History VideoGame / TotalAnnihilationKingdoms

* Elsin, the LawfulGood Mage King of Aramon is your classic medieval nation with castles, peasants, knights, primitive cannons and backstabbing nobility. Affiliated with the element of earth, but also has secondary element, [[LightIsGood Light.]] Elsin is arguably TheProtagonist. Naturally, Aramon is known to have strong, albeit slow brute force land armies, including some of the best siege units in the game. Aramonian bases are well-known for their amazing ability to protect themselves, with some of the best towers in the game, including trebuchets; letting an Aramon player turtle in multiplayer will likely lead either to a long stall, or a fast and easy win for the iron-clads. Known to be very new-player friendly. A flexible faction, though they lack some specialized units from other factions, with a mediocre navy, and aside from horsemen and knights they lack speed, which can be a weakness. Elsin himself has no special abilities, but he is considered to be the best in a straight up fight compared to other monarchs. Allied with Veruna.
* Kirenna, also LawfulGood Sea Mage of Veruna, a Mediterranean-Scottish-and-whathaveyou flavored nation spread over numerous small islands, has the most powerful naval force in the game under her command, only challenged by the Creonite fleet. Affiliated with the element of water, obviously. Veruna has good base building ability; their Bastion cannon tower is almost as strong as Aramons', and their mortars are faster to build with similar results to trebuchet's. They also can perform surprisingly well on the land; while many of their units are [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]], they're cheap, fast to build and mobile. Kirenna's special ability is of course, being able to swim in the sea. Allied with Aramon.
* Lokken, the very NeutralEvil Necromancer of Taros rules over [[{{Mordor}} a barren wasteland]]. Has a slight East-Asian, Japanese and Chinese flavor, combined with your typical undead and demonic forces. Affiliated with the element of fire. This is also the "magic" faction, and has the most units that have special abilities, both active and passive, leading to a very eclectic unit roster that benefits the most from micromanagement. Fire spouts can cloak, Liches can move across water, ghost ships can load troops and move on both land and water, and they have strong air units. Weather witches and fire mages have active spells they can cast; fire storm can wipe out entire armies. Extremely powerful when played correctly, but does require micromanagement. Taros can defend - their lightning towers are serviceable, but they are better at offense; and the speed of progression is largely dependent on management, making new players somewhat weak against early rushes and very weak against Creonites who advance to double the power during that time. Lokken can cloak, an ability exclusive to him, and can be very useful in multiplayer. Allied with Zhon.
* Thirsha, the ChaoticNeutral Huntress of Zhon, rules over a savage, wild jungle land inhabited by primitive animals and monstrous beings who worship her as a goddess. Affiliated with the element of wind. Zhon is the odd man out from the rest of the factions. They don't have many buildings, and rather than creating a building that makes other units, their units create other units. Thus, Zhon is all about speed and mobility. The army, or more accurately, the [[WorldOfBadass entire population]] of Zhon can be fast and deadly in the right players' hands, with tier 1 units weak but cheap to make, higher tier units very strong, and the winged beasts of war they employ are unmatched, [[OverlyLongGag except by, of course, Creon]]. Zhon is not known to be new player friendly due to the perceived drawbacks of nearly no actual base-building. Zhon is all about the offense, applying pressure and more pressure. Thirsha is the only monarch that can fly. Allied with Taros, for some unexplained reason.
* And the expansion gives us the nation of Creon, ruled by LawfulNeutral Mendalos, The 27th Sage, whose strongly SteamPunk-themed forces can be described as a comfortably paced, impenetrable wall of mass destruction. They were intentionally made more capable in all but the strongest aspects of the other four; abusing their slow advancement is the only way to beat them for sure.

** Veruna is the naval faction. While naval warfare is their specialty, being associated with Water after all, it doesn't detract from their land performance. Verunan units are generally cheap, quick to build and faster than Aramon's. They have a handful of powerful ranged units and fast moving raiders which can easily close in the gap with the enemy to overwhelm opponents. [[GlassCannon While hard-hitting, they don't last long in a straight up fight]]. However, they do have the capability of building strong bases, befitting a naval faction that can fortify multiple positions as needed. They also have pathetic air power. Kirenna can swim.

* Kirenna, also LawfulGood Sea Mage of Veruna, a Mediterranean-Scottish-and-whathaveyou flavored nation spread over numerous small islands, has the most powerful naval force in the game under her command, only challenged by the Creonite fleet. Affiliated with the element of water, obviously. Veruna has good base building ability; their Bastion cannon tower is almost as strong as Aramons'. They also can perform surprisingly well on the land, despite most of their troops being pushovers and [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]], but only have a handful nigh-useless air units. Kirenna's special ability is of course, being able to swim in the sea. Allied with Aramon.

** Veruna is the naval faction. While naval warfare is their specialty, being associated with Water after all, they can perform quite well on land. They have a handful of powerful ranged units and fast moving raiders which can easily close in the gap with the enemy to overwhelm opponents. [[GlassCannon While hard-hitting, they don't last long in a straight up fight]]. However, they do have the capability of building strong bases, befitting a naval faction that can fortify multiple positions as needed. They also have pathetic air power. Kirenna can swim.

** Aramon is considered the most "balanced" out of the rest of the factions and the most newbie-friendly. Aramon boasts strong land armies, with some of the best siege and tower units in the game. Aramon tactics generally revolve around building an impregnable defense that could fend off any threat long before they could even get close while building a strong army in the background to crush the remainders with. Fitting of their association with Earth, they have a very strong ground force but somewhat lacking in navy and air power. It's also difficult for Aramon players to keep up with more mobile factions; most Aramon units, aside from horseman and knights, just don't have the speed to keep up with units from other factions. Aramon is the only faction with a secondary element, [[LightIsGood Light]]; in the campaign sigil cutscenes, Aramon has light coming from background, instead of their associated element. Elsin is the strongest Monarch out of the four in a straight up fight. Arguably TheProtagonist faction.

** Zhon is the Guerrilla faction and the odd man out. They're the only faction that does not build bases. Instead, they can build their army on the fly via MookMaker and only build structures for harvesting mana, defense, and healing. This allows them to easily gain ground rapidly and launch surprise attacks from anywhere since you never know where exactly are they building their army. Zhon is all about speed, mobility, and rushing opponents. Zhon's boasts a strong unit roster. Associated with the Wind, they have a formidable airforce. Thirsha is the only Monarch that can fly.