eating amphibian who is at home everywhere" shtick is balanced by inferior fighting skills; even generic regional units have 10 attack skill... Pale Ones have 8.

Middle age has the natives largely wiped out and replaced by humans who develop a golem cult based around the statues. Humans have some limited night vision and better fighting skills so less recruitable Pale Ones can focus on waters and caves.

Late age has the human population losing their statues, all the Pale Ones, and golems. So rather than give up champions and labor, they went practical Grimdark by turning to necromancy to support the living as well as to raise deceased Pale One oracles. Oh, and field undead constructs such as walking bombs in battle. The good thing is their wizards boost resource production in settlements they stay, letting you wield waves of platemail-clad warriors.

• 

  You don't need Depth perception to smash ants with boulders.

Xibalba

Based on the Mayan underworld

Early age has swarms of flying bat people (the Zotz) who can see in the dark and use dark magic. Another good nation for utterdark (despite their sun worship) especially as their soldiers suck and barely can patrol.

Middle age has the batpeople replaced by the Muuch (aka Atlanteans who developed toadlike traits) after their caves flooded.

Late age has the Zotz return and work with the few Muuch left.

Yomi, Shinuyama, Jomon

Mythological japan basically.

Early age (Yomi) is ruled by the Giant Oni with Bakemono and human slaves. Oni appear in provinces with temples and Dai Oni are giant combatant chassis, just add instant Barkskin Amulet. Your basic troops are not that impressive otherwise being Bakemono (goblin things) and bandits. No sacred troops by default unless summons or artifacts are used.

Middle age Shinuyama had the Oni sealed away in the underworld, so their Bakemono slaves took over and and made the humans their slaves instead. Armies of goblin-like assholes supplemented with human bandits. No sacred troops by default unless summons or artifacts are used.

Late age Jomon has finally had humans take over with Weeaboo Fightan Magic, with samurai armies from Shogun: Total War. Notably one of the few late age nations not embracing necromancy or blood magic but still very much capable of wrecking your shit when communion'ing.

• 
• 

Gallery

• 

  Obligatory JoJo reference

• 

  Pucker up and hoard them pearls for dispelling newfag.

• 

  what is a few more decades to an elf.

• 

  Let it rain

• 

  Picture inaccurate, not enough Melqart Inferno spam rape

• 

  It's worse in Sceleria

• 

  Oddly specific for a meme, and hauntingly accurate

• 

  Germanic taciturnness translates into magic resistance

• 

  Nothing is safe from RNG

• 
• 

  The iceberge