While Dominions doesn't really have characters as such, it does have nations with individual characteristics. The writeups of their histories and characteristics presented here are meant to reflect their presentation as of the most recent installment of the series to date.
Abysia - Blood and Fire (Middle Age)
Abysia - Blood of Humans (Late Age)
Deep within the bowels of the earth, it is said, the Kings of Elemental Fire lie dormant, and the Abysians claim to be their children. Born from the magma that flows within their volcanic home of the Smouldercone, Abysians possess an inner magical fire that makes them immune to harm from intense heat and allows them to radiate heat themselves. As lighter and less sturdy materials tend to melt or burst into flames in their presence, purebred Abysian soldiers tend to favor iron weapons and armor and generally lack ranged weapons outside of magic or the flaming breath of their specially-bred salamanders.
In the Early Age the oldest and most powerful Abysians were led by the Burning Ones, drawn from the older and more revered lineages of Abysians whose bodies were perpetually wreathed in flames. The highest order of the Abysian Flame Cult, the Anointed of Rhuax, was made up exclusively of Burning Ones, who set up the Anathemant Order to perform the daily sacrificial rites and support Abysia's heavily-armed soldiers in battle. In the latter days of the Early Age a rival order, the Warlocks, would come to prominence, performing obscene blood rites to summon demons for use in crossbreeding experiments to create a superior race of Demonbred Abysians. The Burning Ones tolerated the Warlocks for the promises of power their research promised to deliver, though some remained paranoid of their ambitions and feared that the Warlocks' experiments would see the doom of the Abysian people.
The Middle Age would see the Warlocks supplanting the Flame Cult as the last of the Burning Ones gradually faded away with the weakening of the Flame at the heart of the Smouldercone, though the Anathemant Order remained to provide support in both religious and military affairs. The Warlocks would remain focused on perfecting their Demonbred creations, but they would also begin dabbling with crossbreeding experiments with other races as well — in particular, their experiments with humans, a weak but relatively quick-breeding species, showed promising results for a new slave race...
By the Late Age, the ancient fears of the Burning Ones have come true, but in the way they least expected — as the Smouldercone's life-giving heat continues to fade, the numbers of pure-blooded Abysians would decline along with it. Though they retain control of Abysia's most prominent leadership positions, the purebloods have now become dependent on the newly freed humanbred majority for their continued survival. Desperate to maintain their power and traditions in the face of the Smouldercone's fading power, the Anathemant Order has turned to blood magic, inducting an ancient order of assassins into their ranks as a Slayer Cult that practices ritual murder as a sacred rite. The Warlocks, meanwhile, have continued their crossbreeding experiments — though they have long since lost the art of breeding Demonbred mages, they have now perfected the Warbred, a special breed of humanbred that is strong and obedient, but also stupid and short-lived. Time will only tell whether these developments will be able to reverse the decline of Abysian society.
- Blood Magic: Half of their mages and their thematic Pretender have access to it, due to the influence of infernal forces.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Some Abysian mages are capable of learning Earth magic, though this is rare.
- Generational Magic Decline: Abysia's Anathemant Order declines precipitously over the Ages, as the best Abysians (in terms of magical power) gradually die out with lesser and/or half-human heirs. In the Late Ages, their Magma Man magic is forsaken in favor of either Fire and Blood or Fire and Death, which has incidentally made them worse at Fire than ever before.
- Half-Human Hybrid: The Humanbred products of crossbreeding, initially used as a fast-breeding source of infantry and labor until they came to make up the majority of Abysia.
- Light 'em Up: Though mainly associated with Fire and Blood, Abysian mages also have an affinity for Astral magic.
- Mighty Glacier: Abysia tends to favor heavy infantry that move slowly and can't dodge but which resist mass attacks by way of heavy armor and a fiery aura that exhausts and burns enemies near them. Their fire resistance also helps resist magic.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: The Demonbreds, the first focus of crossbreeding.
- Playing with Fire: They're basically fire djinns, and so have a flaming constitution that gives all soldiers resistance to fire and all pure Abysians a fire aura and fire magic.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Since the Abysians focus so heavily on Fire, they run into some problems when foes field Fire-Resistant units. Heck, Rain will blunt them. Later ages focus more on Blood, but you won't find Blood Mages off-capital until the Late Ages.
- Start of Darkness: Thanks to demonic infiltration, Abysia began to study blood magic and experiment with crossbreeding. By the late age of the 5th game, this has led to nearly all of their magical blood being replaced with human blood, causing them to lose their power.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Par the Blood Magic.
- Wreathed in Flames: The Burning Ones of the Early Age. All Abysians radiate heat, save for the Humanbreds.
Agartha - Golem Cult (Middle Age)
Agartha - Ktonian Dead (Late Age)
Deep in the under-earth, a race of uncanny amphibians has evolved. One-eyed, large, and pale, a group of them have developed a civilization largely separate of others, towards the bottom of the earth. Their trajectory through the ages is tragic, to say the least.
Agartha in the Early Ages is led by a council of Oracles, ancient "Pale Ones" (as the original Agarthans are known) who decide upon everything behind closed doors. While lesser Pale Ones act only as the earth guides them, inscribing new prophecies on the walls in a Ouija-board manner, the Oracles have gained insight and power from the other forces of the under-earth. While divided between the guidance of the Elemental King of Magma, the giant Olms related to them, and the whispers of a tomb none are allowed to approach, a majority of them agreed on a war against the sunlit world.
In the Middle Ages, we see that the conquest of the sunlit world went very badly. Having no conception of flanking and little understanding of ranged weapons, all their army did was tell humans from the surface world where they were. In a panic, Agartha's necromancer Oracles traded their Pretender God for whoever was inside the sealed tomb, and got a very raw deal. The older generations and most of the younger Pale Ones were instantly killed, and the tomb's three residents disappeared after their meal. Once humanity arrived, though, they were charmed by the Pale Ones' masonry and submitted to their rule; this chain of events makes Middle-Age Agartha a nation of traumatized, spirit-talking Oracles and their human servants and apprentices, with troops from both races.
In the Late Ages, Agartha's Pale Ones are all dead, but not necessarily gone. For the humans, the Pale Ones are just resting, and the Ktonian (corruption of "Chthonian") Necromancers can pull their souls back into their bodies in no time flat. Agartha is now led by these people, and anyone else who inherited an Oracle's secrets, including mages from other nations who learn them quickly. The Agarthan humans aren't much more accustomed to living underground than their brethren, though; they're certainly nowhere close to the Pale Ones, who didn't have to eat and could see without any sort of light. In fact, for some jobs, they're more valuable to the Ktonians dead than alive...
- Beneath the Earth: Agartha is a subterranean civilization.
- Blind Weaponmaster: The Blindfighters of the Late Age are humans born blind who have been raised from infancy to serve as elite warriors. They rely on supernatural "spirit sight" to fight their enemies - quite handy for soldiers expected to fight in dimly-lit caves.
- Casting a Shadow: Agarthan mages can summon Umbrals and Penumbrals, shadowy spirits that are thought to be ancient Pale Ones who sacrificed themselves to help form the Seal.
- Cyclops: The Pale Ones are all one-eyed (mechanically that means they can't shoot a monolith at close range).
- Dishing Out Dirt: Agartha leans heavily into Earth magic.
- Dragon Rider: Late-Age Agarthans ride Cave Drakes.
- Golem: Middle Age Agartha is populated by a human Golem Cult that has taken to worshiping the remnants of Pale One culture, including awakening their statues to serve as golem guardians. Late Age Agartha goes more in for necromancy, but their creations include Iron Corpses reinforced with iron armor and with their limbs replaced by blades - basically Undead Cyborg Golems.
- Humanity Ensues: After the Early Age, the original Agarthans are wiped out by human invaders. Humans later move in and begin worshiping the statues and mummies of the the extinct Pale Ones.
- Living Lava: The Pale Ones have contacts with Rhuax, and can thus summon his elemental spawn.
- Molotov Cocktail: One of Agartha's late-age weapons; the Ktonians call it "a Bottle of Cave Fire".
- Meaningful Name: Agartha
is the name of a legendary underground city said to be located at the Earth's core. - Mummy: Late Age Agartha's necromancers have revived ancient mummified Pale Ones to serve once again as mage-priests and guardians.
- Racial Remnant: The Pale Ones have become a minority in their own civilization in the Middle Age, and are all but extinct among the living by the Late Age.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Seal the Agarthans guard contain the losers from an earlier game. A late-game spell lets you unseal it. Depending on the exact situation, this may or may not be a good idea.
- Square-Cube Law: Pale Ones are larger than humans and can grow to double their size, but they're also slower and clumsier. This contrasts with other Giants in the game, who are far more limber.
- Ultraterrestrials: The Pale Ones evolved into a civilization in watery caverns deep beneath the bowels of the earth, beyond the reach of the sun.
Arcoscephale - The Old Kingdom (Middle Age)
Arcoscephale - Sibylline Guidance (Late Age)
Arcoscephale is a human nation spanning all three eras of the game. All three favor magical studies and esoteric arts, such as healing and divination.
The Early Age of Arcoscephale is known as the "Golden Era", and is incidentally the only time Arcoscephale is played at a high point. While lacking iron or political unity, it possesses great thinkers who've designed marvelous wings and forts, priestesses who've bonded with powerful mountain nymphs, and friendly Pegasi for the best men of the age to bond with. It's amazing what you can accomplish when slaves are doing all the hard work.
All of the marvels of the Golden Era have long since disappeared or lost their edge by the Middle Ages, in which the city-states of Arcoscephale have been united by a single Kingdom. What remains are the priesthoods, the introspective mystics seeking higher truths from the stars, and the martial discipline handed down by the Myrmidons. The latter of these was refined by the Kingdom's steel-clad hoplites to make them the strongest, most-professional armies of their part of the world, allowing them to conquer Berytos and use their Elephants in battle. Middle-Age Arcoscephale is played at a nadir, however; the Kingdom has gotten Old, its technology has gotten dated, and it's up to the player to bring it back to glory.
Last-but-not-least, there is the Late Age, where Arcoscephale is once-again disunified. If Middle-Age Arcoscephale is Greece after being unified by Phillip the Second, then Late-Age Arcoscephale is at the tail end of Macedon being broken by Alexander the Great's Diadochi. Indeed, there was a Great Conqueror who revitalized the Old Kingdom's war machine, perfecting the Phalanx and taking to the field with sworn cavalrymen of other great noble houses; he pushed the borders past Gath and Abysia (and those are just the named opponents), up to those of the Bandar Log itself, before succumbing to a death that not even the greatest fortune tellers of the time could have forseen. In the time between the Conqueror's death an the player's ascension to Pretender-hood, Arcoscephalian culture has mixed with quite a few others, gaining somewhat-morbid focuses and shifting to more-mysterious forms of divining.
- Astral Projection: A commonly-used tool by Middle Arcoscephale, since some of their Astologers are strong enough to snipe people from the Astral Plane.
- Bilingual Bonus: Arcoscephale is Greek for "bright-headed".
- Clone by Conversion: Late-Age Arcoscephale has the unique trait of getting to convert enemy Temples instead of razing them, but only if a priestess is there to make the appropriate name-changes.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ancient Greece, with Macedonian elements in the Middle and Late Ages. Old maps set Arcoscephale in Babylon, the temporary capital of Alexander the Great's empire.
- Generational Magic Decline: Seen with the priestesses, who lose their capacity for the healing arts across the ages. They eventually take up Death magic, to supplement their skills and remain as important as before.
- Killer Gorilla: Late Age Arcoscephale gets these in the capital, though they use weapons and armor instead of pure rage.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the Early Age the kingdom is not yet founded. By the Middle Age it's already faded, its time of greatest power already come and gone.
- Old Magic: The Air Magic of the Early Ages, which disappears with the end of the Golden Era and the closing of the Lykeion. One of later Arcoscephale's heroes is significant for knowing some Air Magic, in fact.
- Jack of All Stats: Arcoscephale tends to have a good balance of normal line infantry, good cavalry, and good mages, as well as various supporting units and abilities that help them strategically. The only real thing lacking is ranged weapons, and that can be gotten from independents.
- Master of None: On the other hand, Arcoscephale's main strengths are either expensive to put together or reserved for out-of-combat situations, at least past the Early Age. This makes the nation quite vulnerable to rushes, and renders rebounding from losses difficult.
- War Elephants: They start using them in the Middle Age.
- White Magician Girl: Arcoscephale is well-known for having true Healers, who can fix anything outside of battle if given the time to do so. It's the only nation to have female true Healers, and the only nation to have true Healers at all in the Middle Age.
Atlantis - Kings of the Deep (Middle Age)
Atlantis - Frozen Sea (Late Age)
One of the Dominions's first two underwater factions, Atlantis is a nation of amphibious people with a steadily-widening presence in all three eras of the game. Of the two, Compared to the other one, it's somewhat less-Eldritch, and broader in its influences.
While most of Atlantis is known for its Ugly Cute frog-people, Early Atlantis establishes the origins of their culture in the "Deep Ones"; these Atlantians stayed in the crevice that spawned them instead of exploring the sea, either developing angler-like features to adapt to the darkness or having never lost them to adjust to the light. A few Deep Ones found a Dark Crystal of unusual luster, became entranced by something their antennae revealed in its reflection, and learned the deeper mysteries of the Earth and Sea through centuries of slack-jawed staring. The "first" Atlantis is a subterranean (and underwater) city-state built in the basalt around the Crystal, which the "regular" Atlantians have only recently sworn fealty to and barely fit into. Most of this Atlantis's actual affairs are handled by the Crystal-watchers' diligent wives, known as Basalt Queens, who have mastered the arts of leadership and preaching.
Middle Atlantis is less Eldritch and more Platonic, with the previous Atlantis having experienced the mythical Atlantis's fate in his writings; through either celestial judgement or a fluke, the Dark Crystal was shattered and the Basalt City was swallowed up by the Earth. This "second" Atlantis is constructed similarly to the first, but in the shallow waters where coral can grow, and by the "regular" Atlantians who learned from the Basalt Kings and Queens. It's essentially a coalition of mage-Kings who all pitched in to replace the Basalt City with resplendent Coral Towers, where anyone who proves their ability can attain the title of "King of the Deep" and get to do whatever they want. Most Atlantians are not of a scholarly disposition, however, so the mage-Kings often look for beings of other races who might display the proper aptitude; the other underwater races hate them, though, so they resort to observing and teaching humans instead. As with their predecessors, the Kings of the Deep have ceded religious and military authority to "Coral Queens", though these ladies are not wedded to them.
Late Atlantis is in a greatly-different condition from the previous two, having been crushed by the unthinking hordes of R'lyeh. The Kings of the Deep were warned that this would happen, and by their human apprentices no less, but only a few of them had the humility to heed their words. Those who did exiled themselves from the waves, and those who ended up the furthest from any sort of civilization formed the "third" Atlantis of this setting. Their chosen refuge was the coldest, most-desolate place they could find, but even that location had been settled before them; fortunately, everyone there was already long dead, save for a few Caelian Ice-crafters and a sleeping god. By supplicating to the god, the former Kings were given Death magic and priestly powers, along with the promise that they would be led back into the sea they abandoned. These Atlantians won't even touch the water until their god tells them it's time; they've even taken to sailing on icebergs, instead of swimming. Now that the oceans once under R'lyeh have descended into chaos, however, the time for reconquest (or an attempt at it) draws near...
- Achilles' Heel: Atlantis has no Nature Magic whatsoever, meaning it can't apply Poison Resistance. Can you guess what most fish-people use?
- An Ice Person: Late Age Atlantis was forced on-land into an arctic environment by the onslaught of R'lyeh.
- The Determinator: In the Early Age, they dueled with the half beasts of Oceania, the already infamous Aboleths of R'lyeh and other critters in the ocean. Then R'lyeh received a Colony Drop and became full of alien mind controlling Illithids who are even worse than the Aboleths. Forced back on all fronts, Atlanteans spread across the world and took over kingdoms as ruling diaspora. Now they are coming back, and they are bringing survivors from the Earlier Era to resist the mental powers of R'lyeh.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They're presented as fantasy Inuit equivalents in the later ages. In earlier ages, they're more generic frog-people from the deep crevices of the ocean.
- Fish People: With a dash of frog and human.
- From Bad to Worse: Their territory was slowly taken by R'lyeh as the ages passed, until they were forced on the earth, many of them ending up in different countries, separated and ruined. Some of the survivors' morality got darker and darker as times got more desperate, such as Mictlan refugees who started to harness virgin blood from Mictlan women for vengeance.
- Geo Effects: Their ice armor and weapons, stolen from Caelum, gets more powerful in cold lands (especially their god's Dominion, which is almost certain to be a desolate tundra), and survives but becomes quite weak in warm ones.
- King in the Mountain: Mother Hydra in Late Atlantis was a ruler back in Early Atlantis, having spent a millennium asleep under the remnants of the Dark Crystal. She's even known as the "Once and Future Queen".
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Atlantis has to fight increasingly stronger enemies with increasingly less powerful units, and ends up faring astonishingly well.
- Making a Splash: Comes with the territory of being the resident People-Fish-Frogs.
- Old Magic: The Earth and Fire Magic of Early Atlantis's Basalt Kings, whose secrets largely die with them in the calamitous shift from Early to Middle Atlantis. The mages and kings of Middle Atlantis do their best to recreate it, but they can never match the mastery over earth and magma that their predecessors possessed. These arts decline further in the Late Ages, as the surviving mage-kings were forced to take up Necromancy to please their new god.
- Scam Religion: Middle Atlantis sets these up with humans, mainly to acquire loyal mages from the quicker-to-learn race. They do this by showing the cult-founders-to-be their underwater realm, letting them form cults centered around getting into the ocean, and instructing cult members who figure out Super Not-Drowning Skills to make cults of their own now that they've seen the wonders for themselves. It's a bit zig-zagged in that the most-accomplished humans in this scheme are made actual priests.
- Survivor's Guilt: Late Atlantis starts with only three generations of Atlantians. The middle generation is composed of former Mother Guards (queen's guards) who barely survived the fall of the Coral Towers and the death of their Queens, arriving after the Kings; they are known as the Mournful, and those born after the fall of Atlantis think that they're cowards.
Phaeacia, Isle of the Dark Ships (Middle Age)
A Dominions 4-introduced Early Age-only nation, with a Middle Age equivalent included in Dominions 5.
Before the Early Ages, humans sent from the island of Telkhinis founded the city of Berytos on the coast of the mainland. This was one of many colonies of the Telkhine kingdom, Therodos, whose iron-clad hoplites (in an era where most still used bronze) and weather-commanding mages were the world's finest fighting force. Then the Telkhines got a terminal case of hubris, did some things the Berytians never learned about, and were obliterated by a divine decree. A remnant of the navy returned to Berytos and gave it the mission to restore the Telkhine legacy, and thus the "Phoenix Empire" was born...
Unfortunately, the Telkhines were Berytos's gods, and them being dead had an impact on Berytian faith. They were huge and magically-powerful, and no one could easily replace them. The void was luckily (or perhaps unluckily) filled by the Melqarts of Hinnom, who were spotted in Ashdod while the Berytians were busy building an outpost nearby. Mistaking the Melqarts' aura of unspeakable evil for godly might, the Berytians got the wrong idea and were seduced, remaking their religion to have Human Sacrifice and other rough approximations of what the Melqarts seemed to want. This was unintentional on the Melqarts' part, however, and they were unbearably slow (by Berytian standards) to show up.
The Early Ages start with only a couple Melqarts having arrived, but with half-Giant "Colossi" refugees from the relatively-close Kingdom of Machaka having shown up and co-opted their priesthood. The high priestesses are former Queens of Machaka, standing at least a full head taller than the average man and possessing plentiful magic powers; they style themselves as the future wives of the Melqarts who will show up next, while the men who came to Berytos with them serve as sacred guardsmen.
In the Middle Ages, Phaeacia is all that is left of Berytos's imperial pursuits. A paradise in an otherwise-hellish archipelago, it attracted Berytians and Colossi alike, who used it as a trading post to bring in luxuries from across the world. The Phaeacians were thus able to pay off the Old Kingdom of Arcoscephale when it found them. The finest things were kept on the island, however, among them the self-sailing ships and a life-extending Golden Apple Tree from the Hesperides. They've cut out the Blood Cult, by the way, and some might call their people a bit softer than before.
On the second-nicest island in the Phaeacian archipelago, an inhospitable rock known as Black Korkyra, live descendants of Mekone. These Gigantes retain some of their former glory, as they chose not to join the armies of the God-Slayer and stayed out of Mekone's futile war against the gods. The previous queen of Phaeacia pressured Black Korkyra's King into marrying her, and Phaeacia's current Queens and Consorts are thus more "Giant" than most Colossi. The Gigantes are obliged to send two-dozen men to Phaeacia every other year.
- Blood Magic: Averted in Middle Age, the Colossi queens abandon the practices; whether this was due to a Heel–Face Turn, an agreement to avoid Arcoscephale's wrath, or out of practicality on the isle is not explained.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Berytos is based on Carthage and Phoenicia, complete with dark-skinned elites, war elephants, and Ba'al Hammon and Melqart. Their cavalry isn't very good, though. They also outrage Ermor (the Rome-counterpart)note , though it's Arcoscephale who finally does them in. Phaeacia is pulled from The Odyssey, with elements from Berytos and a couple of extraneous Greek myths mixed in.
- Berytos's destruction by Arcoscephale is possibly a reference to the sacking of the Phoenician cities by Alexander the Great, mainly the city of Tyre after it forbade Alexander from performing a sacrifice at its high temple.
- Hidden Elf Village: Phaeacia, mainly for the Colossi (and the descendants of other prominent Berytians). Phaeacia happens to be located next to Black Korkyra, a second Hidden Elf Village containing un-mutated Gigantes.
- Old Magic: In Dominions 6, the Fire Magic of Berytos falls out of practice in Phaeacia, even though it was the specialty of Colossi women in both Berytos and Machaka, and Phaeacia's Colossi Queens can't cast a single spell their Machakan ancestors once used.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Both Berytos and Phaeacia are capable of recruiting Colossi, descended from a race of giants who fled into exile from Machaka. Berytos additionally worships the Rephaite Melqarts of Hinnom as gods, and can summon them with blood sacrifices.
- Orichalcum: Hinted at by the aptly named Orichalcum Guards.
- Proud Merchant Race: With a mix or Proud Warrior Race Guy.
- Race Lift: Their version of Nausicaa is depicted as black, being one of the Colossi.
- The Remnant: Berytos started as a colony of Therodos, a Kingdom of Giants known as the Telkhines, which was destroyed shortly after its zenith.
- Vestigial Empire: Likewise, Phaeacia started as a colony of Berytos, making it a vestige of a remnant of Therodos.
Caelum - Reign of the Seraphim (Middle Age)
Caelum - Return of the Raptors (Late Age)
Caelum is a land of high peaks and only-slightly-lower valleys. Its people are the descendants of the previous rulers of the world; said precursors were the pawns of a cosmic struggle between Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, who in-turn made or spun off mortal races to have as pawns of their own. Most of the precursors, their magical commanders, and their gods were abruptly banished by the Pantokrator, when the schemes between both sides altered the nature of reality through dropping the King of Purifying Flames into the Underworld. In the time between the banishment and the formation of Caelum, the descendants of Angra Mainyu's servants intermixed with humanity and became the Raptor Clan, some of Ahura Mazda's servants groomed a small portion of their descendants into the Airya Clan, and the best knights under Ahura Mazda produced the Tempest Clan of Spire Horn Mountain.
Early Caelum is run by worldly Yazatas, gold-winged servants of Ahura Mazda; they are few in number, but ancient and wise enough to have convinced the Raptors join with the Tempest and Airya Clans. The Raptors were dispossessed of most of their magical heritage upon joining, just in case, but they have already started to put the pieces back together after contact with Ermor; the Yazatas are fine with this, as long as they don't cross Fire and Death. Since the Yazatas partly justify their authority through their magical arts, Caelum is effectively The Magocracy, where only those who know at least a little magic (or those who tend to the remaining Purifying Flames) have any political weight.
Middle Caelum is run by the Airya Clan, which always had the most scholarly-disposed Caelians. The Yazatas aren't in charge because they all left, following a disaster caused by the priesthood summoning the Fallen Fire King in his Fallen state; this was blamed on the Raptors, whose mages happened to have crossed Death and Fire again at the same time, resulting in a war between Airya and Raptor that the Raptors lost. The exile of the Raptors would ironically lead to them becoming the heads of Caelum in the Late Ages, as they learned about steel-making and found a new God to shepherd them in the outside world.
- Blow You Away: The Kavi, aka the Spire Horn or Tempest Clan, have this ability inherited from their divine serving ancestors, which include their mages and their soldiers alike, since all are capable of flying during even the strongest storms.
- Fallen Angel: The black-winged Raptor are described as practitioners of the dark arts and exiled in the Middle Age.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They have a heavy Zoroastrian/Persian influence.
- Winged Humanoid: The Caelians all poesess wings, which is commonly used to snipe enemy rear line troops such as archers and mages. The Tempest/"Spire Horn" Caelians have gray wings, the Airya have white wings, the Yazatas have gold wings, the common Raptors have brown wings, and the elite Raptors and their ancestors have black wings.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: "Harab" (the title of the black-winged Raptors) is Hebrew for "raven", and the "Harab Serapel" (or Ravens of Dispersal) are said to be personifications of uncontrolled desire in the Kabbalah.
C'tis, Miasma (Middle Age)
C'tis, Desert Tombs (Late Age)
Quite possibly the oldest faction in the game, the majority of C'tissian history is already mythic in the Early Age. They are a priestly series of kingdoms unified in their faith, with its holy and magical orders running the day-to-day matters of the realm. In the Early Era, the kingdom consisted of two races, the ruling Herbivore Lizards, and the barbarian Predator Lizards. The former commonly enslaved the latter, typically for labor and war. Their great city of C'tis houses itself along a swamp river valley, surrounded by blazing deserts. Within the City, lay a great Temple from which they would commune with the Pantokrator and perform holy sacraments.
Their mages, the Sauromancers, were a small and elite order of Necromancers with prohibitive entry requirements and a deadly series of trials, including being buried alive. This was ultimately necessary, as a Sauromancer had to be prepared to handle the responsibilities of handling the dead. The armies of C'tis tended to be massive forces of Lizards, Predators and the holy Undead, supported by Sauromancers and their Priestly rulers.
With the fall of Ermor, a massive wave of change swept the C'tissian lands. A new negative stigma surrounding the practice of Necromancy led to the decline of the Sauromancers, leading to a different order, the Marshmasters to take control. Meanwhile, a new race of reptilian giants, the Sobek, arose from deep within the Temple of C'tis. The Sobek Giants chose to ally with the Herbivore Lizards, serving them as mighty warriors and guardians. However, many C'tissians spoke of how these Giants would ultimately lead to the destruction of C'tis with their alleged hunger and unspeakable practices. Because of this, the Herbivore Lizards were ultimately fearful of their mighty allies. The enslaved Predator Lizards, on the other hand, hailed the arrival of the Sobek as the dawning of a new age.
By the time of the Late Era, C'tis had become an entity so old that most of their history had been altogether lost. In spite of this, the ancient order of Sauromancers made a triumphant return to the forefront of magical studies, albeit a changed order. As Ermor had stolen the secrets of Death magic and perverted them, the Sauromacer order had to adapt, merging with the Priestly orders of the past. They delved deep into their ancient tombs, raising Kings from ages past to rule in their new unlife. The Predator Lizards and the Sobek Giants were purged from C'tis and died out somewhere along the line, but the details remain inconclusive. Despite many hardships, C'tis eventually stood as an uninterrupted legacy through the ages.
- Balance Buff: Late C'tis gained troops similar to those from Middle Man or Middle Marignon in Dominions 6; before this, their troops were largely the same as the ones in Early C'tis, but without the cheap-and-disposable slaves. As for why the change took so long, "the C'tissians are an ancient and phlegmatic race", and they were used to using their slaves as a battlefield crutch.
- Casting a Shadow: Comes with the territory of Death Magic.
- Dark Is Not Evil: They are respectable necromancers and their Late Age death mages are priests.
- Faction Calculus: The Powerhouse. All ages of C'tis require some setup and pooled resources to really get going, during which they're somewhat vulnerable, but they make up for it with their powerful mages. Middle C'tis has the easiest time surviving to that point, due to its openly-hostile dominion and its intimidating Giants, while Late C'tis has the toughest time due to its somewhat-out-of-date troops (though, as a trade-off, its Sauromancers can learn some of the best offensive magic available).
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Egypt and Babylon. The Babylon connection was reduced slightly in Dominions 4, which moved Sirrushes to be just an Ur thing, but is still there in the lore.
- Lizard Folk: Comes in three flavours: Herbivore Lizards, Predator Lizards, and the Sobek Giants.
- Horror Hunger: The fact that the Sobek eat small lizards and Herbivore Lizard eggs does not go over well with the general C'tissian populace.
- Mummy: Late Age death mages can reanimate mummified priests.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The Middle Age Sobek units are massive, humanoid crocodiles.
- Poisonous Person: Aside from their natural resistances to poisons, the C'tis have the Empoisoner Guilds, experts in various toxins.
- Pun: A "Sauromancer", if translated literally, would be "one who communes with lizards".
- Proud Scholar Race: Given their slowness on the battlefield and their prestige, anyway. Notably, C'tissians were by most accounts the first to learn Death Magic as outsiders to the underworld, with the possible exception of human shamans. On top of that, the Sauromancers managed to avoid destroying their own society with their powerful Death Magic, unlike Fomoria, Asphodel, Ermor (whom they taught), and Sceleria (whom they personally tutored).
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Lizard Kings and Lizard Heirs are arguably the best recruitable leadership options to the C'tis.
- Sickly Green Glow: Only for Late C'tis. The ancient kingdom uses this stuff extensively, even teaching minor magic to its most esteemed crossbowmen; these guys have aged forty-five years while practicing with their bolts, however.
Ermor, Ashen Empire / Sceleria, The Reformed Empire (Middle Age)
Lemuria, Soul Gates (Late Age)
Ermor at its height was the most powerful empire in the world of Dominions. Well before the time of the Early Age start, they had already established themselves as a center of power and wealth through trade, conquest, and diplomacy, although for the most part they were content to allow their subjects to continue according to their own customs. That changed with the coming of a prophet who foretold the coming of a "Reawakening God." This prophet and his Reawakening God became the focus of a popular and hugely-influential religion known as the "New Faith," which displaced and outlawed the old beliefs of Ermor and compelled them to conquer most of the known world in the name of their deity.
However, as their power grew, the most powerful mages in the Empire grew proud. Having studied the dark arts of Death Magic under the Sauromancers of C'tis, they began performing secret and reckless rituals to increase their power, heedless of the dangers they were exposing themselves and the world to. Other magical factions foresaw the coming doom of Ermor and united behind the Emperor's twin brother — known also as the Apostate Emperor in Imperial records — in an effort to force these secret rituals to end. In the ensuing civil war, the Augurs and Bishops of the Empire attempted one last ritual in the Holy City of Eldregate to put an end to the conflict once and for all.
The ritual went horribly wrong. Ermor and Eldregate went from the prosperous hubs of a mighty empire to a blasted, lifeless wasteland haunted by the reanimated dead and ruled by an ancient, evil god who sought to conquer the world once more and transform it into a realm of the dead. As the rest of the Empire's outlying provinces declared themselves independent kingdoms and petty empires, the Apostate Emperor claimed the Imperial mantle for himself and founded a new seat of the Empire at Sceleria, while the Thaumaturgs (the mage faction that had followed him into rebellion) practiced their own much stricter form of Death Magic to supplement Sceleria's own legions with undead in the name of keeping the malignant revenants of old Ermor at bay.
Eventually the Ashen Empire was defeated and destroyed by its neighbors, though not without great sacrifices. With Ermor's defeat, the need for undead guardians disappeared, and the Thaumaturgs turned to other pursuits. The Scelerian populace had grown used to the benefits provided by cheap undead menial labor, however, and felt that by turning their attentions inward the Thaumaturgs were abandoning the common people for their own gain. As unrest and strife grew, the Thaumaturgs decided to put an end to the matter once and for all by opening a permanent portal to the Underworld so that the dead could cross over of their own volition... and all Hell broke loose once again; the dead indeed returned, not as servants, but as spectral lords and conquerors. Due to their failure to learn from their ancestors' hubris, the Empire of Sceleria was transformed into Lemuria, yet another realm of the lifeless and unliving seeking to spread their dominion across the entire world, this time in the form of incorporeal wraiths.
- Ascended Extra: Lemuria's conceptual origins go all the way back to Dominions 2, where it started as a "theme" (an exclusive "mechanic" to that game) of Ermor. Dominions 3 didn't have room for Lemuria, so the idea of ghostly troop freespawn was relegated to a Global Enchantment for undead (Late-at-the-time) Ermor, while most of the commanders were made summons for it. The faction itself became a thing in Dominions 4.
- Casting a Shadow: Middle and Late Ages, due to having death mages and the corresponding death magic. The Early Ages are more prone to using the Sickly Green Glow, due to their Death-and-Fire crosspath.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: Only in the Early Age. In the Middle Age the bishops of the New Faith were replaced by the Thaumaturgs of the Death Cult.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Sceleria in Dominions 4 and 5. A Middle Age splinter of old Ermor, it was founded by the last Ermorian Emperor's twin brother and the Thaumaturgs. Their creed involves raising the dead to serve the living, and they do (mainly by raising skeletal legionnaires to fight against Ermor).
- Dem Bones: Sceleria (an Ermorian splinter state founded by the Thaumaturgs of the Death Cult and the last Emperor's twin brother) can have its priests raise skeletal legionnaires as part of its army in the Middle Age, while Ermor sees the dead rising on their own. There is no Ermor in the Late Age, and the closest thing to it (Lemuria, the Scelerian successor) has the dead rise on their own in spectral instead of osseous form.
- The Empire: While all pretender-ruled states fits the trope, early Ermor in Dominions 5 is the state that backstory-wise fits clearly here, with three Middle Age states confirmed as descended from the occupation of Early Age nations (Pythium from Sauromatia, Marignon from the Maverni, Ulm from Ulm), another splinter state carrying on the traditions of the old Ermor (more or less — Sceleria), and the heartland of Ermor itself being the centre of an undead realm. They're even mentioned to have connections with Berytos, though (unlike in history) Ermor would leave their destruction to Arcoscephale.
- Despair Event Horizon: Middle-Age Ermor is this to the Soul-Shattered, those who've been deeply affected by some sort of torment beneath the Earth. If they don't belong to "Middle" Ermor, they might have a crisis of faith that, if the province has no Dominion to reassure them, prompts them to give up and join the undead hordes. Since most Soul-Shattered guys are ridiculously-powerful, this can be a big problem.
- Expy: The Prophet of the New Faith of Early Age Ermor, due to his association with shrouds, a sacrifice, and healing powers, is very clearly a version of Jesus Christ and his healing powers and sacrifice.
- Face–Heel Turn: They slowly become more corrupted by death magic with each passing age. In the first Age, they start off dabbling in this magic alongside the genuine healing magic of the Holy Shroud via transmission from C'tis, but start abusing it for their own selfish purposes, such as for resurrecting the Holy Prophet again. This leads to the empire getting destroyed by an awakened god of death who turns Ermor proper into a deadly wasteland with constantly spawning undead, and the remnants of Sceleria and Pythium continuing to dig into more and more pagan traditions, culmiating in Pythium reestablishing the Sauromatian cult of the Serpents, and Sceleria falling to a ghost plague later on.
- Faction Calculus: Middle/Undead Ermor and Lemuria are classic examples of The Horde. Sceleria is more Subversive; it can build enormous armies of skeletons if given enough prep time, but the trick is in both lasting that long and checking potential counters (such as splash damage). Early/Living Ermor is a Powerhouse, able to pile up large amounts of old mages and maintain armies of increasingly-skilled cavalry with its healing Bishops.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ancient Rome, complete with the Manipular legion units of Hastatii, Triarii, and Principes, and worship of a Jesus Expy who displaced the old Pagan traditions to the countryside. They do diverge though in that they accidentally wake up a death god in the process of trying to resurrect Jesus and become undead in the process.
- Idiot Ball: Sceleria grabs onto this thing hard, then proceeds to do several laps around the track with it. Specifically, they decide that the way to combat undead is with more undead (which can work because death magic can undo undeath, but this can also be used alongside normal undead), which, when Ermor is purged, is not put to use in the fields in lieu of peasants. The peasants revolt, so the idiots who run the nation decide that opening another portal to the realm of death is worth it to quiet them down. This ends predictably, with the place becoming the ghostly place of Lemuria.
- Necromancer: In the Middle Age Thaumaturgs and cultists are able to reanimate the dead.
- Night of the Living Mooks: Scelarian priests can raise a sizable undead army. In Middle Age Ermor, the undead rise on their own.
- Old Magic:
- Early Age Ermor already has some, specifically the magic of the pagan Numinanote . The remaining Flamines of the Old Faith were trained to honor different entities, and it's tough to hire many of a single path. Flamines of Nature can summon Lares, gods of houses and other random things who possess slightly greater magic; ironically, these Lares outlive the New Faith that supplanted them and their superiors, as Pythium keeps their rituals.
- Middle Age Ermor's Dusk Elders are primarily Death mages, but they preserve some of the Fire and Astral magic they once used in their auguries. They're also said to know the older Ermorian magic, represented by some of them having levels in paths only the Flamines had.
- Retcon: The first game in the series to establish linear continuity, Dominions 3, placed what is now Middle Ermor in the Late Age. What would become Sceleria in Dominions 4 was called Ermor. This temporarily ret-conned Ulm and Marignon to be breakaway states from an Ermor that was still alive and (relatively) well; such a change was reverted by moving the undead Ermor to the Middle Ages and making Sceleria.
- Start of Darkness: Thanks to its wizards studying C'tisian death magic, Middle Age Ermor is a desolate wasteland of the dead, and Sceleria has been forced into an uneasy compromise to keep Death from breaking loose. This doesn't stop them from making their own place a desolate wasteland of ghosts by doing the same thing again
- Zombie Apocalypse: Middle Age Ermor. Tons of Dead Legionairres who come out of the ground and murder everything in sight, while the living population is converted into both ghouls and skeletons en masse.
The Fomorian giants were formerly the guardians of the realm of the watery dead. But they took to plundering and slaying the world of the living, so a previous Pantokrator banished them from their ocean realm and cursed their race to degenerate and die off. They then barely endured the invasions of the Partholonians and Nemedians, surviving by the use of magic plagues. The Fir Bolg invaders accepted Fomorian rule and assisted in the defense against the Tuatha.
- Beast Man: The fomorians' curse-born deformities most often manifest through them being born with goat heads.
- Curse: Part of the Fomorian's punishment. Their children are born closer to human-sized (but still giant). and the lucky ones get goat heads. The unlucky ones get additional deformities like limps or cyclopean eyes.
- Necromancy: A legacy of their previous home in the land of the dead.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The Fomorians; even their degenerated children are still quite large.
The Vanir of Helheim have settled around the old cave of Gnipahålan, where the underworld of Hel touches with the land of the living. Many of the residents are there out of respect for their ancestors, whose god hung himself outside the hole and survived, learning Death in the process; the Kings who've done this, Hangadrotts, have all followed his example. Others are there out of spite, just glad to be apart from the other Vanir for a time, or the other Dwarves. The Helheim Vanir have diverged from the rest of their kin somewhat, at least in a cultural sense.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Helheim is not quite as terrible to the "lesser races" as Vanheim, the faction it split from; they don't engage in Virgin Sacrifice as of Dominions 6, at least. They still capture humans for various uses, however, such as fort defense.
- Casting a Shadow: Most Van chiefs in Helheim have both Death and Glamour (or Air before Dominions 6) magic, letting them cast both illusions and damaging shadows. Notably, this combination lets them apply Dread to themselves and their men, letting them rout foes with mere proximity.
- Evil Counterpart: Gnipahålan is where the Svartalves, dark dwarves, hide from humanity (and their standard Dwarf counterparts). These guys are good at both Earth and Death magic, but they don't have the 10% chance of a bonus path that regular Dwarves possess, and they aren't Master Smiths.
- Valkyries: Helheim is the Valkyries' home. Only their commanders, the Disir, ride horses, but all of them (even the horses) can fly. They even have a spell for summoning Valkyries in battle, though Dominions 6 made it a bit tougher for Helheim to cast.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Helheim is abandoned by the Middle Ages, with its Valkyries having moved to Vanheim. This wasn't confirmed in-game until Dominions 6, which reveals that the Nidings of Nidavangr acquired Death magic from Helheim's ruins.
Ashdod - Reign of the Anakim (Middle Age)
Gath - Last of the Giants (Late Age)
- Awesome, but Impractical: Rephaite warriors, and their corresponding Rephaim commanders. Sure, they are sacred, armed with golden horns that give an extra, magical attack, and their giant weapons hit like an avalanche, and physically they are the best units... The problem is, they are addicted to human(and Avvim) flesh so any army with Anakite giants will destroy the province it's in in a matter of months. Moreso when any Rephaim (Half-Nephilim) commanders and soldiers are trained, they will consume the world population until the province is useless, making their spellcasters useless.
- Bible Times: Crossed over with Religion of Evil. What the Jewish God wanted, did *definitely* not take root with Avvim.
- Blood Magic: Early Age and Late Age.
- Boring, but Practical: Avvim and Edomite light infantry. Smallest of giants, they are still heavily armed, have javelins that can fire like ballistae due to their strength, and can easily be raised in large numbers and are tough to kill.
- Fallen Angel: The Grigori, who taught the arts of civilization to the Avvites, fathered the Nephilim, and were sentenced to eternal punishment. In the Early Age Hinnom can release them from their prison by performing enormous blood sacrifices.
- Fantastic Racism: Deconstructed and Reconstructed by Gath. The Kohanim have found that all humans and all giants have the same Blood, so they aren't so different after all. However, since humans are a lot more common than giants, this has made humans the fodder of choice for Blood Sacrifice and demon-summoning. Some of the human tribes violently object to this, and so all of them are banned from blacksmithing, to prevent a strong revolt.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ancient Canaan, with elements of Biblical Israel.
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Game-Breaker: Hinnom is often called this in multiplayer. A race of superhuman giants even whose most primitive stragglers are ripped cavemen. The rank-and-file are armed with giant javelins and bows that can shoot like artillery, and have at least twice the strength of normal men. Their cheapest spellcasters are huge men with nature magic that heal combat injuries afflictions with herbs *and* generate free food (and can generate more with mass producing magical food generators), making logistics easy. Their starting territory is a decadent city that generates free blood slaves without angering the population. - Heel–Face Turn: Ashod abandons the blood magic of Hinnom, its giants' hunger has faded to the point where they're no longer cannibalistic and they can summon a variety of celestials (though they still practice slavery). By the time of Gath the blood cult is back, but there's also a new cult based on guiding and helping humans. Needless to say, the Abba (Fathers) who help and protect humans from predatory giants cause your religion to fail in the territory it inhabits.
- Humanity Ensues: The number of giants dwindles with every era and human immigrants gain greater prominence.
- I'm a Humanitarian:
- The Nephilim giants would consume even their own offspring, and their unique pretender, the Son of Fallen has eaten his brothers and sisters too.
- Their descendants in Ashdod practice religious cannibalism, in which dedicated priests (the Zamzummim) offer themselves up to be eaten at ritual banquets in honor of the ancestors.
- Meaningful Name: "The Valley of the Son of Hinnom" was another name for the cursed valley Gehenna where human sacrifice had taken place, Ashdod was one of the earliest cities in Canaan, and Gath was the Philistine city where the giant Goliath came from.
- Nephilim: The founders of Hinnom, though they've mostly left.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Nephilim are the biggest giants in-game.
- To Serve Man: Some giants will eat population, both of their smaller kin and humans (Early Age only).
- Virgin Sacrifice: Early and Late Age.
Feminie - Sage Queens / Piconye - Legacy of the Prester King / Andramania - Dog Republic (Late Age)
One of two Middle Age nations introduced in Dominions 5's two-year anniversary patch. Ind is a fabled kingdom of marvelous riches hidden beyond heathen lands. In Ind every soldier is a priest, every priest is a bishop and every noble is a King. While Ind faded away by the Late Age, Dominions 6 reveals that it left behind three successor kingdoms. Feminie was a vassal nation of Sauromatian exiles that broke away when the Khans of T'ien Ch'i killed the Prester King and salvaged what they could of Ind's knowledge. Piconye, a nation of little horned people, preserved Ind's culture. The Cynocephalians, having long since abandoned their barbarian roots, forged the Republic of Andramania, where they look down on humans as uncivilized brutes.
- Amazon Brigade: As befitting a nation descended from Sauromatia, Feminie's troops are this. In fact, all of Feminie's recruitables are female, when even Sauromatia, the actual Amazon nation, had the male Androphagoi.
- Ascended Extra: Feminie and Piconye first appeared in Dominions 5 as sources for some of Ind's units, while Cynocephalians made up a significant number of troops. Come Dominions 6 Feminie and Piconye became full nations in the Late Age, and the Cynocephalians also received their own nation (though Andramania is a different concept to the tribes of Gog and Magog).
- Balkanize Me: Ind is a Kingdom of Kingdoms and various subjugated tribes, all of which go their separate ways after the Khans (who would later destroy T'ien Ch'i's Empire) give the Pester King a battlefield death. The vassal Kingdom of Orionde, and the tribes of Azenach, Agrimandi, Fommepori, and Vintefolei, all disappear. The peoples who were "civilized" by Ind are all playable in the Late Ages, each as their own kingdoms who took somewhat-different inheritances from their former overlords.
- Feminie was a piece of former Sauromatia that, while its misandry didn't allow for direct teaching by Ind, was still seduced by the Kingdom's magic and tried their best to learn it. They thus went for the abbeys left behind in their overlords' wake, taking on their more-esoteric secrets and becoming the strongest heirs to Ind's Astral legacy. They even reverse-engineered the divine shroud that made Ind unperceivable, deriving their own tradition of Glamour magic from it, and are skilled enough to fool the divine decree sealing the Lost Tribe.
- The Little Horned Men of Piconye were in many petty kingdoms before Ind found them, largely disorganized due to being small enough for birds to prey on them. Never knowing a greater centralized force than Ind's Kingdom or Ind's religion, they kept the latter and eventually made their own version of the former, using most of the same temporal and religious titles as their human predecessors. Among these positions are the titles of Abbot and Magus, so the little guys have also maintained Ind's magic, though they're not very good at it.
- The Cynocephalians were among the most uncivilized peoples in Ind, but Ind's Viceroy Primates succeeded in civilizing most of them, who began to call themselves the Calystrii. In fact, the Calystrii replaced the Viceroys when Ind fell, and have been civilizing themselves to this very day; they're now under a senatorial republic called Andramania, with the upper echelons now viewing humans as inferior and even considering veganism. Their capabilities with Ind's magic are a little better than Piconye's, albeit with an innate proclivity towards Nature magic and an innate problem mastering Astral magic, and they apply the title of "Magus" to all mages in the republic; on the other hand, Andramania views religion as little more than a tool of the state, and has the least-impressive priests of the three post-Ind factions.
- Corrupt Church: Not initially, but implied by the mechanics. By all accounts, the priest-kings of Ind are utterly sincere in wanting to civilize the cannibal tribes that live within their borders and end their inhumane and barbaric practices. However, because those same tribes provide easy access to blood magic, Ind's Pretender God — i.e. you, the player — can exploit their beliefs to conquer new lands to exploit for horrific human-sacrifice-fueled rites.
- Dogfaces: Ind can hire straight-up Cynocephalians from hills and mountains, including the vicious members of Gog and Magog. While Cynocephalians can be also be found and subjugated as neutral parties, Ind is the only faction that incorporates them in the Middle Age. In the Late Age the Cynocephalians of Ind, now referring to themselves as the Calystrii, forge their own nation in the wake of Ind's fall, Andramania.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ind has Indian influences in its palace court culture and its names, but it has Central Asian influences as well. Its geographical locationnote and fate allude to Khwarazm in Central Asia, an empire that existed for two hundred years before offending Genghis Khan and being humiliated to death.
- Feathered Fiend: Every summer, the lands of Piconye within Ind are harangued by flocks of strange birds, "and there is much carnage". These birds are slightly-bigger than hawks, possess long beaks, and are sometimes counted among the entourage of Ind's national "Birds of Splendor". Independent Piconye in the Late Ages uses these birds as war mounts, much like how some Amazons ride Grpyhons.
- Hidden Elf Village: Ind proper (its capital province) is incredibly different from the rest of Ind's provinces, to say nothing of its differences from the rest of the world, and it's strongly implied to be a city-state (if not just something like the Vatican) with exaggerated influence. The only "proper Indians" seen off-capital are abbots who stay in their missions, and bishop viceroys brave enough to handle the sheer uncivility of the outside world.
- Hobbits: The people of Piconye resemble the hoburgs in stature and temperament but are described as "ugly" and have horns on their heads. As they were disunited tribes before being conquered by Ind, they adopted Ind's culture as their own and after Ind's fall built up a successor kingdom complete with its own Prester King.
- Lady Land: Feminie, as to be expected from its name and the fact that its founders were Amazons, although Feminie is a feudal nation of knights and monasteries more similar to Man and Marignon than to their Sauromatian ancestors.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Ind is Difficult, but Awesome at best, owing to its bifurcated nature; the guys you recruit inside the capital and the guys you get in other provinces are almost completely different, with the former group being very difficult to use effectively and the latter group often costing more than it's worth. The nation's strong suit is in having cheap and plentiful Blood Mages, with the best ones coming from the mountains, and plentiful Viceroys who can reduce Unrest to indirectly reduce their operating costs.
- Nature Versus Nurture: A strong element of Andramania. Aside from Vegetarian Carnivore below, the republic is consistently pushing its constituents to perfect Ind's magic, but it can't seem to get over their natural preference towards Nature magic, something they associate with the shamanism of old. Most government Magii bar themselves from using Nature magic, but they drop this self-restriction upon attaining the decision-making rank of Senator, if only to try and figure out what's wrong with themselves and their own species.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: To give you an idea of how little Ind's leaders understand what they're dealing with, they can release the Grigori. They obtained some of the lore the Grigori gave to Hinnom, and the also-sealed Giants of the Lost Tribe say not to release them, so those Nephilim-spawners must be great guys... Right?
- Fortunately, Ind never got to use this ritual before the Khans destroyed it. Unfortunately, Feminie was able to preserve this knowledge and has access to the ritual in the Late Age. Fortunately again, Feminie has no idea of how to even 'begin' cast it. Unfortunately again, they've uncorked someone who does know where to start...
- Shout-Out: The nation of Ind and its successors are heavily based on the tale of Prester John, a legendary Christian patriarch, along with other esoteric ideas Europeans had about the lands between China and Persia - Feminie is based on medieval interpretations of the Amazons and similar legends like the land of Queen Orontea from Orlando Furioso, Piconye is a direct successor to Ind and continues the Prester John motif, and Andramania continues the Cynocephalian motif.
- Vegetarian Carnivore: The "Serene" Calystrii of Andramania are vegetarians by-choice, and man-bodied dogs by heritage. Very few Calystrii are disciplined enough to keep such a diet, and the Serene Ones are incredibly unhealthy by the standards of their kin, though their mastery of swordplay is almost unmatched among mortals.
Bandar Log - Land of the Apes (Middle Age)
Patala - Reign of the Nagas (Late Age)
- Alpha Strike: Kailasa and the Bandar Log can both play the Celestial Music, which instills quickness in their celestial beings and lets them attack at least four times each round. For Kailasa, this lets the naked Guhyakas and Yavanas kick their foes to death, hopefully before the defenders cleave through them.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Inspired by Vedic mythology and the culture of ancient India.
- Meaningful Name: Kailasa is named after the sacred Mount Kailash (which is one of its sacred sites), Bandar Log is used in The Jungle Book for the monkey society and is the only time the monkeys rule themselves, and Patala is the underworld and where the Naga reside.
- Predation Is Natural: Dominions 6 adds Garudas, celestial bird-soldiers who can't help but slaughter every snake they see. In myths, they also eat them. They are thus un-summonable in Patala, where they'd be serial killers.
- Snake People: The Late Age Nagas.
- Divergent Character Evolution: When Glamour was cleft from Air in Dominions 6, only the female Rakshasas had their Air access replaced with it, while the males kept Air.
- Maniac Monkeys: Religion of Evil, Blood Magic, Horror Hunger makes the faction a fuel station for Nightmare Fuel.
- Our Demons Are Different: They are extremely gluttonous and take extra damage from fire.
- Squishy Wizard: Averted, and quite drastically at that. The Bandar witches are slightly weaker than their male counterparts, but that can be chalked up to sexual dimorphism, and they're still gorillas. In fact, the Bandar blood-monks are stronger than most of their brothers.
Machaka - Reign of Sorcerors (Middle Age)
- Animal Motifs: Early Age Machaka is composed of multiple clans that imitate totemic animals. The Lion Clan leads, though mainly due to having interbred with half-Giants who took over the society for them. There's also the Spider Clan, the Rhino Clan, the Elephant Clan, the Hyena Clan, and a bunch of other clans who are barely-relevant due to their specialties being useless in battle.
- Ascended Extra: In the fourth game, their Early Age is built around the usually independent Lion Tribe.
- Bond Creatures: These guys are what make the Elephant Clan and the Spider Clan relevant in Early Machaka; interestingly, the Lion Clan has these too, but their Bond Creatures are nowhere near as loyal.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ancient Africa in the Middle Age, more specifically the Zulus in the fourth game's Early Age.
- Giant Spider: Used as cavalry mounts.
- Great Offscreen War: There are signs of the Spider Clan planning to subvert Machaka back in the Early Ages; for instance, their plots incidentally cause half-Giants to flee from Machaka to Berytos. The subversion finally happened between the Ages, resulting in the Spider Clan's patron becoming regarded as God, but it led to said patron being murdered and the Clan largely disintegrating.
- Horse of a Different Color: Their cavalry rides Giant Spiders.
- Our Werecreatures Are Different: The Hyena Clan's metalsmiths are Boudas, able to transform into hyenas that can still use and wear gear without issue. This is a direct call-back to the Ethiopian myth that all Jewish metalsmiths could do this.
- Power Creep: The original (Middle Age) Machaka hasn't seen many changes since Dominions 2, and it shows. Dominions 6 gives the Glamour path to some of its mages, however.
- Sickly Green Glow: Machaka's Witch Doctors and Sorcerers can make better use of Bane Fire Dart (and occasionally Bane Fire for the Sorcerers), since they also have Nature magic that lets them improve their Precision. They can also make good use of various disintegration spells, such as the Undead-countering "Dust to Dust", and are pretty-good offensive mages in general.
- Spider People: The best of Middle Machaka's Sorcerers can turn into Spiders, owing to a pact of some kind they made to avenge their Spider God.
Man, Tower of Chelms (Late Age)
A feudal kingdom that emerged in the Middle Age, founded by a human tribe known as the Logrians who conquered Tir na n'Og and discovered the secrets of the Forest of Avalon.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: The Wardens wield both longsword and crossbow.
- The Fair Folk: Man is a human kingdom, but they rely on ancient secrets of the Tuatha for the source of their power.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Medieval Britain, mixing both English and Celtic aspects.
- The Hecate Sisters: The Witches of Avalon are divided into the ranks of Daughter, Mother, and Crone by seniority.
- Knight in Shining Armor: They also have a touch of Arthurian Legend, what with Avalon and all. They even have the Green Knight as a hero.
- Lady and Knight: The Witches of Avalon and the Wardens have this dynamic in the Middle Age.
- Last of His Kind: While the Witches of Avalon have supposedly gone extinct by the Late Age, a story event can lead to the discovery that at least one of them still survives.
- The Magic Goes Away: In the Late Era, they're described as suffering from magical Drain. You can create a pretender with high magic scales, but that's a waste given their researchers' ability to ignore magical drain.
- Unequal Rites: In the Middle Age, magic in Man is practiced primarily by the all-female Witches of Avalon, who specialize in Nature magic and lean heavily on the harmony end of Harmony Versus Discipline. By the Late Age, the witches are all but extinct, and magic is mainly practiced by the studious, disciplined, all-male Magisters, who dabble in nearly every field of magic but nature.
Marignon, Conquerors of the Sea (Late Age)
The empire of Ermor at its height covered vast stretches of territory within its borders, incorporating several diverse cultures and creeds. Officially, all of these were meant to be subsumed within and replaced by the all-encompassing New Faith of the empire; realistically, however, the empire's very extent made this rather infeasible to properly enforce. The province of Marignon, the former homeland of the Marverni, absorbed a considerable amount of Ermorian cultural and religious influence but maintained a great deal of local autonomy, with day-to-day administration and tax collection duties falling to a local aristocracy of landowners. Another unique development was the House of Fiery Justice, a religious body that developed independently in Marignon and eventually grew powerful enough to take the reins of power in Marignon once the Fall of Ermor effectively obliterated the imperial government. As the true nature of the threat of the Ashen Empire that now ruled Ermor's old heartland became clear, the House of Fiery Justice tightened its control on Marignon's society; holy armies spearheaded by the knightly Order of the Sacred Chalice were sanctioned to drive back and destroy the undead menace, while on the home front inquisitors and witch hunters rooted out heathens, heretics, and profane magic users that might have threatened to corrupt the populace's staunch faith.
Unfortunately, faith and steel alone proved unable to stem the tide of the Ashen Empire's undead hordes. Faced with the choice between destruction and compromise, the leadership of Marignon chose the latter, forging a pact with The Legions of Hell to save them. Bolstered by infernal forces, Marignon's armies finally managed to destroy the Ashen Empire and its undead hordes. This victory, however, came at a terrible price — as part of the pact, Marignon must now provide the Infernal Lords with a steady flow of blood sacrifices. As a consequence, the witch hunters have since been disbanded, and the Inquisition has assumed responsibility for regulating the sacrifices in question according to stringent controls and ensuring Marignon's faithful are not seduced into outright devil worship; only time will tell if they are only forestalling the inevitable. Meanwhile, Marignon's new Naval Academy has been developing new shipbuilding and navigation techniques and training admirals to use them, opening up vast new lands on the other side of the ocean as potential sources of new wealth, converts, and sacrifices.
- The Conspiracy: A certain Late Age Ulmic hero hints that the pact Marignon made may have been because of that. Said unit has it made clear in its description that "he is sent to destabilize and ensure Marignon's downfall". He is a demonologist and a blood mage expert in espionage.
- Corrupt Church: Late Age. Their priests convert populations, but turn a blind eye to demonologists snatching virgins for sacrifice. Worse, girls are sacrificed publicly on "Devil's Day".
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The House of Fiery Justice is essentially the Spanish Inquisition taken up to eleven.
- Evil Colonialist: The theme of Late Age Marignon, with its sailing commanders, technological advancement, and ability to spread devastating plagues in enemy territory with plague doctors.
- Faction Calculus: Middle Marignon is the Cannons, both with an offensive focus on its magic and the means to recruit sacred shock troops from all of its provinces, to the point that some call it a one-trick pony. Late Marignon switches to being Subversive, as it loses its good recruits but gains a number of nasty tricks; these include Demon-spamming, biological warfare, and Columbus.
- Fanatical Fire: Marignon's character is this trope. Witch-burning is what the developers describe when they describe the nation in the manual; and when the witch hunts stop in the Late Ages (for political reasons), those pyres are used on sacrifices instead, while the fires for heretics and heathens still burn just as brightly as (if not brighter than) before.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Western medieval Europe, combining elements of both Spain and France.
- He Who Fights Monsters: They were formed to fight against the undead hordes of Ermor (albeit with extreme methods) in the Middle Age. In the Late Age, they seal a pact with demons to give them an extra edge against their undead foes.
- The Imp: Late Marignon has the exclusive right to summon Demon Jesters, whose purpose is to raise the morale of others in their squad; this is a net positive in demon-only squads, and merely negates the morale penalty of having mixed squads otherwise. As troops, the Demon Jesters are stronger and more resilient than humans, and capable of flight, but they're worse than most other demons and utterly ill-equipped for fighting; part of the amusement is in watching demons eagerly get into situations and mess up (for the humans), or in watching them get roasted by friendly fire (for the other demons).
- Irony: Save for maybe Agartha, Late Age Marignon is the most technologically-advanced nation in Dominions 5. They were still burning witches a century ago! (Well, real witches, but still...)
- Jeanne d'Archétype: Angelique d'Armant is a hero who can appear for both Middle Age and Late Age Marignon. Initially she was a rebel against the Marignon Inquisition, but after her followers revealed themselves to be cannibals she recanted and now serves the Inquisition as one of their best enforcers.
- Knight Templar: Motive Decay has turned them into bullies and butchers in Late Age.
- Master of Illusion: Dominions 6 gives Late Marignon "Mirror Mages", artists of the new path of Glamour. These fellows are said to use "enchanted mirrors", like the Illusionists from Conquest of Elysium, and even have a ritual that lets them use mirrors in the same way most science fiction stories use wormholes.
- Pyrrhic Victory: If you don't count survival as a victory, no one really wins the fight between Marignon and Ermor. Ermor is extinguished, but so is Marignon's knightly order. The Inquisition is delegitimized, and has to find complete heathens to inspire new faith in. The Angels have no one else who prays to them. The Lord has lost central authority to the holders of Marignon's numerous forts. The commoners are damned. Even the Goetic Masters who pushed for the Deal with the Devil didn't really win, since their every action is now closely scrutinized by the heads of the Inquisition itself.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Late Age.
- The Witch Hunter: Middle Age. Marignon's Witch Hunters of this era take their jobs very seriously, and are even better at fighting than most Marignese troops; if you equip them for that, anyway.
One of the nations that existed in the world's Early Age was a loose alliance of tribes, united by a common culture and druidic heritage. The Marverni, chiefest of these tribes, gave their name to the nation as a whole and were renowned as the inventors of chainmail; other notable tribes included the horse-riding Eponi, the aggressive Carnutes, the proud Ambibates, and the peace-loving, stargazing Sequani. Marverni warriors placed a great value on personal prowess; their war chiefs were selected from among the most accomplished of their warriors and fought alongside their men in battle, inspiring their followers with feats of skill and strength. At home, the duties of leadership were split between the vergobrets (civil magistrates) and a variety of astrologers and priests of different disciplines, chief among whom were the druids who presided over all major religious ceremonies (including the occasional human sacrifice, though this did not seem to be a habitual practice). The most sacred animal among the Marverni was the Great Boar, which resided in the Sacred Forest of Carnutes; the mightiest of these creatures was said to bring good luck to those who followed it.
At some point during the period before the dawn of the Middle Age, the Marverni tribes were conquered by the legions of the ascendant empire of Ermor. Ermorian customs and practices had a great influence on local culture, which after Ermor's collapse gave rise to the new nation of Marignon.
- Druid: Marverni, being the nation of classical Druids, has examples of both the "nature-loving hermit" type and the "stately astronomer" type discussed by Caesar. Due to how the random paths on mages play out, most members of the former type are actually of another priestly group, the "Gutuaters"; lore-wise, Druids and Gutuaters practice largely-different disciplines, but sometimes switch professions.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: They're essentially magical Gauls ruled by their druids. While some of the finer lore lines up with Gallic and Roman history, a huge difference is that Early-Age Dominions doesn't have humans in its analogue for Britain, which was considered the center of druidic study by Caesar.
- Full-Boar Action:
- Marverni's Nature mages can summon Great Boars of Carnutes, colossal boars who attract regular boars to their side with their majesty.
- Marverni's Earth mages can transmute "Iron Boars", boars with permanent Ironskin, creating excellent shin-breakers. Other nations use mere pigs, creating "Iron Pigs".
- Meteor-Summoning Attack: Marverni is well-suited for dropping "Gifts from Heaven" on foes, as its Elder Druids often have enough Earth and Astral Magic to cast the eponymous spell without issue, as well as the battlefield-peppering "Meteor Shower" with only four Communion supporters. As of Dominions 6, some can even cast "Stellar Strike" to pepper a distant province with 40 meteors; these casters will typically require support in the form of path-boosting items, however, which the Druids must first procure.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Though not necessary, they can perform it to boost dominion... which makes for an interesting parallel with the
Word of God-mentioned successor nation Marignon (Ermor conquered them and evidently had a greater impact on their national identity than Ulm, thus the name change). - Walking Shirtless Scene: The rank-and-file's hat. The nobles carry chainmail.
Phlegra, Deformed Giants (Middle Age)
Phlegra, Sleeping Giants (Late Age)
A nation introduced in Dominions 5. Mekone is a nation of giants and their human slaves, known as helotes, that seek to rid the world of the gods of man.
A later patch introduced Phlegra. After the Gigantes of Mekone lost in their war against the gods, they were punished for their sins. They now appear as deformed giants cursed with a violent temper. The highest caste, known as Tyrants, rule with the assistance of Oppressors, unscrupulous mages who enslave other mages and act as powerful communion masters.
In the Late Age, introduced in a third patch, the Tyrants have been absent for centuries having killed each other off in in-fighting and the Oppressors now rule their human slaves unopposed, with the warrior-caste of Younger Cyclopes being the only non-humans left in the realm. The only ones the Oppressors fear are the few Tyrants that lay imprisoned under mountains, their undying rage against the gods causing the mountains to spew fire and molten rock.
- Abdicate the Throne: Presumably how Mekone can recruit a Basileus sage-king every two months, since the description says that only one runs Mekone at a time. (In Real Life, Sparta had two kings at a time.)
- Ascended Fanon: They were originally played in the mod "Arga Dis" in Dominions 3 and 4, albeit with a different species of giants named Gilgal. The unit fashion and the motives are roughly the same.
- Body Horror: The Laestrygonians have giant serpents for legs from the knee down. They also have viper tresses for hair.
- Classical Cyclops: As well as being a potential Pretender chassis, the Mekone can recruit Elder Cyclopes. They generally have the most magic paths of the nation, and have one level of the Master Smith ability, giving them a +1 bonus to their preexisting magic paths when constructing items.
- Developer's Foresight: If you rush down Late Age Phlegra, and take the capital before the Laestrygonians emerge, they'll still emerge on their own. Phlegra has to have possession of its capital when its volcano explodes; otherwise, the first Laestrygonian who emerges will be Independent, and may have to be brought down by Phlegra itself.
- Faction Calculus: Mekone and Phlegra are Powerhouses, complete with powerful troops and a gradual buildup of strength. , Their Giants strongly dissuade early-game rushes against them, but the hard recruitment cap on their best troops in all three ages can make nearly any early attack on them a setback.
- Unlike with Powerhouse factions in other games, Mekone and Phlegra actually wear down their economies as the game continues, giving them elements of The Horde. The "Gigantomachia" Global Enchantment, which increases recruitment caps and lowers recruitment costs for the elites, might just be a band-aid fix if you bring it up too late.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Mekone nation resembles a mix of ancient Greek Sparta and a nod to the story of the Greek Titans.
- Hollywood Atheist: Mekone's atheism is baked into its religion, and its preachers are more effective at preaching against the gods than at spreading their religion in a vacuum.
- Horse of a Different Color: The Mouflon Cataphracts of the Late Age, slave soldier who ride armored goats.
- One-Man Army: The Laestrygonians in Late Age are exceptionally powerful units with five attacks, great magic paths, and can easily become supercombatants with the right gear. Unfortunately, they're also more than happy to kill off population and cause unrest wherever they go, assuming they listen to your orders due to having a 5% chance to do their own thing each turn.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: They're also angry towards the gods, and deformed, depending on what age you play them.
- Rage Against the Heavens: A major part of Mekone's culture. They lost, and those that fought against the gods are punished for their hubris. In Phlegra, only the human population devote themselves to the Pretender God. In every age, they get a unique Global Enchantment called Gigantomachia. This spell acts as a declaration of war against the gods, improving the casting nation's recruitment limit and gives a +2 bonus to their dominion's conflict bonus, making it easier to push away enemy dominion. In Late Age, this also allows the recruitment of Laestrygonians after The Burning Mountain erupts.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Starting from turn 15, Late Age Phlegra can experience a special event where The Burning Mountain (a capital magic site that gives 3 fire gems a turn and increases Heat scales) erupts. This kills population and causes unrest, as well as spawning Encelados the First of the Gigantes, a special national hero. The Shattered Volcano left behind produces 1 fire and death gem per turn, and allows the recruitment of Laestrygonian Tyrants (and regular Laestrygonian troops, if Gigantomachia is active.)
- World Gone Mad: Rather than have traditional popkill mechanics, Phlegra has gradually-increasing Unrest in its dominion, which will force the periodic culling of local populations to get taxes and recruits.
- Mekone has a more-complex mechanic instead; the Unrest only occurs in forts, talk of a local "holiday" happens every early-fall that riles up the humans even more, and an Ephor at each fort can initiate the "holiday" to immediately wipe out a massive amount of Unrest at an over-200% mark-up. You get a giant Assassin/Patroller/Scout for each successful "holiday celebration", though.
Mictlan - Reign of the Lawgiver (Middle Age)
Mictlan - Blood and Rain (Late Age)
- Achilles' Heel: Mictlan has no Earth Magic whatsoever, so it can't increase the toughness of its troops that much, and it has to wait a very long time before it can get Strength-boosting spells. In the Early and Late Ages, it also doesn't have any magic that provides Shock Resistance.
- Face–Heel Turn: In the Late Age, a bunch of Atlantian exiles reinstate the practice of blood sacrifice that had been outlawed in the Middle Age.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Of the Aztecs.
- Giving Radio to the Romans: Inverted. Middle and Late Mictlan use iron in their armor, while Early Mictlan only uses bronze. In real life, the Mesoamericans did mine iron ores, polished the rocks, and sewed them into pieces of scale armor, but that practice was never picked up by the Aztecs; thus, it's implied that the Lawgiver gave Mictlan techniques that were older but more-effective than what the Empire had at the time.
- In-turn, the Atlantians do this again by bringing Mictlan's own Blood Magic back to Late Mictlan, overwriting some of the Lawgiver's other work.
- Heel–Face Turn: During the Middle Age, the Lawgiver puts an end to blood sacrifice.
- Mayincatec: Mainly Aztec, and not at all Inca.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Werejaguars are sacred warriors who wear jaguar pelts. When injured, the pelt merges with them, transforming the warrior into a half-man half-beast.
- Stern Sun Worshippers: Particularly in the Early Age; in the Middle and Late Ages, Mictlan cares a bit less about their god's "watchful face".
- On that note, Mictlan views the Moon as their god's "dreaming face".
- Weaksauce Weakness: It isn't very easy to keep Early and Late Mictlan alive, given that losing all your dominion candles hands your nation to the Independents. For reference, the only source of passive dominion spread Early/Late Mictlan has is from its Pretender being present, and that only lays dominion candles half as often as other Pretenders. It's possible to lose as these factions due to random events.
- Virgin Sacrifice: During the Early and Late Ages, it's the only way to manually spread dominion.
Muspelheim is the kingdom of fire giants, the muspel, who rule over their jotun brethren in a dim land of fire and ash. It was introduced in Dominions 6.
- Fire/Ice Duo: Deconstructed. The "ice" elements of the nation, the Jotunar, are subservient to the "fire" elements, and are explicitly forbidden from using any Water (Ice) magic. This is for no other reason than Muspelheim being right next to Niefelheim, and the Muspel and Niefel giants not liking each other. Likewise, the Jotunar are only in provinces Muspelheim has conquered, while the only "Muspelsons" outside Muspelheim Proper are "Muspeldottirs" appointed as viceroys and envoys.
- Mordor: Muspelheim gives this vibe, being a realm of shadows, ash, and volcanoes, although given that it is also cold, Angband might be the better comparison.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: In addition to the previously established Jotun, Muspelheim introduces the eponymous Muspel, fire giants descended from primordial giants of a past age, with the muspel ruling over the jotun. Because of this divide, Muspelheim paradoxically favors both Heat and Cold scales.
- Out of Focus: We don't have a name for the species of the Muspel Giants' primordial ancestors, since Dominions 6 does not have any spells meant to invoke or awaken them. One of them is implied to be Surtr, however, who is said to sweep through the chief god of the Vanir and set the world ablaze during Ragnarok. Fire nations can already create a Second Sun to heat the world up, to a somewhat-similar effect.
Formerly a Caelum colony, the fall of the Eagle Kings before the Middle Age resulted in the colony splitting off. The Raptor Clan's necromancy wasn't banned, and they took to mummifying the dead rulers and priests to retain their wisdom, and now the mummies are the true rulers of society.
- Battle Couple: The Royal Mallqui, the mummified remains of an Inca (king) and Coya (queen) bundled together and carried aloft in the same litter. In death, their combined experience and power is retained.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Inca with Winged Humanoid people and a heavy focus on mummies. Hints of Persia, inherited from Caelum, can still be found.
- Mummy: Incan ones, and what happens to their dead commanders.
- The Necrocracy: It wasn't really intentional — Nazca kept mummifying its rulers and priests for them to serve as advisers, but as more and more mummies were made, more and more resources had to go to them...
- The Red Mage: Nazca's mages are quite flexible, and some of them can even kick ass physically. With that being said, their "mastery" of any one path is quite lacking, only rarely touching level 3.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Like Oceania, Na'Ba, and Phaeacia, Nazca disappears without a trace in the transition from the Middle to the Late Ages. It is implied that Nazcan society is set to collapse shortly after (or during) the Middle Ages, and the Raptors are said to have regrouped in the Late Ages to take Caelum, but not even a hint of Nazcan culture survives after it's no longer playable.
Jotunheim - Iron Woods (Middle Age)
Utgård - Well of Urd / Vaettiheim - Wolf Kin Jarldom (Late Age)
Jotunheim has been in the game since the very first Dominions, with Niefelheim and Utgard being variations to it added in Dominions 2 or 3. All three factions were later reworked with a patch to Dominions 5, which also added Vaettiheim.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The primary unit type fielded by these factions, these giants are strong, armored (sometimes heavily), and large (being size 4 units). However, in trade off, they are incredibly weak to lightning attacks.
- An Ice Person: Jotunheim and especially Niefelheim are primarily associated with ice magic, with their top tier mages and warriors emitting a cold chill around them, often having ice armor as an ability, and having ample access to water magic, which includes all of the ice spells.
The Nidings are a hardy nation of humans who war with the Vanir and have carved out a kingdom of moors and cold mountains in this conflict. Led in battle by jarls and led by their shapeshifting priests, the Seithberenders, the people of Nidavangr devote themselves to their three sacred animals and live for conflict. They were introduced in Dominions 6.
- 0% Approval Rating: A nation of barbaric humans, fighting an offensive war against both the non-human races and (in the case of Vanheim) their new human followers, turning the magic of their foes against them. While diplomacy was a meta-game before Dominions 6, it's not hard to see why these guys didn't survive the Middle Ages.
- Amazon Brigade: The Nidylva, warrior women who dual wield short swords.
- Animal Motifs: The Bear Clan produces strong warriors wielding two-handed axes and focuses on Earth and Nature magic, the Crow Clan produces archers and scouts and are the most magically inclined with Air, Death, Astral, and a chance of Blood, and the Wolf Clan produces reavers who wield sword and shield and focuses on Water and Nature magic.
- Ascended Extra: The Wolf Clan and the Bear Clan are sourced from the independent Wolf Tribes and Bear Tribes, much like how Early Machaka's Lion Clan is sourced from the independent Lion Tribes. Many of the troop types are similar to those in Early Ulm, too.
- Blood Knight: They believe dying of old age in a bed is shameful and throw themselves into any fight.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Most of Nidavangr's "Seith" is not actually Seith as the Jotunar or Vanir know it; the Wolf Clan's Water magic (probably obtained from the Skrattir) is "the ancestral magic of the Rimtursar", the Bear Clan's Earth magic is either from their pre-history as the Bear Tribe or the Galdersongs of the Vanir, and the Crow Clan's Air magic is more Vanir Galdersongs that the Nidings' god taught them. It all works, though, regardless of the misnomer.
- Meaningful Name: Nidavangr is roughly Old Norse for either "new field" or "dark field", while Niding translates to "honorless" in English.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The Seithberenders are mages who can shapeshift into their totemic animal - bear, crow, or wolf.
- Screw You, Elves!: Their warfare is focused primarily around killing Vanir. They've even focused their magic in a way to counteract the Vanirs' Glamour.
- Soul Power: Nidavangr's sacred troops are scarred with the souls of all of their friends, who commit suicide for them during their baptism. This gives the sacred troops "extra lives" within their god's Dominion; whenever they would die, as long as their body is still intact, one of their friends' souls dies instead.
'Oceania - Mermidons (Middle Age)
- Fauns and Satyrs: The ichtysatyrs of Middle Age.
- From Bad to Worse: In the Middle Age they were losing to Atlantians until R'lyeh enslaved them. By the Late Age, they are wiped out.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: The Middle Age has ichtycentaurs, which resemble a cross between a centaur and a hippocampus.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The Nerid is an available pretender for them, while mermen are part of the infantry.
- Sirens Are Mermaids: Subverted. When they move to a land province, they become half-bird.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Mermen, ichtysatyrs, ichtycentaur, and sirens can all shape-change when they go on land.
Pangaea - Age of Bronze / Asphodel - Carrion Woods (Middle Age)
Pangaea - New Era (Late Age)
- Anthropomorphic Personification: The Panii represent the raw power of the natural world, which they understand as "the wild", mainly through their magic. In the Early Ages, they manipulate the life force that all beings with Blood possess, the Earth itself, and mainly the plants and animals. The first of these is considered more abhorrent than awesome by everyone in the Middle Ages, so the Panii mostly abandon it, though those in Asphodel weaponize the horrifying effect of decay to replace it. As nature loses some of its power over sapient beings (especially in the Late Ages), the Panii lose some of their powers in Nature magic, though their command of the Earth is undiluted.
- Ascended Extra: Asphodel's conceptual origins go all the way back to Dominions 2, where it was a "theme" of Pangaea. Dominions 3 didn't have room for Asphodel, so its ideas were absorbed into all three Ages of Pangaea; the mechanic of vines converting taxpayers into freespawn became a Global Enchantment that Late Pangaea had the best chance of casting, while the "carrion commanders" became summons. Asphodel itself wouldn't become a faction until Dominions 4.
- Blood Magic: Mostly confined to the Early and Middle Ages.
- Casting a Shadow: The Late Age Black Dryads and Panic Apostates are pretty heavy users of it. Combine it the nature magic and you have instant manikin spam.
- End of an Age: Late Pangaea is implied to be the last hurrah of the Panii, as their peers are no longer gripped with revelry of nature.
- Fauns and Satyrs: Satyrs are the basic infantry unit and scout. The female counterpart, Dryads, serve as commanders and priestesses.
- Green Thumb: Pangaea is especially associated with nature magic, having nature magic as high as 4, and having many additional nature spells including the ability to summon hamadryads and Bramble Forts.
- Harping on About Harpies: Their hit points, attack, and morale leave much to be desired, but if used correctly they can devastate unprepared archers and mages.
- Meaningful Name: The Carrion Woods are named after the Asphodel flower that grew in the Greek underworld and were eaten by the dead.
- Our Centaurs Are Different: In Pangaea, centaurs act as both their elite shock cavalry and their archer core, while some of them also act as mages in the early and middle ages.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: Minotaurs are part of the army, while two of the pretenders they can start with are giant bulls.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Pangaea are one of the nations that can perform blood sacrifices to spread dominion, in addition to using virgins for basic blood magic.
Pelagia - Triton Kings (Middle Age)
Erytheia - Kingdom of Two Worlds (Late Age)
- Faction Calculus: Pelagia is Subversive, having an absolutely-abysmal time getting on-land where most of the action is, but being significantly better at Underwater combat than even the other Underwater nations. Erytheia is more Balanced, at least since it starts on-land and has a much easier time crossing between "Both Worlds".
- Brother–Sister Incest: Since there's only one royal family of Mermen in Dominions, the only family deemed worthy enough for Erytheia's Princes and Princesses to marry into is their own family. This practice has been in place ever since the first King of Erytheia's human wife died.
- Generational Magic Decline: In the Middle Ages, Pelagia's giant Triton Kings struggle to match the Magic of their predecessors, even after dropping most of their responsibilities to focus on practicing.
- The Heretic: Middle Pelagia has a divergent religion on-land, which requires Temples but isn't recognized by Pelagia's Pretender. In Erytheia, the "priests" of this sect are the court advisors.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Relentless inbreeding in the royal family has coincided with some of the Princes and Princesses being born deformed, and/or mentally unwell. There aren't any actual doctors in Erytheia, so the mystics largely blame "malign forces", mainly the madness of R'lyeh.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: They all have green hair, for one, and red fins that run down the outsides of their forearms. On top of that, there's a racial split between one-tailed Mermen who turn into humans while dry and turn back into Mermen while underwater, and two-tailed "Tritons" who lack such an ability.
- Refining Resources: Pelagia and (to a lesser extent) Erytheia are much more efficient at converting Water Gems to Astral Pearls than everyone else, allowing them to amass humongous piles of the spheres in relative peace. These are typically spent on Wishes, Global Enchantments that recycle other nations' Gems, Dispel-spells for other nations' Global Enchantments, and other degenerate strategies to make up for being pushed into the ocean.
- Training the Gift of Magic: A minor theme in both nations. Two of the Triton Clans, the Pearl Clan and the Amber Clan, have passed down magical instructions for generations. The Patriarch of the Pearl Clan, Thaumas, also noticed a glimmer of talent in some fish-headed Ichtyids and trained them as a pet project. The Mermen don't get the same in-house teaching until Erytheia, when successors of their marginalized mystics become the King of Both Worlds' court tutors.
Pyrène - Time of the Akelarre (Middle Age)
A nation introduced in Dominions 6, Pyrène takes heavy inspiration from Basque mythology. In the Early Age it is a nation of cave-dwelling humans called the Bekrydes who were taught metal-working by Giants. By the Middle Age it has become a prosperous feudal nation, but a disastrous war with Abysia saw the extinction of the Jenitlak and Basajaunak and the nation embraces blood magic under the tutelage of the Akerbeltz, the Black Goats.
- Beast Man: Middle Age Pyrène can recruit the Akerbeltz as a commander, a creature that resembles an anthropomorphic black-furred goat the size of a giant.
- Blood Magic: Under the tutelage of the Black Goats, this becomes Pyrène's hat. Both the Akerbeltz and the Middle Age version of the Sorginak are potent blood mages and the Pyrènian bishop has some skill in the path.
- Cyclops: The Tartalo are dim-witted sheep-herding cyclopes.
- Dishing Out Dirt: All of their Early Age spellcasters have at least some skill in Earth.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Early Pyrène is based in Basque mythology, though the name is from Greek myth; the actual Bekrydes were Anatolians, but Greeks of the time thought they came from the Pyrenees, and claimed the mountains were named after a Bekryde princess Hercules killed. Middle Pyrène is far more Spanish, with the core of the nation (the Akelarre of witches led by goats) coming from Francisco de Goya's Witches' Sabbath.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Mother of Storms, the patron of the Sorgina witches, can be selected as a thematic pretender by Pyrène - in both eras, even though part of Middle Age Pyrène's backstory is the Sorginak abandoning her for the blood magic of the Akerbeltz.
- Great Offscreen War: There was a horrific conflict between Abysia and Pyrène between the Early and Middle Ages, with Pyrène winning at great physical and spiritual cost. This doubles as a partial Shout-Out to the Song of Roland.
- Gruesome Goat: The Akerbeltz are very similar to Baphomet, the "goat-man Satan", and their only explanation in-game is that they seem similar to the Pandemoniacs (bloody sheep-giants). They've brought the Blood Sabbath to Pyrène, calling it the Akelarre, and their influence has brought the nation towards Hollywood Satanism.
- Handsome Heroic Caveman: The primary race of Pyrène is the Bekrydes, Cavemen who have almost caught up with the rest of humanity (unlike most independent Cavemen) under the tutelage of giants. You can find independent Bekryde tribes who are a bit less advanced, but still more advanced than the average Cavemen. The gap has all-but-closed by the Middle Ages, but they're still stronger and weaker to magic than most.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Their victory over Abysia only came at the cost of their Jentilak and Basajaunak mentors, leading Pyrène and the Sorginak to embrace the same Blood Magic that Abysia favors, which implicitly results in Pyrène's destruction at the hands of Marignon.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: In the Early Age, Pyrène has access to the Mairuak (brutish rock throwers and club wielders), Basajaunak (nature-themed druids), and Jentilak (skilled metalworkers), as well as the Tartalo cyclopes.
- Radiation-Induced Superpowers: The Bishops of Middle Pyrène are exposed to radiation from the "Green-Flame Emerald", a gem they took from the Abysians who besieged them, which steals ten years of their lifespan but gives them normal-human levels of Magic Resistance.
- Shock and Awe: The Sorginak of the Early Age are witches who serve a primordial storm god and specialize in Air magic. Even after the Black Goats corrupt them to Blood Magic in the Middle Age, they retain their Air specialty.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Pyrène doesn't appear at all in the Late Ages... though given that Marignon is said to have noticed the blood magic, and how Late Marignon is a bit more Spanish than Middle Marignon, it's not hard to guess what happened.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Middle Pyrène abandons the caves of its forefathers, since the giants they once lived amongst died in them, and possibly out of the trauma of being besieged beneath the earth.
Pythium, Serpent Cult (Late Age)
After the conquest of Sauromatia by Ermor, the region was integrated into the Empire and heavily influenced by imperial culture. However, they continued to maintain their own distinctive institutions, namely hydra-taming and the communion of the Theurgs, an order of astral mage-priests. Forewarned of the coming cataclysm, the Theurgs led the Pythians to break away from the Empire of Ermor just in time to witness its utter ruin. Backed by the military might of the old legionary tradition (augmented with distinctive Hydras and Serpent Cataphracts) and the faith and astral magic of the Theurgs, the Emerald Empire of Pythium struggled to restore a semblance of order and unity to the fractured provinces of Ermor's old empire, or at least those within its reach.
As it expanded, however, the character of the Emerald Empire changed. With the collapse of Ermor and its all-encompassing Imperial Cult, a number of mystery cults flourished as the inhabitants struggled to find some sort of anchor in the surrounding chaos. One cult in particular, the Serpent Cult, grew in prominence as C'tissian Sauromancers, invited by the Emperors of Pythium, found great success in beating back the undead hordes of Ermor's Ashen Empire. In time, the Serpent Cult has come to displace the Theurgs almost entirely as the state religion, using the Serpent Cataphracts and their own order of assassins to maintain their dominance and suppress rival mystery cults (though the Theurgs are still tolerated out of respect for Pythium's old traditions). Additionally, the need for permanent garrisons to secure the empire's overstretched frontiers has split the old legionary military into two separate institutions — the locally recruited, trained, and equipped Limitanei responsible for holding and maintaining the border forts, and the professional, elite Comitatenses who are trained to swiftly march from frontier to frontier to deal with serious invasions or to conquer new territories.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: The Theurgs of the Middle Age. By the time of the Late Age, they've been pushed to the side by the Serpent Cult, as well as several minor cults suck as the Cult of The Solar Bull, a Crystal Dragon Mithras, and the Cult of the Great Mother, Crystal Dragon Cybele.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Byzantine Empire. The Late Age adds elements of pre-Christian Rome.
- Light 'em Up: Pythium makes extensive use of Astral magic.
- Old Magic: In the Late Ages, the official magic of the Empire becomes that of Early-and-Middle-Age C'tis, with an incidental focus on Middle-Age C'tis's "Marsh" magic. This sidelines the Theurgy's "Sphere" magic, as the Theurgs lose funding and become lowly teachers. As a result, Late Pythium's Astral and Air mages are lesser than those from before; the Empire's Water Magic is largely unchanged by the focus-shift from the sky to swamps, while its solar Fire Magic ironically gets more popular thanks to a heretical cult in the army.
- Our Hydras Are Different: A recruitable capitol-only unit, capable of re-growing its heads but not dividing them. In the Late Age, they have sacred status. Late Age Pythium can also summon the Daughter of Typhon, a unique hydra.
- Weather Manipulation: Pythium's non-Astral magic consists of Air, Water, and Fire, representing the "Spheres" between the Theurgs and the Stellar Sphere (Air being the atmosphere, Water being the cosmic sea referenced in the Bible, and Fire being the Sun). Likewise, some Arch Theurgs can call down lightning, some can make it rain, and some can cause solar eclipses.
A mixed nation descended from the Abysian colony of Tur and Caelumite refugees. Tur was once a prosperous colony founded after the Abysian campaign against Ashdod, but was cut off by an Aroscephale campaign. Tur developed as an independent kingdom until suffering a devastating invasion by Caelum. Tur was almost destroyed until Caelum suffered a civil war and Caelum Airyas fled to Tur negotiating a peace and asking for refuge. The peace was sealed by the Gryphon riders of Tur fighting off the Herab Seraphs pursuing the Airyas, and Ragha has become a bifurcated society, the Airyas and Turans each with their own soldiers, mages, and priests, with Turans active in summer and the Airyas active in winter.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: While not completely human, most Turans resemble normal humans with bright red skin.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Before Ragha was founded, the Turans were largely defeated by the Caelumites and would have been destroyed by them had the latter not sought out peace due to an internal civil war. The two groups will now fight and die for each other, despite their differences causing conflict between the Turans and Caelumites.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Of Pre-Islamic Iran, mostly Sassanid with a pinch of Seljuk Turkics.
- Fire/Ice Duo: The nation. The Caelumites love cold weather and are weak to heat, while the Turans love heat and hate cold weather. Caelumites mages use water magic (among other things), while Turan mages use fire magic (among other things).
- Half-Human Hybrid: The Turans are the result of crossing humans and Abysians together.
- Horseback Heroism: Many native units for Ragha are Turans on horseback.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: Ridden by the Turan Zhayedan.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Caelumites often wear light-bluish clothing and are comparatively peaceful compared to the red-skinned (literally) and warful Turans.
- Royal Inbreeding: Despite their very-short lifespans, there are still pure-blooded Abysians in Ragha; entire families of them, in fact, who serve as the Turans' finest Mages. Since Ragha is based on Persia, this may reference Xwedodah, the Zoroastrian cultural practice.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The two orders of priests of Ragha truly embody this trope. The Caelumite priests believe that the holy flame must be kept free of blood, and the Turan priests believe that holy flame must be fed blood or else it will grow weak. The orders canonically often bicker and fight with each other (to the point that Ragha originally worshipped two main gods, one for each order), cooperating only when strictly necessary, until the the one true god of Ragha emerged, which is the main reason why they're working with each other in-game.
- The whole nation of Ragha can be summed up by this trope. The Caelumites and Turans have completely different cultures (the two groups have completely different origins and religious practices) and mainly work together as one nation for the sake of survival, as the Caelumites cover the Turan's cold weaknesses and vice versa.
- War Elephants: The Turans can ride these into battle.
- Yin-Yang Bomb: A nation consisting of angelic-looking and largely peaceful refugees from Caelum, who use natural magics, and the demonic-seeming Tauran Proud Warrior Race Guys, who happily wield the dark powers of death and blood. Together, they form a well-rounded nation, with their native mages collectively being able to use most of the magic paths in the game.
R'lyeh - Fallen Star (Middle Age)
R'lyeh - Dreamlands (Late Age)
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Early R'lyeh is actually pretty clear about the Aboleth species; the Mind Lords are all males, who start out as the teeny-tiny spawn of polyps but effectively never stop growing, while the females are the aforementioned polyps. Amusingly, only a few of the males are even rumored to understand the females; these are the Abodai, special males given unique life-stealing powers for feeding their mothers.
- Colony Drop: The way they arrived in the world of Dominions. Basically, R'lyeh was the name of an Aboleth city in the depths at first. Then, a distant star on which lived tentacled creatures somehow got dislodged from heavens and smashed on top of the city. The survivors founded the Lovecraftian version of the R'lyehian Empire and started to rule over the Aboleths' slaves.
- Cthulhumanoid: The middle and late age inhabitants of R'lyeh are versions of Dungeons & Dragons Illithids, and, as such, have squids for heads and can fire powerful mind blasts to incapacitate their enemies.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: There still isn't another faction with a mechanic like Middle (and Late) R'lyeh's Void Gate, which lets Astral mages gamble their sanity and lives to summon units for free. Middle R'lyeh was among the 14 factions in the first Dominions, too.
- Expy: Middle and Late R'lyeh are more-or-less ripped straight from The Call of Cthulhu, mainly Late R'lyeh, albeit with an altered origin to account for Early R'lyeh. The Aboleths of Early R'lyeh are direct copies of the giant psychic fish from Dungeons & Dragons.
- Faction Calculus: R'lyeh is generally a mix of Subversive (due to its underwater gameplay) and The Horde (due to its cheap slave troops).
- Early and Late R'lyeh each have Horde-like mechanics that are better defensively than offensively, with the former getting endless piles of teeny-tiny fish around its immobile Priest-"Mothers", and the latter getting free troops from its Dominion that are mostly either tough to move or rooted in the ground; each of these dissuade enemy invasions, helping with R'lyeh's Subversive element.
- Middle R'lyeh is Late R'lyeh with fewer special mechanics; this ultimately makes it the most "Balanced" of the three, since it has more-versatile offensive options than Early R'lyeh and fewer economic problems than Late R'lyeh.
- From Bad to Worse: In the Late Age, the Illithids contacted an elder Void God which is strongly hinted at being something horrific and turning the entire world insane.
- Light Is Not Good: Associated, in all ages, with the light based Astral magic, but tend to use their Astral magic to enslave other species via mind control instead of for simple divination and magic boosting.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: "Late" R'lyeh is the only nation in the game that can have more than one Prophet. Any insane Commander it has may suddenly claim to be a Prophet, a random action typically excluded from the list of random actions insane Commanders may do, and this works because the option is merely hidden from the menu while you already have one. On top of this, insane Commanders of other nations might start civil wars to give their provinces to "Late" R'lyeh if it's in the game, though only in provinces without any Dominion.
- Nerf: The "Late" incarnation of R'lyeh, also known as The Dreamlands, had a significant one shortly after its introduction back in Dominions 2. For a while, the insane guys spawned from its dominion didn't come from the local population; this was addressed with a popkill mechanic similar to Ermor's, which represents some of the locals becoming free troops and others getting lost in their dreams, at the cost of dropping the faction's standing by multiple tiers.
- The Remnant: At least one Aboleth Mind Lord has survived all the way to Late Age. His description mentions that he finds Illithids useful as overseers and as food. He and other Aboleths (or just their disembodied minds) hope to return to power through this race of softer psychics, though the apparent lack of Aboleth-Moms might cause issues.
Vanarus - Land of the Chuds (Middle Age)
Bogarus - Age of Heroes (Late Age)
- Art Shift: Bogarus's sprites were done by an intern of one of the developers.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The "Chuds" referred to in Bogarus (way back in Dominions 3) and featuring in Vanarus (back in Dominions 4) didn't make much sense until Dominions 5, since many Slavic myths portray them as short characters with somewhat-villainous traits. Dominions 5 clarified that the Chuds/Chudes represent the historic Chuds that lived north of Slavic lands, rather than the mythical ones; though, since the name is not Baltic, this causes other weirdness.
- Faction Calculus: Bogarus is a Powerhouse, with its early-game vulnerability being its terrible levies and untested "professional" troops, and its late-game strength being its mages. It has Subversive elements in the form of its Stealthy flagellants, however, making it a weird sort of Balanced. Rus and Vanarus are more-traditional Balanced factions, with better troops and less-good mages (for their times).
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Inspired by Slavic mythology and the history of Kievan Rus'. The Early Age is more of a Rus/Baltic mix.
- Rus in particular is a bit of Culture Chop Suey, with the Baltic parts getting more representation than the Slavic parts; Rus considers the Sun to be feminine, for example, while Slavic mythology considered it to be masculine. note In Slavic folklore, the "Chuds" (called Chudes in the Early Ages) are believed to represent the Finnic and Baltic peoples that the Slavs wiped from what is now northwestern Russia, though the East Slaves also listed them among the founders of the Kievan Rus'. There's also the reverence for bears; this is largely Finnic, but the practice in-game is restricted to the tribal Chudes, who possibly represent the tribes of Finnic peoples around what is now Estonia.
- Vanarus is more-based on the dominion of the Varangians, who are represented in-game as the Vanir Elves due to their supposed Nordic ancestry. "Oath-Bound", the name of Vanarus's elites, is a rough English translation for "Varangian". The Vanarusian capital of Novgard (in what would've been "Chud" land) represents Novgorod, whose prince would ultimately conquer Kiev in 862 and give rise to the Kievan Rus'. The Varangians' descendants would quickly assimilate with the local Slavs, but this is a background event in-game, loosely referenced through the local Vanir being very few in number.
- Bogarus appears to be a more-contemporary portrayal of the Russian principalities, possessing gunpowder-era anachronisms such as the Reformed [Orthodox] Church and the Khlysty, not to mention the defeat and incorporation of steppe peoples. The Byzantine influence on Russia is only indirectly referenced in Bogarus, through Astral Magic (a Pythian art) returning after its complete absence in Vanarus, though Pythium is mentioned by-name in descriptions for the "Oath-Bound" of Vanarus.
- Language of Magic: Bogarus has wizards who practice this, though they are but one of many traditions that have set up in the cities.
- Open Secret: Blood Magic, while still looked down upon in Bogarus, is quite common there. Blood Mages are the cheapest mages in the Empire, the most respected Mages in the Empire know a little, and one of the church factions is built around the belief that it can be good.
The Sauromatians were an Early Age confederacy of nomadic tribes particularly noted for being ruled by an upper class of women warriors. Although both men and women fought on the battlefield, most positions of power and influence were occupied by women in almost all the major tribes, a hallmark of the influence of the Amazons who were integrated into the confederacy early on. Like early Ulm, the Sauromatians tended to value strength of arms over the mystical arts; as a result, most of their sorceresses and priestesses were also accomplished warriors, while divination and tending the dead were frequently left to those too old or weak to fight.
The one notable exception to this tendency towards female leadership was found among the tribe of the Androphags, who dwelled in the Swamps of Pythia. They rejected women leaders entirely, instead being ruled by powerful Witch Kings who possessed uncannily long lifespans and an affinity for sorcerous practices involving blood and death. While all Sauromatian tribes flayed the skins of their enemies — with prominent warriors displaying their own collected skins as a sort of macabre battle standard in the field — the Androphags took things one gruesome step further by additionally consuming their flesh, meaning they were often abhorred by their fellow tribes. Additionally, with horses scarce in the swamps, the Androphags turned to taming the fierce serpentine creatures that populated their home, including the fearsome and resilient Pythian Hydra, known for its many heads and regenerative powers.
The Sauromatians would eventually be conquered by the Empire of Ermor. Even after their integration, however, aspects of Sauromatian culture survived to influence the Empire of Pythium which would arise after Ermor's cataclysmic collapse.
- Amazon Brigade: A large portion of Sauromatia's armies is composed of women.
- Blood Magic: Part-and-parcel for a society of savage reavers. The Androphags passively acquire a couple of Blood Slaves for Sauromatia each turn, making Sauromatia one of the few nations with passive Blood income. Sauromatia isn't particularly good at Blood Magic, however, since its Blood Mages are either Witch-Kings (who are few in number) or the Amazonian Warrior-Sorceresses (who don't have much time to hone their skills).
- Classical Mythology: Circe (under her ancient Greek name "Kirke") is a hero in Sauromatia, living on an island just off-shore. The first Witch-King was taught by her.
- Crossdresser: Sauromatia's best "foot" mages are the Enaries, men who dress and speak like women to better-coerce the spirits.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The tribe of the Androphags practices cannibalism.
- Long-Lived: The Androphag Witch-Kings have lived for hundreds of years, as a result of eating the flesh of the Partholonian elves. This isn't natural for them, however, and most of them have forgotten everything from those times gone by.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Sauromatia is not well-known for its magic; the Amazons they absorbed, the Jade Amazons to be exact, failed to change that aspect of Sauromatian society. Even the Amazonian mages have to be better at fighting than spellcasting, to keep up with the hordes. The Witch-Kings are the exception, but they're a slim minority.
- Our Hydras Are Different: Hydras can recruited from the capitol for a hefty price. Sauromatia is also capable of summoning the Daughter of Typhon.
In the time of a previous Pantokrator, the powerful sea spirits known as the Telkhines left the sea with their power of shape-changing. They founded the kingdom of Therodos and made themselves god-kings over the humans. Great sages, they invented metalworking and made artifacts for the Pantokrator's servants and taught it to their Daktyloi servants. They eventually discovered the means of creating a malefic poison by means of mixing stygian water and sulfur, which rendered the land poisonous to life. For this, the Pantokrator destroyed their kingdom and imprisoned them in Tartarus, with only some of their servants surviving on the shattered islands, the rest barred from the underworld and unknowing of their undead existence.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: A hint of Cretan and Minoan Island Kingdoms mixed with Greek city-states.
- Fauns and Satyrs: The Hekaterides are the mothers of the Satyrs.
- Magic Dance: The sacred dance of the Hekaterides and their Melian and Kourete brought joy, stability, and fertility to Theorodos, and in-game inspire troops and reduce unrest.
- Poisonous Person: The Telkhine are constantly surrounded by the fumes of the Telkhine Maediction, killing everything around them.
- Mystery Cult: The guilds of the Kabeiros craftsmen were organized like this, members advancing through mystic initiations, that often involved an excessive amount of drinking.
- Scrappy Mechanic: It's a nation made from sacred units who are alive, and need gold as much as any nation... Yet its population dies inside the dominion, completely ruining the very meaning of playing, and the concept of joy and stability the sacred dancers.
Eriu, Last of the Tuatha (Middle Age)
A pair of factions added to Dominions 3 shortly after its release; Tir na n'Og wasn't finished in time for the release, but was mentioned in the game's manual as the upcoming "Early-Age" version of Man, while Eriu was a surprise that came out a little before Tir na n'Og.
In the Early Age the blessed isle of Tir na n'Og was the home of the Tuatha, a fay race descended from the Nemedians. Like their ancestors, the Tuatha waged war against the Fomorians, but their attempted invasion was ultimately foiled, forcing them to withdraw back to their home once more. Their descendants, the Sidhe, would become the ruling class of Tir na n'Og, ruling over a kingdom largely populated by the lesser Fir Bolg.
The Middle Age would see the coming of another wave of invaders, this time from the human realms. After a long and drawn out war, the Sidhe would be overwhelmed, withdrawing to new homes beyond the mortal realm, while the Fir Bolg dwindled to a minority in their own homeland. The former realm of the Tuatha would be partitioned between the Logrians, who would found their own realm of Man, and the Milesians, who would dub their new realm Eriu. With the disappearance of the Pantokrator and the rise of new Pretender Gods, however, the Sidhe would return to the mortal realm to reclaim their former status as rulers of the land.
- Balance Buff: Eriu was reworked in Dominions 6 to account for a spot of Power Creep over the years, especially to close the gap a bit with Man. The retooling gave Eriu standard mages outside the capital (as opposed to just the expensive Mage-Lords and level-1 Bards of before), a Man-at-Arms unit to sorta compare to Man's Landless Knight, and Fir Bolg Charioteers; as a trade-off, it restricted recruitment of the Fir Bolg to highlands within-and-outside the capital.
- Can't Argue with Elves: The more-"Elven" races are in charge in both of these factions, and the Tuatha in particular holding world-conquering ambitions that were only briefly interrupted by losses before and after the Early Ages. The Fir Bolg are only half-"Elven", and serve as peasants to their Tuatha step-siblings and Sidhe nephews.
- Death by Cameo: The only traces Eriu leaves in the Late Ages are the Bean Sidhe for Man; at this point, they're proper Banshees.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Artificially enforced between Eriu and Man, both successors of Tir na n'Og in different respects; Man got the magic, while Eriu got the elves themselves. Before Man's updates in Dominions 4, the other big difference was what the two factions preferred for ranged (slings vs. arrows) and mounted (chariots vs. knights) combat... and, of course, that only Man made it to the Late Ages.
- The Fair Folk: The Tuatha and their Sidhe descendants are mystical beings skilled in magic, poetry, and other crafts and capable of weaving glamours to move stealthily among other lands and peoples.
- Geas: Given to these factions (and Man) in Dominions 6. An elf, witch, or bard can place a geas on someone moderately close-by, and they're unlikely to resist it. The command is always to have the person go after those closer than the caster in battle (even the person's friends), only especially-brave units will disobey, and the punishment for disregarding the geas is a curse.
- Magic Music: All of the "true Elves" in Tir na n'Og and Eriu use Spellsongs for their magic, which makes their spells longer to cast but far less tiring. The Fir Bolg do not use Spellsongs, practicing the Druidism of their Nemedian ancestors instead. The Tuatha even had exclusive "music" spells in Dominions 3 and 4, though not in 5.
- Oireland: Eriu even has one of Ireland's names, while Tir na n'Og is one of the faery lands in Irish mythology. Their Heroes are all legendary figures, too, such as Lugh for Tir na n'Og and Cu Chulain for Eriu.
- Power Creep: For largely-thematic reasons such as needing to seem lesser than Tir na n'Og, Eriu has had much fewer tools and far-lesser tools than its Early-Age counterpart for the past three games; other Middle-Age factions have had a lot more given for them, however. The rift was somewhat closed in Dominions 6.
T'ien Ch'i, Imperial Bureaucracy (Middle Age)
T'ien Ch'i, Barbarian Kings (Late Age)
In the Early Age, known locally as the "Spring and Autumn Period," the realm of T'ien Ch'i was divided among a multitude of feudal states. Each of these states was led by proud warlords who often competed for prestige and power on the battlefield. Personal honor was highly valued in these conflicts, to the point that the warlords would often hold duels of honor against one another to decide battles rather than simply rely on their own army to drive their opponents from the field. The society as a whole, however, was united by a set of common cultural traditions including ancestor worship (with each village worth its salt having a shaman to consult with the ancestors) and the Way of the Five Elements, whose students learned to practice diverse forms of elemental magic and alchemy and to commune with celestial beings in order to attain the elusive secrets of enlightenment and immortality.
Eventually one of these warlords, in conjunction with masters of the Way of the Five Elements, managed to unite the various factions of T'ien Ch'i under his banner and establish an imperial dynasty. To solidify their control over this empire, the Emperor and the highest masters of the Way created a Celestial Bureaucracy to manage all aspects of life and government, from military and civil administration to religious rituals and magical practice. Local warlords and their levies were replaced with a professional force of soldiers under trained officers, with an elite Imperial Guard serving as the core of the army and the personal bodyguards of the Emperor; village shaman elders gave way to Ceremonial Masters controlled by a central Ministry of Ritual; and isolated mages came under the governance of the Ministry of Magic, which oversaw the training of alchemists and geomancers to ensure the health, longevity, and prosperity of the Emperor and his subjects.
This was not to last, however. External pressure from nomadic steppe tribes gradually wore down the strength of the Imperial Bureaucracy and its armies until they finally collapsed entirely. The victorious nomads filled the leadership vacuum with their own Khans and shamans, in the process reintroducing the forgotten practice of ancestor worship. Though some Ceremonial Masters and practitioners of the Way of Five Elements remain, with the collapse of the Imperial Bureaucracy their influence has declined considerably. The barbarian Khans and their fellow cavalrymen from the steppes, meanwhile, seem more interested in securing easy plunder from war than undertaking the arduous process of ensuring long-term peace and prosperity for the people of the land they now govern.
- The Corrupter: Tamamo-no-Mae is mentioned as having thrown the Imperial Family of the Middle Ages into disarray, but she's back in Shinuyama in-game, and the larger Empire doesn't seem to be aware of her actions until much later.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: to China in general, Warring States China in the Early Era, Imperial China in the Middle Era, and Mongol China in the Late Era.
- King on His Deathbed: A story event chain in "Middle" T'ien Ch'i has the Emperor get terminally ill, with the possibility of mass unrest in the capital if your Nature mages can't treat him. This can only happen if T'ien Ch'i has a swamp province, the cure will be found in that province if you still have it, and the event chain can happen multiple times.
- More Dakka: They have some of the best access to archer units in the game, with multiple units of cavalry archers and foot archers in all ages. Expect some of the largest archer spam in the game with them.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Their best general is a prince, and their best cavalry unit are sons of nobles.
- The Magic Goes Away: While much of T'ien Ch'i remains the same across all three ages, the nation loses a lot of magical summons (and a significant portion of regular magic) with each shift in era.
- The Heavenly Demons disappear in the Middle Ages after the Bureaucracy "civilizes" the Empire, while the Huli Jing disappear in the Late Ages after a kitsune from Shinuyama ruins the Imperial Family.
- The reorganization of T'ien Ch'i's faith in the Middle Ages sees Necromancy (Death magic) disappear, and has its symbolic Masters give up Fire magic and Flying to encourage Earth magic in the Celestial Empire, all for the sake of stability. The Empire's collapse in the Late Ages sees these Masters lose even more magic, and has Fire magic disappear altogether as the alchemists die off, though the "Barbarian" conquerors reintroduce Necromancy.
Na'Ba - Queens of the Desert (Middle Age)
Ubar is a nation of Genies who lord over their human slaves. In the anciet past the most powerful Genies, the Ifrit Sultans, rebelled against the Pantokrator and were imprisoned, leaving a handful of Jinnun to lord over the humans and await their masters' return. During the transition between the Early Age and Middle Age the Jinnun faded away, until the handful that were left intermingled with the Avvim to produce a new ruling class - the Jiniri queens of Na'Ba. Now Na'Ba is a hidden kingdom from which traders with silver tongues travel far and wide with luxurious wares imbued with ancient magic.
- Cold Iron: Some of Ubar's and Na'Ba's troops are vulnerable to non-magical iron weapons and take more damage from them.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Ubar and Na'Ba are based off of Middle Eastern civilizations and their folklore, particularly of pre-Islamic Arabia. Ubar and its capitial, Iram of the Pillars, are taken from the names of lost cities of Arabic folklore. Na'ba's name is a portmenau of Nabatea, the kingdom in modern Jordan that built Petra, and Sa'ba, a kingdom in modern Yemen believed to have been the inspiration for the Biblical Sheba.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: The Ifrit Sultans were led by their Awakening God in their rebellion against the Pantokrator. As a result, you cannot select an Awake Pretender as Ubar.
- I Am a Humanitarian: Ghuls, hyena-headed demons connected to the genies, haunt graveyards and waylay travelers thanks to a taste for human flesh. Mages skilled in Blood magic can use this to summon them.
- Our Genies Are Different:
- Ubar's primary elite troop type is genies, said to be born out of "smokeless fire" from before mankind came to the land. As a result, they are powerful, semi-ethereal, Glamoured mages and warriors who are only able to come out and play after their cities, Jannah and the City of Brass, are unsealed by the coming of their Pretender. However, in exchange for their massive physical power, they are vulnerable to both iron weapons and salt thrown at them, which can stun them and leave them open for more attacks. The genies themselves are split into further specialties:
- The Jinnun (singular Jinn) are the common genies. Their emirs have access to both Air and Fire magic, and their sahirs have further access to Glamour magic. They also produce generic units.
- The Afarit (singular Ifrit) become available as generic units and commanders when the City of Brass is activated by the Pretender. The Ifrit Sultans specialize heavily in Fire and have some Earth in addition to Air and Glamour and a chance for Astral. Notably, the Ifrit are Ubar's only sacred units.
- The Shayatin (singular Shaytan) also become available when the City of Brass is built. Like the Jinn they focus on Fire, Air, and some Glamour, although they have a potential for gaining Blood as well, can move unseen, and have the ability to capture enemy commanders.
- The Houris are female genies who can be recruited when Jannah is activated. They serve as stealth units with Seduction.
- The Marids are spellcasters who rival the Afarit in power (and were in fact exiled to the oceans because they dared challenge the Ifrit Sultans), having access to all four elemental paths and Glamour and being amphibious at the expense of having no random paths and not being sacred. The Marids can only be summoned, not recruited, but thanks to their exile they didn't participate in the rebellion of the Ifrit Sultans and so can be summoned at any time.
- Si'lat are female genies who, like the Houris, serve as stealthy seducers, although the Si'lat also have Fire, Air, and Glamour magic. Like the Marids, they need to be summoned.
- Ghuls aren't true genies but are connected to the Jinnun and share the same weaknesses to salt and iron. They are considered demons and haunt graveyards for human flesh. Their commander is a matron of their kind, the Ghullah, who has weak Blood and Death magic in addition to her Ghul abilities. Like the Jinnun Ubar has the ability to recruit them naturally.
- For Na'Ba, their recruitable elites are giants with genie blood called Jiniri (singular Jann) led by their queens, the Fire-focused Malikahs. Generic versions of the Ubar genies can also be summoned as commanders by Nabaean spellcasters, although the Houris now have Nature, Air, Fire, and Glamour magic. Na'ba doesn't have access to the generic Ifrit troop but can summon Ghuls and Jinnun (although as Na'ba has no native access to Blood, summoning Ghuls and Shayatin is much more difficult for them than Ubar).
- Ubar's primary elite troop type is genies, said to be born out of "smokeless fire" from before mankind came to the land. As a result, they are powerful, semi-ethereal, Glamoured mages and warriors who are only able to come out and play after their cities, Jannah and the City of Brass, are unsealed by the coming of their Pretender. However, in exchange for their massive physical power, they are vulnerable to both iron weapons and salt thrown at them, which can stun them and leave them open for more attacks. The genies themselves are split into further specialties:
- Rage Against the Heavens: The Ifrit Sultans challenged the Pantokrator and were smacked down hard. They need their Pretender to free them from their divine prison and restore the City of Brass to greatness.
Ulm, The Forges of Ulm (Middle Age)
Ulm, Black Forest (Late Age)
The forests and mountains of Ulm are a grim land, and the hardships its inhabitants face have forged them into a hardy people. Early Age Ulm was a collection of tribal settlements known for the toughness and hardiness of their residents and the high quality of their metal working arts. The people of Ulm were never known for great skill with or reverence for magic, instead placing their faith in cold, hard steel; the metal itself was regarded as sacred, and those smiths who mastered the "Enigma of Steel" to shape it into artifacts of great power held a place of respect reserved in other societies for great mages. Equally respected were the Steel Warriors, exceptionally tough elite soldiers whose ranks were drawn from the fatherless outcasts of society who had survived the greatest hardships of all before being given a chance to prove themselves on the battlefield.
Despite their warriors' prowess in single combat, the disorganized tribes of Ulm were eventually conquered by and incorporated into the rising Empire of Ermor. The cataclysmic collapse of Ermor, however, gave Ulm the opportunity to declare itself an independent kingdom, guarded by well-armed and heavily-armored soldiers, among whom the most elite were equipped with weapons and armor made from an uncanny alloy known as "blacksteel." Those who forged such equipment, the Master Smiths, continued to hold a place of honor in Ulm society; however, their place in the hierarchy began to be challenged by the Iron Cult, whose Black Priests transformed the reverence for steel into the core tenet of an organized religion supported by blacksteel-clad Black Knights.
Eventually the tension between the Master Smiths and the Black Priests spilled over into civil war, which culminated in the Night of Treason. A Malediction transformed the defenders of the Iron Cult's headquarters, the Keep of Ulm, into ghouls and vampires and provoked an infestation of the outlying forests and farms by ravenous wolf packs. The Iron Cult eventually gained the upper hand and outlawed the "sacrilegious" use of magic, hunting down the few surviving Master Smiths, whose knowledge of the secrets of shaping blacksteel died with them. While the Iron Cult ostensibly maintains the ban on non-clerical magic, there are rumors of a secretive order of "Illuminated Ones" in high places who continue to practice the arts — even engaging in blood rituals — behind closed doors.
- Dishing Out Dirt: They specialize in Earth magic, which naturally involves many spells manipulating or replicating the earth to deal damage.
- Expy: Early Age is pretty heavily based off Cimmeria.
- Faction Calculus: In the Early and Middle Ages, Ulm is the Cannons, with its soft spot being a very low "skill ceiling" in magic; in a game like Dominions, where magic gradually overtakes standard troops, it often has to carve out a strong early lead so it can handle being outgunned through sheer numbers. Late Ulm doesn't even have much of a troop advantage, but it can play Subversive due to its troops and mages being a bit more spammable.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: As above, Cimmeria in Early Era with a mix of Germanic tribes. Middle Era is roughly Germany (being named after a city in Swabia), and has some Romanian cultural flavor for Late Age.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: They're a Late Age capitol only unit, cursed when they ate their companions during a siege. Their halberds destroy enemy sacred units and cause instant fear by being seen.
- The Illuminati: Active in LA Ulm, users of blood and astral magic, they infiltrate governments to gain power and bring about the downfall of kingdoms. One of their greatest Enlightened has infiltrated Marignon, hinting that their Motive Decay may be orchestrated. Another has infiltrated Man, and may be responsible for causing the magic to go away (though the text says that he infiltrated the Magisters, meaning that he could have came in after the magical drain started, though he could help accelerate it). The third has infiltrated Pythium. All three of these Enlightened (called the Members of the Third Tier) have been sent to orchestrate the downfall of all three of those nations.
- Romani: Portrayed in the Late Age as Fortune Tellers, who live in the Black Forest despite its dangers.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The Late Age spell Sanguine Heritage can call forth a Vampire Count. The Vampire Queen is also one of the available pretenders.
- Überwald: In the late age, they become controlled by the Illuminati and Blood Magic Vampires, which gives the place acess to tons of blood magic. No points for guessing what they like doing. This was caused by an event that tainted the entire civilization, which cursed the forests and made life generally unpleasant.
Uruk - City States (Middle Age)
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Inspired by the myths and civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, particularly the Sumerians.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The Kullulus, Enkidu/Fish hybrids.
- Retcon: Dominions 4 has a hidden event chain that provides a detailed account of Ur's destruction by Niefelheim. Dominions 5 introduced Uruk, however, so the chain was changed to remove names.
- Sex Magic: The capital territory needs a King and Queen to stay present so they can bless the land with a ritual that clearly implies sexual rites.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Uruk has no presence in the Late Ages. While nothing is outright said about its fate, it's strongly implied that it was conquered by Arcoscephale during the Great Conqueror's campaign past Gath. Late Arcoscephale was considered a Babylonian faction in earlier games, even having Sirrushes (Mushussus) before Dominions 4.
Vanheim - Arrival of Man (Middle Age)
Midgård - Age of Men (Late Age)
- The Berserker: Van Berserkers are particularly infamous in Dominions 5, though thankfully they're only in the Early Ages. The Middle and Late Ages have Einheres instead, humans enchanted with the same strength and rage by the Vanir.
- Can't Argue with Elves: The Vanir hold this view, even taking human prisoners as slaves in the Early Ages. Despite losing their numbers in the Middle Ages, the Vanir still don't let anyone else become Jarls or Priests until the Late Ages, when they've dwindled down to just having Vanhalla.
- Faction Calculus:
- Vanheim is the Cannons, especially its Early iteration. It possesses elite elven troops that you really don't want to mess with, which can end battles swiftly and decisively if given proper support, and these guys (and girls) can't be seen until they've chosen a province of yours to attack. Since they're stealthy, they can even penetrate deep within your lines to raid you. On the other hand, the best tools Vanheim has available are prohibitively expensive to mass-produce, so it can run into scaling problems against nations it fails to rush down.
- Midgård is Middle Vanheim with even less elves, but it has far more mages and can build up more cheaply than Vanheim, making it somewhat Balanced.
- Jack of All Stats: The Van chiefs are mages, priests, cavalrymen, and effective commanders at the same time. They're typically not masters of any of these things, at least since Dominions 6 split their Air talents between Air and Glamour, but they're quite versatile once you have them.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Inspired by Norse Mythology and the peoples of Iron Age Scandinavia.
- Magical Incantation: The Vanir's magic is invoked through Galdrasongs, which may reference the Galdrar (incantations) of Old Norse culture. This is referenced only twice; once in the description of a Jotunheim hero, and again in the name of Midgård's wizards (the Galdermen).
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: A key part of Van culture. Their Drotts (Kings) are strictly better at fighting and magic than their Jarls (High Chiefs), who are in-turn strictly better at everything than their Herses ("regular" Chiefs).
- Shock and Awe: The Vanir's skill in Air magic is a gift from their old gods, the Aesir. Air also comes with Flight, wind magic (more in Dominions 6), and mirages (before Dominions 6 made them the Glamour path).
Xibalba - Flooded Caves (Middle Age)
Xibalba - Return of the Zotz (Late Age)
The Zotz of Xibalba were charged with the caves the sun and moon passed through on their procession as their blindness meant they wouldn't covet them. In the Middle Age their caves are flooded and invaded by Atlantian refugees, though the Zotz reconquer them in the Late Age.
- Bat Out of Hell: The Zotz are humanoid bats. Their original gods were humanoid bats. Their Early-Age corruptors are humanoid bats, who reroute the Zotz's faith for the purpose of summoning more bats.
- Casting a Shadow: Supposedly the Zotz's racial talent (along with other Death Magic), owing to their descent from Underworld gods. They can even manipulate the shadows of others to give them bad luck.
- Frog Men: Middle Xibalba sees the introduction of the Muuch, former Deep Atlantians swept in by The Great Flood and transformed into toad-men by something else in the caves. They come in five varieties; the first generations are blue, the younger (Middle) generations are green, the jungle-dwellers are brown, one brood from a Sacred Cenote is red and poisonous, and the deepest Muuch are white. Only the white Muuch remain in the Late Ages; the others rushed Mictlan all at once and were wiped out, with only their Kings surviving.
- Godzilla Threshold: The High Priests of the Early Ages' Sun Cult have a backup plan for if their crusade of the surface doesn't pan out; they can steal the Sun, by luring it back underground and trapping it forever. Either way, they get to praise it; this way just gets them more solar magic, and makes their Sun-blessed armor shinier, and ruins productivity where people need light to see.
- King in the Mountain: On multiple levels, mainly in the Late Ages:
- The Muuch Kings, also known as the Bacabob, sullenly retreat to Xibalba after losing against Mictlan and fall asleep. By the time they're awakened, their skin has gone pale, most of the caverns have dried out, and they've become gods to the returning Zotz.
- A Basalt King of Old Atlantis, Grandfather Earth, ends up like this after conquering Early Xibalba. His wife waits for him to wake up until her death, and he only stirs in the Late Ages.
- Old Magic: The solar Fire Magic of the Early Ages, which largely disappears along with the K'in Cult (and virtually everything else from Early Xibalba) during The Great Flood. Some Zotz Wayob rediscover the magic while attempting to understand Mictlan's Astral Magic, however, since they can't see the stars but they can feel the Sun's rays.
- Xibalba's Blood Magic of the Early Ages also takes a massive hit from the flood, especially since it's useless underwater. On the other hand, the Zotz are predisposed to Blood Magic, so those outside of Xibalba at the time keep at least some of it alive. The Late Ages see a reintroduction of the Blood rituals from Mictlan.
- Scary Scorpions: Part of their unit list, with the largest ones being sacred.
- Zerg Rush: Xibalba has very few good troops, and often has to resort to this tactic. This is most-pronounced in the Early Ages, when the Muuch are absent.
Yomi, Oni Kings (Early Age)
Shinuyama, Land of the Bakemono (Middle Age)
Jomon, Human Daimyos (Late Age)
In the Early Age, the harsh and unforgiving mountains of Yomi were home to a portal to the Netherworld, allowing powerful supernatural beings called oni to freely travel to the mortal realm. The strongest and most brutal of these creatures, the Dai Oni, established various petty realms, where they ruled as cruel and arbitrary overlords of the warrior clans of the bakemono (mountain goblins) and an underclass of humans. While powerful and effectively immortal, the oni were largely driven by their own whims and lusts and thus had little patience for subtlety and learning; hence, while most humans were theoretically powerless serfs, a few of the more clever and ruthless humans were allowed to serve as generals, priests, and magicians in exchange for promises of power and wealth.
As time passed, the portal closed, severing the oni's connection to the Netherworld and weakening their power. The humans and bakemono, sensing weakness, rebelled against their oppressive overlords, banishing them back to the plane from whence they came. However, the bakemono warrior clans of Shinuyama turned on their human allies, forcing them to reveal their secrets (including the art of metalcrafting) and further reinforcing their position by developing their own forms of sorcery to summon and control various spirits, including their former oni masters. A few human bandits and witches were allowed to practice their trades in service to their bakemono masters, but by and large the bakemono kept the humans of their realm on a much shorter leash than even the oni ever had.
Eventually, however, the bakemono grew weak and complacent, much as their former oni lords had in ages past, allowing the humans to once again rise up and take vengeance for their past wrongs. As the bakemono were either slaughtered or driven into hiding among the mountains, the newly-freed humans of Jomon elevated daimyo warlords from among their own ranks. These daimyo established a hierarchy of samurai warriors, kannushi priests, shugenja magicians (influenced by the Way of the Five Elements of the T'ien Ch'i), and Onmyo-ji astrologers to maintain control and protect their domains from outside threats. While the daimyo often compete against one another for power and influence, they adhere to and enforce among their own soldiers strict warrior codes to minimize collateral damage and violence against non-combatants; the memories of oni and bakemono excesses still linger deep in Jomon society's collective consciousness. Meanwhile, while the shugenja have maintained the old rituals to summon the oni and many of the allies of the bakemono to do their bidding, they tend to deal more with a class of nature spirits collectively known as kami, who are often more tolerant of humans and less actively inclined towards malicious dealings. While Jomon's future remains to be written, its people are understandably confident that after untold ages of oppression, their fates are finally in no one's hands but their own.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: In the Late Age, the humans of Jomon have successfully broken the might of their bakemono and oni masters.
- Faction Calculus: Yomi and Jomon are both Subversive, having mostly weaker troops than their peers, but making up for it with powerful and mobile commanders; Yomi also has freespawn, giving it a touch of The Horde. Shinuyama is more-traditionally The Horde, especially after a Balance Buff in Dominions 5 that let you fit six Bakemono to a square, though the sequel is set to reduce this to five.
- Hand Seals: The five "sign" spells, hand gesture spells that are based on divine magic and a standard path unique to Jomon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Jomon can both hire and summon Eastern dragons, paying gold underwater to get the ryu sons of the Dragon King, and shelling out Earth Gems on-land to attract the lesser tatsu.
- Physical God: "Generic" kami are present in each of the trio's factions that have human Priests: Yomi and Jomon, to be specific. Yomi can only summon "savage" (Araburu) kami, who were banished to Yomi for their bad manners, while Jomon can summon the rest. The big three— Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susanoo— are available Pretender forms for all three factions.
- Aside from the big three, the kami aren't immensely strong; they're still remarkable by human standards, however, let alone Jomonese human standards.
- Youkai: Each of these three factions has a decently-long list of Youkai at their disposal:
- Yomi is run by Oni, who come in normal-ish, small (Ko), red (Aka), blue (Ao), black (Kuro), and big (Dai) varieties. Ko-Oni flock to Oni leaders, but the others are pickier about when they show up. Yomi also has some contact with Kappas and Tengu, the former of whom live in small tribal communities and the latter of whom live in scattered kingdoms.
- Shinuyama can recruit Kappas, Noppera-bo's, geriatric bloodsuckers, and Bakeneko witches with gold. The Bakemono goblins can summon almost all of the Oni with their magic, while the witches can summon a wide variety of Hengeyokai; this includes more-standard Bakenekos, Kitsunes, Tanuki, and Jorogumo. The Tengu can still be summoned, but most will only answer to a Tengu King or another Air mage that Shinuyama's money can't buy.
- Jomon loses access to Shinuyama's special hires but retains most of Shinuyama's summons, save for the Jorogumo (possibly in reference to how the name came about). Even the Oni can still be summoned, though Jomon's humans aren't eager to do so. On top of these, undersea Jomonese may hire anthropomorphic sea creatures with the Dragon King's approval.
- Amazon Brigade: The Morvarc'h Knights, Morgen (descendants of the Tuatha) clad in bronze armor. They ride Morvarc'h as steeds.
- Barbarian Tribe: The Kernou, a Marverni tribe that serve as the land bound auxiliaries of Ys.
- Fish People: The Merrow are a race of green-skinned merfolk who make up the bulk of the inhabitants of the city of Ker-Ys.
- Hellish Horse: The Morvarc'h are black sea-horses with flaming nostrils and manes that can travel on both land and sea; in the latter, they take the form of hippocampi.
