Compare Theaters
Look first at terrain grammar. Some cultures want channels and coasts, others want floodplains, passes, prairies, or ridgelines.
Cultures
Ten cultures, ten ways to wage a world
Every culture plays a different fantasy: clan musters, desert leverage, hydraulic abundance, winter raids, mountain sieges, sacred-road warfare. Explore each culture, pick the realm that matches how you want to fight, build, and worship.
Compare Tempo
Some factions peak through scouting and early pressure, others by scaling reserves, civic order, and impossible-to-break logistics.
Compare Win Conditions
Each culture highlights what must stay connected for that realm to feel powerful instead of merely prosperous.
DunbarrowChampion's ChallengeCairnveil Tuatha
By oath, stone, and song, the land remembers.
A rain-soaked confederacy of hill clans, sacred wells, island warbands, and cattle roads that weaponizes memory, omen, and difficult ground. Cairnveil does not need the widest empire if every ford, cairn, and hillfort answers the war horn.
- Homeland
- Moors
- Play Pattern
- Muster / Sanctify / Endure
- Command
- Rooted, cunning, and hard to uproot when hills, omens, and loyalty all align.
Sacred terrainRapid mustersOmen warfareWinning Idea
Make difficult ground holy, keep the confederacy loyal, and force battles where weather, omen, and terrain all answer to you.
Signature Roster
- Bog Trapper · Ambush infantry designed to exploit marsh, poor visibility, and waterlogged terrain.
- Ford Spear · Clan line-holder that guards crossings and punishes reckless advances.
Saharas-ZirDesert MirageSun Dune Sultanates
Gold moves armies before steel arrives.
A disciplined desert state system of oasis courts, caravan power, intelligence networks, and precise mounted war. The Sultanates thrive where scarcity can be converted into leverage and timing matters more than brute mass.
- Homeland
- Arid belts
- Play Pattern
- Trade / Maneuver / Strike
- Command
- Clever, composed, and one move ahead because you know more and move better.
Caravan wealthMobile cavalryIntrigueWinning Idea
Profit first, reposition second, strike third. Wealth matters only if it arrives before steel.
Signature Roster
- Camel Spear · Mobile desert scout that combines reconnaissance with light skirmish threat.
- Date Harvester Guard · Economic escort that keeps food wealth moving between oasis nodes.
Coral ReachTidal WebAzure Isles League
Own the sea, command every horizon.
A maritime covenant of island ports, scouts, smugglers, and boarding fleets that treats coastlines as infrastructure. The League wins by controlling routes, visibility, and the tempo of contact before heavier powers can force a straight fight.
- Homeland
- Archipelagos
- Play Pattern
- Scout / Harass / Board
- Command
- Mobile, watchful, and opportunistic, with strength coming from superior route control.
Naval supremacyCoastal raidingTrade intelligenceWinning Idea
Do not just own islands. Own the routes between them, the information around them, and the fear that keeps rivals off both.
Signature Roster
- Harbor Runner · Messenger specialist that keeps alarms, flags, and city response chains alive during raids or storms.
- Net-Caster Skirmisher · Control skirmisher that tangles boarders and punishes enemies in shallow approaches.
SkarnholmStorm LandingFjordborn Clans
Storms harden us. Coasts fall before us.
A winter-forged maritime war culture of clan halls, stockpiles, and raiding fleets that turns survival discipline into aggression. Fjordborn power comes from enduring the harsh season better than rivals and using that resilience to choose when violence begins.
- Homeland
- Cold coasts
- Play Pattern
- Stockpile / Raid / Endure
- Command
- Stern, prepared, and dangerous once the hold is stocked and the coast is ready to open outward.
Winter enduranceRaiding fleetsHard-harbor defenseWinning Idea
Do not imitate rich sedentary powers. Outprepare them, outlast the bad season, then strike the coast they assumed was safe.
Signature Roster
- Bonded Axeman · Basic clan infantry built for rough-ground defense and close coastal fights.
- Hearth Guard · Reserve-minded defender whose morale hardens around halls and storehouses.
Long CouncilSeven FiresThunder Lodge Confederacy
The fire remembers. The people rise together.
A kin-confederated civilization of mound plazas, lodges, river towns, prairie camps, and council fires that turns mutual obligation into military depth. Thunder Lodge power is social before it is imperial: settlements survive because many circles still answer them.
- Homeland
- Prairies
- Play Pattern
- Gather / Muster / Renew
- Command
- Rooted, watchful, and collectively strong when settlements support each other instead of standing alone.
Confederate mustersScout networksCeremonial resilienceWinning Idea
Do not defend every place equally. Strengthen the circles that matter, answer threats early, and let kinship turn local pressure into confederate force.
Signature Roster
- Atlatl Skirmisher · Fast-moving prairie harasser built to establish open-ground pressure.
- Lodge Spear · Farmer-warrior defender that protects camps, palisades, and council settlements.
ZoharetCanal LockRiver Crown Kingdoms
Feed the realm. Outlast every rival.
A hydraulic state built on managed abundance, civic continuity, and the slow confidence of a kingdom that keeps feeding itself while others exhaust their strength. River Crown power grows from calm systems rather than dramatic gambles.
- Homeland
- Warm floodplains
- Play Pattern
- Grow / Govern / Outlast
- Command
- Settled, secure, and steadily unmovable as canals and population thicken into state power.
Agricultural abundanceCivic orderImperial enduranceWinning Idea
Feed more people than rivals can sustain, govern them more calmly than rivals can disrupt, and survive every contest through continuity.
Signature Roster
- Bull Drover · Utility labor-war unit that moves loads and can still fight in emergencies.
- Canal Guard · Basic spear defender for banks, levees, barges, and work crews.
KinranSilk NooseJade Lotus Empire
Order, learning, patience, then rightful supremacy.
A disciplined imperial machine where records, roads, workshops, officers, and ritual all move in the same direction. Jade Lotus does not chase chaos; it arranges the world until rivals become less coherent than the war they face.
- Homeland
- Stable valleys
- Play Pattern
- Plan / Coordinate / Supersede
- Command
- Precise, prepared, and increasingly superior as the realm becomes more coherent than any rival state.
AdministrationEngineeringCoordinated armiesWinning Idea
Make every district smarter, every chain tighter, and every campaign better coordinated until rivals simply cannot match your order.
Signature Roster
- Bamboo Archer · Light ranged infantry for disciplined early border control.
- Courier Runner · Fast line-connector that keeps imperial movement and response synchronized.
Sun PillarCondor's PerchCondor Crown Confederacy
Rise by the road. Rule by sun and root.
A vertical civilization of terrace cities, cloud-forest sanctuaries, and sacred road networks stretched from ravine to summit. Condor Crown wins when altitude, roads, and patron-god cities all point toward the same positional trap.
- Homeland
- Highlands
- Play Pattern
- Elevate / Coordinate / Sanctify
- Command
- Elevated, coordinated, and spiritually networked, strongest when every city is part fortress and part shrine.
Vertical terrainSacred roadsPatron-city specializationWinning Idea
Own the heights, own the hidden paths, and make every city matter through terrain logic and patron-god specialization.
Signature Roster
- Cairn Guard · Early morale anchor built to stand around shrines, tombs, and sacred strongpoints.
- Llama Runner · Fast relay escort that keeps roads, stores, and messages moving through broken terrain.
Mara KebraLion's CircleRed Earth Covenant
Remember the ancestors. Circle the enemy. Endure the sun.
A savannah confederacy of councils, cattle wealth, sacred groves, and drum-signaled war hosts that turns social cohesion into battlefield encirclement. The Covenant is most dangerous when open ground becomes a place of memory, movement, and converging pressure.
- Homeland
- Savannahs
- Play Pattern
- Signal / Circle / Endure
- Command
- Communal, watchful, and increasingly dangerous as more of the homeland responds as one body.
Encirclement warfareMobile reservesAncestral cohesionWinning Idea
Do not out-fortress fortress cultures. Out-coordinate them, outflank them, and make every open field become a circle.
Signature Roster
- Millet Guard · Steady early line infantry that protects fields, stores, and civic continuity.
- Sling Youth · Fast age-grade harasser that screens and disrupts ahead of the main ring.
Karak DaunMountain AnvilIronpeak Holds
Stone endures. Steel answers every siege.
A mountain-forge civilization of mines, tunnels, terraces, and fortress industry that turns harsh terrain into an economic and military filter. Ironpeak excels when every assault must pass through stone, iron, and prepared kill zones.
- Homeland
- Mountains
- Play Pattern
- Mine / Fortify / Endure
- Command
- Heavy, secure, and relentless when terrain and logistics both belong to you.
Siege certaintyForge industryChokepoint controlWinning Idea
Do not merely survive pressure. Convert pressure into advantage by making your terrain, metal, and preparation worth more than enemy mobility.
Signature Roster
- Goat Runner · Steep-route scout and relay specialist where heavier troops would lag behind.
- Ram Guard · Shelf-and-gate specialist that punishes forced entries.