Age of Wonders 4 has taken many of the series's prior concepts, most notably race and character class, and dismantled them into their component pieces and traits, allowing them to be mixed-and-matched to an impressive degree. As a result no two factions are truly the same and many previous assumptions no longer apply.
For more information about how these concepts where originally presented, and for information about re-occurring characters and peoples, see the main series's character sheet.
Character customization breaks down into three major areas; the Godir, the people they lead and the magical affinities they harness.
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Godir
The Godir are the immortal aspirants to godhood and the player's in-game avatars. They seek to dominate, conquer and control the worlds of the Astral Sea either to ensure the safety and protection of their people or to expand their power and influence. Godir are split between Ascended Champions of a people native to whatever world is being fought over, the ancient Wizard Kings who have long practiced domination and sorcery, and the similarly-ancient elder dragons who have ascended to become Dragon Lords.
- The Archmage: 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.
- Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: The awakening to godirhood is consistently described as "ascension". At the end of "Rise of the Godir: Valley of Wonders", the player's champion ruler leaves the world behind and ascends to the astral sea for the first time, buoyed up by the fervor of their victorious followers.
- Barbarian Hero: A Champion hailing from a Barbarian culture is basically this.
- Dragon Hoard: Dragon Lords cannot use most item slots except for Rings and Miscellaneous, but they are still capable of finding a use for them apart from saving them for future heroes they recruit into their empire. Unequipped items in a Dragon Lord's inventory are automatically put into a "Hoard" in which they passively generate gold each turn with the amount depending on the tier of the item.
- Extreme Omnivore: Champions and Wizard Kings with the Ritual Cannibals society trait can eat the corpses of their foes to heal, just like their followers would. Dragon Lords, on the other hand, can gain the Terrifying Gorging ability from their level-up skills that lets them devour a live foe if said enemy fails a status check, and they can acquire this skill regardless of their followers' society traits.
- Home Field Advantage: Unlike the near-alien Wizard Kings, Champions are natives of their own world and rose from the ranks of their own people. Their familiarity with the inhabitants of their realm gives them +10% gold income and +20 stability in all cities, a +20% experience bonus for all non-hero units, and +100 relations with Free Cities.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Dragon Lord ruler type added from the Dragon Dawn DLC is quite different even by the setting's dragon standards. They are naturally potent spellcasters (though still not as much as Wizard Kings) and leaders, and follow a different theming compared to regular dragons, being directly associated with one of the six affinities, which grants them a different damage type and special resistance and even a seventh starting affinity point (compared to WKs/Champions, who can only get six). For game balance reasons, they have a hefty upkeep (unlike the other two Godir types, who have none) and start with a lesser breath and lower health than regular dragons, but through levels, they have the potential to become even beefier and stronger than regular dragons, and upgrade their breath to either a traditional wide-cone breath, a line attack breath, or a long ranged "comet breath" that lets them function like artillery.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Wizard Kings hail from the Astral Sea and are usually arriving on alien worlds to subjugate the natives. Unlike Champions, Wizard Kings have a slider at character creation to change their form independent of their minions, and choose their personal starting weapon from a consistent set of "Godir weapons" (alongside a Spirit Staff or Lightning Orb), rather than taking weapons determined by their followers' Culture, though mechanically they still share their faction's chosen traits.
Racial Form, Culture and Society
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) 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.
Form
- Bird People: First introduced in the series, the Avian form, added in the Empires & Ashes expansion. Their default traits are: Light-Footed (can move through friendly units), Sharp Eyes (not to be confused with Keen-Sighted, increases world map vision and detection radius), Elusive (increases defense and resistance against retaliation and opportunity attacks), and Adaptable (increases XP gain of non-hero units).
- Cat Folk: The Feline form, recognizable from previous games as the Tigrans, which in this game, have the Athletics (upgrades racial units with regular movement to fast movement), Elusive and Desert Adaptation traits by default. Originally having the Resolute (reduced duration of status effects, now folded into Resilient) trait prior to the rework.
- Horse of a Different Color: 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, a Nightmare, a giant Dread Spider, a Dire Bear, a White Wolf, an Eagle or an Elephant or Mammoth. As 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, and for players who want extra cavalry but prefer to not spend a full three trait points on exotic mounts, they may take the slightly cheaper "Mount Masters" trait instead.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The Dwarfkin form, which has the Tough (increasing base defense), Hardy (original called Hearty, increases base health) and Defensive Tactics (gaining a bit more defense, evasion and resistance when next to members of the same race) traits by default. The cultural aspects of dwarfdom (greedy smiths and miners) are moved to the Industrious culture.
- Our Elves Are Different: The Elfkin form, which has the Sharp Eyes, Keen-Sighted (increases ranged accuracy), and Arcane Focus (increases magical damage) traits by default.
- Fauns and Satyrs: The Goatkin form, introduced in the 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.
- Frog Men: 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 Swamp Adaptation traits by default.
- Our Goblins Are Different: The Goblinoid form, which has the Hideous Stench (reduces status and non-physical damage resistance of adjacent enemies that do not also have this trait) and Sneaky (increases damage dealt when flanking an enemy) traits by default.
- Hobbits: The Halfling form, which has the Quick Reflexes (increases evasion against ranged attacks), Light-Footed and Elusive traits by default.
- Our Humans Are Different: The Human form has Defensive Tactics, Fast Recuperation and Adaptable traits by default.
- Our Monsters Are Different: While every racial form has its own set of default gameplay traits, these features are not fixed like they were in previous games, and can be freely changed to any combination the player wants.
- Lizard Folk: Reintroduced since the first game, the Lizardfolk form, added in the Dragon Dawn expansion, which, by default, has the traits Poisonous (grants +2 blight resistance, a chance to poison their attackers in melee, and an immunity to being poisoned themselves), Tenacious (halves the damage penalty for units that have lost models), and Cold-Blooded (halves all sources of morale loss).
- Mole Men: First introduced in the series, the Molekin form, which have the Bulwark (increases the bonus defense and resistance gained from entering defensive mode), Tenacious and Underground Adaptation traits by default.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The Orcoid form, which has the Strong (increases physical damage, naturally), Hardy and Ferocious (increases damage when retaliating or making attacks of opportunity) traits by default.
- Rat Men: First introduced in the series, the Ratkin form, which have the Quick Reflexes, Adaptable and Overwhelm Tactics (grants bonus crit chance when next to members of the same race) traits by default.
- Wolf Man: The Lupine form, introduced in the 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.)
Culture
- Anti-Cavalry: Polearm units come with an inherent damage bonus against mounted and large units, negate the effect of non-heavy charges and are guaranteed to get the first hit on any enemy that approaches them.
- Army Scout: All cultures employ some form of cheap Scout unit that is able to see further and move faster than other units, but is lacking in combat ability.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shield units gain an inherent resistance to physical damage from non-flanking attacks and can enter a much more effective form of defensive mode.
- Support Party Member: Support units are, unsurprisingly, culture-relative casters with special abilities and some limited combat magic ability.
Feudal
A hierarchic society where lords ladies and knights reign over peasants. All stand together when their fertile realm is threatened.
A noble culture where its lords and knights rule over their peasant subjects.
- Units: Scout, Peasant Pikeman, Archer, Bannerman, Defender, Knight
- Blue Blood: Feudal rulers and heroes can gain one of the five "Feudal Lord" skills that grant a decently-sized boost to one particular resource in the city they govern, or in the case of the "Lord of War" skill, a bonus to their army whenever it wins a fight.
- Evolution Power-Up: The relatively weak and basic T1 Peasant Pikemen have a trait that lets them earn XP faster, and can eventually become the tough and shielded T2 Defenders upon reaching gold rank, though this is not necessarily a strict upgrade, as they do trade their first strike and ability to negate the charges of enemy shock troops in the process, but they do become beefier and capable of boosting the physical defense stat of allies.
- Jousting Lance: Early cavalry spears/lances are, expectedly, the weapon of choice for their Knights. The preset ruler Alfred Elderstone starts with one, and ever since the Wyvern patch, custom Champions leading a Feudal culture can choose one as well, and not just a BFS as their starting weapon of choice.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Knights are the Tier III Feudal mounted Shock unit that can deal massive damage with their heavy charge strike, and possesses the Inspiring Killer trait to doubles their allies' morale bonus when they kill an enemy.
- Last Chance Hit Point:
- Hold the Line is a Feudal tactical spell that applies Steadfast to units in a 1-hex radius.
- Feudal heroes can learn the Undying Loyalty ability, which grants Steadfast to a single unit.
- Medieval European Fantasy: Their units resemble early-to-high middle age soldiers with kite shields, longbows and mounted knights.
- Team Spirit: Their "Stand Together" perk that increases the damage of multiple Feudal units (and those given the Feudal cultural enchantment, Signet of Knighthood) if they stand next to each other, further encouraged by their Bannerman support unit, who cast all of their buffs in a small area around them.
- Torches and Pitchforks: The Peasant Pikemen are somewhat evocative of this aspect, at least the pitchfork part, wielding crude polearms and repurposed farming tools as weapons. Augment them with the Tome of Pyromancy and they get their both torch and pitchfork all in one.
High
A highly developed society whose members strive for harmony. When threatened, however, they wield their guiding light as a weapon.
Units: Lightseeker, Dawn Defender, Dusk Hunter, Sun Priest, Daylight Spear, Awakener
- Always Lawful Good: Averted. High culture players gain some initial good points but are perfectly capable of taking evil traits and bonuses to counteract that and going for a more aggressive and warlike playstyle. In fact, High culture factions gain a bonus for reaching either neutral, pure good, or pure evil alignment on the Karma Meter.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: The High aesthetic easily fits this.
- Expy: Gameplay and theme-wise, they are very reminiscent of the Archons and the brighter aspects of the High Elves from the previous games.
- Master Archer: Played straight prior to the Watcher Update, downplayed after it. High culture's Awaken mechanic grants a range (and formerly, accuracy as well) increase to archer units in addition to the usual spirit damage bonus. Paired with the range enchantment from Tome of Enchantment, a High archer at the maximum blue medal could hit at range 7 over the 4-6 of other cultures. Their battle mages also used to get a similar effect from Awaken, but it has since been changed to causing their attacks to inflict the "Distracted" effect instead, that causes enemies to take bonus flanking damage from the front.
- Super-Empowering: The "Awaken" mechanic: High culture's main tactical specialty, using the special abilities of the Sun Priest and Awakener they can unleash the hidden spiritual power of their units for a few turns, granting bonus spirit damage and activating "Dormant Traits" in units that have them (which the native High units have, and can be granted to other units, except shock, skirmisher or fighter types, via the Dormant Enchantment). For High culture factions that decide to play against type and become pure evil, they start every battle with all their units already Awakened.
Barbarian
A people who thrive on war and aggression. They value strength and prefer to charge head-on into bloody battles.
A primitive culture that values battle over all else.
- Units: Pathfinder, Sunderer, Warrior, Fury, War Shaman, Berserker
- Barbarian Tribe: The Barbarian culture is primitive and warlike (giving their ruler mixed nature and chaos affinity) and their units are clad in ramshackle Pelts of the Barbarian.
- The Berserker: The name of their T3 shock unit. At low health, they become temporarily unkillable, uncontrollable and ignore the damage penalties from fallen individuals for a turn. The Song of the Reckless spell, exclusive to Barbarian rulers, also bestows berserk and three stacks of strengthen on any friendly unit for three turns.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Being a Barbarian Tribe, this culture naturally favors axes, with Berserkers in particular hauling great-axes as broad as their chests.
- Horse Archer: Fury archers normally fight on foot, but convert into this trope if their race is given a special mount trait.
- Increasingly Lethal Enemy: Furies and Berserkers have the "frenzy" trait, giving them a stack of strengthened every time they perform an attack, increasing the damage of subsequent attacks.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: Their dress code is furs, bones, leather and crude fabrics.
- The Pioneer: Unlike other Army Scout units, Pathfinders have the ability to found outposts (at double cost) without the presence of a Hero Unit, enabling Barbarian empires to expand very quickly in the early game.
- Poisoned Weapons: Barbarian units (and other units if given their enchantment ''Brutal Mark') have the passive Savage Strike, which grants them bonus blight damage every time they score a critical hit. Additionally, 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.
- Shield Bash: Barbarian Warriors can perform 'shield bash' to try to stun a single enemy unit, while simultaneously entering defence mode.
Industrious
Master builders who value grand cities and strong armor, preferring a defensive attitude over an aggressive one.
A culture of artisans and architects. They prefer defense over offense.
- Units: Pioneer, Anvil Guard, Arbalest, Halberdier, Steel Shaper, Bastion
- Adaptive Ability: The main tactical mechanic of the Industrious culture. Whenever an Industrious unit (or other units with their cultural enchantment, Rune of Industry) gets hit by at least one attack in a turn of combat, they gain a stack of Bolstered Defense/Resistance, adding one point to the respective damage reduction stat, and the Steel Shaper and Bastion are further capable of adding extra Bolstered Defense (and Resistance too with the right Tome enchantments) stacks with their special abilities. Steel Shapers can also use their other special ability to convert these Bolstered stacks into healing and a damage increase, and the Industrious culture gets two spells unique to it that add healing and Bolstered Defense to a unit, or convert all units' Bolstered stacks into a damage increase simultaneously.
- Expy: Gameplay and theme-wise, they basically take the, well, cultural and military aspects of the Dwarfs from previous games and allow them for any race/form.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Played straight with the Anvil Guard and Bastion shield units, who have the appearance with the defense stat to match. Downplayed with the Halberdier, who lacks a helmet and appears to be wearing an outfit that leaves his pectorals uncovered, and has a lower defense in comparison, though he still benefits from Bolstering all the same, and has the same resistance stat as the Bastion.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Their main forte, having more native shield units than the other cultures.
- Prospector: The Pioneer, like the Prospector in III and Planetfall, can prospect provinces with cliffs, mountains, or subterranean stalagmites to obtain gold, production, or an item. This gives industrious races an early game advantage in their economy or hero development.
Dark
A dictatorial civilization where the strong and ruthless dominate the weak. They use forbidden magics to maintain control and weaken their enemies.
A cruel and tyrannical culture who controls their people through domination and fear.
- Units: Outrider, Dark Warrior, Pursuer, Warlock, Night Watch, Dark Knight
- Always Chaotic Evil: Averted. As with High culture, Dark gets some initial points toward their respective alignment they lean to, but nothing is stopping a Dark player from taking good traits and bonuses and going for a more peaceful and diplomatic playstyle. In fact, some society traits and empire skills from the Shadow affinity that Dark leans towards can even be beneficial to diplomacy and vassalizing free cities. Though unlike High, Dark gets no special bonuses related to their standing on the Karma Meter.
- Black Knight: Dark Knights are the Dark Tier III unit that serves as a mounted shock unit. In addition to their charging attack penetrating through charge resistance, Dark Knights can cast Dark Surge to deal ice damage against multiple enemies in front of them.
- Expy: Gameplay and theme-wise, they are reminiscent of the Dark Elves of the previous games, and there are no points for guessing what the culture of the actual Dark Elves is when they do show up in Story Realm 4.
- Kick Them While They Are Down:
- Dark Warriors, Night Guards, and Dark Knights have the Cull the Weak trait, which increases their damage dealt by 20% against weakened enemies and grants them a stack of regeneration upon striking weakened enemies. The Dark enchantment spell Brand of Wrath gives the Cull the Weak trait to non-Dark units.
- Dark Knights' Dark Surge spell deals double damage against enemies afflicted with negative status effects.
- No Cure for Evil: The only culture without a starting "Support"-class healer unit. Instead, Dark culture units are expected to inflict Weakened on enemies with their ranged units, and their melee units get Regeneration for hitting them as a roundabout form of Life Drain.
- Proud Scholar Race: Of the evil Mad Scientist variety. Their starting Shadow affinity (as well as later empire skills granted by it) provide knowledge bonuses to cities they govern, and many of their cultural structures are themed around interrogation and unethical experimentation. While any culture can build prisons and crypts to gain knowledge and mana from hero captives and corpses respectively, the Dark culture has some extra buildings that further expand on those bonuses.
Mystic
A culture of scholars, driven to study every corner of the Astral Sea. They prefer to find answers through research and arcane prowess.
Units: Mystic Projection, Arcane Guard, Arcanist, Soother, Spellshield, Spellbreaker
- "Arabian Nights" Days / Mystical India: The overall aesthetic of the Mystic culture, and like High, there are some elements of Crystal Spires and Togas also added to the mix.
- Astral Projection: The Mystic culture's scout unit. It is the only scout unit that is not mounted, and thus, unable to benefit from mount traits, but makes up for it with the ability to float across rough terrain.
- Dispel Magic: The T3 Spellbreaker unit's secondary attack deals splash damage and removes all buffs from enemy units caught in its radius.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Mystic culture's main damage forte. All their cultural shooting units are either supports or battle mages whose base damage is split into three equal amounts of fire, ice and lightning damage, and all Mystic units, as well as off-culture/Tome units that are given Mystic's "Scroll of Attunement" enchantment, have the "Attunement: Star Blades" trait that gives them a random cumulative bonus in one of these three damage channels every time a spell is cast by their side.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Mystic is the only culture that has an inherent incompatibility with a society trait, regardless of their other society picks, being unable to take the Fabled Hunters trait due to the lack of any cultural physical ranged or skirmisher unit to give the rank and starting unit bonus to.
- Proud Scholar Race: Practically stated in their description, and they are not too far behind Dark and Shadow in terms of research bonuses, with their ability to see and pick up "astral echoes" on the map that grant mana or knowledge, special structures that also give mana and knowledge, and their innate Astral affinity helping speed their progress towards nodes in the empire development tree that provide various knowledge boons such as discounts to researching in general, locking/shuffling research options, and producing structures that generate knowledge.
Reaver
A society of industrial opportunists. Pragmatic and brutal, they combine the material and the arcane, expanding their dominion through conquests and hunts.
Units: Observer, Mercenary, Harrier, Magelock, Overseer, Dragoon, Magelock Cannon
A culture introduced to the game in the Empires & Ashes expansion.
- Appeal to Force: Since they start with 0 whispering stones by default, the Reaver culture can instead "intimidate" free cities and vassals to bring them in line, paying a cost of war spoils to advance to the next relations level as well as being able to use war spoils as an alternative to gold or mana to trade with them. In diplomacy with other empires, Reavers can perform the unique "Declaration of Supremacy" pronouncement, spending an upkeep of war spoils to negate the opinion modifier caused by grievances.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: Magelock muskets and pistols ignore half of enemy armour by default. Oddly, the Cannon does not, but it is capable of dropping enemies out of defense mode, which can make guarded enemies, especially those near a shield or support unit, more vulnerable to follow-up attacks.
- Boom Stick: Downplayed, as they only use them at point-blank, but the Mercenary's halberd has a mini-magelock attached to the end of it which they use for their secondary ability that lets them knock back enemy units and then step into the tile they previously occupied.
- Do Not Run with a Gun: Most Magelock weapons except for the Dragoon and hero pistols are full-action with longer range than the average physical ranged attack, but unlike the Snipers in Planetfall, lack a single action "snap shot" version, meaning that their users have to absolutely choose between moving or shooting.
- Evil Colonialist: They are described as conquest-driven pragmatic and brutal industrial opportunists, and have one point of Chaos affinity (which lends itself towards skills on the empire development tree that encourage a razing and pillaging-heavy warmonger playstyle) alongside the expected Materium, plus many of their units have a conquistador-like aesthetic and their mechanics (Spoils of War unique resource, ability to ignore Imperium penalties from declaring unjust wars, and starting with 0 Whispering Stones by default) lean towards a very war-like approach. With that said, it may be possible to subvert this trope and play a more good-oriented Reaver faction, just as it is possible to play as good Dark or evil High. Moreover, some factions such as Laryssa's are intended to be relatively less evil than the standard Reavers.
- Evil Counterpart: They are effectively this to the Dreadnoughts and Commonwealth of old, unless they pick the society traits that offer good points, and even then, they probably lean closer to Nominal Hero compared to good factions of other cultures.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Their fashion, tech level and description are heavily based on 16th century western Europe, particularly the Spanish Empire during their conquest of the Americas.
- Fantasy Gun Control: Up until Empires & Ashes, this trope has been played fairly straight in this game (the only thing that could come close to gunpowder in the base game would perhaps be the Devastation Spheres from Chaos' Tome of Devastation and that is left particularly ambiguous), but with the introduction of this culture and the Tome of the Dreadnought, it is once again averted just as it was in previous games in the series.
- Inescapable Net: Their T1 Skirmisher, the Harrier, uses one to immobilize in a manner similar to the River Troll, and can also apply Marked to enemies with it.
- Injured Vulnerability: Reavers deal extra damage to Marked enemies (in addition to being able to more accurately hit Marked targets as per its standard effects) thanks to their "Focused Aggression" cultural combat trait, and they have a plethora of ways of applying Marked, consisting of a hero skill, a spell exclusive to their culture, the secondary ability of the Harrier and regular Magelock unit, and the primary ability of the Overseer and Observer.
- Magitek: They are described as combining the material and the arcane, and their guns are referred to as "Magelock" weapons. Further supported by the firing animation of their musket and pistol weapons, which show a "magic circle" effect around their guns similar to those conjured by Support and Battle Mage units.
- One-Hit Polykill: The Magelock Cannon, much like its predecessor in 3, is capable of damaging multiple units and walls in a straight line.
- Pirate: In addition to the conquistador vibe, the fact that their gun use is paired with Chaos affinity also makes them somewhat pirate-themed, and the fact that their rulers and heroes can be customized with a tricorne hat and eyepatch option also helps in this regard.
- Slave Mooks: Units subdued by the Overseer can be turned into these by paying a hefty cost of War Spoils relative to the unit's tier after the battle.
- Spikes of Villainy: They blend the conquistador and 3's Dreadnought aesthetics with these.
- Surveillance Drone: The Observer, their scout unit, which unlike other scouts, has no damage-dealing abilities whatsoever and if they are the last units left in a battle, it is automatically forfeit. Their only contribution to combat is their ability to provide spotting with an ability that lets them apply a stack of Marked on a target at extreme distances.
- Sword and Gun: Their cavalry unit, the Dragoon, is armed with these, and their Champions and Heroes can also be equipped in a similar fashion.
Primal
A people who worship powerful animal spirits and channel their fury during battle. They recieve blessings by altering their environment.
Units: Spirit Tracker, Protector, Primal Darter, Animist, Primal Charger, Ancestral Warden.
A culture introduced to the game in the Primal Fury expansion.
- Animal Motifs: The Primal culture's central gimmick is the selection of an animal totem for their people to worship, which provides a slew of thematic benefits; including their second affinity point, an ethereal animal summon, a designated favorable terrain with added resource bonuses, and variants on the "Rising Fury" mechanic of Primal units. The appearance and secondary damage type of some Primal culture units will change slightly depending on the faction's chosen patron, including support staves carved in the animal's likeness, and shields padded in the hide of the animal. The available spirit animals are the Mire Crocodile (swamp), Storm Crow (grassland), Glacial Mammoth (tundra), Ash Sabertooth (desolate), Dune Serpent (desert), Tunneling Spider (underground), and Sylvian Wolf (forest).
- Blow Gun: Wielded by the tier 1 Darter archer, and available as starting equipment for Primal Champion rulers. They have lower range than other physical ranged units, but ignore the Obscured penalty, and the Darter unit itself has a secondary attack that lets them shoot a point blank shot and disengage from nearby enemy melee units simultaneously.
- Decade Dissonance: The Primal culture on its own is relatively low tech even compared to the Barbarians, with none of their cultural units using any apparent metal in their gear. Amusingly, this does not render Materium tomes and especially Tome of the Dreadnought from being completely off-limits to them.
- Gathering Steam: Primal cultural units and units affected by their cultural enchantment have the [Totem Animal]'s Boon trait. On attacking the unit gains one or more stacks of Rising Fury, a buff that does nothing in itself. On reaching 5 stacks Rising Fury converts into 5 stacks of Fury of the [Totem Animal], which is spent when attacking to add extra damage and a special effect to the unit's subsequent attacks. Once Fury runs out the unit will start accumulating Rising Fury again. Primal cultural units also have other ways to generate and spend Rising Fury.
- Home Field Advantage: Primal cultures gain substantial economic and tactical advantages from their preferred terrain. If they happen to annex one of their spirit animals' dens, more of the terrain around it will begin automatically terraforming (to deserts, forests, what-have-you.)
- Non-Standard Character Design: 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. This can significantly alter their gameplay; a Primal tribe worshipping the Glacial Mammoth will semi-behave like a Dark culture, being focused on frost attacks.
- In Harmony with Nature: The Primal culture's whole premise, being a tribal society that worships animal spirits.
Society Traits
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Shadow-affinity society trait Scions of Evil starts the player with -10 alignment points and a bonus to draft and imperium for each stages of evil. In addition, all of the units will receive 1 rank for reaching Pure Evil. As a result, the player must play the game that lean their alignment towards Pure Evil.
- Always Lawful Good: The Order-affinity society trait Devotees of Good starts the player with +10 alignment points and a bonus to city stability and imperium for each stages of goodness. As a result, the player must play the game that lean their alignment towards Pure Good.
- Extreme Omnivore: Races with the Ritual Cannibals Society Trait gain mana for their spellcasting reserves and food for their nearest city after killing enemy units of non-magical origin, and gain the ability to eat the corpses of friend and foe alike on the field as a free action that restores their health. Despite the name, the ability provided by this trait works perfectly fine on races of a different form and even very unlikely sources of food such as ethereal monsters from the Astral Sea, despite the latter being of magical origin and thus, not counting towards the bonus food and mana after battle.
- Hidden Elf Village: Hermit Kingdom, a Pantheon-unlocked society trait added in the Empires and Ashes expansion, is a Astral society trait that gives extra knowledge and city stability to your cities when they are not sharing a border with another player's cities or outposts, in addition to giving the race 100 extra imperium. If another player shares a border with the race with the Hermit Kingdom society trait, they shut down the effect, but their grievances of their lands being snatched is increased more than usual.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: Some society traits are incompatible with another society trait, due to the traits having contradicting effects or combos that are too powerful. For example, selecting Devotees of Good will remove any traits that decreases alignment points, like Ruthless Raiders and Scions of Evil, selecting Imperialists will disallow Adept Settlers (and vice versa), due to the huge economic advantage of being able to annex two instead of one extra province at the start, and Ancient Wise Ones/Gifted Casters/Devious Watchers are all incompatible with each other because they would give a player too many extra free starting techs otherwise.
- Power of Friendship: Chosen Uniter is an Order-affinity society trait that encourages befriending free cities, as turning them into your vassals will provide more income than races without the trait. Similarly, the Pantheon-unlocked society trait, Bannerlords, allow the Rally of the Lieges to occur twice, and improve allegiance with a free city near your starting position. Combined with both society traits and Order-affinity empire skills, you will have a lot of value from your vassals and Rally of the Lieges.
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Merciless Slavers, a Pantheon-unlocked society trait added in the Empires & 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.
- Unlockable Content: Each affinity has one unlockable society trait that can be unlocked in the Pantheon.
- Zerg Rush: The Prolific Swarmers trait is conducive to this, reducing the required food for the next population in each city by 10%, granting an extra starting T1 unit, providing a medal bonus to T1 units, and granting an upkeep reduction to all non-magical origin units. Paired with Tome of the Horde, it can work well for early game rushes or aggressive resource node clearing with lots of low-tier units.
Affinities
The recognizable flavors of magic cast up by the tides of the Astral Sea.
In General
- Elemental Embodiment: A common unit archetype for all but two affinities, usually split between a T1 lesser and T3 regular version. At the very least, Chaos has the Magma Spirit, a battle mage-type attacker hurling fireballs from a distance, Shadow has the Snow Spirit, a skirmisher that can easily slip away from enemies to hurl freezing ice shards at them, Materium has the Stone Spirit, a general purpose fighter focused on immobilizing enemies, and Astral has the Storm Spirit, a shock troop-type unit that is particularly hard to hit with shooting attacks due to its "Wind Barrier" ability.
- Evolution Power-Up: Most of the affinities have at least one unit from a Tome that can evolve into a stronger one, usually one of the aforementioned elemental units. For Nature, many of their lower-tier animal units can evolve into a stronger adult form.
- Hybrid-Overkill Avoidance: Semi-enforced; Racial-wide buffs are divided into Minor and Major Race Transformations - Major transformations are all mutually exclusive but Minor transformations are not, no matter how little sense it makes for a race to be both attuned to ice and the embodiment of fire at the same time. Of the Major race transformations;
- Demonkin from the Tome of the Demon gate makes a race into fiends and grants them flight and the frenzy passive.
- Angelize from the Tome of Exaltation makes a race celestial, increasing spirit resistance at the cost of blight and frost resistance, reduces their upkeep and allows them to fly.
- Astral Attunement from the Tome of Astral Convergence makes a race intangible, turning them into ethereals and making them gain a random positive status effect each time their own side casts a spell.
- Gaia's Chosen from the Tome of Paradise makes a race into plants, giving them lightning resistance but blight and fire weakness, as well as canceling the effects of non-heavy charge strikes against them, increasing their base health and making them more resistant to negative status effects.
- Wightborn from the Tome of the Great Transformation makes an entire race undead giving them lifesteal and the undead trait, increasing resistance to frost and blight at the cost of weakness to flame and spirit damage and making them immune to poison and morale.
- 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.
- Naga Form from the Tome of the Stormborne in the Primal Fury expansion makes the race unable to use cavalry, but in exchange, grants them innate fast and amphibious movement, blight and lightning resistance, immunity to being electrified, and lets them slip away and recover a little health on the first hit in battle that would otherwise prove to be fatal.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: The affinities are set up in three opposing pairs: Order/Chaos, Materium/Astral, and Nature/Shadow, but the only time this opposition is meaningfully present is in the form of diplomatic penalties with rulers and free cities of the opposite alignment. It is perfectly fine to mix and match Tomes, Society Traits (which have their own different set of restrictions independent of affinity) and more from two opposing affinities, and doing so may even reward you by reducing the severity of diplomatic penalties of having an affinity opposite to whomever you were interacting with.
- You Have Researched Breathing: The general-purpose "affinity-less" branch in the southern part of the empire development tree has nodes that must be taken before a ruler can allow their troops to start crossing the ocean (even with fliers/floaters, unlike in previous games where they could go over water from the get-go), excavate underground (unless their starting race has underground adaptation, which gives this skill at the start) or build roads.
Order
- Tomes: Faith, Zeal, Beacon, Inquisition, Sanctuary, Subjugation, Exaltation, Supremacy, God Emperor
Units: Chaplain (Faith), Zealot (Zeal), Lightbringer (Beacon), Inquisitor (Inquisition), Tyrant Knight (Subjugation), Shrine of Smiting (Exaltation), Exemplar (Supremacy)
- Angelic Abomination: The strange, skull-faced appearance of the Lightbringer and Shrine of Smiting make them seem like demonic entities or eldritch creatures from the Astral Sea at first, but their bright golden glow and use of spirit attacks will quickly reveal their true nature.
- Angelic Transformation: The Angelize racial transformation from the Tome of the Exalted turns your race into an angelic, celestial race.
- Back from the Dead:
- The tactical spell Resurrect Unit from the Tome of the Exalted revives a fallen ally and fully heals them.
- The friendly army spell Divine Protection from the Tome of the God Emperor grants your army Resurgence, which revives any fallen unit if they are victorious in battle.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Lightbringer's special ability is converting an enemy into your side. If the check fails, it will instead inflict 2 stacks of Weakened to the target.
- Elite Mooks: Tyrant Knights and Eagle Riders, who both exemplify the warlike aspect of Order. The former are a heavy shock cavalry who demoralise enemies on the charge, the latter are a flying tank cavalry who inspire their allies with their presence.
- Enemy Exchange Program: In addition to the aforementioned Lightbringer converting its enemies, the Order affinity provides a spell from the Tome of Subjugation called Final Ultimatum, which takes control of a routing enemy unit when successful, and instantly kills it if it fails. Unlike the Lightbringer or any other sources of mind control in the game, Final Ultimatum keeps the stolen unit after battle at a much lower mana cost.
- Enlightenment Superpowers: Beings of Order have the Control Loss Immunity ability, which makes them Immune to Mind Control and prevents them from becoming Berserk. The Faithful buff, granted by various Enchantments and race transformations, also reduces upkeep by 10%.
- Giant Flyer: Exemplars from the Tome of Supremacy are an elite shield unit that ride on eagles by default, even if from a race that has not taken the Eagle Mounts trait. They have innate Zeal for extra spirit damage and Demolisher for breaking fortified obstacles, as well as the support ability Embolden Allies to rally allies and grant them 2 stacks of Strengthened, and the Inspiring Killer passive that increases the morale they grant to allies when they kill an enemy.
- God-Emperor: The Tome of the God Emperor is the final Order tome and certainly powerful enough to make you an exalted deity. The Tome contains powerful spells, like Mass Revive, Wrath of the Emperor, Divine Protection, and Exalted Champion. You can then live up to it by completing the Magic Victory, which turns your character into an embodiment of Order magic and allows them to declare the Age of Order.
- Gold and White Are Divine: Many units and spells from the Order tomes incorporate a yellow, gold and white colour scheme, in keeping with the overall angelic feel of the Affinity.
- Good Is Not Soft: A player who heavily pursues both paths or only focuses on the zeal/conquest side of the Order Tomes yet tries to maximize good alignment could be considered this.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Wrath of the Faithful, a combat spell from the Tome of Faith, deals additional Spirit damage for each friendly Faithful units in the battle, at a maximum of 8 units.
- Knight Templar: The dark side of Order, represented by the Tomes of Zeal, the Inquisition, Subjugation and Supremacy, is the use of units, magic and certain buildings to enforce order, domination and Archonic religion from the other side of a sword and crossbow.
- Light 'em Up: Spirit damage is heavily associated with the Order affinity.
- Last Chance Hit Point: Keeper's Mark is an unit enchantment spell that allows enchanted unit to survive a fatal blow, preventing them from dying and using offensive abilities for one turn.
- Mystical White Hair: Applying the Annointed People and/or Angelize race transformations to your race gives them white hair.
- Order Is Not Good: While half of the Order society traits encourage a more good-aligned playstyle, most of its empire skills offer bonuses to vassalage, and half of its Tomes are dedicated to faith healing and protection, the other half is focused on religious zeal, becoming a Knight Templar, and on tyranny and subjugation, and it is very much possible to go heavy on Order Tomes in general while picking the Chaos/Shadow society traits that grant evil points and going for a playstyle heavily focused on forcefully vassalizing instead of peacefully integrating free cities.
- Our Angels Are Different: The "Celestial" creature tag, which grants a slight resistance to Spirit damage, a vulnerability to Frost and Blight damage and immunity to mind control and berserk states. Blessed Souls, implied to be the spirits of Archons, Unicorns, Lightbringers and Shrines of Smiting all fall under this banner. The Angelize Major Transformation, in addition to granting this unit tag, also grants the Faithful passive ability that reduces upkeep by 10% as well as a golden glow, Mystical White Hair and bird-like wings that allow them to move further during battle.
- Repressive, but Efficient: The tyrannical side of Order consists of spells and buildings that grant increases to Stability and income in exchange for an iron-fisted ruling style.
- Saintly Church: Not inherently, but various units, buildings and spells from the good side of Order (such as Chaplains and Convents) emphasise the use of religious institutions and individuals to reach out to and improve the lives of your subjects and support your armies in battle.
Chaos
- Tomes: Pyromancy, Horde, Revelry, Mayhem, Pandemonium, Devastation, Demon Gate, Chaos Channeling, Chaos Lord
Units: Lesser Magma Spirit & Pyromancer (Pyromancy), Houndmaster & War Hound (Horde), Skald (Revelry), Gremlin (Mayhem), Chaos Eater (Pandemonium), Warbreed (Devastation), Assorted Fiend Units (Demon Gate), Balor (Chaos Lord)
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: There are a number of Chaos empire skills that generate units or resources when winning battles, pillaging provinces, or razing cities. Coupled with the Chaos-affinity society traits that also give resources for winning battles such as Ritual Cannibals, a high-Chaos empire can fuel its economy and military through constant aggression.
- Chaos Is Evil: 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. Four of the five Chaos society traits (Ruthless Raiders, Ritual Cannibals and the Pantheon-unlocked Chosen Destroyers and Merciless Slavers from the Empires & Ashes expansion) push you towards evil on the Karma Meter and as you progress through the tomes, you start learning tricks to summon The Legions of Hell and transform entire races within your borders into demon-like creatures.
- Circus of Fear: The darkly festive Tome of Revelry in the Chaos affinity is themed on debauchery and The Power of Blood. Besides providing a demonic harlequin, the Skald, as a support unit, owning the tome also unlocks a province type called the Carnival of Flesh, the portrait of which depicts a man strapped to a wheel for a knife-throwing act.
- Demon of Human Origin: The Demonkin major race transformation transform your race into a demon, acquiring horns and wings and many of the demon's attributes.
- Entropy and Chaos Magic: Naturally, some Chaos Tomes are themed around this, notably the Tomes of Mayhem and Pandemonium. The former features plenty of ways of cursing enemies with Misfortune to increase their Fumble chance and a spell that applies Insanity to a single enemy unit that has a chance of spreading to its friends when it attacks them. The latter has a plethora of methods of inflicting random status effects on enemies and exploiting said status effects, as well as the Chaos Eater monster unit that can consume each negative status effect on an enemy in exchange for healing itself and dealing a moderate amount of damage of a random type to the enemy for each status effect consumed.
- Fauns and Satyrs: The Reveler's Heart transformation from Tome of Revelry grants a race a bonus to gaining morale, and visually changes them by giving them goat-like legs.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Returning from III, the Warbreed is the tome unit from the Tome of Devastation that is the result of interbreeding between your race and the ogres. They excel in breaching through city defenses, as well as possessing the ability to displace any frontline unit and moving to their original spot.
- Mini Mook: The Spawnkin minor transformation from Tome of the Horde changes a race into these, making them smaller and more numerous in a unit (only rulers/heroes do not get a model count increase, but they still visually shrink) and gaining a hefty 20% increase to the damage they deal. The tradeoff is that they start losing individual models sooner, but the damage penalty per casualty is smaller, especially if they have the Tenacious trait.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: The Spawnkin minor race transformation from the Tome of the Horde is incompatible with the Supergrowth minor race transformation from the Tome of Vigor.
- Our Demons Are Different: Many units with the "Fiend" tag are acquired from Chaos Tomes, notable ones being the Gremlins, Chaos Eaters, Skalds and the mighty Balors. The Tome of the Demon Gate provides its namesake special province improvement that acts as a teleporter and also allows a city to draft other demonic units such as Inferno Hounds and Nightmares, but more notably, the said Tome also provides the Demonkin major transformation that infuses a race with demonic energy, causing them to sprout horns and bat-wings, gaining frenzy, flying movement and immunity to burning, but for some reason, likely due to a bug, they do not currently grant the Fiend tag, unlike Angelize or Gaia's Chosen which do grant their respective Celestial/Plant tags.
- Playing with Fire: Fire is the favorite damage of this affinity, with the vast majority of their magical and split-damage attacks dealing it.
- Zerg Rush: Heavily encouraged by Tome of the Horde, which provides a whole slew of ways to rapidly acquire many low-tier units and buff them.
Nature
- Tomes: Roots, Beasts, Fertility, Glades, Vigor, Cycles, Paradise, Nature's Wrath, Goddess of Nature
Units: Entwined Thrall & Living Vine (Roots), Wildspeaker & T1/T2 Animals (Beasts), Floral Stinger & Nymph (Fertility), Glade Runner & Entwined Protector (Glades), T3/T4 Animals (Vigor), Druid of the Cycle (Cycles), Horned God & Entwined Scourge (Nature's Wrath)
- Our Fairies Are Different: The Nymphs make a return as summons from the Tome of Fertility, looking a lot different from how they were in previous games, having a more outright plant-like and alien appearance compared to their more human-like look from previous games. They are now magical ranged support units with a poison staff, the ability to grant regen and dispel debuffs in an area, and they still keep their seduce ability, but can now use it from a distance. Interestingly, the Horned God is also tagged as a Fey unit, both the Nymph and Horned God have increased spirit resistance from this tag, but also lightning and blight weakness, and since they also have the Plant tag, the blight weakness is made worse and they also have fire weakness, while the lightning weakness from the Fey tag counteracts the lightning resistance from the Plant tag.
- Giant Mook: The Supergrowth transformation from the Tome of Vigor turns your race into these, becoming larger and fewer, gaining increased health and an extra retaliation. They take longer before they start losing individual models, but each casualty reduces more of their damage. The Empowered Animals enchantment from the same Tome does the same thing for any animal units one has summoned or drafted, making them bigger and fewer too, increasing their health and damage, and granting them the Demolisher trait that lets them break fortified obstacles such as city walls.
- Mutually Exclusive Power-Ups: The Supergrowth minor race transformation from the Tome of Vigor is incompatible with the Spawnkin minor race transformation from the Tome of the Horde.
- Plant Person: The Leafskin minor transformation from Tome of Glades is an early step of this, causing a race to turn green and partially covered in leaves, granting them increased movement and camouflage in forests. The Gaia's Chosen major transformation from Tome of Paradise turns a race into full-on tree-people hybrids, gaining tree-like growths and thorns over their bodies, and receiving a hefty boost to their health and charge + status resistance, as well as the Plant tag, giving them lightning resistance but also blight and fire weakness.
- Poisoned Weapons: Blight is the favorite damage type of Nature, and many enchantments and units that deal blight damage also apply poison. Ironically, many Plant and Fey units associated with Nature are also weak to blight.
- When Trees Attack: The Entwined series of units, ranging from the skirmishing Thralls, to the Protectors, tough shield units that double as healers, and finally the Entwined Scourge, a towering battle mage unit that can sap the strength of enemies in an area, weakening them while increasing its own damage. The first two can be summoned conventionally from their respective Tomes, but the Scourge can only be acquired from either an Ancient Wonder or the "Awaken the Forest" spell from Tome of Nature's Wrath that converts a forest into a random stack of animal and plant units under the caster's control.
Materium
- Tomes: Rock, Enchantment, Winds, Artificing, Terramancy, Transmutation, Crucible, Golden Realm, Creator
Units: Lesser Stone Spirit & Gargoyle (Rock), Copper Golem (Enchantment), Zephyr Archer & Wind Rager (Winds), Iron Golem (Artificing), Stone Spirit (Terramancy), Transmuter (Transmutation), Golden Golem (Golden Realm), Earth Titan (Creator)
- Blow You Away: The Tome of Winds is a Materium tome that, well, provides wind-based spells. These include the Abducting Cyclone that pulls the closest enemy to the target tile in combat, Favorable Winds which restores the movement of naval and embarked units, and Dust Storm, which forces enemies in an area to make a status check or become blinded.
- Boring, but Practical: Materium affinity and its spells/units focus on pure utility over flashy, complicated stuff most of the time. Not much in the way of elemental enchantments or status ailments for your weapons, just raw damage output and longer/more accurate ranged attacks, golems that are immune to status ailments, and industrial/economy boosts. None of this gets in the way of how effective it all is.
- Chrome Champion: The Steel Skin minor race transformation from the Tome of Transmutation gives your race grey, metal skin, as well as granting them 2 extra defense and blight resistance, at a cost of 2 less lightning resistance. Similarly, the Goldtouched minor race transformation from the Tome of the Golden Realm gives your race a golden sheen, as well as granting them 2 extra resistance and providing 1 extra gold per population.
- Elemental Embodiment: While some of the other affinities each have their own respective Elementals such as the Storm Spirit for Astral and Snow Spirit for Shadow, Materium gets a few extra (alongside the expected Stone Spirit) in the form of the Gargoyle, an early flying shock-type unit, the Wind Rager, effectively the de facto air elemental, and the Titan of the Earth, a combat-summon only unit that is basically a much larger cousin of the Stone Spirit. Additionally, the Tome of the Creator grants the "Eternal Earth" enchantment to elemental-type units that grants them the "Undying" passive, which gives them an extra life in battle unless their corpses are stood over/blocked, eaten or destroyed before they get a chance to self-revive.
- 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 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 Animated Armor or Living Statue, though they do retain their predecessors' lightning weakness and "Reinforced" trait that grants extra defence against "physical ranged" type attacks.
- Magma Man: 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 an enemy 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.
- Meteor-Summoning Attack: The Meteor Shower combat 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.
Astral
- Tomes: Evocation, Warding, Scrying, Summoning, Teleportation, Amplification, Astral Mirror, Astral Convergence, Arch Mage
Units: Evoker & Lesser Storm Spirit (Evocation), Phantasm Warrior (Warding), Watcher (Scrying), Astral Serpent & Astral Keeper (Summoning), Phase Beast (Teleportation), Mirror Mimic (Astral Mirror), Mage Bane & Lost Wizard (Marauder-only)
- Anti-Magic: Ironically, for being one of the most magical of the affinities, Astral also seems to have many of the more notable options for dealing with and protecting against magic. Tome of Warding provides a whole slew of transformations, enchantments and spells for boosting the resistances of its user's troops, Tome of the Astral Mirror provides an enchantment that lets shield and polearm units deflect half of incoming non-physical damage, and Tome of the Arch Mage provides the Disruption Wave end game spell that disables enemy enchantments for 3 turns and cleanses all friends of debuffs and enemies of buffs.
- The Archmage: Every single affinity is inherently magical, leaving no room in the game for Badass Normals, but Astral in particular is the most conducive to making use of spells and learning new ones, with many nodes in its empire development branch providing bonuses such as increased casting points, a discount to a random research option every research cycle, casting on the first turn of battle, gaining knowledge every time their soldiers rank up, and more. Also, the T5 Tome of this affinity is straight-up called the Tome of the Arch Mage.
- Attack Reflector: The Tome of the Astral Mirror allows shielded and pikeman units, through the enchantment spell Mirror Veil, and heroes, through the hero upgrade Magic Deflection, to reflect non-physical damage back to the attacker.
- Chain Lightning: The special ability of the Evoker Battle Mage unit from the Tome of Evocation, as well as a damage spell cast on the tactical map from the Tome of Amplification; a similar effect can be applied to the shooting attacks of physical ranged and skirmisher units alongside some bonus lightning damage through the Amplified Arrows enchantment from the Tome of Amplification.
- Ditto Fighter: The Mirror Mimic, a T4 Astral unit from the aptly-named Tome of the Astral Mirror, is capable of shapeshifting into a copy of an enemy unit. Unlike the weak Shakarn Infiltrator from Planetfall that was incapable of getting any modules whatsoever, the Mirror Mimic will inherit any compatible enchantments from its owner's side for the unit type it is copying, and will actually turn into a stronger version of that unit with its stats adjusted to better match the Mimic's original tier, though if copying a T5 unit, its stats will be scaled down instead.
- Shock and Awe: Lightning damage is often associated with the Astral affinity.
- Takes One to Kill One: Downplayed, as other affinities' weapons can still harm Astral monstrosities, but like with Plants vs blight, many Astral units are ironically weak to lightning damage despite making use of it themselves, due to most of them having the "Ethereal" tag, which unlike in previous games, does not give special physical protection, but instead gives spirit resistance and lightning weakness. Also, as mentioned earlier above, Astral affinity has many of the more notable and stronger ways of dealing with enemy magic.
Shadow
- Tomes: Necromancy, Cryomancy, Doomherald, Souls, Great Transformation, Cold Dark, Oblivion, Reaper, Eternal Lord
Units: Skeletons & Necromancer (Necromancy), Lesser Snow Spirit & White Witch (Cryomancy), Banshee (Doomherald), Bone Horror & Corrupt Soul (Souls), Bone Dragon (Great Transformation), Snow Spirit (Cold Dark), Living Fog (Oblivion), Reaper (Reaper)
- An Ice Person: Frost damage is associated with the Shadow affinity. Two of its tomes, Cryomancy and Cold Dark, deal with ice magic, such as summoning frost elementals, immobilizing enemies, terraforming the land into a snowscape, and infusing your troops with ice via Frostling Transformation.
- Fearless Undead: Downplayed. Undead units have the "Heartless" passive that slashes morale penalties and gains in half.
- Necromancer: Many Shadow Tomes concern death magic, such as harvesting souls from killing enemies, recruiting undead units, resurrecting dead heroes stored in their palace crypt as wights, and restoring razed cities by reanimating the populace. Later tomes, such as the Tome of the Great Transformation and Tome of the Reaper, provide more advanced necromancy options.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Souls are a unique third currency for rulers that make use of the necromancy-based Shadow Tomes, which can be harvested in small amounts from slain enemy units, with enemies affected by the Soulbound status effect giving a bit more. Later, they gain ways to generate it on their own by constructing Soulwells, or reaping a population from one of their cities to gain a moderate amount of souls.
- Zombify the Living: The Wightborn major race transformation turns your once-living race into an undead race.
Mixed Affinity
- Tomes (Dragon Dawn): Evolution (C/N), Dragons (C/N)
Tomes (Empires & Ashes): Alchemy (M/N), Construct (M/O), Dreadnought (M/C), Severing (M/S)
Tomes (Primal Fury): Fey Mists (N/A), Stormborne (N/A)
Units: Slither Hatchling & Young Wyvern (Evolution), Adult Wyverns & Young Dragons (Dragons), Afflictor (Alchemy), Bronze Golem (Construct), Ironclad (Dreadnought), Severing Golem (Severing), Mistling (Fey Mists), Stormbringer (Stormborne)
Tomes of two different affinities, introduced in the DLC expansions.
- Alchemy Is Magic: The Tome of Alchemy, which appears to deal heavily in the mixing and use of chemicals. Notably, it grants access to a unit called the Afflictor, and the "Fumigation" siege project and "Disperse Afflicting Miasma" spell.
- Anti-Magic: Two of the few non-Astral examples, the Tome of Alchemy has the "Mysterious Tonic" hero skill and support enchantment and the "Anti-Magic Tincture" spell that can both dispel negative status effects on friendlies, and the Tome of Severing provides a plethora of ways of destroying magic origin units, disrupting enemies' enchantments, and denying corpses to enemies that are utilizing resurgence or the undead.
- Chain Lightning: A specialty of the "Tome of the Stormborne" via the Stormbringer unit whose regular melee attack bounces a portion of its damage to another nearby enemy, as well as a hero skill that gives this similar feature to the melee and physical ranged attacks of the hero in question.
- Evolution Power-Up: The aptly-named Tome of Evolution obviously revolves around this, with an enchantment that improves the experience gain and survival of evolving units, and granting two unit types that can evolve into stronger ones upon reaching gold rank, as well as a hero skill that reduces the upkeep and frailty of evolving units in the stack of the hero that took it.
- Fantastic Nuke: The Destabilized Mana Core from 3 makes a return in the Tome of the Dreadnought, but this time, it deals combined physical and lightning instead of fire damage and affects a smaller area, covering a 2-hex radius instead of the entire map. Casting the spell first designates the target area for bombardment, applying Marked to any enemies within it, and then on the caster's next turn, the core drops and explodes, damaging and disrupting any obstacles and units still within the area.
- Golem: As if the already existing pure-Materium ones were not enough, the Tomes of the Construct and Severing add one more type each, with the former adding the Bronze Golem, a polearm unit that can be either acquired from said tome or by evolving a Copper Golem, and the latter adding the Severing Golem, a strange Golem resembling a metallic wingless gryphon that can dispel negative status effects on friendlies and gain power from them, shoot magic bolts that weaken enemies with its regular attack, and deal damage and disrupt enchantments on up to three random enemies anywhere on the field with its secondary attack.
- Hive Mind: The Tome of the Construct provides what appears to be a magitek version of this, with "Cascading Command" spells that affect multiple construct-type units (usually Golems) that are close to each other, and even provides the transformation Linked Minds that allows a given race to connect to this network and benefit from those spells as well.
- Magitek: Each of the Tomes from Empires & Ashes are some form of this, especially the Tomes of Alchemy and the Dreadnought.
- Power Nullifier: The Tome of Severing has a few ways to apply the "Disrupted" effect on enemy units which temporarily disables their enchantments in a manner similar to the Disruption Wave spell from the Astral Tome of the Arch Mage. The Tome of the Dreadnought also has this to a lesser extent, as the Destabilized Mana Core has a chance to disrupt enemy enchantments as well when it goes off.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The Slither Hatchling (and its respective adult evolution) and Wyverns are the lesser, more animalistic relatives of Dragons, and have both the "Dragon" and "Animal" tags. The sapient (non-Animal) Young Dragons (and their own respective adult versions) from the Tome of Dragons are the "bog standard" kind of Dragons who appear in four different flavours: Fire/Frost (neutral, can be acquired by any alignment), Obsidian (acquired by being very or pure evil) and Gold (acquired by being very or pure good).
- Snake People: The Naga Form transformation from Tome of the Stormborne in the 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.
- Tank Goodness: The Ironclad from the Tome of the Dreadnought, also overlapping with Cool Boat for its landship aesthetic, a T4 mythic unit that is very much a spiritual successor of the Juggernaut from 3. Armed with a triple cannon turret on its uppermost deck, it is capable of firing it directly as a powerful single shot attack, or as a repeating indirect fire barrage, and can augment its attacks with three different special ammo types: Shrapnel, Incendiary and Sundering, each of which can be used once per battle.
