History VideoGame / Anbennar

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]]. Races who are deemed "monstrous"[[note]]Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, Ogres, Trolls, Hobgoblins, Centaurs, and Harpies (with the exception of Elyanna)[[/note]] suffer a severe diplomatic penalty with those who aren't and always have wargoals on each other (Monstrous Conquest and Anti-Monstrous), [[HardCodedHostility meaning that the majority of their interactions will be wars.]] [[SubvertedTrope It is possible to lose this "monstrous" penalty late in the game.]]

* HardCodedHostility: The "monstrous" opinion modifier means you won't likely see any alliance between countries of "good" fantasy races and "evil" ones, hostility between the two being further encouraged by the "Monstrous Conquest" and "Anti-Monstrous Conquest" casus bellis. [[SubvertedTrope The modifier can be lost later in the game though.]]

** Dak Chaingrasper is a genius ruler with the highest possible stats (6/6/6) and an incredibly gifted mage who also happens to be a 44 year old goblin. Even with the longer lifespan mages enjoy, this mostly just cancels out the shorter-than-average lives of goblins and gives you about 30 years to make the most of him. Well, unless you have him learn necromancy and pursue lichdom.

* {{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 [[{{Transhuman}} 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.

** Clanboss Dak Chaingrasper leads a goblin clan in the eastern Serpentspine with a 6/6/6 ruler score and the [[SorcerousOverlord 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.

* ResurgentEmpire: 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).

** 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.

* MarsNeedsWomen: Or rather, Venus needs Men - Harpies are an all-female OneGenderRace 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 [[ConceiveAndKill 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 [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe Husband Hunt]], in which a harpy abducts a male and keeps him as a husband[=/=]SexSlave. 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.

* AfterTheEnd: The situation in Aelantir at the game start. The various "Ruinborn" civilizations that are sprouting up are the survivors of the Ruin of Aelantir 1400 years before.

* {{Arcadia}}: The island of Endralliande is described as a lush, seemingly untainted land, with no people inhabiting it before the arrival of colonizers.

** This trope gets usually [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in Escann. While the region starts as a cluster of adventurer bands and [[TheRemnant remnant]] orcish clans, it's usually unified into a few large states by the mid game already. Of course, [[CaptainObvious all countries usually get bigger over the course of the game.]]

** Most monstrous nations are primitive, tribal, and have a [[RapePillageAndBurn raid-based economy]]. [[SubvertedTrope But they can civilize through the course of the game.]]

* DoWellButNotPerfect: The [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy 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 capacity to reform.

** Black Castanor and the Phoenix Empire, both of which are long gone by the game's start once stood as continent-encompassing superpowers and [[BackFromTheBrink they can be restored under the right circumstances.]]

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: The Ruin of Aelantir, known as the Day of Ashen Skies in the rest of the world. Other than destroying the [[{{Precursors}} 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 [[ElementalPlane the Shadow Plane and the Feywild]], and made magic commonplace. In its aftermath, rain 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 1000 years following the event became known as the Age of Ashes, and were marked by instability and strife.

* FantasticRacism: 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.

** JokeCharacter: Since getting their own unique unit types; the Halflings. Halflings by default have -10% Discipline in their armies; but their Mercenaries get +15%; giving them +5% total. However, mercenaries are expensive, and are usually largely infantry, so Halfling Artillery; which will usually be regulars, has a 10% discipline penalty. On top of this; Halflings having their own units applies to all Mercenaries, and Halfling units pips are almost always amoung the absolute worst in the game at every tech level [the best they manage is average in the midgame]. This is particfually noticeable with their endgame infantry units, which only have 17 pips. The next-worst tech group has 20 pips, while their most common neighbours [Cannorians] have 22. 5% Discipline on mercenaries only absolutely does not make up for such a massive baseline quality difference in armies. [Especially when your weakened cannons are the majority of endgame damage output]

** 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 rendered into an inhospitable swamp. Three years later, his understandably-angry Castanorian allies invaded and put an end to Corvuria's independence.
* QuestToTheWest: 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 be the small elven island of Venáil, whose inhabitants are eager to revisit their ancient homeland.

* RapePillageAndBurn: A core lifestyle of monstrous societies, and the fate that befell all Escann.

** A more villainous example: the orc and goblin clans in Escann and the Deepwoods are the remnant of the Greentide.

* TheRival: Being a mod for [[Videogame/EuropaUniversalis EU4]], rivalry is a game mechanic. Many rivalries between countries will be going on, [[DavidVersusGoliath not all of them being symmetrical]].

** 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 will still have a negative opinion towards those that were in the other.

** Lothane Bluetusk is a half-orc hero who was part of Corin's FiveManBand. At the start of the game he's the leader of Corintar, a human-majority country that will likely [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch 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 preparing to strike at Korgus to end the Greentide when Corin pre-empted him.

* UndergroundCity: Many all over the Dwarovar, populated by dwarves, goblins or orcs. The largest of them is Amldihr, the ancient capital of the dwarven empire.
** Rubyhold in Lencenor and Silverforge in Anbennar, although [[DownplayedTrope Silverforge is mostly built on the surface]].

* UrbanRuins: 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.

** The Lilac Wars were fought over the succession of Lorent and Anbennar, and drew in basically every country in Western Cannor, with tensions between the opposing Moon and Rose Parties still high in 1444, setting the stage for the various powers in the Empire.

* WorldWreckingWave: Ever wondered what is up with that huge circle in the middle of Aelantir? They are the Cliffs of Ruin, the crater of Ducaniel's MagicNuke.

* YearInsideHourOutside: 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 breeching the Deepwoods also broke its distorted timeflow.

* BloodLust: The Bloodfeeders in the Bloodgroves region feed exclusively on the red sap of the Bloodgroves ([[EldritchLocation which may or may not be blood]]), and blood.

** The Jaddari Legion in Bulwar is set 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 TopGod status, and go to war with anyone with disagrees.

** Elves can live for centuries, however [[Videogame/EuropaUniversalis EU]]4'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 [[HandWave 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.

* GodGuise: Through events from the Shattered Crown mission tree, it is eventually uncovered that the Dookan (or Dookanil to the Brown Orcs of Rahen) of orc religion was almost certainly [[spoiler: 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]].

** Explorers in Aelantir will discover that [[spoiler: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.

* GreatOffscreenWar: Many of them in the game world's history; due to the nature of [=EU4=] any war before the gameplay timeframe cannot be depicted. The most important ones are the Lilac Wars which enveloped much of Cannor for a century, and the Greentide which was a huge orcish invasion that destroyed the polities of Escann. In 1444, both of them just ended.
* {{Greed}}: As dwarven society grows richer and richer from its reclaimation of the Serpentspine Mountains, the fantastic wealth of the mountains leads to a level of societal greed so severe it's known as the Hoardscurse. As the Hoardscurse takes hold, business becomes 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 Hoardscurse and restore a functional society. And if the head of state of a dwarven country suffering the Hoardscurse is themself greedy? Then they must also be executed to break the cycle of greed. To break the Hoardscurse can easily cost pretty much the entirety of the wealth dwarven society has built up until that point.

* HailfirePeaks: Trickster Island in Aelantir is home to a desert and mountains in its northern half, and a wet jungle in the south. The island's name even [[LampshadedTrope lampshades]] this.

** The Empire of Castanor's official name is "Castan's Empire". [[InvertedTrope It goes both ways,]] as Castanor's rulers take up the name of Castan.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: The Ruin of Aelantir, known as the Day of Ashen Skies in the rest of the planet. Other than destroying the [[{{Precursors}} 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 [[ElementalPlane the Shadow Plane and the Feywild]], and made magic commonplace. In its aftermath, rain 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 1000 years following the event became known as the Age of Ashes, and were marked by instability and strife.

** [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the Wexonard and Marrodic peoples, who after centuries surrounded by Anbennarian and Escanni peoples still maintain their identity as an Alenic people.
* {{Golem}}: What gnomes will be fielding in their armies late in the game. Dwarves anciently employed them as guards for the Dwarovar.

* GreatOffscreenWar: The Lilac Wars was a series of conflicts that enveloped much of Cannor for a century, and the Greentide was a huge orcish invasion that destroyed the human realms in Escann. In 1444, both of them just ended.
* {{Greed}}: As dwarven society grows richer and richer from its reclaimation of the Serpentspine Mountains, the fantastic wealth of the mountains leads to a level of societal greed so severe it's known as the Hoardscurse. As the Hoardscurse takes hold, business becomes monopolized, banking dagerously speculative, corrupt, and inflationary, 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 Hoardscurse and restore a functional society. And if the head of state of a dwarven country suffering the Hoardscurse is themself greedy? Then they must also be executed to break the cycle of greed. To break the Hoardscurse can easily cost pretty much the entirety of the wealth dwarven society has built up until that point.

* HitSoHardTheCalendarFeltIt: The elf Ducaniel [[ColonyDrop crashed a flying city onto the elven continent]] in what became known as the Day of Ashen Skies, marking the year 0 of the calendar.

* InterfaceSpoiler: ''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 seomthing in the middle of [[spoiler: Eordand]] and not just wasteland. [[spoiler: It can only be opened by a unified Eordand Ruinborn state under specific circumstances.]]
* InterspeciesFriendship: Between elves and humans. Not only did the arrival of the elves [[BigDamnHeroes 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.

** Clanboss Dak Chaingrasper leads a goblin clan in the eastern Serpentspine with a 6/6/6 ruler score and the [[SorcerousOverlord powerful mage]] trait. Unusually for a still-living character, his brilliance (and legacy) is the source of much of his clan's national ideas as he does so much to shape its path going forwards.

** Above-ground Goblins ride {{giant spider}}s until they develop more mechanized mounts. Cave Goblins will ride underground monsters after transitioning from mere giant spiders.

** Dwarves ride rams and eventually [[MechanicalHorse mecha-rams]].

** 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 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 a sun-worshipping form of Zoroastrianism and all believe that Surael, the Sun God, is the sole surviving god and the other gods all died to the Maleveolent Dark. Unlike their counterparts, the Sun Cults still follow largely similar practices and hold mostly similar beliefs outside of the matter of whether Surael has returned or not and whether a particular race is favored by Surael.
*** The Old Sun Cult is the faith as practiced before the Sun Elves came to Bulwar. 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 and that since he left no heirs, his entire race holds divine favor.
*** The Jadd, which is the newest branch and the "Islam" of the trio, is being spread by a Muhammad-like figure and rejects the divine favor of the Sun Elves and instead holds that anyone can hold the favor of Surael so long as they submit and follow the Jadd.

** Elves will seemingly be late to adopt firearms, but that's actually because of the older generation sticking to the bow they've mastered throughout centuries. [[SubvertedTrope When said generation dies out, they will be replaced by just-as-adept elven musketeers.]]

** Goblins ride {{giant spider}}s until they develop more mechanized mounts.

** Ynnic Ruinborn Elves ride "antler horses".

** 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. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that the Dookanson's magic was making the orcs BrainwashedAndCrazy.

** The Greentide, which was the Dookanson's brainwashed army of orcs. The formable country of Khozrugan can become their successor.

** The holds of Arg-Ôrdstun, Ovdal Lodhum, Ovdal Kanzad, Seghdihr and Krakdhûmvror are all that remains of the dwarves that once populated the entirety of the Serpentspine mountain range. {{Subverted|Trope}} by Verkal Gulan, which fell long ago and was in fact relatively recently reclaimed.

* YearInsideHourOutside: 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 and in the Deepwoods about 200 years ago in the outside world's time. The Greentide breeching the Deepwoods also broke its distorted timeflow.

** The humans of Kheterata are among the few camel riders of the setting.