History VideoGame / MasterOfMagic

* TurtlePower: The Lizardmen' Dragon Turtle.

* ManaDrain: A couple of effects can do this, but they're fairly rare. Can also appear in spell form: If you have mana leak, and can launch several combats against a target in a row, see ''GameBreaker''.

* EldritchAbomination: The Chaos Spawn. It flies, [[PowerFloats but has no wings]]. It is a ball of... flesh?... and a bunch of eyes (yes, like a [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons beholder]]). It [[EyeBeams attacks by looking]] at its target. It has some of the worst attack stats in the game, but the negative effects it causes with those attacks are [[StandardStatusEffects crippling]] and [[OneHitKill fatal]]. Unfortunately, it's a GlassCannon that can't even make ranged attacks, making it AwesomeButImpractical. Rare for abominations, really...

** Most of the high-level creatures and many of the spells, especially if acquired early game by casters who invest all in books. A Life wizard, for instance, may get the ability to summon a Unicorn, which can wreak havoc in the battlefield in the early game, but has a high magic upkeep cost.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Most of the high-level creatures and many of the spells.

* MasterOfNone: Orcs are a downplayed example. They are the purest of vanilla races with no real weaknesses and no real strengths, but what this means is that their military is nearly always inferior to High Men, while their economy is essentially identical. However, they make excellent slaves for less-advanced races, and they're also excellent garrison troops, producers and researchers for a wizard with summoned armies.

** Torin is described as one, and for the [[OneManArmy good reason]].

* TheChosenOne: Torin is described as one, and for the [[OneManArmy good reason]].

The players picks or customizes a wizard, founds a city with one of the [[FiveRaces standard fantasy races]], and goes on to crush all competing wizards in the coterminous worlds of Arcanus and Myrror. Options are military force and researching and casting the Spell of Mastery. Mage or no mage, it's as necessary as usual to found cities, levy taxes and build armies. Moreso, in fact, as here the wandering monsters might breathe fire and the goody huts are dungeons.

* DualWorldGameplay: Arcanus and Myrror, connected by Portal Towers.
** Myrror is populated by races with more bonuses and innate abilities than Arcanus's "vanilla" races, and nodes on Myrror are worth double power, but it's also populated by far more dangerous beasties. You can buy the right to start the game on Myrror at character creation, but it's the most expensive pick in the game.

** OurElvesAreBetter: Yes, they really are. High Elves are the only Arcanus race whose population naturally generates mana, and their longbowmen are absolute terrors against anyone not built up to fight them. Dark Elves are the most powerful magical race in the game; even their ''spearmen'' are powerful magical combatants, their warlocks have magical attacks on par with the player mage's powers, and their population generates more mana than any other race in the game.

And if that weren't enough, in September 2020, a new ''official'' DLC pack was released, ''[[https://www.gog.com/game/master_of_magic_caster_of_magic Caster of Magic]]'' by AscendedFanboy modder, [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jm4g/master-of-magic-seravy-mod-turned-dlc who had to deconstruct the game to get the assembly code]].

{{Stardock}} was in talks as of 2007 to make a sequel, ''Master of Magic 2'', but these talks broke down. Instead, they made a SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/ElementalWarOfMagic'', which has been released in 2010.

Another SpiritualSuccessor has been released in May of 2012, this time by Paradox and InoCo, titled ''Warlock: Master of the Arcane'', which uses a hex-grid map and combat system very similar to ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'', while changing the setting to the ''VideoGame/{{Majesty}}'' universe of Ardania.

And yet another SpiritualSuccessor is in the works, called ''[[http://myworldsofmagic.com/ Worlds of Magic]]'', which is more of a lawyer-friendly remake of ''Master of Magic'' instead of being "inspired". However, the critical reception has not been kind.

* ArtificialStupidity: Almost every aspect of the game's AI, unfortunately.

''Master of Magic'' is a 1993 FourX game from the makers of ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' that enriches the usual world domination schtick with a spellcasting system, tactical combat and various details such as hero units and ItemCrafting.

For fan patches and mods, [[http://realmsbeyond.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=15 go here.]]
----

Available on [[Website/GOGDotCom Good Old Games]], DRM-free and optimized for modern computers.[[note]]When the game was released, getting the game to work involved a lot of annoying RAM partitioning and such.[[/note]]

Magic is divided neatly into [[MagicTheGathering Life, Nature, Sorcery, Chaos and Death]] ([[ColorCodedForYourConvenience white, green, blue, red, black]]). A TechnologyTree is replaced by researching spells in a wizard's chosen field or fields, which can range from sparklers in three or four to planet-crackers in one. {{Mana}}, generated from some city buildings and constantly contested mana node tiles, is used to fuel and maintain spells. There are battle spells, utility spells, unit enhancements to make scouts invisible or ships fly, caster units, summoned beings, enchanted items, city spells and terraforming, world spells that can control the winds or block out the sun, etc. One of the possible win conditions is--you guessed it--casting a certain spell. It's enough to make one forget that the whole thing looks almost exactly like a fantasy version of the first ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}''.

* {{Alchemy}}: A Special trait that allows to convert gold to mana and vice versa at 1:1 ratio. This trait and the Alchemist Guild buildings also allow your troops to wield magical weapons. The Nature spell, Transmute, allows to change certain metals to others and vice-versa.
** Later patches made the ratio a bit worse, since Alchemy was a bit of a GameBreaker originally (especially when combined with spells that boosted your city's gold output.)

* BadassNormal: Elite soldiers of the weaker races[[note]]Halflings, Humans, Orcs, and especially Dwarves and Gnolls[/note]] who are un-empowered by magic count, particularly when led by a Warlord; with just ordinary weapons, they can fight and win against minor monsters.