History Characters / AgeOfWonders4

* TheArchmage: All Godir are powerful spell casters but this is more pronounced with the Wizard Kings who, being ancient wizards with centuries to refine their powers, have +10% mana income in all of their cities, allowing them to fund more spells and summons, gain +5 max spellcasting points on both the world map and during combat every time they level up, which the first level also counts towards, and can use "overchannel" once per battle (twice if they have the weaver skill that resets cooldowns) to cast a second time in a turn of combat

'''Units:''' Skeleton & Necromancer (Necromancy), Bone Horror (Souls), Lesser Snow Spirit & White Witch (Cryomancy), Banshee (Doomherald), Bone HOrror & Corrupt Soul (Souls), Snow Spirit (Cold Dark), Living Fog (Oblivion), Reaper (Reaper)

* ElementalFusion: Or ''Affinity Fusion'', as it may.

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: Unlike other cultures whose two starting affinity points are always fixed, the Primal culture's second affinity point is flexible and determined by their spirit animal of choice.

* PoisonedWeapons: Barbarian units (and other units if given their enchantment ''Primal Mark'') start each battle with the Primal Strike buff (to be renamed Savage Strike in the next upcoming update to avoid confusion/association with the Primal culture), granting them a hefty amount of bonus blight damage on the very first melee attack they make in each battle. On the shooting side, their War Shaman support units, as well as heroes/champions with their cultural orb and staff weapons, shoot bolts of blight magic at their enemies.

** ''Demonkin'' from the Tome of the Demon gate makes a race frenzied, able to fly, immune to burning and able to move faster on desolate terrain.

** ''Astral Attunement'' from the Tome of Astral Convergence makes a race intangible allowing them to pass through battlefield obstructions and increases the knowledge and mana generated by the population.

** ''Draconian'' from the Tome of Dragons in the Dragon Dawn expansion grants natural regeneration, letting them automatically regain health in combat without a regeneration buff and recover faster on the world map, and the ''dragon'' trait that grants them the "Draconic Rage" passive, making them deal more damage at 60% health or lower. It also grants them immunity to burning, similar to Demonkin.

* FaunsAndSatyrs: The Goatkin form, to be introduced in the upcoming ''Primal Fury'' expansion. Their default traits are Herbivore (grants an ability to consume a piece of flora terrain on the battlefield, healing the user and granting them a random buff), Hardy and Tough.

* WolfMan: The Lupine form, to be introduced in the upcoming ''Primal Fury'' expansion. Their default traits are Athletics and Pack Tactics (grants a stacking 20% damage bonus to a target for every friendly unit with this trait next to it.)

A culture to be introduced to the game in the ''Primal Fury'' expansion.

* SnakePeople: The Naga Form transformation from Tome of the Stormborne in the upcoming Primal Fury expansion, which gives the transformed race innate fast and amphibious movement, the "slip away" passive (displaces and heals them a bit for the first time they take what would otherwise be a killing blow), blight + lightning damage resistance, and immunity to the electrified status effect, at the cost of dismounting any previously-mounted units and preventing their heroes from taking mount and leg items.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: While there are a few cosmetic choices for mounts, there are also a number of exotic mount traits that allows a race to ride an unusual or beneficial creature into battle, such as a {{Unicorn}}, [[HellishHorse a Nightmare]], [[GiantSpider a giant Dread Spider]], a [[DireBeast Dire Bear]], a White Wolf, or in the upcoming patch and expansion, an Eagle or an [[WarElephants Elephant or Mammoth]]. As [[AntiFrustrationFeatures a nice bonus]], picking one of these traits grants a mount to at least one of your culture's otherwise-on-foot units as well as a select few racial tome units, usually those that are archers, battle mages or shield users.

A culture to be introduced to the game in the upcoming ''Primal Fury'' expansion.

'''Units:''' Chaplain (Faith), Zealot (Zeal), Lightbringer (Beacon), Inquisitor (Inquisition), Tyrant Knight (Subjugation), Shrine of Smiting (Exaltation), Eagle Rider (Supremacy)

* GiantFlyer: Eagle Riders, formerly a racial unit for the Halflings, are the tome unit belonging to the Tome of Supremacy. They have the Demolisher trait and the support ability Embolden Allies to rally allies and grant them 2 stacks of Strengthened. They also count as a shield unit that can boost the defense of nearby allies, despite not having a visible shield anywhere on their model, maybe the eagle they ride has particularly tough feathers and can use its wings as shields.

-->'''Tomes:''' Souls, Cryomancy, Doomherald, Necromancy, Great Transformation, Cold Dark, Oblivion, Reaper, Eternal Lord\\
'''Units:''' Skeleton (Undead Tome line), Bone Horror (Souls), Lesser Snow Spirit & White Witch (Cryomancy), Banshee (Doomherald), Necromancer & Corrupt Soul (Necromancy), Snow Spirit (Cold Dark), Living Fog (Oblivion), Reaper (Reaper)

* HorseOfADifferentColor: While there are a few cosmetic choices for mounts, there are also a number of exotic mount traits that allows a race to ride an unusual or beneficial creature into battle, such as a {{Unicorn}}, [[HellishHorse a Nightmare]], [[GiantSpider a giant Dread Spider]], a [[DireBeast Dire Bear]], a White Wolf, or in the upcoming patch and expansion, an Eagle or an [[WarElephant Elephant or Mammoth]]. As [[AntiFrustrationFeatures a nice bonus]], picking one of these traits grants a mount to at least one of your culture's otherwise-on-foot units as well as a select few racial tome units, usually those that are archers, battle mages or shield users.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: While there are a few cosmetic choices for mounts, there are also a number of exotic mount traits that allows a race to ride an unusual or beneficial creature into battle, such as a {{Unicorn}}, [[HellishHorse a Nightmare]], [[GiantSpider a giant Dread Spider]]a [[DireBeast Dire Bear]], or a White Wolf. As [[AntiFrustrationFeatures a nice bonus]], picking this trait ensures that at least one of your non-scout units will use this mount, even if a race's culture wouldn't normally use cavalry.

* FrogMen: First introduced in the series, the Toadkin form, which has the Resilient (reducing the chance of getting afflicted by status effects and the duration of said effects), Hardy and Water Adaptation traits by default.

* RatMen: First introduced in the series, the Ratkin form, which have the Quick Reflexes, Adaptable and Overwhelm Tactics (grants bonus crit chance when next to a fellow Ratkin) traits by default.

* BarbarianHero: Any Champion of this culture is bound to be like this or something similar, especially if they lean towards good alignment.
* TheBerserker: Their T3 unit. A classic example that gets stronger the more they attack. At low health, they become [[LastChanceHitPoint temporarily unkillable]], [[CriticalStatusBuff uncontrollable and ignore the damage penalties from fallen individuals for a turn]].
* HorseArcher: Their archer unit, the T2 Furies, normally fight on foot, but when their Form is given a special mount body trait, they become mounted.
* JavelinThrower: Sunderer can throw their javelin for a singular ranged attack that lowers the enemy's defense.
* PoisonedWeapons: Barbarian units (and other units if given their enchantment Primal Mark) start each battle with the Primal Strike buff (to be renamed Savage Strike in the next update to avoid confusion with the Primal Culture) that grants them a hefty amount of bonus blight damage on the very first attack they make in each battle. On the shooting side, their support units, the War Shamans, as well as heroes/champions with their cultural orb and staff weapons, shoot poisoned bolts of magic at their enemies.
* ShieldBash: Warriors can bash their shields on their foes to stun them.
* SpikesOfVillainy: For evil Barbarian factions, often of the bone/keratin variety.

->''A people who worship powerful Animal Spirits and channel their Fury during battle. They receive blessings by altering their environment.''

-->'''Units:''' ''Protector, Primal Darter, Animist, Primal Charger, Ancestral Warden, ''

* BlowGun: The Darter unit makes use of this, as their name suggests. They have lower range than other physical ranged units, but ignore the Obscured penalty and have a secondary attack that lets them shoot a point blank shot and disengage from nearby enemy melee units simultaneously.

* GiantAnimalWorship: Primal cultures can pick from a variety of large spirit animals to worship from as part of their cultural mechanic, granting them their second affinity point, a spell to summon the avatar of said animal in combat, various additional combat and world map bonuses, and a quest line to search for the spirit animal itself in the realm that the Primal faction has traveled to.

* DecadeDissonance: The Primal culture is relatively low tech even compared to the Barbarians, with none of their cultural units using any apparent metal in their gear.

* PoisonedWeapons: Barbarian units (and other units if given their enchantment Primal Mark) start each battle with the Primal Strike buff that grants them a hefty amount of bonus blight damage on the very first attack they make in each battle. On the shooting side, their support units, the War Shamans, as well as heroes/champions with their cultural orb and staff weapons, shoot poisoned bolts of magic at their enemies.

!!Society Traits

* FaunsAndSatyrs: The Goatkin form, to be introduced in the upcoming ''Primal Fury'' expansion. Their default traits are still unknown.

* WolfMan: The Lupine form, to be introduced in the upcoming ''Primal Fury'' expansion. Their default traits are still unknown.

The peoples of the worlds of the Astral Sea are as varied and diverse as the tides of the Astral Sea itself. Each Race is divided into three aspects: The ''Form'' of the people in question, which applies a set of traits from a point-buy selection (each trait costing 1 to 3 points, with 5 total points allowed to be spent) that replaces the old "body" and "mind" trait slots, to all units and cities of the Race as well as governing their physical appearance, the ''Culture'' of the people in question which determines their actual unit roster, their empire-wide effects and advantages and what affinity they may begin with a preference for, and ''Society Traits'' of the people in question which determines how their race interact with the world and other people.

'''Units:''' Slither Hatchling & Young Wyvern (Evolution), Adult Wyverns & Young Dragons (Dragons), Afflictor (Alchemy), Bronze Golem (Construct), Ironclad (Dreadnought), Severing Golem (Severing)

* DropTheHammer: The main weapon of the Anvil Guard and the starter weapon choice for Industrious champions and heroes, for the latter two it comes in two flavors: Hammer-and-shield, similar to the former's, and a great hammer used as a shock weapon.

* SlaveMooks: Able to specialise in this by spending war spoils to bring some defeated enemy units into their ranks after battle. Their Overseer unit can Subdue an enemy unit that has been immobilized, stunned or frozen, making the unit stay completely disabled until the effect is dispelled or the Overseer is killed, with the Subdued units in question becoming guaranteed as choices for post-battle capture.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Merciless Slavers, a Pantheon-unlocked society trait added in the ''Empires and Ashes'' expansion, is a Chaos society trait that allows the race to enslave routed units and add them into their ranks, in addition to starting with the War Slaves empire skill, which adds population to a single owned city based on the razed city's population. The society trait adds points toward the evil alignment.

* ChaosIsEvil: Not inherently, perhaps, but the general gist of the Chaos affinity revolves around destruction wrought with war and pyromancy, no scruples required -- in fact, the fewer the better. Many Chaos skills in the empire development tree encourage raiding and razing. Three out of the four Chaos society traits (Ruthless Raiders, Ritual Cannibals and the Pantheon-unlocked Chosen Destroyers) push you towards evil on the KarmaMeter and as you progress through the tomes, you start learning tricks to summon TheLegionsOfHell and transform entire races within your borders into demon-like creatures.

* MagmaMan: The Tome of the Crucible utilizes lava and fire damage, not unlike the Chaos affinity. It has two lava-themed spells, Lava Burst and Pyroclastic Eruption. Lava Burst is a combat spell that deals fire damage, inflicts Burning and Slow, and sets the ground on fire in a 2-hex radius, while Pyroclastic Eruption is a terraforming spell that targets a province to raze its improvement, transform it into a desolate land, and deals fire damage to any units that was standing on the province. In addition, the unit enchantment spell, Meteor Arrows, enchants ranged and skirmisher units' ranged attacks to deal additional fire damage to the target and any adjacent enemies and demolish obstacles.
* MeteorSummoningAttack: The Meteor Shower spell from the Tome of the Crucible summons meteor that drops 2 meteors on random enemies that deals fire and physical damage to the target and any adjacent units for 3 turns.

* {{Golem}}: A staple unit of the affinity, comprising of the relatively weak and cheap T1 Copper Golem, a polearm-type summoned unit that can evolve into the stronger Bronze Golem, the tough and hard-hitting T3 Iron Golem, and the mighty T5 Golden Golem that can [[MidasTouch turn enemies it kills into gold for your empire's coffers]]. Unlike the Dreadnoughts' Golems of ages past, these are not piloted machines, but are much closer to the traditional example of a Golem, being more akin to an AnimatedArmor or LivingStatue, though they do retain their predecessors' lightning weakness and "Reinforced" trait that grants extra defence against "physical ranged" type attacks