Video Game / Anbennar

What was Aragorn's colonial policy?

Anbennar is a total conversion mod for the Grand Strategy Game Europa Universalis IV, sporting its own original fantasy universe.

The mod can be downloaded on Steam.

Similarly to the base game, the mod sees you control a country from the late medieval ages into the modern era, except this time, progress and societal change will be sparked by and intertwined with the setting's history, special geography, magic, and varied races with their own strengths and challenges.

The name "Anbennar" refers to a certain country within the setting, which is the game's equivalent of the Holy Roman Empire.

While the mod was published in 2018, Anbennar has been a world in the making since 2012, being also the setting for the creator's story "Blackpowder Chronicles".

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Anbennar contains examples of:

Tropes # - E

• The Ace:
  • Venáil's starting admiral, Calasandur Seawatcher, has six points in his lowest skill, whereas the average admiral is lucky to have more than three in any skill.
  • Clanboss Dak Chaingrasper leads a goblin clan in the eastern Serpentspine with the powerful mage trait. Unusually for a still-living character, his brilliance (and legacy) is the source of much of his clan's national ideas and mission tree as he does so much to shape its path going forwards.
  • The "Powerful Mage" trait itself. If your ruler has it, that means he's acknowledged as one of the greatest magic users of his era.
• Action Girl: The human adventurer Corin. She was identified as the avatar of the god of war Agrados and gave her life to slay the champion of the orcs.
• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: The lost cities of the Precursor Empire scattered all over Aelantir. Many Ruinborn settlements, like Arakeprun, are built on top of them.
• Adventure Guild: In Escann, the various adventurer companies are essentially Adventure Guilds that run their own countries. In the early game, the majority of their income comes from Plunder and adventuring jobs, and one of their faction buildings is the Quest Board (which helps with the latter). As they develop and fight over the ashes of Escann, the companies transition away from this and into nation-states.
• After the End: The situation in Aelantir at the game start. The various "Ruinborn" civilizations are the survivors of the apocalypse 1400 years before. Meanwhile, in the Serpentspine Mountains, the ancient civilization of the dwarves is gone, limited to a few surviving dwarfholds and some orcish and goblin squatters in the ruins. And Escann has likewise been razed to ruins by the Greentide. All three areas get re-colonized throughout the game.
• The Alliance:
  • The Wine Lords, comprised of Deranne, Eilisín, Rubenaire and Wineport, are a faction of nominal Lorentish vassals seeking independence from the Kingdom of Lorent.
  • The Alenic Reach is home to small nations and city-states. Their survival strategy against the kingdoms of Bjarnrík and Gawed is this, and they start the game with a network of alliances already. Reachman traditions also encourage this further by giving them an extra diplomatic slot.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
  • The War of the Sorcerer King four hundred years before the mod's start. Black Castanor occupied Gawed and almost conquered Lorent and Dameria, but the elves arrived in the nick of time to turn the tide of the war.
  • Just before the game start, the Greentide saw the orcs led by the Dookanson invade and destroy the kingdoms in Escann.
• Alternative Calendar: The mod starts on Nerament 11, 1444 After Ash. Days of the week in the Castanorian Calendar are inspired by Kheteratan myths, and the first month - Castanmark - marks the founding of the ancient human empire of Castanor; other months are named after gods or world events. Conveniently, this calendar still maps exactly to the Gregorian calendar with 12 months, each of the same length as their same-numbered Gregorian months, and a total of 365 days per year.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Invoked. Races who are deemed "monstrous"^note Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, Ogres, Trolls, Hobgoblins, Centaurs, and Harpies (with the exception of Elyanna) suffer a severe diplomatic penalty with those who aren't and always have wargoals on each other (Monstrous Conquest and Anti-Monstrous), meaning that the majority of their interactions will be wars. It is possible to lose this "monstrous" penalty late in the game, or for conquered and refugee members of these races to settle peacefully in civilized nations.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: The Ruinborn Elves of Eordand have skin colours ranging from autumn red, to yellow, to light green, to the light blue of the Snecboth.
• Amazing Technicolor World: The Kaydhano Sea in Aelantir is actually an aqua-glowing desert.
• Amazon Brigade:
  • The Istralari Banshees, led by Istralara Warsinger, are mentioned in one of Istralore's national ideas as an elite all-women corp who fought during the War of the Sorcerer King.
  • Armies of Harpy Matriarchies will be made up of these, as they are a One-Gender Race.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: One of Aelnar's national ideas is named "The Purity Program", and they also get random events where provinces of foreign culture are converted to Star Elf culture with little explanation given...
• Ancient Artifact: "Precursor Relics" are rare, highly-prized trade goods found on Aelantir.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Harpy culture revolves the "Hunt" for human mates and slaves.
• Anti-Magical Faction: Most countries with the Mages estate can optionally dabble in this trope by taking the decision to expel the mages (which removes the estate), but the standout is the Command. As a result of a history involving shamans trying to usurp control and resorting to demonic pacts, the hobgoblins of the Command have turned hard against both gods and mages, and has no way to get access to the normal magic system. They even have a disaster about expanding too much without having the resources to chain every mage in their dominion in anti-magical black damestear. Artificery is fine, however, and they can take a more lenient approach to more unusual approaches to magic.
• Apocalypse How: The Day of Ashen Skies was a Class 1 example. It wiped out civilization from the face of a continent, and ushered the rest of the planet into a 1000-years-long dark period known as the Age of Ashes.
• Arcadia: The island of Endralliande is described as a lush, seemingly untainted land, with no people present before the arrival of colonizers.
• Archaeological Arms Race: A driving force (and likely point of contention) for the various countries colonizing Aelantir is the acquisition of Lost Technology and artefacts the Precursor Elves left behind.
• Artificial Stupidity: Venáil's colonization efforts in Aelantir will often go poorly due to the AI's tendency to assign colonists to develop its home provinces and not to create new colonies. Despite repeated attempts on Hehodas's part to fix this, the way the AI decides to assign its colonists is sadly hardcoded.
• Ascended Glitch: The coincidentially-named ascension glitch. It caused nations to become "observers", which were impossible for other nations to interact with but could still own territory and colonize, and it was a major obstacle for Forbidden Plains development. It is officially referenced in the mod through a "Whispers of Ascension" event chain.
• Atlantis: Aelantir, home of the elves, except it's closer to the entirety of the Americas in size. In ancient times it was ruled by the prosperous and extremely advanced Precursor Empire, then a Colony Drop triggered a Magic Nuke that wiped out all civilization and the majority of life on it.
• Authority in Name Only: The rule of the tiger emperor of the Harimraj only extends to the capital Dhenijansar, and considering the rampant corruption that runs at every level of the city, maybe not even that. The rest of the Raj is in the hands (or paws) of local princes and warlords.
• Awesome, but Impractical: It's possible to open a portal from Eordand to the Deepwoods in Cannor. As cool as being able to travel from one to the other is, mechanically speaking units still have to walk the whole distance, resulting in several year long travel times that are much slower than just taking a boat.
• Back from the Brink:
  • It is possible to restore the Escanni kingdoms of Castellyr, Adenica and the Blademarches, and the border kingdom of Farraneán after they were destroyed by the Greentide. In most cases, this is done by adventurer bands inviting in Escanni refugees and building their nascent bureaucracies around them, but the Count's League is an actual remnant of the Kingdom of Castellyr.
  • Wesdam can reform Dameria if they get a hold of the duchy's former territories. Alternatively, the Sons of Dameria can successfully establish a new realm in Escann, and perhaps even come back for a rematch...
  • The Gnomes of Nimscodd have been confined to the islands off the Dragon Coast for nearly a millennium. Bets are up as to whether they'll finally reinvade and restore the Gnomish Hierarchy, or we'll spend another four centuries without any strong gnome geopolitical entity.
  • The only dwarven realms at the start of the game are a few holds outside in smaller mountains, as well as a handful remnant holds locked deep within the Serpentspine. By the end of the game, you will see a good chunk of said Serpentspine mountains, or the Dwarovar as they call it, be ruled by resurgent Dwarven states.
  • The Phoenix Empire, which fell to a series of revolts starting from its founder's death, can make a comeback if a Sun Elf ruler manages to re-unite the majority of Bulwar.
  • Black Castanor, an empire which the reaver Castan Ebonfrost forged in Escann, is but a distant memory by the game's start. Ebonfrost's last descendants are ruling the small and poor lordship of Urviksten, and nobody expects them to suddenly conquer all of Escann again...
• Balkanize Me:
  • Lorent's situation at the game start. While the Kingdom is the de jure suzerain of all Lencenor, many of its vassals have split off, and have ambitions of their own regarding power and freedom.
  • This trope gets usually inverted in Escann. While the region starts as a cluster of adventurer bands and remnant orcish clans, it's usually unified into a few large states by the mid game already. Of course, all countries usually either get bigger or get destroyed over the course of the game.
  • The fate of Jaher's Phoenix Empire. It was split in two between his sons upon his death, and although his daughter Jexis managed to re-unite much of the Empire and even expand it farther west, it split again after her death, and rebellions only split it even more as time went on. In 1444, there are several kingdoms that vie for the title of Phoenix Empire, and many regions have thrown off Sun Elf rule entirely.
  • If you had conquered them prior, the Kwineh will also launch their own rebellion during the Rianvisa, and attempt to break free from Aelnar.
• Barbarian Tribe:
  • Most monstrous nations are primitive, tribal, and have a raid-based economy. But they can "civilize" through the course of the game.
  • The Gawedi and Wexonard people have been one in the past. Other human cultures still view them as rough and somewhat unrefined.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: The Horned Ogres of Azjakuma initially fight exclusively with their fists. As their military develops, they switch to the traditional studded iron clubs.
• Benevolent Mage Ruler: The Empire of Anbennar was founded by a group of magic users who banded together into a governing body - the Magisterium. They then presented the nobles and warlords of the region with an ultimatum: stop fighting, or we will blast you with a fireball.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • How the elves came to the human continent. They brought magic, knowledge, and warriors, turning the tide in the War of the Sorcerer King in favour of The Alliance.
  • Soon after, Jaher landed in Bulwar and started the Sunrise War, breaking the power of the gnollish slaver overlords and getting acclaimed as The Chosen One by Bulwari humans.
• Big Door: Verkal Gulan's massive golden gate, which is featured as a loading screen.
• Bold Explorer: How the Vernman people are characterized.
• The Blacksmith:
  • Telgeir's armourers are the best in the human world. Nobles from all Anbennar would sell their lands just to get their hands on a piece of Telgeirian craftmanship, or so states one of Telgeir's national ideas.
  • Of course, who can forget the dwarves! There has to be a reason if the Imperial hold representing the Dwarves is called Silverforge.
• Blood Lust: The Bloodfeeders in the Bloodgroves region feed exclusively on blood and the red sap of the local trees (which may also be blood).
• Broken Bridge: Marrhold's connection to the rest of the Dwarovar was severed with a cave-in hundreds of years before the start date. The tunnel can be restored for a hefty cost, allowing trade (and troops) to flow from the Dwarovar to Escann.
• Burial at Sea: The people of the Ynn River in Aelantir tend to worship the river itself and thus put their honored dead in caskets with their valuables in the river to be carried over the impassable waterfalls. (Meanwhile the tribes who live at the base of the falls consider themselves blessed by the river; why else would boxes full of treasure keep falling from above?)
• Captain Ersatz: The Kingdom of Gawed is in Jaybean's own words the North from Game of Thrones.
• Cats Are Superior: The religion of Kheterata is even more cat-focused than the historical Egyptian ones; they worship divine beings each of which resembles Bast (i.e., humans with cat heads).
• Chekhov's Gunman: Calasandur Seawatcher, Venaíl's starting admiral, who will retire from service a few years into the game. He will show up later in the game to take leadership of Aelnar during the Rianvisa disaster.
• Church Militant:
  • The Jaddari Legion in Bulwar is on a mission to enlighten all races and people in the world with the teachings of the Jadd, and wipe them out if they refuse.
  • The Order of Corintar, interestingly, can evolve into one. During the Age of Unraveling they will elevate their already-deified heroine Corin to Top God status, and go to war with anyone who disagrees.
  • Aelnar can establish the Silblaidd Orda after conquering the island of Tor Nayyi, a military order with the mission to guard and expand Aelnar's western frontier while propagating the Six Paths religion.
• City of Gold: Verkal Gulan is a dwarven hold built on top of a huge deposit of gold, its economy revolving around gold and much of its architecture incorporating gold. They can dig so much so gold, in fact, that they had to set systems in place to prevent it from crashing the economy.
• City on the Water: The artificial island of Adrail in the middle of the Dameshead sea. The Magisterium has big plans for it.
• Civil War: A brutal one will erupt in the newborn nation of Aelnar over the elves' inability to come to agreement about the direction their new country should go, with more and more opportunists jumping into the fray to pursue their own interests until the country devolves into complete anarchy.
• Colony Drop:
  • The flying city of Aesadas was crashed onto the center of Aelantir, causing a Magic Nuke and bringing about The End of the World as We Know It.
  • A powerful mage ruler with legendary proficiency in Evocation can drop a meteor on a city as siege magic, giving massive seige progress and causing 50 devestation in the province.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Orcs adopt different skin colours based on the world-region they live in. Green Orcs live in Escann, Gray Orcs in Gerudia, Black Orcs in the Serpentspine mountains, and Brown Orcs in Rahen.
• Constructed World: The mod is set on the fictional planet of Halann Jay created. Its biggest focus being Cannor, equivalent to our Europe. The other main landmasses are Sarhal, equivalent to Africa, Haless, equivalent to Asia (Cannor, Sarhal and Haless together is named Halcann, derived from the same root as Halann), and Aelantir, equivalent to North and South America. Key regions in Cannor are Lencenor, where the Kingdom of Lorent is located, Dameria on the entrance to the inland Dameshead Sea, the Dragon Coast, populated by gnomes and kobolds, the Alenic Frontier where the Kingdom of Gawed is situated, and the just-ravaged-by-the-orcs Escann.
• Cool Airship: Feiten's mission tree culminates in constructing a trading fleet of these, along with the necessary infrastructure to support them.
• Cool Boat: The Hierarch Class Battleship, the state of the art of gnomish engineering, can be marveled at in all its glory in one of the loading screens.
• Crutch Character:
  • Grand Duke Lothane III sil Wex is one of the most powerful wizards of his time and the Emperor of Anbennar, and thanks to him the Duchy of Wex stands as a world power in 1444. After his death, however, the Duchy of Wex is an easy target for its neighbours and succeeding dukes are unlikely to be elected emperor; Anbennarian princes aren't exactly fond of Wexonard people.
  • While often dependent on the Random Number God (and assuming you don't go for lichdom, which isn't always practical except for Dak Chaingrasper), an early Renowned Necromancer is an invitation to raise an undead army and go nuts on the surrounding area, conquering every bit of territory you can grab and benefitting from the status of Witch King long before the surrounding powers have the tools to deal with that. If played well, this can catapult an early mini-state to a regional superpower by the time the Witch King dies.
• Crying a River:
  • The Mother's Sorrow river in Kheterata is said to have been created by the tears of Elikhet's mother.
  • Invoked by the waterfall of the Ynn River by the Cliffs of Ruin, called Venaan's Tears.
• The Dark Arts: Some spells and actions will get you Magical Infamy. Creating homunculi, unsafe and unregulated magical experimentation (particularly experimenting on people), and just about anything to do with Necromancy are all seen as rather evil. (Oddly enough, the Magisterium has a full college dedicated to the study of the art - but doing nearly anything with it is forbidden^note there is an implication that necromancy does have benign, Magisterium-permitted spells, but they aren't the sort of country-affecting spells that can be used through the game's magic system). Engage in too much infamous magic, and you'll be seen as a Witch King.
• Dark Horse Victory: Lithiel is initially a loyal fighter in the Rianvisa on Calasandur's side, without a faction of her own as such, and seen as the only hope to hold the collapsing kingdom together. However, if it drags on too long, she'll rebel and try to take it herself. If she ends up as Empress, it'll be this trope.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Black Castanor was originally not particularly worse than the preceding Castanor, with Ebonfrost's conquest bringing much-needed stability, halting the long-running wars over the throne and revitalizing Castan's Empire — it just got called Black Castanor because it was ruled by the Ebonfrost dynasty and had a black instead of white dragon on its banner. The Sorcerer King's enthrallment of the Empire turned it into something else, but that's not the period the potential resurrectors of Black Castanor look to for inspiration.
• The Dark Times: Several "evil" empires are featured in the mod's backstory, such as the Great Xhaz and Black Castanor. Ancient humans had to contend with monstrous races such as gnolls, dragons and giants for their survival.
• David Versus Goliath: The challenge of playing as a small country that's trying to stay alive in the face of much bigger neighbours is present in Anbennar just like it is in the base game Europa Universalis IV. Some examples:
  • The Duchy of Deranne, leader of the Winelords, boldly acts The Rival to the Kingdom of Lorent.
  • The elven principality of Celmaldor is leading the fight against Bjarnrík's expansion attempts into the Alenic Reach.
  • The adventurer companies in Escann are a subversion. While on paper they're smaller than the orcish chiefdoms in the area, they have higher technology, much greater income and larger armies through adventuring. The orcs are actually a Villainous Underdog; a victorious orcish kingdom in Escann is the exception rather than the rule.
• Decapitated Army:
  • How the Greentide came to an end. After Corin slew the Dookanson, orcish unity was shattered and individual clans became easy targets for adventurer bands.
  • The momentum of Jaher's conquests was halted by his assassination, his empire being split between between his two sons. His daughter Jexis managed to keep the western half together and even expanded westward all the way to Anbenncóst. Then she was assassinated too...
  • The early in-game war between Zokka and the Jaddari has special outcomes triggered through events if an army led by the ruler-turned-general of one country defeats an army led by the ruler-turned-general of the other country, where the losing ruler is killed and their country collapses (Zokka completely, while the Jaddari survive as a single-state rump vassal of the harpy county of Elayenna).
• Defector from Decadence:
  • The orcs' logic for adopting the Corinite faith in the Age of Unraveling, leaving the Great Dookan behind. Corin did slay the Dookanson in single combat, after all.
  • The harpies of Elayenna and Fengwuhe have abandoned "the Hunt" (instead following other religions; the Jadd in Elayenna's case and Righteous Path in Fengwuhe) and have adopted more civilized courtship and mating practices. Accordingly, they are the sole harpy nations to start as civilized rather than monstrous and are thus not subject to the anti-monstrous CB from other nations.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: King Daravan of Corvuria flooded the southern half of his kingdom in an attempt to halt a massive gnollish invasion. It worked, killing the entire gnollish host...along with his own retreating men and those of his ally Castanor, including their emperor, and leaving the land a completely uninhabitable swamp filled with fiends. There's a good reason that the southern half of Dostanor is called Daravan's Folly.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Par for the course for the fantasy equivalent of the colonial era. The enslavement of orcs is described as reparations for the Greentide.
• Deity of Human Origin: So far as the Regent Court is concerned, there have been several throughout history, rising up to fill the roles of gods that fell as a result of the Godswar, with the earliest one being the dwarf Balgar. The most recent^note the game starts a day after her death and ascension, Corin, was found to be the avatar of the believed-to-be-dead god of war Agrados and upon her death she became the new goddess of war.
• Deserted Island: The Banished Isles and the many islands of the Ruined Sea have no natives whatsoever. Neither have the Severed Coast and Turtleback islands.
• Divine Parentage: Korgus Dookanson, the leader of the orcs during the Greentide, was allegedly the son of the orcish god Great Dookan.
• The Dog Bites Back: Halflings in the Small Country have spent most of their history under the yoke of foreign powers. In the mid-late game, they will decide they've had enough and enter open rebellion.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: The Battlekingdom of Malacnar is ruled by the strongest warrior, who must prove his legitimacy by vanquishing his foes in battle. Considering your nation's military capabilities, it is possible to unify the entire Ynn region before Cannorian colonists show up, but doing so leaves you with no enemy to fight, destabilizing your country and hampering your ability to reform.
• Dragon Hoard: Invoked. Even though dragons are long gone, western kobold society still revolves around amassing piles of gold, jewelry and valuable trinkets for them (the Goldscale kobolds do not have the tradition, and when they learn of it put a different spin on it by being a "hoard" of single scales with words of intended wisdom on them, seeing wisdom as more valuable than mere gold). Kobold rulers that control the deepest caverns of the Dragon Coast can donate to the Dragon Cult's Hoard, and receive an increase in stability, prestige, manpower and legitimacy in exchange.
• Dragon Rider: Armoc Vernid was the first wyvern rider and the founder of the Kingdom of Verne. While wyverns are long gone, the modern Duchy of Verne still looks fondly on its wyvern-riding days. It may be possible to bring them back.
• Dragons Are Divine: A few religions across the world belong to the "Dragon Cult" group:
  • Western kobolds worship the dragons who once led them in their conquest of the Dragon Coast and part of the Serpentspine (the goldscale kobolds of Yanshen also worship a dragon, but do so as an aspect of their otherwise shared religion with their neighbours, and hence aren't part of the Dragon Cult group). They will amass much of the valuables they loot into dragon hoards as a tribute to them.
  • The Drozma Tur religion in the upper Ynn claims to receive visions from the last dragon of Aelantir.
• Dug Too Deep: Dwarves and other underground races (goblins and kobolds) can dig dwarven holds deeper and deeper. Along with the colonization of the caverns and roads of the Dwarovar, this brings great wealth, but can also problems ranging from the minor like cave-ins to the disastrous like an ancient plague and a sealed away clan of dwarven heretics.
• The Dung Ages: The Kingdom of Corvuria isn't kind on its peasants. Its national ideas mention working them to death to become richer, and monarchs viewing them as property.
• Egopolis:
  • The Sons of Dameria can settle down and create a country that will be called Rogieria, after their captain Rogier Silmuna.
  • Their adventurer peers Company of Thorns will found Luciande, after their ruler Lucian.
  • The Empire of Castanor's official name is "Castan's Empire". It goes both ways, as every ruler takes up the name of Castan.
• Elective Monarchy:
  • The Emperor of Anbennar is chosen through the vote of seven electors, each representing a particular people or class within the Empire.
  • Cyranvar, if formed, establishes the Oak Monarchy, where a monarch is elected by and from one of the major clans and rules until death or reaching two centuries of age.
• Elves vs. Dwarves: Heavily present in the game's backstory, including a milennias-long war between ancient elven and dwarven empires that ended in both of their collapses. By the time the game starts, however, there is not any particular animosity between the two races, and in fact they don't even live near each other very much.
• The Emperor:
  • Grand Duke Lothane III sil Wex is the Emperor of Anbennar in 1444.
  • Before that, the Grand Duke of Dameria Adénn Silmuna held that title.
  • Istralore's diplomatic bonuses and their electoral seat prop them up to become one.
• The Empire:
  • Averted by the Empire of Anbennar, which gives its subjects a high degree of autonomy and primarily exists for the purpose of protection and peacekeeping. Of course, as the Emperor you could pass reforms aimed at gradually turning Anbennar into a more proper empire...
  • If you're playing as any country in the Lencenor region, the Kingdom of Lorent will be a threat to your existence if not kept in check.
  • Lorent's main rival, the Kingdom of Gawed, has ambitions towards all its neighbours and oppresses all non-human races except Dwarves.
  • Both Lorent and Gawed take this role towards the halflings of the Small Country, which is partitioned between the two at the start of the game.
  • The Command is a militaristic regime of hobgoblins bent on conquering and enslaving most of Rahen.
  • Black Castanor and the Phoenix Empire, both of which are long gone by the game's start once stood as continent-encompassing superpowers and can be restored under the right circumstances.
  • The formable elven state of Aelnar, whose ambition is to become the hegemonic power of Aelantir like the Precursor Empire of old while driving all non-Star Elves out.
  • The Black Demesne is one of the states that can be formed from the Escanni Wars in the 1600s, and stands as an ambitiously expansionist, mage-supremacist autocratic magocracy that has as one of its main inspirations Nichmer's rule of Black Castanor and goes so far as to create a state-mandated religion designed to justify the subjugation of people without magical ability to those with, in particular the Sorcerer-King of the Black Demesne and their Acolytes.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The Ruin of Aelantir, known as the Day of Ashen Skies in the rest of the world. Other than destroying the Precursor Empire and warping Aelantir beyond recognition, it caused earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and tectonic shifts altering the geography of the planet. It opened access to the Shadow Plane and the Feywild, and made magic commonplace. In its aftermath, rains of ash went on for a hundred years and the ancient empires of Dameria and Castanor went to war leading to Castanor's collapse. The thousand years following the event became known as the Age of Ashes, and were marked by instability and strife.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Khelorvashi oni monks consort with spirits so sinister that even other oni are put off by it, and they're already following a Religion of Evil. They can be restricted in practice, but the mission tree leads to working alongside them and embracing a Card-Carrying Villain status.
• Explosive Breeder: The other races of the world consider humans to be this, quickly breeding to fill areas to the capacity of their ability to feed them.
• Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: Even in this fantasy universe, your primary concerns stay the same: keep your neighbours in check, your subjects loyal, and your coffers full.

Tropes F - J

• Fantastic Nuke: The fall of Aesadas triggered a massive magic explosion known today as "Ducaniel's Wrath", which destroyed the precursor empire and warped the continent. The magical energy released from it saw the rise of magic users all over the planet.
• Fantastic Racism: Incorporated as a game mechanic. Racial Tolerance for the various races of your country will fluctuate throughout the game based on events and choices. Races can be oppressed, coexisting or integrated, each level bringing different penalties and bonuses. Furthermore, specific races can be targeted for expulsion or even extermination, providing monarch-power-free culture conversions at the cost of development and devastation.
  • Aelnar believes that "a stable society is a homogeneous society". It gets mission to culture-convert every single province in the continent of Noruin.
• Fantasy Conflict Counterpart:
  • Not unlike the Holy Roman Empire had wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants, the Empire of Anbennar has wars of religion between adherents of the traditional Regent Court (and its succession) and Corinites. Also not unlike the HRE's wars of religion, Anbennar's are as much a proxy war between outside powers as an actual power struggle within the Empire.
  • The Lilac Wars enveloped Lorent and Anbennar into a century-long series of conflicts sparked by a succession dispute. It's The Hundred Years War combined with the Wars of the Roses' floral motif.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • While the individual cultures of the Empire do not directly emulate any specific European culture, the Empire of Anbennar as a whole functions as a counterpart to the Holy Roman Empire.
  • Lorent, famed for its wine, romantic chivalry and courtly manners, is like France. Its many unruly vassals mirror France's starting situation in 1444.
  • Busilar and Eborthíl are in a similar geopolitical position to Spain.
  • The Small Country rebellion mirrors the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish. Even the name, Small Country, is a play on Low Countries.
  • Corvuria has heavy Transylvania-esque vibes and a history of withstanding invasions similar to Romania's. The name and raven theming may further reference Matthias Corvinus, who became King of Hungary around the time the base EU4 game starts.
  • Bjarnrík and the Gerudian countries very much resemble Scandinavia, with Reavers being the stand-in for Vikings and the Era of Black Ice being the name for the The Viking Age.
    • Reveria, Deranne and Pearlsedge are kingdoms established by Reavers outside of Gerudia, just like the actual Vikings founded kingdoms in Normandy and Sicily.
  • Sarhal is fantasy Africa. The gnollish corsairs of Viakkoc act like Barbary pirates, whereas the gnollish states deeper inland, reliant on warfare and slavery, are not unlike African warlords.
    • Kheterata is an Ancient Egypt that survived till modern day. Meanwhile Elizna, a foreign conqueror laying claim to the region, may very well be Ptolemaic Egypt.
    • The Seascourge Gnolls of Viakkoc are a Barbarous Barbary Bandits equivalent; later, a splinter gnollish culture will move to the equivalent of the Caribbean and become buccaneers.
    • Bulwar, said to be birthplace of humanity and a crossroads of civilization, is assimilable to Mesopotamia and the Middle East. The Golden Highway and Sareyand are likely inspired by the The Silk Road. Sareyand's name may be inspired by Samarkand. It is also home to a trio of religions whose theological distinctions mirror those between the three major Abrahamic faiths, all of which emerged in the Middle East.
    • The halflings living on the coast of Sarhal and on its islands are a nod to the Pygmies.
  • Rahen is fantasy India although it's not a peninsula and is ruled by tiger people.
  • Yanshen is China as a region (it lacks the history of being united into a single country) and Southern Haless is Indochina.
  • The Phoenix Empire's story goes similarly to that of Alexander's Empire, although Jaher, the Alexander Expy, managed to conquer all the way to China before his death, and unlike Alexander he left behind adult direct heirs one of whom managed to re-unite the Empire and make impressive conquests herself before her death set the ball rolling on a Diadochi-like collapse. The Sun Elf kingdoms in Bulwar correspond to the Diadochi.
  • The Ynn river countries in Aelantir reflect the Mississippi civilization, albeit in medieval stage. Meanwhile the Kwineh, Boek and Cheshoshi reflect the smaller Native American tribes Europeans came in contact with.
  • The Taychend Ruinborn in Southern Aelantir are planned to take elements of Dravidian culture.
  • The cities of the Kheionai are a fantasy, elven version of the Greek City states in Greece and Asia Minor.
  • A meta example: the Blademarches' extremely powerful military ideas make them the Prussia of Anbennar.
  • The breakaway Aelantir colonial republics of Valorpoint and Marlliande are Eagleland types 1 and 2, respectively (Marlliande could alternatively be described as the Antebellum South at its worst). The fellow breakaway Aelantir colonial republic of Cestirmark becomes the nucleus of the Trollsbay Concord, which is something of a European Union analogue (a regionally-defined multicultural confederal alliance with a reputation for slow bureaucracy and a goal of "ever closer Concord"), but can transition into the Trollsbay Union, an America-alike (notably, both Valorpoint and Marlliande are intended members of the Concord and Union).
  • In a meta sense, the four Ages the game mechanics divide the game into are this, with similar effects and to varying degrees rough themes to the ones in Europa Universalis — the Age of Greentide is a time of fading feudalism and although the description doesn't highlight it increased exploration, just like the Age of Exploration, the Age of Unraveling is a time when the religious order of the Europe-analogue is thrown into disarray by the rise of a new off-shoot faith from the dominant religion, just like the Age of Reformation^note there is a second off-shoot, just like Reformed in history and normal EU 4, but Ravelianism is far more theologically divergent, and has a tendency to emerge late enough that the Age of Witch Kings might already have begun, the Age of Witch Kings is the Age of Absolutism with a more sorcerous twist on how the kings centralise power around themselves, and the Age of Artificers is a time of revolution and the fall of the ancient regimes like the Age of Revolutions, just with more focus on the technological developments that allow it than the philosophical.
• Fantasy Counterpart Religion:
  • In terms of its effects on the world, the Corinite faith closely mirrors Protestantism despite not actually being similar in any theological sense.
  • The Ravelian faith then mirrors Calvinism/Reformed Christianity in its effects on society and actually is in some ways theologically similar, claiming that there's actually only one god and that this god is benevolent, though structurally it's much more like Catholicism, having a centralized priesthood and enforced tenets and dogma. In terms of its effect on the world, much like Calvinism, it helps develop and promote liberalism and Enlightenment values, though it does so through artificery, which is practiced as a way to more closely understand the god and share his power.
  • The three Sun Cult faiths mirror the distinctions between the three main Abrahamic faiths, especially with regards to their position on the messiah/Surael's return, even though the core tenets are closer to Zoroastrianism (good-evil dualism, etc). Unlike their counterparts, the Sun Cults still have largely similar beliefs and practices.
    • The Old Sun Cult is the faith as practiced before the Sun Elves came along. Being the "Judaism" of the trio, the Old Sun Cult believes Surael will return at some point but has not yet done so. According to its counterpart, the Old Sun Cult is also by far the smallest of the Sun Cult faiths.
    • The New Sun Cult was formed after the Sun Elf Jaher liberated Bulwar from gnolls and other outsiders. Being the "Christianity" of the trio, the New Sun Cult believes Jaher was Surael made flesh. However, they can also be compared to Judaism because they believe a certain race (sun elves) to be The Chosen People.
    • The Jadd is the newest branch and the "Islam" of the trio, spread by a Muhammad-like prophet-warlord. They hold that anyone can gain the favor of Surael so long as they submit and follow the Jadd.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Averted. Human armies will switch to Pike and Shot in the same timeframe real-world armies did, and troops of other fantasy races like elves and orcs will also be equipped with firearms.
  • Elves will seemingly be late to adopt firearms, but that's actually because of the older generation sticking to the bow they've mastered over centuries. When said generation dies out, they will be replaced by just-as-adept elven musketeers.
  • Dwarves, perhaps unsurprisingly, have firearms long before anyone else, with the hold of Ovdal Kanzad (also known as Cannonhold) claiming to have been making cannons longer than humans have been making swords, and innovate a form of pike and shot around the same time humans are beginning to field their first truly viable infantry firearms.
• Fantasy Pantheon: The Regent Court is the pantheon of gods worshipped by humans in Cannor. Players can choose one of the gods as their primary deity, and receive particular benefits for the duration of their ruler's lifespan.
• The Federation:
  • The eponymous Empire of Anbennar. While namely an empire, its members enjoy a great degree of autonomy and the Emperor is chosen by election, with the electoral seats' distribution accounting for different regions and racial minorities.
  • Wineport is a local-scale example. The country's formal name is the League of Winebay, and it was formed from a coalition of Lencori cities whose common interests were to escape the devastation of the Lilac Wars and grow rich thanks to wine trade.
  • The Lake Federation starts the game as a loose confederation in the Forbidden Plains (specifically, on islands in the great lake the Forbidden Plains surrounds), established after centaur attacks forced most of the members to flee the mainland. A major gameplay element for the members is the gradual deepening of the union, potentially culminating in the Federation being reformed into a united enough nation to be represented by a single tag.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: The game begins with this. Corin and Korgus Dookanson are dead, and with the Greentide collapsed, the Marcher Lords have also divided into their component adventuring companies and orders and set out to conquer and plunder the ruins of Escann. They begin with a degree of amity toward each other as their leaders all fought alongside Corin, but as they claim their place in Escann, they'll inevitably come into conflict.
• Fighting for a Homeland:
  • The ultimate endgoal of all adventurer expeditions to Escann, Aelantir and the Dwarovar is establishing a new country for themselves and their descendants.
  • The Small Country rebellion aims to establish a halfling sovereign country after centuries of foreign dominance.
• Five-Token Band: Deliberately invoked in Anbennar. The Imperial electors of Moonhaven, Beepeck and Silverforge exist to represent the interests of the elven, halfing and dwarven minorities within the Empire respectively. Of the four other electors, Pearlsedge and Istralore represent the people of West and East Dameria, while Damescrown represents the bankers and the Magisterium represents the mages. At start, the gnomish minority within the Empire lacks a representative amongst the electors, but a successful Giberd can make a bid for electorate under the cause of filling that role.
• Forest of Perpetual Autumn: The Bloodgroves in Aelantir, named for their unnaturally red colour which they maintain for most of the year.
• Fungus Humongous: There's a region in Southern Aelantir dubbed "Mushroom Forest". The sheer abundance of edible fungi it yields reduces the market value of fungi significantly.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": The Ynn River native kingdoms of Aelantir worship the river itself, and put their dead with their belongings in sarcophagi which are set adrift on the river and eventually fall over the enormous waterfall over the Cliffs of Ruin that cut off communication with the lowland tribes. Meanwhile, the tribes at the base of the falls promptly retrieve the treasure chests containing gold and the body of an ancestor that keep dropping from above as evidence of divine favor.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Elves can live for centuries, however EU4's engine does not allow elven generals to have an extended lifespan without extending everybody else's. The early death of elven generals is explained as them going into retirement after a few decades of service. Naturally much the same principle presumably applies for other species with lifespans greater than the human norm, such as dwarves and gnomes. Perhaps harder to explain is the potentially very long service of generals from shorter-lived species like goblins.
  • Several mid-late game cavalry will shift to have higher offensive fire than shock and mention various changes in technology and tactics as the impetus for this. The actual mechanics and tech tree still strongly favor offensive shock over fire for cavalry as their damage multipliers are the same for all races and the same as in unmodified Europa Universalis IV.
• God-Emperor: One outcome of Varamhar's mission tree turns the ruler into a slightly downplayed example in that they merely claim to be an avatar of Surael and have the power and immortality to back it up.
• God Guise: Through events from the Shattered Crown mission tree, it is eventually uncovered that Dookan (or Dookanil to the Brown Orcs of Rahen), the god of orc religion, was almost certainly Ducaniel, the renegade elf that caused the war between the Precursor Empire and old Aul-Dwarov, the fall of the Precursor Empire and the Day of Ashen Skies.
• God Is Dead:
  • Explorers in Aelantir will discover that Castellos is dead. If you are the first to find out, you can choose whether to spread the word immediately or try to keep the news secret.
  • The Sun Cult in all of its forms believes all of the gods except the sun god Sura(k)el were killed by the Malevolent Darkness.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The aptly-named Tyrant Queen from the Lake Federation's backstory, who began conducting human experiments in pursuit of immortality and was ultimately overthrown along with most of the nobility that had supported her.
• Going Native:
  • Adventurers' starting culture is that of the country they originate from. Once they settle down and found new nations in Escann, they will develop a new culture which will be part of the Escanni culture group.
  • Defied by the Wexonards and Marrodics, who after centuries surrounded by Anbennarian and Escanni peoples still maintain their identity as Alenic peoples.
• Golem: What gnomes will be fielding in their armies late in the game. Ancient dwarves also employed them as guards.
• The Good Kingdom:
  • The kingdoms in Escann notoriously gave great importance to honour, chivalry, and virtue. They have been thoroughly destroyed in 1444.
  • The Kingdom of Lorent styles itself as a beacon of chivalry, culture, and diplomacy.
• Great Offscreen War: Many of them in the game world's history; due to the nature of EU4 any war before the gameplay timeframe (1444-1821 AA) cannot be depicted. The most important one, apart from those described under The War Just Before below, was the Precursor-Dwarovar war. It involved the ancient advanced empires of the elves and dwarves duking it out for millenia, changing world geography, creating entire species, ya know. It ended in a stalemate.
• Greed: As a dwarven nation grows richer and richer from its reclamation of the Serpentspine Mountains, the fantastic wealth leads to a level of societal greed so severe it's known as the Hoardcurse. As the Hoardcurse takes hold of society, businesses become monopolized, banking dangerously speculative and corrupt, the dwarven workers increasingly underpaid and overworked, and governmental functions dependent almost entirely on bribery. All of these must be fixed and reformed in order to break the Hoardcurse and restore a functional society. And if the head of state of the country has the "Greedy" trait themself? Then they must also be executed to break the cycle of greed. The Hoardcurse is known among players as one of the hardest disasters in the game and can easily ruin your nation if you don't fight it well.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: Monstrous^note Orcish, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Kobold, Centaur, Harpy, Gnoll, Ogre, and Troll and non-monstrous^note Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Gnome, Dwarf, Halfling, and Harimari nations always have casus belli on each other and a mutual opinion penalty that depends on how "de-monsterized" the monstrous nation is. The monstrous nations have the monstrous conquest CB because, well, they're monsters, while non-monstrous nations get the Anti-Monstrous CB against monstrous nations, which has reduced aggressive expansion as taking out monsters is always seen as self-defense by other non-monstrous countries. As the game goes on, such wars mostly fall to the wayside due to de-monsterization, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. Additionally, a few nations of normally monstrous races either start non-monstrous (particularly the Jaddic harpies of Elayenna) or can reform to non-monstrous by other means (eg. Frozenmaw can form Grombar, which turns them half-orc and thus non-monstrous). De-monsterized nations can then use the Anti-Monstrous CB on their less "civilized" brethren like any other non-monstrous nation.
• Hailfire Peaks: Trickster Island in Aelantir is home to a desert and mountains in its northern half, and a wet jungle in the south, hence the name.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The ruling elite of Anbennar and Lencenor is made up of half elves, born from the union of the local human nobility with the elves who landed back in 1000. As in much of the fantasy source material, half-orcs are also possible, either as the result of peaceful coexistence or violent conquest between orcs and humans.
• Harping on About Harpies: Harpies reside in the mountains around Bulwar (with a small enclave all the way over in Haless), and regularly launch raids against settlements to steal human husbands. In 1444, the Matriarchy of Harpylen is one of the major powers in Bulwar.
• Heel–Race Turn: Orcs, who were mindless monsters during the Greentide, evolve into a more civilized, if still warlike race over the course of the game.
  • Can be defied by the formable orcish country of Khozrugan, whose mission tree involves the subjugation all human lands in a continuation of the Greentide. Even so, the orcs of Khozrugan are still a step-up from their parents under the Dookanson.
  • Played with by the orcs of Grombar. As they become civilized, the Grombari orcs become less common as half-orcs instead become the dominant race.
  • Likewise defied by the Oni of Azjakuma; following the missions will lead them inevitably to declaring themselves the "Demon Empire" of Chomora and harnessing dark magic to corrupt the temples of the Righteous Path in a bid to not only take over the world but to assume the power of the precursors, openly glorying in being evil.
• Heinous Hyena: Gnolls are hyena-like humanoids whose faith is anywhere from borderline demon-worship to actual explicit demon-worship and who practice piracy and slavery across Sarhel and Bulwar. And for extra hyena points, rather than horses, they ride specially-bred giant hyenas as mounts.
• Hidden Elf Village:
  • Unlike their Sun and Moon cousins, Wood Elves settled the Deepwoods, where they kept to themselves until the Greentide came along and destroyed the illusion magic which was keeping their existence secret.
  • Eordand Ruinborn originate from one. They are the descendants of the elves who took refuge deep within the Domandrod forest, the Fey's influence allowing them to survive the Day of Ashen Skies.
• High Fantasy: Deconstructed. The events in Escann, and to a lesser extent the Serpentspine, are about what happens after the great epic war ends. What do you do with all the orcs and goblins the Dark Lord left behind? (In many cases, it's not pretty.) What kind of nations will rise in the aftermath?
• Hit So Hard, the Calendar Felt It: The elf Ducaniel crashed a flying city onto the elven continent in what became known as the Day of Ashen Skies, marking the year 0 of the "AA" (After Ash) calendar.
• History Repeats: Long ago, Castan the Progenitor led his people from Kheterata into what would become known as Escann, and created Castanor, an empire that lasted nearly 2 millennia in some shape or form. In the 1400s, Entef of Wibnaut, a Kheteratan native, leads his adventurer company, the New Wanderers, into post-Greentide Escann in the hopes of claiming a land for their own; it is entirely possible for them to eventually reform Castanor.
• The Horde:
  • The Greentide, which was the Dookanson's army of orcs. The formable country of Khozrugan can become their successor.
  • The Great Xhaz of the gnolls. The gnollish states in 1444 are smaller versions of this.
  • The Harpylen Matriarchy, encompassing all harpies in Bulwar Proper, threatens and outnumbers any of its sun elf and human neighbours one-on-one.
  • The highly-organized and militaristic hobgoblin Command combines this with The Empire.
  • The Graytide was an offshoot of the incipient Greentide, formed from orcish tribes exiled for refusing to recognise the Dookanson during his rise and dominated by the Frozenmaw tribe. With much more limited goals and a less hostile attitude, the Graytide effectively ended by winning, transitioning to a more settled state and even leading Vrorenmarch in defending against the Greentide.
  • The centaurs start out as several small hordes. Over the course of the first century of the game they will unite into a single massive one, which will threaten to invade the Lake Federation, and possibly the rest of the continent.
  • Nuugdan Tsarai is a human nation of steppe nomads in the northeastern part of Haless. They serve as a rough equivalent to Manchuria, but ride birds instead of horses.
• Hordes from the East:
  • The orcs had been residing in the Serpentspine mountains to the east of Cannor before the Greentide.
  • The narrow passage that connects the prosperous Bulwar to the steppes of the Forbidden Plains is named the Invader's Pass.
  • Prior to forming into the Graytide, the Gray Orcs were exiled to the Northern Pass region between Gerudia and the Forbidden Plains, and it was to Gerudia they went as the Graytide.
  • The centaurs should they decide to invade westward through the Northern Pass or the Invader's Pass.
  • In the more Asian take on the trope as Hordes from the North, Rahen is being invaded by a massive hobgoblin army called The Command centered in the northern plains of Rahen and an old Dwarven hold further north and Haless has human steppe nomads to its north.
• Horse of a Different Color: Only humans and (some) elves really ride horses and the various other races have other signature mounts (if any mounts at all).
  • Orcs and Hobgoblins ride wargs. The Half-Orcs of Grombar start out that way, but transition to horses as wargs become obsolete.
  • Above-ground non-Exodus Goblins ride giant spiders until they develop more mechanized mounts. Cave Goblins will ride underground monsters after transitioning from mere giant spiders.
  • Forest Goblins start off not using true cavalry so much as simply herding boars towards their enemy and encouraging them to stampede, but eventually start riding various Deepwoods wildlife and settle on giant moths as their favorites.
  • Wood Elves ride stags and form druidic pacts with wildlife such as bears.
  • Dwarves ride rams and eventually mecha-rams. Exodus Goblins also start out riding rams, but quickly transition away from this trope by switching to horse-riding human auxiliaries.
  • Raheni of all races often ride elephants.
  • Gnolls ride giant hyenas.
  • Trolls use mammoths as mounts and often use them as living tanks decked out in armor and acting as walking cannon platforms.
  • Western Kobolds ride giant cave lizards called "bigscales" (the goldscale kobolds of Haless simply use the many human mercenaries that flock to their lands). Not unlike the dwarves' mecha-rams, late kobolds will use machinery to enhance their bigscales.
  • Ynnic Ruinborn Elves ride "antler horses". Their lategame cavelry can also include wooly Rhinos and Sabertooth Tigers; depending on which endgame cavelry option you select.
  • The Ruinborn Elves of the less civilized regions of South Aelantir eventually tame and ride unspecified monsters, while the Kheionai and Taychendi Elves have more conventional horses and the less settled Ruinborn between them ride big cats.
  • The humans of Kheterata are among the few camel riders of the setting, while the humans of Nuugdan Tsarai ride terrorbirds.
  • Early Harimari rely on their size, strength, and their ability to revert to a much faster quadrupedal stance rather than mounts, but as tech marches on, western Harimari adopt elephant cavalry like the Raheni humans and eastern Harimari breed a particularly large, strong, and brave breed of horse called the Hupeng that they can ride unlike the smaller (and Harimari-averse) horses humans ride.
  • Centaurs are already part horse and thus all centaur troops are cavalry despite not riding atop another creature.
  • Ogres don't ride anything and their "cavalry" is more like particularly fast and angry ogres that can match the flanking capabilities of other races' cavalry.
  • Harpies have no cavalry of any form as they can fly and riding another creature wouldn't contribute much for rhem.
  • Gnomes simply hire human auxiliaries to act as their cavalry.
  • Halflings change their cavalry as the game progresses, with human auxilleries, then transitioning to ponies, and finally riding specially-bred War-Hounds.
• Hub City:
  • Anbenncóst is the largest city in the known world, a melting pot of cultures, and the capital of quite a few empires from the past.
  • On a more regional scale, Brasan is the main hub city for Bulwar. Bhuvauri and Dhenijansar compete for this role in Rahen.
  • Castonath and Amldihr were this for Escann and the Dwarovar respectively, although both lie in ruins at the start of the game.
• Hungry Jungle: The Effelai jungle in Southern Aelantir is vast, dangerous, sentient, and capable of exerting mind control.
• I Am the Noun: The Corvurian national idea "I am the Land!":
  "The king and the land are one, and all peasants who belong to the land, belong to the king."
• I Choose to Stay:
  • The adventurer expeditions to Escann and Aelantir will eventually settle down and form permanent countries.
  • Many kingdoms and cities were founded by elven heroes this way, like Eborthíl and Arbaran. In 1444, elves are pretty much endemic to the human continent and satisfied with their life there. The only elves who still wish to return to Aelantir are those of Venáil.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Or perhaps I Worship the Strongest God in this case. A not-insignificant number of orcs come to follow Corin because she defeated Dookan's champion, Dookanson, and thus after her apotheosis, is a more powerful god than Dookan. In fact, between conversions to Corinism and human reconquest of much of Escann, it's not uncommon for the Old Dookan and Great Dookan faiths to completely die out in Cannor and only remain amongst The Command's orcish slave states in Rahen.
• Interface Spoiler: Europa Universalis can't hide trade region connections, even if it can make it impossible to actually transfer trade to a trade region. This makes it apparent that there must be something in the middle of Eordand and not just wasteland. It can only be opened by a unified Eordand Ruinborn state under specific circumstances.
  • EU4 can hide parts of a mission tree until you complete the prerequisites, and the mod often uses this. However, some tree segments do still have spoilers for early missions in the descriptions of the later ones, which can be read at any time. For example, the last part of the initial Balrijin mission tree spoils that you do in fact find the legendary dragon Balris.
  • Hovering over the Heretic or Heathen symbols in the religion tab lists religions that are, respectively, considered heretic or heathen by yours. This isn't limited to ones that already exist when the game starts, allowing for things like the possible emergence of a Fey-related faith called the "Ashentree Pact" or a non-god-oriented religion called the Black Doctrine to be spoiled if you belong to the right religious groups.
• Interspecies Friendship: Between elves and humans in Cannor. Not only did the arrival of the elves turn the tide of the War of the Sorcerer King, elves also brought their culture and technology to the world and founded many realms which remain prosperous to this day. Only the Alenic people of Wex and Gawed seem to be wary of them. On other continents, however, relations are colder.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • The marriage between Queen Auci of Dameria and the elven hero Munas Moonsinger was the first of many human-elf marriages. By 1444, Anbennar is ruled by a proud half-elven elite.
  • The Jaddari elves start the game in a royal marriage with the harpy nation of Elayenna.
  • Humans in general are disproportionately open to relationships with other species and evidently genetically flexible enough to produce offspring with them, resulting in half-orcs and half-elves, which are almost invariably the other half human.
• Injun Country: The Epednan Expanse is a region west of the Ynn river (a fantasy counterpart of the Mississippi) populated by nomads whose language is a mixture of Elven and Plains Indian.
• Island Base: The Magisterium's mission tree revolves around expanding the island of Adrail and building a huge Mage Tower there.

Tropes K - O

• Klingon Promotion: Orcish society considers strength to be a prime indicator of worthiness to rule. The Ozarm'chadash ("duel for honor"), a long-standing Orc tradition, is a duel between the chief and challenger to determine who gets to rule their clan. This trope is also why so many orcs willingly convert to the Corinite religion; she did kill a prophet of their god, after all.
• Lamprey Mouth: The Leechmen of Effelai have this, hence the name. It's one of the reasons they're considered by everyone, even other Ruinborn elves, to be monstrous (the other major reason being their tendency to eat or sacrifice anyone and everything else).
• Land of One City:
  • The Imperial Free Cities, such as Tellum and Giberd. The biggest and most famous of them is Anbenncóst.
  • The Kheionai culture in Aelantir revolves around the city-state.
  • The Castanoth Patricians like to think that they're this, and have little use for the world outside of Castanoth.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The setting's lore, which has a canon timeline extending past the game's start date, includes a theory known as the "1444 Divergence" that claims that time was divided into infinite parallel universes on Nerament 11th 1444, the day Corin died defeating Korgus Dookanson, and the day on which the game starts. This conveniently explains why the game doesn't have to follow the canon timeline. The exact details of what caused the Divergence are hotly debated amongst mages, theologians, and scholars, but usually center on Corin, Dookanson, or both. The three most common theories are:
  • "Time Loop Theory", in which Corin is claimed to have used some sort of magic to repeat her final battle with Dookanson until she created a timeline in which she won the battle.
  • "Anti-Corin/Agrados the Deceiver Theory", which is popular among orcs and claims that it was in fact Dookanson's death that caused the divergence and was used by the old god of war, Agrados, to rejuvenate his own powers by absorbing Great Dookan's and that Agrados has been masquerading as Corin since her alleged apotheosis.
  • "Time Traveler Theory", which posits that Corin was in fact a time traveler from a future in which the Greentide won and either by her arrival in another timeline, or by her death in a timeline other than her own, she shattered the timeline.
• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • If Aelnar manages to avoid the Rianvisa, it can be taken over by Lithiel and led down a path where it integrates the ruinborn as "Dusker" and "Starborn" second-class citizens^note mechanically this adds Dusker and Starborn as accepted cultures, sets the multiple missions to culture-convert areas to accept Star Elf, Dusker or Starborn instead of just Star Elf, sets flags that allows events that flips owned ruinborn-culture provinces to Dusker and owned Dusker provinces to Starborn and has two missions do those conversions for every province you own at the time. Aelnar is still an expansionist, supremacist regime that desires a "racially pure", homogenous society, it's just a little more inclusive with its definitions of "purity" and "homogenous". This is specifically if the Rianvisa is avoided. Lithiel goes down a very different route if she comes to power during or after the war.
  • If Aelnar doesn't manage to avoid the Rianvisa, Sicrheior, while the most actively expansionist, stands out amongst the available rulers^note at least, the ones with unique gameplay as being both comparatively sane and having nods to egalitarianism, rule of law and allowing humans and ruinborn to become second-class citizenships through long-term military service in his path for Aelnar. It still has the baseline issues of Aelnar, but at least it isn't building an extremely pervasive intelligence agency out of sheer paranoia, purging every non-elven race out of fanatic theocratic mandate, or using the ruinborn as magical batteries.
• Lightning Gun: Gnomes will invent the Sparkdrive rifle, capable of shooting extremely accurate lighting bolts from afar. Very late in the game this weapon will also become accessible to human armies and all races can field them as part of specially-armed artificer regiments. Portnamm's final idea involves creating a deadlier, perfected model of it.
• Lizard Folk:
  • Kobolds inhabit the Dragon Coast peninsula, as well as parts of the Serpentspine Mountains and Haless and are said to resemble small lizard-people. They dislike the name "Lizard-man", though.
  • More traditional lizardfolk live in the jungles of South Sarhal, where they have developed a sophisticated culture influenced by the magically-potent Nagas.
• Lost at Sea: The Remnant Fleet, housing the elven people who had escaped the Ruin of Aelantir, spent a thousand years lost at sea in what became known as the Great Wander. They finally landed on the human continent in 1000 AA, in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• The Lost Woods: The Deepwoods in Cannor and the Domandrod forest in Eordand, both of which are inhabited by fey — the Domandrod remains isolated, while for the Deepwoods something broke the wards keeping outsiders out during the Greentide. There is also the Oldwoods, a much smaller^note it's a single province using the normal Woods terrain remnant of the old Deepwoods remaining in Escann after Castan Beastbane purged the fey and burned down much of the Deepwoods.
• Lost Technology: Plenty to be found throughout Aelantir.
• Mage Tower:
  • The Tower of Eightfold Eminence, whose construction will be the main focus of a Magisterium game. The finished tower will have eight levels: one for each school of magic.
  • The city of Yikashlay is an aggregation of towers linked to each other with bridges originally founded by a mage.
  • Smaller mage towers are a common building that give the mage estate extra influence, thereby allowing them to cast stronger spells.
• Magic Knight: The Orda Aldresia is a knightly order of Spell Blade-wielding knights, who sided with the nobility during the Wars of Rule and were decisive in reducing the power of the mages.
• The Magic Versus Technology War:
  • An interesting take. The Age of Witch Kings will see the world ruled by naturally-gifted Sorcerous Overlords, whereas the following Age of Artificers will have Magitek become easily available to all, allowing the masses to go toe-to-toe against their magic rulers.
  • More mechanically, technology makes magic less effective, or at least the magic of singular great sorcerors or cabals of mages. Siege magic that would bring down a fort in a month at the start of the game is rather less certain against a late-game bastion, dominating the minds of larger garrisons becomes more difficult, and employing war magic and shapeshifting becomes more dangerous. Strictly speaking, none of these are actually the magic becoming less effective, and more a matter of the mundane (or even magitek) alternatives catching up with those great sorcerors. At the same time as all this is happening, magitek like transkobold supersoldiers and sparkdrive rifles make the common soldier far more effective than they previously were.
  • Mages are extremely conservative in their ways. A powerful Mages estate makes both artifice and mundane technology harder to develop. Witch Kings and Magocracies in particular make artificing next to impossible unless you have access to truly vast resources of damestear and relics.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Gnomes start the game with weak units, a natural -10% to Infantry Combat Ability, and of their countries one is very small and the other two are OPMs. Once you unlock Nimscodd's final national idea you'll have a +40% to Infantry Combat Ability. Portnamm's final idea gives them a +40% Fire Damage which is even stronger. Giberd, while not having any crazy military ideas, has a very strong idea set all-around which can make it into a trading and economic powerhouse.
  • The dwarven hold of Ovdal Kanzad, the ancient Cannonhold, is easily in the most precarious location of any surviving dwarven hold, surrounded by roving bands of goblins that can easily overwhelm them, near the goblin Chaingrasper clan, led by the mighty sorceror Clanboss Dak Chaingrasper, and then the powerful nations of Jaddari and The Command past those early goblin bands, and with no easily-usable early-game combat ideas like infantry combat ability or discipline. However, they have tremendous bonuses to land fire attack, artillery combat ability, and artillery damage from the back row, all of which become increasingly important as the game goes on and eventually turn Cannonhold's army into a force to be reckoned with if they can survive.
• Magitek:
  • What the vast majority of the art of artifice produces, although the style varies: the three races with a particular flair for artifice, gnomes, kobolds and goblins tend to put their own spins on it (broadly, gnomish artificery leans towards mechanisms, goblin towards explosions, and kobold towards Transkoboldism), and there are three schools of artifice — Brilliance, which focuses on combining magic and technology to create entirely new things, Technomancy, which approaches artifice as a new school of magic and often creates enchanted items that place what was rare and difficult magic into a mass-produced form capable of casual use, and Mechanist, which focuses on engineering and applying artifice to improve mundane inventions.
  • Precursor Relics are the artifice of the Precursors. Unlike modern artifice, they don't use mechanisms - they're essentially enchanted objects used as technology.
  • Alchemy is contextualized as early magical artificery. This doesn't come up much as in most places it doesn't reach the widespread at least semi-industrial levels and high degree of innovation that categorizes artificery proper... and then there's Varaine, which does develop those two aspects and as such is one of the earliest adopters of artificery outside the three artifice-focused races even if doesn't actually use the term^note mechanically, Varaine's missions allow it to unlock the Artificers estate one institution early compared to the general unlock point, with the estate renamed Alchemists and a slew of missions that grant unique potion-based innovations for use in the gameplay Artificery system
• The Magocracy: A government type in the game, for a polity ruled by mages. Mechanically, this looks like a variant of theocracy, and is highly magically potent, but with a strong hostility toward artificers.
  • The Magisterium, which is the governing body for all magic in Cannor. Its ruler is elected by a council containing the heads of the 8 schools of magic.
  • The Empire of Anbennar itself was a magocracy at the time of its foundation, before the Wars of Rule brought down the power of mages. Even afterwards, the Emperor is legally required to be a mage, but the Grand Magister is a separate office, because a ruler who spends too much time studying magic isn't spending enough time ruling.
  • The Chaingrasper Clan can develop into a "Dakocracy," which is headed by Dak as a Sorcerous Overlord, but also includes the use of Dak's apprentices as the Secret Police and governing infrastructure.
  • Another form of magocracy is the technocracy, which is governed by Artificers. It's considered a form of republic instead of theocracy, with officials elected by the technocrats and politics taking place between the three schools of artificer thought.
• Magical Society: The Magisterium. Also the Orda Aldresia, and the Order of the Iron Scepter in Escann.
• Making a Splash: The aptly-named Flooded Coast south of Corvuria was created by one. It is also known as Daravan's Folly, after the Corvurian king who cast the flooding spell using a dark magic ritual.
• Mars Needs Women: Or rather, Venus needs Men - Harpies are an all-female One-Gender Race and require human, elven, orcish or goblinoid men to reproduce. With the exception of the Jadd-following chiefdom of Elayenna and the Righteous Path warrior-monk community of Fengwuhe, harpies care little about the consent of their mate and tend to follow one of four strategies: the Mated Hunt, wherein the harpy lays with her mate wherever she happens to hunt him down and leaves, the Mantis Hunt, which is the same except that the harpy kills her mate before leaving, the Kidnapped Hunt, in which she abducts a male and mates in a more secure location before abandoning him, and the Husband Hunt, in which a harpy abducts a male and keeps him as a husband/Sex Slave. Generally the Husband Hunt is as close to "civilized" reproductive behavior as most harpies get, though Elayenna and Fengwuhe harpies have abandoned all of these "hunts" in favor of actually seeking romance and marriage in the more conventional sense, and accordingly start without the "monstrous" modifier, while Harpylen can develop a strategy of getting mates to come to them by building brothels.
• Merchant City:
  • All cities on the shore of the Dameshead have grown rich thanks to trade. The most famous and powerful of them are the halfling republic of Beepeck and the banker city of Damescrown, with Anbenncóst and Vertesk not far behind.
  • Wineport in Lencenor is a league of merchant cities.
  • Outside Cannor, Brasan in Bulwar and Bhuvauri in Rahen.
• Military Mage: A ruler with the powerful mage trait can lead armies, and use his magic to great effect during battles and sieges.
• Milkman Conspiracy: The Free City of Tellum's national ideas. Watch out! Any town crier you see, no matter where or when, might be a Tellumite sleeper agent. And even if you are careful around them, some of them will be pretend not to be town criers as to make you lower your guard.
• Mini-Mecha: The final idea of the Nimscodd gnomes involves the creation of the "Artificer Combat Exoskeleton MkI", which gives them a whopping +40% Infantry Combat Ability.
• Mithril: Mithril is a rare trade good found only in the Serpentspine Mountains and other dwarven holds. It is described as having much the same properties as in The Lord of the Rings - incredibly strong, incredibly light, and incredibly difficult to work. As a trade good, it has a base value of 8 crowns (which can deplete to 6 if too many deposits are discovered), making it easily the one of most valuable trade goods after Damestear and Precursor Artifacts at their peak, and unlike Damestear and Precursor Artifacts, Mithril deposits don't deplete. The only thing that comes close is cocoa, which peaks at a 5.4 crowns, making it nearly as valuable as mithril after the discovery of large supplies of mithril reduce the premium it commands.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Other than real-world bayonet muskets which make a comeback in the mod:
  • The elven unit "Pistoliers" fights with bladed pistols.
  • Reveria's sixth national idea is the invention of axe-pistols.
• More Dakka:
  • A mid-game tactic used by Cave Goblin infantry is described as stacking Goblin musketeers floor to ceiling in the caves and having reloaders behind them handing them fresh muskets as fast as possible to keep up an astoudning hail of fire.
  • The final tier of Dwarven infantry is repeating rifles, claiming to give the Dwarves in question two or three times the rate of fire of armies using more traditional rifles and muskets, which based on real life repeating rifles is probably actually a conservative estimate.
• Multiple Government Polity:
  • The territory of Anbennar is divided between counties, duchies, marquisates, free cities, republics, a dwarven hall, an elven principality, a couple temple states, a mage state and there's even a knightly order.
  • Averted for the Harimraj; all countries in it are forms of hereditary monarchies.
• Mortality Ensues: The Day of Ashen Skies caused all elves to lose their immortality, with those who fled to Cannor maintaining a lifespan of 400 years while those who stayed on Aelantir were brought down to a human lifespan.
• Multinational Team:
  • Corin's Circle were majority-nonhuman, with representatives from several races, including one orc and one half-orc.
  • Adventurer Federations get a slight bonus if they're from different nations.
• Mutants: Degenerated elves in Aelantir had their anatomy heavily warped by the environment.
• Mutual Kill: How the confrontation between the human heroine Corin and the orcish leader Dookanson ended.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
  • Corintar, a rally point for humans throughout Escann and a bulwark against the Greentide, is ruled by a half-orc at the start.
  • The harpy chiefdom of Elayenna starts in a royal marriage and alliance with Jaddari, follows the Jadd religion, looks for willing mates instead of kidnapping them, and will assist the Jaddari elves in their fights against the harpy nations of Siadan and Mulen.
  • The harpies of Fengwuzhe have adopted the Righteous Path and act as warrior monks as part of the Xia.
  • The gnolls of Haraagtseda have abandoned the Xhazobkult and instead follow the Kvanghaga, which emphasizes a sort of proto-artificery and craftsmanship using the vast fields of scrap metal from past empires by priest-smiths.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Orcish and goblin clans sport names such as Heartgrinder, Headwearer and Bloodgorger.
• Necessary Drawback: The Serpentspine is a source of a truly astounding amount of wealth and power that can be amassed with relatively little conquest of other states due to the wealth and easy development of Dwarven Holds and the abundance of highly valuable trade goods including gems, iron, copper, and mythril. To offset this, dwarven nations in the Serpentspine have three unavoidable and incredibly nasty disasters to deal with over the course of the game, while goblin, orcish and kobold nations start at a lower tech level and have to invest significant resources to catch up.
• The Neutral Zone:
  • The Republic of Beepeck enjoys the protection of the Empire of Anbennar, and as such will be spared from the wars between Lorent and Gawed over rulership of the Small Country.
  • The country of Wineport was formed to act as one; it stayed neutral during the Lilac Wars.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The Sun Elven conquistador Kortazel.
• Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: While the only two hybrid races (half-orcs and half-elves) that appear in the game-mechanical race system are normally half-human (half-orcs can also be half orc, half elven, but for logistical reasons that is far rarer), lore-wise other combinations are possible and can appear in events and missions (most of the other combinations^note leaving aside harpies, who have the broadest range of compatibility but always have harpy offspring rather than hybrids aren't reproductively viable and therefore can't maintain a population in their own right), such as orc-ogres.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Orcs had not been a problem for much of recorded history, keeping to themselves inside the Serpentspine mountains. And then the Age of the Greentide began...
• Number of the Beast: The Xhazobine was a demon-chosen gnollish warrior who unified the gnolls in 654 BA and went on to invade the human continent. In 666 AA, gnolls united again and attempted a second invasion.
• One-Man Army: Powerful mage generals can be this. As well as a one-man siege battery.
• One Nation Under Copyright: The Deranne Trade Company and the Vanbury Guild will set up colonies of their own in Aelantir.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Being a game with hundred of countries and centuries of history, there are bound to be rulers and characters who share the same name.
  • Lothane Bluetusk is the Grandmaster of Corintar. Lothane III Sil Wex is the Emperor of Anbennar.
  • There are two ladies named Isobel, one ruling Gabmórionn, the other ruling the new world country of Isobelin. Both of them are powerful old ladies with no children of their own but several adopted ones.
• Only Known by Their Nickname:
  • Yikashlay in the Lake Federation was founded by an eccentric mage who refused to go by any other name than “He of the Horizon.”
  • The Tyrant Queen, a past ruler in the Lake Federation. Her and her city, dubbed the "City of Tyranny", had their actual names struck from history.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: Mentioned in one of Istralore's national ideas:
  "The Istralari Banshees were the elite all-women soldiers led by their namesake, Istralara Warsinger during the War of the Sorcerer King. Infamous in battle, the screeches of the banshees were often followed by death and destruction."
• Our Centaurs Are Different: Centaurs were a nomadic monstrous race in Escann and the Deepwoods. They were driven out of Cannor by Castan Beastbane, after which they migrated to the Forbidden Plains and displaced the local humans in turn.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: The dwarves, as might be expected, are standard alcohol-loving, wealth-seeking, ancestor-worshipping, underground-dwelling, industrious master craftsmen who have mostly been driven from their ancestral homes by orcs and goblins (but are right at the beginning of a massive effort to reclaim the caves) and have names like "Urist Axebeard" or "Halvar Flamehammer". One thing that is noted however is that in Anbennar, dwarven women do not have beards.
• Our Elves Are Different: The Precursor Empire of the elves was unmatched in power, magic and technology for the entirety of its existence. The elves who escaped from its destruction landed on the human continent and quickly established themselves as ruling class. They split into four groups:
  • Moon Elves, who landed in Dameria and married with the local nobles, creating a half-elven elite. Their magic and technology ushered the region into a new age of prosperity.
  • Sun Elves conquered a massive empire stretching from Bulwar to Essan, defeating gnolls and tiger people along the way. While the Phoenix Empire eventually collapsed, the majority of Bulwar is ruled by Sun Elf kings to this day, and the Bulwari Sun Cult hails Jaher as The Chosen One and the Sun Elves as The Chosen People.
  • Wood Elves settled the Deepwoods and created flourishing kingdoms in what humans deemed an uninhabitable region, living there in isolation until the Greentide.
  • Sea Elves never settled down on the mainland and instead continued a nomadic life at sea like they did during the days of the Remnant Fleet.
  • Elven superiority is taken up to eleven by the Star Elves of Aelnar, who seek to recreate the glory of the Precursor Empire by driving everybody — even other elves — out of Aelantir.
  • On the opposite side, the Jaddari elves defy this trope by preaching that all races are to be tolerated, so long as they follow the teachings of the Jadd...
  • Ruinborn elves in Aelantir are elves who survived The End of the World as We Know It and rebuilt new civilizations from the ashes. Then the are degenerated elves, who didn't survive the cataclysm unmutated...
• Our Goblins Are Different: Goblins are a race of small creatures originating in the Serpentspine until many were enslaved or forced out by the Dookanson. Cave goblins continue their war against dwarves like nothing had ever happened, while surface goblins are canonically mostly absorbed into Cannorian society and become expert artificers and merchants.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Formerly servants of the now-disappeared True Giants, ogres generally fit the traditional mold of "huge, hungry, and terrifying;" the dominant faith, "Feast of the Gods," revolves around the idea of gaining power by devouring the wise and strong. The exception is the Horned Ogres of Haless, an ancient community of dark-magic-wielding warrior monks.
• Our Orcs Are Different: They start out as fairly standard revisionist orcs: a clan culture of Proud Warrior Race Guys, though their "shamans" are actually clergy of a monotheistic religion. In the Greentide and Graytide, they attacked the kingdoms of Escann and the Vrorenmarch and destroyed them before Corin's victory over Korgus Dookanson ended the former. However, after the start of the game, they begin diverging. The Greentide remnants are canonically conquered and either enslaved or integrated into the new Escanni society, with the Redtusk Orcs being a major ethnicity in Corintar. On the other hand, the Frozenmaw Clan won the Graytide, and during the game will found the Kingdom of Grombar and usually marry into the human population of Vrorenmarch, turning Grombar into a nation of half-orcs.
• Our Wyverns Are Different: The wyvern is the national animal of the Duchy of Verne, tracing back to ancient times when Verne was a mighty kingdom founded by the first wyvern rider of history. If you follow Verne's mission tree, it will be possible to bring them back from extinction.

Tropes P - T

• The Pioneer: The Pioneer's Guild is one of the adventurer expeditions on a quest to colonize Escann.
• The Plague: Among the things that underground races that can dig deeper in dwarven holds^note dwarves, goblins, and kobolds can find while digging ever deeper is a vast cavern with an underwater lake that turns out to have ancient disease waiting to infect new hosts. The Serpent's Rot quickly spreads through the Serpentspine Mountains and causes beings' lungs to rot while they're alive, leading to an agonizing death. It saps development and generally makes life hell in the Serpentspine Mountains until a cure is found and distributed. The cure turns out to be derived from a common species of mushroom and can be swiftly distributed through ventilation systems in the various holds and dwarven roads.
• Posthumous Character: Many countries and leaders from the past are mentioned in events and national ideas. Most significantly:
  • Corin, the heroine who stopped the Greentide, died right before the mod's start. She ascended to godhood for her deeds, and a century later her position in the gods' hierarchy will be the catalyst for a religious war.
  • The Grand Duchy of Dameria had been the most powerful and important prince in the Empire of Anbennar, and Dameria itself was one of humanity's most important realms throughout history. At the start of the game, they've just been disbanded after their defeat in the Lilac Wars.
  • Castanor, an ancient empire centered around Escann, and humanity's major player during the The Time of Myths. It was eventually succeeded by the Kingdom of Castellyr, which was destroyed by orcs right before the game start.
• Precursors:
  • The elven Precursor Empire encompassed the massive continent of Aelantir, lasted for 50,000 years, and was the unmatched leader in science and magic for millenia. Many adventurers are looking to plunder their artifacts, while the elves of Aelnar strive to emulate their glory.
  • Aul-Dwarov, the ancient Dwarven empire, was destroyed when humans were still living in primitive hunter-gatherer tribes. Their artifacts can still be found deep within the caverns of the Serpentspine, and their railroad tunnels are now home to goblin and orc tribes.
• Purposely Overpowered: Black Castanor's idea set is this. Of course, if you're forming Black Castanor it means you've somehow managed to conquer most of Escann starting as a backwater Gerudian country.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • Lorent's victory in the century-long Lilac Wars will prove to be this if they succumb to the Wine Lords.
  • The Battle of Daravan's Folly. Faced with a massive gnollish invasion, the king of Corvuria, Daravan the Malignant, summoned a massive flood which killed the gnollish host while also wiping out his army, his allies from Castanor, and half of his kingdom which was turned into an inhospitable swamp. Three years later, his understandably-angry allies invaded and put an end to Corvuria's independence.
• Quest to the West: West of Cannor you'll find the lost continent of Aelantir, which will become the destination of many adventurers and colonists. The first country to set sights on the continent will likely be the small elven island of Venáil, whose inhabitants are eager to return to their ancient homeland.
• Racial Remnant:
  • The Moon and Sun Elves living in Cannor and Bulwar in 1444 descended from the Precursor Elves of the aptly-named Remnant Fleet, which successfully escaped the Day of Ashen Skies.
  • The Ruinborn Elves that populate Aelantir in 1444 are also descendants of the Precursor Elves, albeit their appearance, culture and beliefs have been heavily warped by the cataclysm and by the continent's Eldritch Location status.
• Railroading: The Ravelians will get the God-Fragment and morph into a religion regardless of the player's actions. The dev diary on Ravelianism even calls this railroading.
• Rain of Something Unusual: Shortly after the death of Castellos is revealed and the Corinite faith emerges, the "Crimson Deluge" sweeps across Cannor, causing panic and destruction as a result of the red precipitation. Many, even those who never followed the Regent Court, convert to Corinism in hopes she can protect them.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: A core lifestyle of monstrous societies, and the fate that befell all Escann and the Forbidden Plains. Conversely, in Escann, the adventurers who've come to rebuild Escann aren't always much better, and both sides in Escann have a Splendor ability to increase the amount of Plunder they can rake out of each other's lands.
• Redeeming Replacement: As the God(dess) of War in the Regent Court, Corin is a variation. Her predecessor, Agrados, was in Cannorian legend and Regent Court dogma a betrayer figure whose attempt to usurp rule led to the creation of Hell, but his avatar Corin's heroic deeds and ultimately sacrifice redeemed him, granting him peace that finally let him die properly, with Corin in turn rising to fill the role he had had before his attempted usurpation as the warring defender of the Court and reality. This particular interpretation is unlikely to last more than a century before the Corinite Schism shatters it, but Adenica can restore it if they go for diplomacy and reconciliation, while the Corinites maintain a variant where Corin is both a redeeming replacement for Agrados and the normal sort of replacement for Castellos.
• The Remnant:
  • The Sons of Dameria, led by Rogier Silmuna, are all that's left of the soldiers who fought for the now-deceased Duchy of Dameria during the Lilac Wars. Their captain, Rogier Silmuna, is the last descendant of House Silmuna if you exclude the traitorous branch that rules Wesdam.
  • The Count's League and the Lordship of Marrhold are all that remains of the native kingdoms in Escann.
  • A more villainous example: the orc and goblin clans in Escann and the Deepwoods are the remnants of the Greentide.
  • The holds of Arg-Ôrdstun, Ovdal Lodhum, Ovdal Kanzad, Verkal Gulan, Seghdihr and Krakdhûmvror are all that remains of the dwarves that once populated the entirety of the Serpentspine mountain range.
  • Urviksten is ruled by the descendants of the legendary reaver Castan Ebonfrost, who forged the realm of Black Castanor. Should they somehow manage to emulate his conquests, they will be able to resurrect his empire.
  • The Sun Elf kingdoms in Bulwar are the remnants of Jaher's Phoenix Empire.
• La Résistance:
  • The Small Country rebellion aims to throw off Lorent and Gawed's foreign yoke and establish a halfling sovereign country.
  • Should a player manage to restore the authority of the Harimraj in Rahen, the Blood Lotus Rebellion will see human guerrilla fighters rise up to undermine the Harimraj and have Rahen ruled by humans.
  • During her life, Corin led one against the Greentide. Her order, Corintar, is a playable nation at the start.
• The Republic:
  • Wineport, Beepeck, Vertesk and Damescrown, as well as the many Imperial Free Cities.
  • The "elven principality" government type is a special form of republic with elections taking place every 20 years.
  • Brasan in Bulwar and Bhuvauri in Rahen.
• Resurgent Empire: This can achieved in-game for quite a few nations, while Jexis' Second Phoenix Empire was a (temporary) historic example — when Jaher's sons were dead, his daughter Jexis took control of the remnants of the Empire, re-united Bulwar and then proceeded to conquer all the way to Anbenncóst, where she established a new capital and ruled for decades over an empire as mighty as her father's (then she was assassinated and her empire went the same way as her father's had when he died). If the Phoenix Empire is refounded, part of its ideological underpinning ends up as this trope^note except for one specific outcome for Varamhar, where the refounded Phoenix Empire is a self-proclaimed Eternal Empire under an immortal Avatar-Emperor[[/note — the Empire is eternal not because it can't fall (it already fell twice, after all), but because like its namesake it will inevitably rise again from the ashes.
• The Rival: Being a mod for EU4, rivalry is a game mechanic. Many rivalries between countries will be going on, not all of them symmetrical.
  • The Kingdom of Lorent and Gawed are the two major powers on the western side of the continent. The two are already coming to blows over who gets to rule the Small Country.
  • The Kingdom of Lorent and the Grand Duchy of Dameria were this to each other during the Lilac Wars. Members of either country's alliance faction start the game with a negative opinion modifier towards those that were in the other.
• Sand Worm: The Desert of the Haraf in the west of North Aelantir has giant sand worms, shown with a 3D model of worms jumping across the terrain.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The wealthy semi-aristocratic patricians of Castonath consider themselves the real rulers of the city, above any outside ruler and will make ruling the city very difficult for a non-monstrous country that until they either deal with them by affirming the priviliges they're used to having upheld or by explicitly denying them and letting their power wane to little more than that of any other urban elite, or a monstrous country that doesn't eliminate them. If the city is taken, the patricians can ask to have their privileges affirmed, potentially replacing the standard burgher estate, and if the request is rejected, the patricians inflict 100% devestation on the three-province city and apply further debuffs to the provinces that last many years. For some comparison, using magic to drop a meteor on a city only causes 50% devestation.
• Screw You, Elves!: Gawed's attitude towards elves. Meanwhile, everybody else in Cannor does that literally.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Underground races that can dig deeper in dwarven holds[[note]]dwarves, goblins, and kobolds can discover a "strange calcite layer" when digging deeper. Digging through it breaks the seal that locked away the Obsidian Dwarves, who appear about eight years later with a large army and a mission to conquer the nation that unleashed them. Unlike other dwarves, the Obsidian Dwarves follow the Runefather rather than traditional dwarven Ancestor Worship and they wish to subjugate the the entire Serpentspine at the expense of everyone else there.
• Settling the Frontier: As a a mod for the game Europa Universalis, you cannot expect not to have colonization as a game mechanic. Players will be able to establish a colonial empire not unlike the ones of the real world, or assume the leadership of a band of adventurers and lead them in the creation of a new country independent from their motherland. The wars to reclaim Escann and the Serpentspine Mountains also employ this mechanic, though they're less "frontier" and more "After the End war zone".
• Slave Liberation: The Sunrise War, where the Sun Elf hero Jaher landed in Bulwar and defeated the gnollish slaver overlords of the region, getting acclaimed by Bulwari humans as their liberator and saviour.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The region of Dalaire in Aelantir is a frozen wasteland surrounded by more temperate regions on all sides. A Wizard Did It during the war leading up to Aelantir's destruction.
• Shout-Out: Now has its own page.
• Skippable Boss: The Rianvisa, a bloody and drawn-out civil war that will erupt once you form Aelnar and poses the main challenge of any Venáil game, can be averted altogether if the player meets a certain set of requirements.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Averted. While slavery as a practice is mainly associated with the monstrous race of the gnolls, who are said to be its inventors, all countries are able to reap the benefits of the "Slaves" trade good, and adventurers in Escann will have little hesitation enslaving orcs.
• Solar and Lunar: In 1444 elves are split into two major cultural groups: Moon Elves in Cannor, and Sun Elves in Bulwar.
• Sorcerous Overlord: Rulers with the "Powerful Mage" trait are among the strongest wizards of their time, capable of single-handedly deciding the course of a battle. The Age of the Witch Kings (equivalent to EU4's Age of Absolutism) is characterized by magically-gifted monarchs exerting massive amounts of power over their subjects.
  • Nichmer was the Sorcerer King of Black Castanor. Originally a courtier from Corvuria, he infiltrated the Castanorian court and assumed power by enthralling its members.
• Super-Soldier: As the game progresses, artificery begins dipping into this, and western kobolds focus on it to the point that they end up able to turn their regular army into soldiers that look like almost-human-sized walking dragons.
• Square Race, Round Class: Under Dak, the Chaingrasper clan does not play like a goblin clan. They instead form The Magocracy under a Sorcerous Overlord, and make very little use of the goblins' natural advantages in artifice (in fact, they suppress the artificers as much as possible).
• Storming the Castle: Orcish and goblin clans in the Serpentspine have made some of the ancient dwarven citadels into their capitals. Dwarven expeditions are on their way to take them back.
• Stuff Blowing Up: More than any other race, goblins take strongly to explosives and become some of the best grenadiers and sappers the world has ever known, with goblins even claiming to be the first users of grenades in combat (though dwarves will contest that they're the inventors and not goblins).
• Tank Goodness: Gnome countries will unlock early tanks as a "cavalry" unit very late in the game. Non-cave goblins follow suit with the rocket tank, which they believe to be an improvement on the gnomish design by virtue of it being rocket-powered, armed with rockets, and protected by dozens of goblins performing tank desant, while cave goblins instead develop a sort of Spider Tank that can walk on walls.
• Token Heroic Orc:
  • Lothane Bluetusk is a half-orc hero who was part of Corin's inner circle. At the start of the game he's the leader of Corintar, a human-majority country that will likely be at odds with the nearby orc clans.
  • Heroic may be a bit of an exaggeration, but Brasur Frozenmaw, leader of the Frozenmaw and the Graytide led a considerably less genocidal invasion (even taking a human wife and formally claiming his invaded kingdom in a way that allowed human nobles to remain in power if they swore fealty) than the Greentide, and was even preparing to fight the Greentide when Corin pre-empted him.
  • Arosha Oakbreaker is an orcish chieftain who joined Corin's Circle and sought to establish a home for her people free of the violence and racism of the Dookanson's Greentide. Some time after the game starts, she will offer her services to an orcish tribe in Escann, and if they accept her influence will push them towards (and help with) demonsterization^note the choice and process to lose the monstrous categorization (and later, either directly or by legacy, towards converting to Corinite from Great Dookan).
• Token Minority:
  • The Wexonard and Vertesker people are the only humans in the Empire who aren't part of the "Anbennarian" culture group.
  • The adventurers in Escann, while hailing from all sort of places, still originate from somewhere in Cannor and follow the Regent Court religion. But then you have the New Wanderers...
• Token Non-Human: The Empire of Anbennar has one playable country for each of the "good" fantasy races: Moonhaven for the elves, Silverforge for the dwarves, Beepeck for the halfings and Giberd for the gnomes. All of them are also Imperial electors, except for Giberd.
• Top God: Castellos is the head god of the Regent Court pantheon (of the King of the Gods type — that's why the religion is named that, they liken the gods to a royal court with Castellos as the king). After Castellos' death becomes known, a schism emerges in the Regent Court religion between those who believe the new Top God is Adean, Castellos' son, and those who believe it is Corin, the inheritor of Castellos' brother Agrados.
• To Serve Man: Should Zokka win its conflict with Jaddari, they will get a choice on what to do with the subjugated elves. One option is to sell them as slaves, the other is this trope.
• Turtle Island: Turtleback Island off the coast of Southern Aelantir might or might not be the back of a giant turtle.

Tropes U - Z

• Überwald: Corvuria, which is similar to Transylvania, and may or may not be ruled by an organization called the Blood Court behind the scenes.
• Underground City: Many all over the Dwarovar and a few elsewhere, populated by dwarves, goblins or orcs. The largest of them is Amldihr, the ancient capital of the dwarven empire.
• Underground Level: The Dwarovar update turned the Serpentspine mountain range into a playable area, with three new types of underground provinces: Caves, Dwarven Holds and Dwarven Roads. The Dragonscale mountains also contain cave provinces where kobolds live. Only subterranean races like Dwarves, kobolds, and Goblins can fully exploit dwarven holds and their surface counterparts, so either being such a race or having an non-oppressed local majority of an undergound race is necessary to get the most value out of the underground's most valueable provinces.
• Underwater Ruins: Damenath, the old capital of the Damerian Republic, was sunk under the sea during the Day of Ashen Skies. The Magisterium gets a mission to explore its ruins.
• Urban Ruins: The condition that Castanor's old capital Castonath verses in at the start of the game. Being a cluster of three Urban provinces, it is also the prime location for any adventurer looking to settle down and start a new capital.
• Vampire Monarch: Lucian sil na Toars, ruler of the Company of Thorns in Escann and (if successful) founder of the kingdom of Luciande.
• Vestigial Empire: The Harimraj, an empire established by tiger people who subjugated the human population of Rahen. While nominally the ruler of all of southern Rahen, the Raj at Dhenijansar will have to deal with ambitious vassals, the hobgoblin Command's incursions from the north, and massive corruption which permeates all aspects of the state. Even if the Harimraj is successful in re-affirming its rule, that will only be the prelude to the Blood Lotus Rebellion.
• Vice City: Estallen's ideas paint it as this, a sort of combination of Paris and Las Vegas with the sleazy aspects (drunken parties, brothels) as well as the refined (such as fashion).
• Villainous Underdog: The orcs of Escann are in a bad position. While they technically hold more territory than the adventurer companies, the latter's higher income, superior technology and ability to maintain larger armies mean that the orcs (as in the canon timeline) are screwed without a good player or lots of luck. This goes double for the goblins, who have all of the above disadvantages plus a weaker starting military. The end of the Escanni Goblin mission tree is called "Survivors," which is almost a Lampshade Hanging on how impossible that task is.
• The War Just Before: Two of them, in Western and Eastern Cannor. Each is the most relevant event in recent history:
  • In the west, the Lilac Wars, fought between Lorent and Anbennar over succession to both of their thrones (and regional primacy in general). Pretty much every country in Wescann got involved, and it ended with the rulers of Anbennar dethroned, massacred almost to the man, a bunch of border changes, and Lorent struggling to maintain its power after taking heavy losses. Even after the peace treaty, tensions are still high between the "Rose" and "Moon" factions in 1444 (though this dies down in a few decades).
  • In the east, the Greentide, where Korgus Dookanson's horde of orcs and goblins destroyed the local kingdoms. Most governments collapsed and most land became depopulated as people fled or were killed. As the horde's success grew, groups of adventurers and Lilac War veterans came to confront it, allying with the surviving Escanni. Korgus was eventually killed in battle, shattering his horde's cohesion and ending the major threat. This leaves Escann open to be fought over by the remaining greenskins, opportunistic adventurers, and a few remnants of pre-Greentide states (most of whom are pissed at Wescann for taking so long to help).
• Wine Is Classy: Lencenor is the land of wine. It is also the land of chivalry, romance, and courtly manners, with many of Lorent's national ideas emphasizing these refined aspects.
• Wooden Ships and Iron Men: Anbennar's fantasy world is about to enter full-swing into the Age of the Sail as Cannorian powers look to establish new colonial empires while monsters and men alike take up the piracy business in the Shattered Sea of Aelantir.
• World-Wrecking Wave: Ever wondered what is up with that huge circle in the middle of Aelantir? They are the Cliffs of Ruin, the edge of the crater from Ducaniel's Magic Nuke.
• X Meets Y: Europa Universalis IV meets Dungeons & Dragons.
  • Venáil-Aelnar: Third Odyssey meets Lord of the Rings.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: Due to some manner of magical effect altering the flow of time, the Wood Elves have lived in the Deepwoods for over a millennium despite only arriving in Cannor about 400 years ago in the outside world's time. The Greentide breaching into the Deepwoods also broke its distorted timeflow.

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