EA Pelagia - Pearl Kings

"Oceania and Pelagia are nations inspired by medieval bestiaries abundant with creatures of the sea corresponding to beings living on land. As most of these creatures are half-men and fish-beasts, Oceania as a nation became quite similar to Pangaea. The development of the Triton Kings incorporated modern concepts and imagery of mermen, and in Dominions 4, Pelagia was made a nation of its own, less Pangaean in style. Knights armed in mother-of-pearl armor, Triton Kings on hippocampoii-drawn sea-shell chariots, and golden tridents are all part of the Pelagia setting.

"With the release of the Dominions 4 UW-patch the backstory of Pelagia was developed. It became intermingled with Berytos and my first ideas on later developments for the nation emerged. I prefer if nations are primarily culturally defined, and secondarily racially defined. Pelagia always felt more like a race thing and less like a kingdom with its own cultural setting. The changes in the patch was a step in this direction, although I find the new nation Erytheia more interesting." –Illwinter

Pelagia is the first civilized realm underneath the sea. It's a Kingdom of the Tritons, the undersea equivalent to Mankind, with amphibious Mermen as middlemen between them and their counterparts. The Mermen don't seem to have a history (though they appear Oceanic in nature), but the Pelagian Tritons trace their origins back to the Lord of the Waves and the Old Man of the Sea. One ancient Triton, Thaumas "the Wondrous", grew to enormous proportions and taught his secrets to a small clan of his people; other Tritons from this clan eventually grew large as well, and styled themselves as Pearl Kings, founding a Kingdom by uniting with a clan of coral-using warriors. Thaumas's acolytes used his special Water Magic to cultivate shining Pearls, and the Kingdom began using Merman subjects to trade these beauties with coastal realms above the waves. Therodos and its successor were its major business partners. Pelagia enjoyed its hegemony; unfortunately, it would not last, as other organized and/or ambitious factions would soon join them under the sea.

The Tritons are still mostly tribal; the Kingdom was founded by a union of the militant Coral Clan with the small-but-blessed Pearl Clan, and its Tritons pride themselves on their "purity" and strength relative to the other Tribes, who only serve the Kingdom as allies. The ocean isn't a particularly-conducive environment for metalsmithing, so Tritons typically use whatever's easier for them to work with; The Shark Tribe uses armor made of stuff gathered from hunting Sharks, the Turtle Tribe uses armor made of stuff gathered from hunting Turtles, the Coral Clan uses armor made of cultivated Coral, and the Pearl Clan uses Magic armaments made of their cultivated Pearls (in addition to Coral armor). Most Pelagians use Coral armaments and not a ton of armor; their weapons deal a little Poison Damage on hit, as long as at least one point of non-Poison Damage is dealt, by the way.

Contrary to its old-looking flag and lore position, Pelagia is a Dominions 4 concoction; in Dominions 3 (when the series first had Ages), this nation was Oceania, and the Triton Kings were replaced with the Capricorns and other "Ichty" folk in the Middle Ages. Much of the nature-based stuff was kept with Oceania when the split happened.

Early-Age Pelagia gets a lot of flak for being the least-effective land nation in the game… Which is fair, it's an Underwater nation. They probably weren't expecting most of the Thrones to be on-land, or perhaps they weren't prepared for the Ascension Wars at all. Trying to snag a coastal province before land nations claim it is hard enough; setting it up for churning out self-defense is harder (in a Multiplayer game), and don't get me started on trying to project force inland. You have a very interesting Magic game, however, since you can do a lot more with the sea's (hopefully) plentiful Water Gems than anyone else. The longer the game goes, the more likely you'll be able to pull something off.

Most of your Mages can convert into at a 1-for-1 ratio, but with a maximum rate per turn.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Very Fast Underwater +1 MOR vs. Humans "Pure" Tritons: Aquatic Base 1 PROT +2 HP, STR, & MR vs. Humans +1 ATT vs. Humans Tribal Tritons: Aquatic +1 MR vs. Humans Mermen: Amphibious Base 1 PROT +2 MR vs. Humans	Poisonous Coral Gear Some Primitive Armor Strong Triton Infantry (Light and Heavy) Triton "Unicorn" Cavalry Weaker Mermen Heavy Infantry On Land Sacred Triton Heavy Infantry with Magic Pearl Equipment	4 (rare 5) 2 (rare 3) 2 (rare 3) 1 (rare 2) 1 Hero: 3431	3 Capital-only 1 in land Forts	Fortresses Coastal Mages & Warriors

Getting your highest-level stuff on land requires some investment, sadly.

EA Pelagia's troop lineup may perhaps be best described as Berytos-level garbage - at least on land. It is saved from immediate and devastating demise by the underwater advantage, and by the fact that underwater combat is often decided more by the number of Water Elementals one can summon than it is by troop quality. Its ability to operate on land without some serious investment is very limited due to the poor quality of its amphibious troops.

Pelagia's mages somewhat make up for this. In addition to being perfectly capable of spamming Water Elementals, Pelagia is famous for its Pearl Cultivation ability, potentially allowing for some powerful late game plays with the usual high-astral suspects of Wish and Arcane Nexus. However, Pelagia's strongest mages are just as aquatic as its troops and take a lot of investment to get on land in usable numbers.

The following commanders may be recruited underwater.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Merman Scout 25 4 1	Stealthy (50) Land Shape ⇔ Merman Scout Amphibious	Amphibious scouts are neat.
	Turtle Chief 40 10 1 + Coastal Fort Rec	Land Shape ⇔ Turtle Chief Amphibious	A 60 leadership, amphibious commander for when EA Pelagia must reach above the waves. Does not provide many advantages over standard amphibious indie commanders.
	Pelagian Captain 70 16 1	Poison Barbs (5) Aquatic	EA Pelagia's standard 80 leadership commander, enabling formations - but only underwater! Poison Barbs is neat but unlikely to dissuade the determined opponent.
	Merman Priest 45 1 1	1 Sacred Land Shape ⇔ Merman Priest Amphibious	Temple-building boys.
	Pearl Clan Priest 80 2 2	2 Sacred Aquatic	Pearl Clan Priests gain access to Sermon of Courage and better preaching abilities, though at nearly twice the price of their merman colleagues. They are also more proficient at banishing R'lyeh and Therodos's undead. Merman Priests are better for building temples, however.
	Pelagian Mermage 95 1 2	11100% 9 Land Shape ⇔ Pelagian Mermage Amphibious	Your underwater research monkey variant. Should you happen upon Earth Boots, make sure to take them off before you go underwater, or else you'll lose them!
	Ichtyid Pearl Mage 80 4 2	11 7 Inept Researcher (-2) Amphibious	EA Pelagia's cheapest amphibious mage that reliably has astral magic, but capital-only. A serviceable communion mage and much cheaper than Pearl Kings, but not particularly impressive for a capital-only recruit.
	Pearl Mage 195 1 2	2111100% 15 Pearl Cultivator (3) Supply Bonus (10) Aquatic	Pearl Mages fulfil the absolutely necessary role of summoning Water Elementals for the underwater knife fight, should you have underwater neighbors. Pearl Cultivation is great utility, and can be a very powerful in combination with Maelstrom and especially Arcane Nexus. While these are the fastest way for Pelagia to turn CP into research, your amphibious mages are much more gold-efficient for the task.
	Pearl King 485 7 4 Capital Only	41131100% 10% 19 Sacred Resist Cold (7) Pearl Cultivator (5) Supply Bonus (10) Dominion attracts units/20: Hippocampus Aquatic	Pearl Kings are somewhat similar to EA Xibalba's Onaqui, as ultra-expensive and ultra-powerful Mages who can summon troops over time. Onaqui can go on-land, however, and Hippocampoi are significantly worse freespawn than Beast Bats. They can wield the Ichtyids and other Pearl Mages as Communion Masters, but keep an eye out for Magic Duels on-land, especially when going alone. Among EA water nations, only R'lyeh shares massable astral mages, but they are not uncommon on land (see EA Ermor, EA Marverni, and EA Kailasa). Some Pearl Kings will be magic phase-capable with Teleport, providing EA Pelagia with highly mobile throne claimers.

The following commanders may be recruited in coastal forts.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Turtle Chief 40 10 1 + Underwater Fort Rec	Sea Shape ⇔ Turtle Chief Amphibious	A 60 leadership, amphibious commander for when EA Pelagia must reach above the waves. Does not provide many advantages over standard indie commanders.