Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Frank and I are close to delivery on our LA extension mod, which will include Pythium, Serpent Cult; Machaka, Golden Kingdom and Helheim, Beyond the Pale Sea.

Serpent Cult will get capital-only lamias modeled after the (much later, and Turkish, not Byzantine) sultanate of women. Point is, if you're serpent cult, you should get hot, capital-only snake women. Some of the lamias are armed with poison bows. The Varangian Guard will be sacred predator lizards in plate armor with tower shields - you are expected to wet yourself. Magic will be astral, water, death, nature and blood (note that this is EA Sauromatian magic, cutely enough.) Other than that you get pretty much the same stuff you get in Dom 2. Still picking magic and trying to decide which (if any, probably some of the lesser characters) of the snake women aren't capital only.

Helheim, beyond the Pale Sea, has Machakans instead of serf warriors, and kleurlinge (mixed-race) units with glamour who are not sacred (except for the valkyries, who also turn into spiders now). Your helhirdings ride giant spiders (not black hunters, the regular spiders), and get spider armor. It's inspired by the Boer republics of South Africa. Death, nature, fire, air, blood and earth - in various combinations never rising above a 2 in any path, maybe 3 death (compare to T'ien Ch'i). Your kleurlinge sorceress is sacred, flies and has glamour but is otherwise similar to an existing black sorceress - kleurlinge sorcerers are stealthy assassins with bane-spider armaments and spider armor. You also get helkarls who ride on spiders, but only in your capital.

Machaka, Golden Kingdom loses the Black Hunter spiders, but gets poisoned arrows, poisoned javelins, as well as bracers of protection on their elite units. Their most elite units are sacred magic beings with bracelets of protection who are otherwise naked - you get a group of national combat spells in conjuration that buff them by allowing spirits associated with one of the Orishas (divine beings who act as intermediaries between the people and the awakening God) to possess them. You can also summon people who are permanently posessed by each of the Orishas (unique by copystats), you get "Petro" (I need to check if this concept is exclusively Haitian) versions who are not demons and come out of blood magic. Yes I know that the Malinese were nominally muslim, and in any case are not the same as the Yoruba and bleah bleah. You keep the Sorcerer and the Witch Doctor, but they are sacred now (and marginally more expensive), and you get Houngan, who have one astral and a FEDN random, as well as a Medicine Men (capital only) who gets two astral, three 50% FEDN randoms and a 20% FEDSN random. You may also be able to summon Wakyambi (since those are cool) as well as undead blackhunters (maybe in psychedelic colors) whom the orisha-vessels *ride*.

Anyway, suggestions are appreciated. We're doing artwork right now.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Looking forward to it. The Late needs more nations!

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Sounds very nice. Hopefully the graphics will go smoothly for you. If you need any pointers there are some artists littered around here.

Makes me want to continue work on my blood themed LA Oceania.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Sounds good, more nations for my ever increasing SP turn generation times

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Sounds awsome!!



Can you blood hunt under water??

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

No, you can't.

So the underwater blood nation is forced to raid the surface - rising from the sea, descending on the hapless villagers in the night and carrying off their daughters, to be ceremonially married to the awakening God in a blasphemous undersea temple before having their hearts eaten. How cool is that?

My only question is - why doesn't LA R'lyeh do this already? The fact that they'd be the worst blood nation *ever* (is underwater, dominion kills population) wouldn't hinder this from being totally awesome.

The simplest solution is to give those loser cult leaders they recruit in their coastal castles significant blood magic (along with an increase in price, naturally.)

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Firstly, blood hunting should work underwater-there's no good reason why it shouldn't.

Infact, it should work better since a shark can track blood like crazy in the water. Surely, this has to apply somehow?

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

I still have to test some of this stuff.

Does anyone know if blood slaves can be taken/used underwater? Do they simply drown? If they do, I can make them amphibious - they aren't really specifically human - I mean you can harvest them from any poptype, so I don't see why they couldn't represent atlantians, mermen, tritons etc.

Of course I'd add underwater blood spells - sharky ones, summons, aoe damage etc etc.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

I've got underwater temples sacrificing away in my LA Mictlan game. So you can definitely bring blood slaves underwater, and you should be able to use them in ritual magic if the ritual is allowable underwater.

I'm not sure if you can bring bloodslaves with you into underwater *battles*. Since units led by someone with a manual of waterbreathing or whatever don't drown when combat starts, I assume that the blood slaves live, but there might be a waterbreathing check at the start of combat.

One assumes either that atlanteans, tritons, mermen etc. are useless as blood slaves, or that their women lose their virginity before hitting puberty. I assume the later.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Interesting... so why (technically) can't you blood hunt underwater? Is that command just not available?

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Oceania and blood?

Interesting idea. I was thinking more along the lines of fire magic myself. Oceania, the burning seas. Tie em in with Abyssia somehow, and you get fire and blood, I guess. Idea was thermal vents too hot for R'lyeh, or something like the Island of Pompei.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

If there would be a fire-themed Oceania, then they could have underwater evocation spells based on steam.
Maybe even steam war machines? And steam elementals?

As for a blood-themed Oceania, their summons should IMHO include sea-themed demons. So shark demons, tentacle/kraken demons and perhaps some kind of 'fiends of the deep'.

Oh, and the LA Machaka description also sounds awesome. If they are going to be Voodoo themed, how about giving them a national spell for remote assassination? Either based on cursing someone, using the 'voodoo doll' or possessing some random person to assassinate them.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

I was planning on making them very sharky and yes, that would include shark demons, land sharks, humanoid sharks etc.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

As for fire-themed, I was going to avoid war machines, since its very uncharacteristic of Dominions3. Though, now that I think about it, there are those Clockwork Horrors and Mechanical Men. I could maybe equip one with "Burning Fists" or something like that.

The problem with my Oceania is I can't proceed until I decide whether they start in the ocean, or on the land. How critical is being the only one starting in the water to LA R'lyeh? Historically, I wouldn't expect to find Oceania underwater anymore, in context of the rest of the game. Only in the shallows, at most. Even atlantis was driven out, and they drove Oceania out first.

A unique site idea- The Coast/Vents of Burning Blood.
Generates water, fire, blood slaves. Allows recruitment of Reborn, Ravaged, and Hulks.

The people of oceania fell before the might of Atlantis and R'lyeh before finding refuge in the boiling seas/burning island, where they hid for centuries while R'lyeh dominated the sea, avoiding the uncomfortable heat. With the opening of the gate into the void, the mermen of Oceania have sought divine guidance.

The heart of Oceania's secret is the sacred hydrothermal vents at the heart of their island/sea. It keeps the waters warm enough that R'lyeh ignored them for centuries, before the opening of the void gate. Occasionally, Mermen patrolling the borders manage to free slaves- Mermen or Atlantian. Unfortunately, those freed have little mind left- left behind they would provide valuable information to the enemy. Cared for, they would be a horrible burden. The former slaves are taken to the sacred flame and cast in. Those who have mind enough left are purified of R'lyehs taint, while those too far gone are left as mindless bloodslaves, bereft of all strength.

(Capital Only)
The Reborn are Mermen/Tritons who survived the holy flame and took on its traits. Fierce warriors radiating heat, they can wield some minor magics. The Hulks are Atlantian Shamblers with little mind left, but forever free of R'lyeh's control. They retain just enough mind to hate R'lyeh with a burning passion, but not enough pride to remember the old rivalry between the races of Atlantis and Oceania. The Ravaged are those whose physical bodies could not withstand the flames, and nearly became one with them. Freakish but powerful mages when commanding.

The Ravaged can also be created by lesser flames set up by priests, but only with the Great Flame do they retain enough of a mind to lead.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Sounds very nice. I personally feel Oceania should start on land and have many underwater only national spells - both for thematic reasons and to encourage them to go underwater.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Why can't you blood hunt underwater again?

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

The underwater creatures reproduce by laying eggs. So, they never menstruate, and thus pubertal virgin females lack utility in blood magic.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Well, you can't argue with that.

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

So why can you harvest Ctisians?

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

Heh... no I mean why can't you blood hunt underwater from a technical game perspective? Can you just not issue that order underwater?

Re: Late Era versions of existing nations
 

That's it exactly.