Line #35 VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms


1	[[quoteright:222:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TAK_Iron_Plague_6139.JPG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:222:cover of the {{expansion\|Pack}}]]
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4	Commonly abbreviated as TA:K or TAK, this RealTimeStrategy is the follow-up of the successful ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' made by the now-defunct company [[Creator/HumongousEntertainment Cavedog Entertainment]]. The latter's setting, centered around mechs and vehicles and never showing humans, had been chosen partly because it had been thought that the much-admired 3D engine was not capable enough to depict them. Later, however, improvements made TA:K possible.
5
6	TA:K has number of differences separate from its predecessor. Firstly, it is set in a magical-fantasy world called Darien rather than a GrimDark science fiction future; secondly it has four sides rather than just two(The expansion adding a fifth one); thirdly said sides' units were very divergent, rather than almost every Arm and Core unit having a direct other-side analogue as in VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation. TAK also introduced mana batteries and multiple selectable attacks.
7
8	TA:K was not as successful as VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation, and parent company Cavedog shut down due to bankruptcy shortly after the release of its ExpansionPack, ''The Iron Plague''. However, the game enjoys a strong fan community and its versatile engine led to many [[GameMod mods]] and new side additions - probably the best-known fan-created side is the Azurians.
9
10	The {{Plot}}: [[TheArchmage All-powerful magician]] [[PunctuationShaker Garacaius]] conquers a fair portion of land and gains immortality. Of which he soon grows bored of ([[Really700YearsOld relatively speaking]]), and gives all of said lands and power to his children to rule over with [[McGuffin artifacts and 'lodestones' that harvest mana]] and [[PutOnABus disappears]]. Needless to say, the siblings soon end up fighting over both. Drama Ensues when the SteamPunk Creonites enter the fray and take the quest of wiping out all magic. Who turn out to be [[TheBusCameBack trainees of Garacaius]] who learned and taught science in his exile. Oops.
11
12	It would have received an SpiritualSuccessor in Gas Powered Games' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Taylor%27s_Kings_and_Castles Kings and Castles]], which unfortunately ended up in development hell and was cancelled.
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14	[[foldercontrol]]
15
16	[[folder: Monarchs]]
17	* Elsin, the LawfulGood Mage King of Aramon is your classic medieval nation with castles, peasants, knights, primitive cannons and backstabbing nobility. Affiliated with the element of earth, but also has secondary element, [[LightIsGood Light.]] Elsin is arguably TheProtagonist. Naturally, Aramon is known to have strong, albeit slow brute force land armies, including some of the best siege units in the game. Aramonian bases are well-known for their amazing ability to protect themselves, with some of the best towers in the game, including trebuchets; letting an Aramon player turtle in multiplayer will likely lead either to a long stall, or a fast and easy win for the iron-clads. Known to be very new-player friendly. A flexible faction, though they lack some specialized units from other factions, with a mediocre navy, and aside from horsemen and knights they lack speed, which can be a weakness. Elsin himself has no special abilities, but he is considered to be the best in a straight up fight compared to other monarchs. Allied with Veruna.
18	* Kirenna, also LawfulGood Sea Mage of Veruna, a Mediterranean-Scottish-and-whathaveyou flavored nation spread over numerous small islands, has the most powerful naval force in the game under her command, only challenged by the Creonite fleet. Affiliated with the element of water, obviously. Veruna has good base building ability; their Bastion cannon tower is almost as strong as Aramons', and their mortars are faster to build with similar results to trebuchet's. They also can perform surprisingly well on the land; while many of their units are [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]], they're cheap, fast to build and mobile. Kirenna's special ability is of course, being able to swim in the sea. Allied with Aramon.
19	* Lokken, the very NeutralEvil Necromancer of Taros rules over [[{{Mordor}} a barren wasteland]]. Has a slight East-Asian, Japanese and Chinese flavor, combined with your typical undead and demonic forces. Affiliated with the element of fire. This is also the "magic" faction, and has the most units that have special abilities, both active and passive, leading to a very eclectic unit roster that benefits the most from micromanagement. Fire spouts can cloak, Liches can move across water, ghost ships can load troops and move on both land and water, and they have strong air units. Weather witches and fire mages have active spells they can cast; fire storm can wipe out entire armies. Extremely powerful when played correctly, but does require micromanagement. Taros can defend - their lightning towers are serviceable, but they are better at offense; and the speed of progression is largely dependent on management, making new players somewhat weak against early rushes and very weak against Creonites who advance to double the power during that time. Lokken can cloak, an ability exclusive to him, and can be very useful in multiplayer. Allied with Zhon.
20	* Thirsha, the ChaoticNeutral Huntress of Zhon, rules over a savage, wild jungle land inhabited by primitive animals and monstrous beings who worship her as a goddess. Affiliated with the element of wind. Zhon is the odd man out from the rest of the factions. They don't have many buildings, and rather than creating a building that makes other units, their units create other units. Thus, Zhon is all about speed and mobility. The army, or more accurately, the [[WorldOfBadass entire population]] of Zhon can be fast and deadly in the right players' hands, with tier 1 units weak but cheap to make, higher tier units very strong, and the winged beasts of war they employ are unmatched, [[OverlyLongGag except by, of course, Creon]]. Zhon is not known to be new player friendly due to the perceived drawbacks of nearly no actual base-building. Zhon is all about the offense, applying pressure and more pressure. Thirsha is the only monarch that can fly. Allied with Taros, for some unexplained reason.
21	* And the expansion gives us the nation of Creon, ruled by LawfulNeutral Mendalos, The 27th Sage, whose strongly SteamPunk-themed forces can be described as a comfortably paced, impenetrable wall of mass destruction. They were intentionally made more capable in all but the strongest aspects of the other four; abusing their slow advancement is the only way to beat them for sure.
22	----
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder:Changes from ''Total Annihilation'']]
26	One reason for TAK's failure is that it did not continue some of the trope-aversions its predecessor had been praised for. These include:
27	* CripplingOverspecialisation: The presence of setting-appropriate melee units meant that VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation's quirky exception of 'everything can shoot at everything' was not in place.
28	* DoNotRunWithAGun: Units failed to engage enemies while moving from place to place. Many early fan mods focused on trying to fix this problem.
29	* PaletteSwap: There are different terrain designs, but they are purely cosmetically different, as opposed to the original TA's different planets with different characteristics such as varying resource levels, preventing the use of certain units, and even ''gravity''.
30	* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: The effect used was similar to the nanolathes from VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation, but was supposedly meant to indicate being "magically summoned into existence". Fine, except two (three with the expansion) sides were supposed to have an ideological thing about not using magic for mundane things, or at all...
31	* UnitsNotToScale: Ships did not appear large enough to transport the units they did, although the effects used when loading units might imply that they were being somehow stored in the magical equivalent of a teleporter.
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	----
35	!! This game provides examples of the following:
36	[[folder: Averted tropes]]
37	* EverythingFades: Not done as consistently as in ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'', because the corpses of organic units will behave differently to the wreckage of robots. However, non-organic waste such as the statues of units that have been turned to stone will never just vanish on their own.
38	* FantasyGunControl: Averted. In fact, it becomes a plot point in the campaign. The video intro for the mission "The Ether's Fury" ends thusly-
39	--> ''"Aramon had discovered the secret...of gunpowder."''
40	** You then get a mission where, apart from occasionally holding a couple of easily defensible choke points to ensure the guns don't get flanked, you get to watch your cannons effortlessly slaughter a massive onrush of Tarosian troops. You don't even have to give the cannons any orders.
41	** Retconned with Iron Plague -- it turns out Aramon bought the Gunpowder from Creon. It becomes a plot point for igniting the war with the Creonites.
42	* FriendlyFireproof: Especially with magic attacks, which have a tendency to destroy your own side as well if you're not careful.
43	* NoCanonForTheWicked: Zig-zagged in a very strange way (and one not very popular with fans) -- all the missions are canon, but unlike e.g. ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' where one campaign follows the next, instead the player plays a mission as Aramon, then one as Taros, and so on...including at least two cases where he first has to command one side and win a battle, then take over the other one and undo his previous victory. Ultimately, the campaign ends with the good guys victorious.
44	* OurElvesAreDifferent and OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: While numerous fantasy races are featured, the two most obvious ones are not.
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Tropes]]
48	* ACommanderIsYou:
49	** Aramon is considered the most "balanced" out of the rest of the factions and the most newbie-friendly. Aramon boasts strong land armies, with some of the best siege and tower units in the game. Aramon tactics generally revolve around building an impregnable defense that could fend off any threat long before they could even get close while building a strong army in the background to crush the remainders with. Fitting of their association with Earth, they have a very strong ground force but somewhat lacking in navy and air power. Additionally, Aramon lacks fast and mobile units, making tactical positioning more of a priority, but leaves Aramon players vulnerable to rushing pressure and fast attacks. Aramon is the only faction with a secondary element, [[LightIsGood Light]]; in the campaign sigil cutscenes, Aramon has light coming from background, instead of their associated element. Elsin is the strongest Monarch out of the four in a straight up fight. Arguably TheProtagonist faction.
50	** Veruna is the naval faction. While naval warfare is their specialty, being associated with Water after all, it doesn't detract from their land performance. Verunan units are generally cheap, quick to build and faster than Aramon's. They have a handful of powerful ranged units and fast moving raiders which can easily close in the gap with the enemy to overwhelm opponents. [[GlassCannon While hard-hitting, they don't last long in a straight up fight]]. Despite this setback, this makes them very good at gaining map control and applying constant pressure to defeat opponents. However, they do have the capability of building strong bases, befitting a naval faction that can fortify multiple positions as needed. They also have pathetic air power. Kirenna can swim.
51	** Taros is the [[OurMagesAreDifferent Magic faction]]. Their unit roster is an eclectic mix of specialists, suitable for specific tasks. What they lack in toughness, they make up for in powerful unit abilities. Their units can wipe out entire squads of enemies with a weather witch ice storm, for example. Their fire spouts can cloak, etc. Fire demons can provide outstanding long ranged firepower. They also have good air units. Their ghosts ships provide surprisingly good mobility and ghost ship drops are a thing in multiplayer. Befitting their fire element, their naval units aren't that great, and they don't have the best defenses. Lokken can turn invisible.
52	** Zhon is the Guerrilla faction and the odd man out. They're the only faction that does not build bases. Instead, they can build their army on the fly via MookMaker and only build structures for harvesting mana, defense, and healing. This allows them to easily gain ground rapidly and launch surprise attacks from anywhere since you never know exactly where they're building their army. Zhon is all about speed, mobility, and rushing opponents. Zhon's boasts a strong unit roster. Associated with the Wind, they have a formidable airforce. Thirsha is the only Monarch that can fly.
53	** Creon is all about Brute Force. They take the strengths of the other factions and turn them up a notch. Tough, [[MightyGlacier often damaging machines of cold steel but rather slow]]. They're also far more resource dependent than the other factions due to their more expensive equipment.
54	* ActionBomb: The Tarosian Kamikaze Rat unit, which are rats with dynamite on their backs that can turn invisible, and explode on command.
55	* AfterTheEnd: Technically the setting is this, with the 'End' being when the Kandrans' use of magic caused an apocalypse that, among other things, broke a continent in half to produce the later Aramon and Zhon. However, as it was more than 4000 years before the present day, there is little sign of it, except on some Zhon maps which feature the ruins of old Kandran buildings.
56	* AllTrollsAreDifferent: Trolls are Zhons Tier 1 {{Mooks}}.
57	* AnIceGun: The Creonites' freeze weapons.
58	* AnIcePerson: Not in the game itself, but the fan-made Azurian side consists mostly of a race of ice people.
59	* AllThereInTheManual: The manual, that is, and also a lot of background information in the form of HTML files on the CD. Those who read it all were surprised (especially given the previous VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation's scant storyline) to find that the background of Darien was at least as well developed as ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'''s Azeroth was at the time. This had the unfortunate effect of making the plot utterly incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't done the reading.
60	** One story in particular deals with a Verunan sailor who explored Zhon looking for a MacGuffin and managed to defeat three Jungle Orcs and a Shaman using only a sword; those who know those units' capabilities will immediately mark him out as a true BadassNormal.
61	* ArtificialStupidity: Lokken is very prone to this when being controlled by the AI. If a single enemy unit comes and attacks him, he stops what he's doing and unleashes his shockwave attack, destroying the enemy ''[[DisproportionateRetribution along with much of his own base]]''. This does fit his canon HotBlooded / BadBoss characterisation, but still.
62	* ArtificialZombie: Creon Automatons are corpses wired with steampunk cybernetics to make them into soldiers.
63	* AwesomeButImpractical: The four original sides each have a 'Sacred Dragon' super-unit which is rather disappointingly weak for its cost, build time and unique status. A more direct analogue of VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation's Krogoth was the god of each nation, which (after the 3.0 patch, formerly they had appeared randomly in multiplayer games) could only be built by the nation's monarch and took one hour to construct.
64	* BaselessMission: Several with each faction having one or more of them.
65	* BraveScot: The Veruna Berserker, complete with accent and kilt.
66	* CainAndAbel: The war is between the alliances of Elsin and Kirenna, [[SiblingRivalry the good siblings, and Lokken and Thirsha, the evil siblings.]] The war starts in earnest when Lokken sends his undead/demon army to attack Elsin. Implied that Lokken was [[GreenEyedMonster jealous]] of Elsin getting the fairest lands; his troops comment on how nice the land is, and how self-righteous Aramonians are.
67	* CaptainErsatz: King Elsin is a tall, handsome, saintly fellow with a beard and ''True Resurrection'' as his "Target: Corpse" power. His Faction's sigil has [[LightIsGood Light]] coming from the background. Two guesses, first one's just practice.
68	* CoolAirship: The Aerial Juggernaut, Creon's answer to the four nation's sacred dragons.
69	* CripplingOverspecialisation: Each faction has their own weakness...
70	** Aramon has few options in the way of water or air, and aren't as mobile as other factions, which can prove to be a problem in multiplayer.
71	** Veruna lacks good air and their units aren't as long lasting as Aramon's.
72	** Taros units have many special abilities and are very specialized for their roles, but their units lack flexibility and strong defensive options.
73	** Zhon literally cannot build bases.
74	** Creon's units may be strong, but they are pricey and not very cost-effective.
75	* DeathIsCheap: It is possible to restore units to life from corpses, statues or ice figures, but only Elsin (the Aramonian monarch) can do it. Other factions can turn corpses into ''[[CameBackWrong something]]'' living, but never resurrect the original: Dark Priests of Taros can convert corpses into Ghouls and Dark Hands convert them into Liches, Creon Chief Engineers can turn them into Automatons, and Zhon can use their Spirit Wolves to animate the fallen as Risen Wolves. Only Veruna, as usual, is left out of the party.
76	* DeusExMachina: Summoning the Gold Dragon of Anu single handedly pretty much ends the stalemate.
77	* ElementalNation; Aramon is Earth, Veruna is Water, Taros is Fire, Zhon is Air, and Creon would be Steel.
78	* ElementalPowers: Garacaius's four children, the monarchs of the four original sides, embody the four classical elements. Respectively: Elsin of Aramon is Earth (or Stone); Kirenna of Veruna is Water; Lokken of Taros is Fire; Thirsha of Zhon is Air (or Wind). Aramon also has a secondary element, [[LightIsGood Light.]] Another four qualities quoted about them are Honour, Hope, Terror and Vengeance. Three guesses which two consist of the good guys and which two are the baddies.
79	* EnemyExchangeProgram: Possible for each side except Veruna and Creon. Aramon can have Elsin resurrect the corpses of enemy builders to build another side's units for them, while Taros and Zhon can directly mind-control enemy builders with their Mind Mages and Harpies.
80	* EnemyMine: In ''The Iron Plague'', the four monarchs and former enemies team up against the Creonite invasion. Also, arguably the original storyline if you know the [[AllThereInTheManual backstory]], given that it says that previously all four kingdoms fought each other, and only recently has a two-against-two mentality developed. It should be noted that Zhon and Taros are only allied because the other two 'good' nations are; they have no goals in common.
81	* EnergyWeapon: Creon's advanced defense tower is a mirror-and-lens array that focuses sunlight into a powerful laser, strong enough to vaporize a man (or zombie or half-animal berzerker) and all his equipment. Works a treat on siege engines too.
82	* FantasticSlurs: Creon calls magic users Weirds.
83	* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Aramon is your classic medieval faction, with castles and knights from Western Europe.
84	** Veruna is very Greek/Mediterranean in the look of its terrain, the design of its ships, its architecture, some of its unit designs...
85	** Taros is like Feudal Japan set in {{Mordor}}, it has zombies, ghosts, with Warriors, Necromancers and Warlocks in Samurai and Shogun attire.
86	* FireIceLightning: Creon has units that have one or two of these attacks.
87	* FreezeRay: Used by the Creonites' Mechanic, Chief Engineer and Neo Dragon units.
88	* HypnoRay: A magical version is used by the Zhonese Harpy unit and the Tarosian Mind Mage (who also has a wave version capable of converting several units at once).
89	* InsecureProtagonistArrogantAntagonist: Inverted. The faction of Thirsha in particular sees themselves as the underdog, with Aramon and Veruna being arrogant [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold jerk]] perfect siblings of Garacaius, favored by him. Sibling jealousy is a thing. In fact Lokken himself makes fun of Elsin and Kirenna for being the [[GreenEyedMonster "good children still following the rules of the old man."]]
90	** Veruna gets overconfident when fighting Zhon, seeing them as only savage monsters to be wiped out with their gunpowder units. They then pay the price for their arrogance and have to get bailed out with Aramon's gold dragon.
91	** Played straight with Lokken, at least with the arrogant part, who says that he reached a "higher plane of consciousness" after he chides Elsin and Kirenna for having an affinity for their mortal subjects.
92	* InvisibilityCloak: Units that can turn invisible include the Aramonian Assassin, the Tarosian Kamikaze Rat and Taros' monarch Lokken.
93	* LargeHam: The Monarchs again. Some of their dialog during the cutscenes can come off as this, especially Mendalos, the Sage of Creon.
94	* LightIsGood: Aramon is the only faction that has a secondary element, which is Light. Veruna has a water cutscene, Taros has fire, and Zhon has wind; but Aramon gets shining light instead. Fitting for TheProtagonist faction.
95	* LightningBruiser: The Aramonian Knight is a fast moving unit that can take a lot of hits, and deal a good amount of damage against targets.
96	* LightningGun: Used by Creonite construction units and their Shock Troopers, who wouldn't look that out of place in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert''. Lightning is also used as a weapon by some of the other sides, but there it's magical in origin.
97	** The Taros advanced defense tower is a guy with a lightning-shooting trident standing on top of a padoga.
98	* LoadingScreen: Takes the form of a stained glass window, initially all in grey, with the panels being coloured in as the game loads. The filled-in panels even correspond to the content being loaded! (monsters for unit models, terrain for terrain, etc.)
99	* MacGuffin: The Heart of Thesh, which ends up summoning a badass dragon for Aramon, turning the tide of the war and effectively concluding the story.
100	* MindControl: Used by Taros's Mind Mage and Zhon's Harpy.
101	* KillItWithFire: Lots of Tarosian units are attacking with fire, including their monarch. Aramonian mage archers have secondary attack "Tracking arrow" which apparently shoots arrows set on fire. Elsin's secondary attack "Meteor" might also count.
102	** As does Creon, namely the Fire Wagon, Neo Dragon, and their monarch. The Fire Wagon uses a normal flamethrower while the Neo Dragon and Mendalos The Sage uses something called the Blue Flame.
103	** All 4 dragons have the same primary attack - [[BreathWeapon Fire breath]]
104	* KillItWithIce: Aramon acolyte's "Hail Shower" attack, and Taros weather witch's "Ice Storm". Oddly, water based Veruna doesn't have any units using ice as means of fighting. Also a fairly common Creonite weapon.
105	* MakingASplash: Kirenna's magic attacks.
106	* MageMarksman: One of Aramon's best units is the mage archer. They have longer range then regular archers and can enchant their arrows with devastating spell effects.
107	* MagicVersusScience: The fifth side from ''The Iron Plague'', Creon, is essentially about using SteamPunk science and technology to try and eradicate all magic and magic-users.
108	** The ending involves a rapid peace treaty when the anti-magic and pro-magic factions realize they were founded by the same man.
109	* {{Magitek}}: Arguably, the Creonites use some form of Magitek, despite their ideology. However, with the game's economy based on Mana, they really wouldn't be able to compete without it.
110	* MedievalEuropeanFantasy: Aramon is mainly based on this trope.
111	* {{Mockumentary}}: The briefings take their style directly from Ken Burns's ''The Civil War''.
112	* MookMaker: Zhon doesn't have buildings that produce units. They have units that make other units. This means their whole army is very mobile.
113	* {{Mordor}}: Taros is heavily based on the classical fantasy evil country, down to the problem of where the food supplies come from for all the torture chambers and dark castles sitting on the blackened rocks.
114	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The Creonite Neo Dragon unit is a ''steampunk cyborg dragon!''
115	* NintendoHard: An inexperienced player will be treated to an insane difficulty spike upon reaching chapter 5 of the original story. For a small village that is supposedly weak and vulnerable, the defending garrison is well dug in and able to respond with an astonishing amount of retaliatory force, forcing the player to slowly inch forward into the village by building lots of towers.
116	* NoBodyLeftBehind: Some units, mostly magical, demonic and other such units, fade away when killed instead of leaving a corpse.
117	* OrderVersusChaos: Aramon and Veruna being the Order. Taros and Zhon being the Chaos.
118	** The expansion turns this on its head, with Creon being the Order, and the rest of the four being the Chaos, in a classic science vs magic matchup.
119	* OurCentaursAreDifferent: An expansion-pack addition to Veruna, somewhat superfluous as they already had two other level-2 ranged units.
120	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: Each of the original four sides has a single Sacred Dragon super-unit, while Taros has regular dragons piloted by Sky Knights, Zhon has smaller Drake dragons, and Creon has {{cyborg}} Neo Dragons.
121	* OurGargoylesRock: Taros's unarmed scout unit.
122	* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: Taros's Dark Priest unit can resurrect corpses as Ghouls, which will obey you to some extent but also have a tendency to wander randomly.
123	* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: A weak Zhon melee unit which, like the Tarosian Zombie, only seem to exists to be TheGoomba to Aramonian or Verunan players in the single-player campaign, but while really being very weak and relatively slow, they have [[GlassCannon a ridiculous damage bonus against buildings]], which makes them preferable as a part of dessant squads sent via Rocs to tear enemy bases down.
124	* OurLichesAreDifferent: Liches appear as a Tarosian unit, with undead characteristics and capable of floating over water.
125	* OurOrcsAreDifferent: The Zhonian Jungle Orc unit. More of a feral wilderness creature than the usual image of Orcs as {{Mooks}} for {{Mordor}}, which would be Taros here.
126	* OurGiantsAreBigger: Zhon's Stone Giant unit, which not only hurls stones but is ''made'' of stone.
127	* OurGryphonsAreDifferent: An early Zhonian flying unit, which also qualifies for GoddamnBats as it does little damage but is almost impossible to shoot down unless it's banking.
128	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: The expansion introduced Zhon's Spirit Wolf unit, which is a bipedal wolfman with a sword capable of resurrecting corpses as ghostly 'Risen Wolves'.
129	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: A weak Tarosian melee unit. No real use to a Tarosian player, only exists as an easy enemy to defeat for Aramonian and Verunan players in the single-player campaign.
130	* {{Pegasus}}: Aramon's Flying Builder unit, added in the expansion pack.
131	* PosthumousCharacter: Garacaius was dead long ago but is still a major part in the plot. In ''Iron Plague'' his history with Creon is a major factor in the conflict.
132	* {{Precursors}}: The Kandrans, a vanished civilization who first tamed magic and then were destroyed by it. For the first 4000 years after the cataclysm, use of magic was taboo and persecuted.
133	* TheRemnant: After Lokken was defeated in the first game, a small band of cultist called the Cult of Lokken still fight to restore Taros's former glory, [[spoiler:and they are successful in reviving Lokken from the dead.]]
134	* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The nations' monarchs lead them in battle.
135	* ShockAndAwe: There are bunch of units that can shoot lightnings or lightning balls, most notably Aramon's and Zhon's monarchs.
136	* ShootingSuperman: Turn-to-stone spells do not work on Basilisks (which have the weapon themselves), Stone Giants (which are already made of stone) or zombies (because...they're...dead?). The Creonites' freeze weapon works on some units which "stoning" doesn't and vice versa; the main limitation of the freeze weapon is that it does not work on units with heavy metal armour for some reason.
137	* SiblingRivalry: It is somewhat implied that the war started because of sibling rivalries; [[GreenEyedMonster Elsin and Kirenna are given the more desirable lands.]]
138	* StatusQuoIsGod: The sequel ''Iron Plague'' ends in the same status the first game began, the four monarch are all alive, and went their own separate ways.
139	* StealthBasedMission: One Taros mission involves using a stealth unit to assassinate an alchemist in an Aramon town.
140	* TheProtagonist: Arguably Elsin and Aramon. Both the core game and expansion campaigns starts and ends with Aramon, and you play as Aramon when controlling factions that unite together in special missions.
141	* TheStinger: The first game ends with a few accounts of the end of the war, followed by the credits, followed by an update on the status of the Sea Shadow, which is carrying a strange bottle out of Taros. It doubles as a SequelHook.
142	* SteamPunk: The Creonites.
143	** HowDareYouDieOnMe: Said Creonites don't like death as an excuse to avoid military service, hence automatons.
144	* TakenForGranite: The Basilisk, the Acolyte's Turn To Stone spell, and the freeze weapons of the Creonites do something similar except that the target ends up as an ''ice'' statue.
145	* ThoseMagnificentFlyingMachines: The Creon Barnstormer, which resembles a three-way cross between the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer Wright Flyer]], a helicopter, and a bat. They also have their Aerial Juggernaut, which is a winged boat with arrows and bombs.
146	* UglyHeroGoodLookingVillain: Inverted. Elsin is the good looking mage-king of Aramon, while Lokken is the ugly necromancer-king of Taros.
147	* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The war on the second game started when the Cult of Lokken intercepted some ships used to carry the gold to pay Creon. Then a Veruna captain searched for the lost ships she assumed some Creonite ships were the ones who attacked the ships and engaged the fleet, this sparked the chain of events which result in the whole war.
148	* {{Wutai}}: Taros combines this with {{Mordor}}.
149	[[/folder]]

Context VideoGame / TotalAnnihilationKingdoms