LA Pythium, Serpent Cult

Pythium is based on the eastern Roman Empire and Byzantium. Its history and military bears a legacy of Ermor, as did Byzantium from Rome. The Theurgs and their ceremonial magic are influenced by the lavish liturgy of the Orthodox Church. The Cathedral of the Spheres is filled with chanting, the fragrance of incense, and processions of Theurgs robed in gold and silver. Ritual magic is a public and religious affair. The serpent-and-emerald part of the nation is more free-form fantasy fiction, and comes from the name I think. In the late era the nation is influenced by the mystery cults and religious worshipers of subjugated lands, much as the late Roman empire became a melting pot of imported religious beliefs and faiths. The mystery cults of Isis/Sarapis, Mithra, Dionysos and Euleusis gave Pythium in the late era a new and interesting flavor. The serpent priests are more of a fictional addition, and probably came about as a result of the sacred serpent cataphracts and hydras. Since the mystery cults were inspired by the cult of Isis, a serpent priest with a C'tissian legacy felt fitting. I'm personally quite fond of late era Pythium, since my thesis was about the Roman Isis/Sarapis cult. -Illwinter

The Emerald Empire of Pythium was a splinter empire of the great Empire of Ermor. As dark arts were practiced in the heart of the Empire, the stars warned the Theurgs of Pythia to flee the impending doom. They led Pythia away from the falling Empire and formed an imperial theocracy under their wise rule. As Ermor slowly crumbled, the Emerald Empire struggled to keep the old Ermorian provinces under their rule. From these provinces came strange cults and foreign beliefs. Just as Ermor was seduced by the C’tissian cults of Death, the Pythians were fascinated by the exotic practices of the lizardmen. With shadows lingering near, the C’tissian cults were particularly seductive. No other people had such knowledge of Death and the dead. The popularity of the Theurgs diminished and the Serpent Cult gradually replaced the old state cult. But the Serpent Cult was not the only foreign cult that got a foothold in the Empire. Heretical mystery cults flourish and threaten to cast the Empire into disorder. Pythium uses a reformed legionnaire army with frontier soldiers and mobile field troops. The Serpent Cataphracts have received special status and they have become the most respected force in the Empire.

Wide as an ocean and deep as a bathtub, LA Pythium has the gimmick of being the only nation to let you purchase access into all eight Magic paths. It also has the gimmick of recruit-anywhere stuff: you won't need forts right away, because there's stuff to be found in the frontiers as well! To top it off, it's the only nation to give you a bless effect for free, an extra Major Poison Resistance that doesn't prevent you from purchasing more Poison Resistance in Pretender creation, because Poison is the only thing that Pythium can handle consistently well. Many say that the lack of magical depth is Pythium's biggest problem, but that's a trend across all of the Late Age's Human nations: the real problem is that you don't have enough money and Priests to cover everything, and that you might spread yourself too thin.

Special Race Attributes	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Humans - Some with inherent Poison Resistance (5-15) or Fire Resistance (5)	- Medium & Heavy Infantry - Tower Shields - Above-Average Map Movement - Off-fort options of lesser quality - Gladiator Levies - Sacred Reptiles - Sacred Assassins	3 (rare 4) 2 (rare 3)* 2 (rare 3) 2 2 1 (50%)* 1 (33%) 1 (10%)*	Average but costly (2) Free Resist Poison(10) bless Hydra Hatchlings from Swamp temples + Capital Mystical Heretics (A * denotes heresy paths)	Standard Forts Off-fort mages

Rare is 5% (one-in-twenty) for 3, and 0.625% (one-in-160) for 4 and 3.

Pythium is a nation that drafts many of its units from anywhere. It has a large variety of mages. It can recruit in and out of forts. You have a large path diversity but are limited in paths.

Most of the off-fort mages are Heretics, which will eventually scrub away the candles in an area (could be weaponized if you bring large stacks to remove the enemies domain).

Img	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Scout 25 4 1	Stealthy(50)	Good for foreign recruitment and while you have palisades and are building up to forts, they have niche strategic uses for sieging vs assassins but normally they are only made in provinces that have them natively.
	Serpent Assassin 75 1 2	Sacred Resist Poison(15) Stealthy(60) Patrol Bonus(25) Assassin (2) Scale-Walls	A good assassin that can kill even during sieges and very likely to inflict a high amount of poison damage on the target. Need gear for survivability and can take your bless. While waiting for targets, they are useful at patrol to clean up after Revelers, for example. However, you might find the assassins too good at their job: They can target a Reveler, Epoptes or Heliodromus in the same province as an event. Leos are safe.
	Centurion 70 22 1 + foreign Rec		Your base unit commander since he is only 1 recruitment point. Very capable, can get anywhere, and lead 3 squads with a +1 morale boost and 4 squads without a morale penalty. Can do all formations and is the cheapest commander that can lead formations.
	Tribuni 80 30 1	Inspirational(1)	Step up from Centurion, has a shield for more protection, and can lead 3 squads with a +2 morale boost or have 5 squads without penalty.
	Magister Militum 110 22 2	Old Age(55/50)	Your best unit commander, able to lead 120 troops. He is however old, costs 2 recruitment points and almost twice the upkeep of a centurion. Recruit when you need a big army lead by one commander (likely with morale boosters).
	Battle Deacon 65 19 1	1 Sacred Resist Poison(5)	Priest leaders, useful for moving and blessing your Serpent Riders and Hydras. If leading Hydras, you may want to give them a Dragon Helmet For a morale bonus.
	Serpent Acolyte 70 1 2	11 7 Sacred Resist Poison(5) Supply Bonus(10) Temple Trainer(Hydra Hatchling)	Cheap fort researchers and fluffers. They are a spammable way to give your troops poison resistance (Gift of the Sacred Swamp) and to bless your fort mages. Having one at each Swamp temple is a gold-saving method for amassing Hydra Hatchlings. It can also be done at their Capital, even if it isn't in a swamp.
	Renata 150 1 2	111100% 11 Sacred	Two very similar mages, being the main combat mages coming out of your non-cap forts. Renatus are usually the most preferable of the two because it has a 1/3 chance to be a 2. Renata are more situational, able to have 2 and boasting a situational AoE Holy grenade attack. 1 randoms can form communions, with Nature being relegated to Mossbody and Construct Manikin. If you have a favorite, you can cast Katabasis on them to save them from death multiple times; they have a chance to become a stronger Death mage each time.
	Renatus 150 1 2	111100% 11 Sacred
	Serpent Lord 100 56 1 Capital Only	Sacred Resist Poison(5)	While there are very few uses for this commander, light thugging is one of them.
	Theurg 135 2 2 Capital Only	111100% 9 Sacred	Communion mages left over from the Middle Age. Production is restricted to the capital, but they are guaranteed to have a path in Astral, and they may add Air to your communions.
	Serpent Priest 265 1 2 Capital Only	1221100% 10% 13 Sacred Resist Poison(15) Supply Bonus(20) Temple Trainer(Hydra Hatchling)	The big cap-only mage (though certainly on the lower end of "big", even with LA standards). Your Foul Vapors and Serpent's Blessing/Gift of the Sacred Swamp caster. Since Pythium doesn't need nature gems to protect their army from poison, Foul Vapors is a more economical option. Also a Nature Communion Master.
	Leo 80 22 1 foreign Rec Only	1010% 5 Resist Fire(5) Fire Power(1) Heretic(1)	A tougher Centurion that knows some fire magic. Paying extra may be be worth it if for a Commander that does more than just stand in the back. Can support lines with evocations and Summoning Will o' the Wisp (Fire elementals would require proper positioning). Could be used as light thugs, especially if they get 1 (that 10% random path) and fight in Heat 3.
	Heliodromus 90 1 2 foreign Rec Only	11100% 10% 7 Resist Fire(5) Fire Power(1) Heretic(2)	Proper fire mages (compared to Leos). Able to bring down bigger fire spells, such as full-sized Fire Elementals. A 11 can't do to much, but you can have one cast Taurobolium to be a 32, which'll be able to give your armies Fire and Cold Resistance and cast battle-wide Fire stuff such as Heat from Hell and Flaming Arrows, and which an make more 3's with Summon Flame Spirit.
	Mystes 40 1 1 foreign Rec Only	1010% 5 Supply Bonus(10)	Cost effective research monkeys and the only non-fort mages that are not heretics. Plop down a lab anywhere and mass produce Swarm casters and a Vine Man creators
	Epoptes 110 1 2 foreign Rec Only	11100% 10% 7 Disease Healer(1) Supply Bonus(30) Heretic (2)	Requires two turns to recruit an upgraded Mystes with some more magic, Supply Bonus and is Disease Healer but reduces your dominion. Half are earth 1 which is more likely to occur than the 5% on Mystes. Earth randoms can be used to point buff and Earth Meld enemies, Summon Ogres for sieging or stitched into communions for bigger buffs. Can cast Epopteia.
	Reveler 50 1 1 foreign Rec Only	1020% 3 Supply Bonus (10) Causes Unrest (+2 Per Month) Heretic(3)	On paper they are worse Mystes (produces a lot of Heresy and unrest with lower Research). You spam them for their 10 percent chance of 1. You're often going to have a lot of gold to make labs, and you can recruit cheap troops as patrollers from anywhere, so you might as well recruit a few of these guys. Blood adds useful utility in and out of labs, if you can boost it. Their signature Ritual, Orgy, is a cheap way to get freespawn chaff (though getting Revelers that can cast it might cost you quite a bit). Notably better leaders than most other mages.

Pythium's Late-Age army is based on the organization of the Late Roman & Early Byzantine "legions", with cheaper Limitanei drawn from the "frontier" provinces and elite Comitatenses/Palatini deployed from the forts. Most of your men are pretty-well-equipped for the Late Age; unfortunately, good equipment goes with high Resource costs, and the cheaper guys are both sub-par at fighting and limited in movement range. You'll practically need Productivity Scales if you want large and effective armies.

Img	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Milite 8 9 5 + foreign Rec		Militia with Javelins & Tower Shields that you can spam out of any province. You can expand with them, sure, but you'll take quite a few casualties in doing so.
	Limitane 8 26 5 + foreign Rec	Castle Defence Bonus(1)	Well armored and rec anywhere makes them often better then most indies. Useful for protecting important sites but limited by resource costs. Limitanei have Javelins and a lower Recruitment Point cost, but Primani are much better-suited for the front line with their better armor and 11 Morale.
	Limitane Primani 10 30 9 + foreign Rec	Castle Defence Bonus(1)
	Comitatense 15 26 21		Your elite fort troops, often used for expansions. Armies made of only them are also good at claiming ground and responding to threat with their high map move. Comitatenses are often better expanders as they cost less and have javelins (they're essentially decent Limitanei), but the Palatini have better armor and higher stats (they're essentially decent Primani).
	Palatine 20 30 31
	Standard 30 26 21	Standard(1)	The extra squad morale is very welcome and a few should be sprinkled in any infantry formation. While the Limitane Standard is cheaper, the Limitanei have significantly less map mobility and will hold your Comitatense/Palatini army back.
	Limitane Standard 20 26 21 + foreign Rec	Castle Defence Bonus(1) Standard(1)
	Gladiator 10 1 9	levy	Two attacks with a bonus against shielded foes make this the unit of choice against medium infantry. Their low resource cost makes them easy to mass, but they will disappear after either inflicting or suffering damage in battle. Very useful for early expansion or as an emergency defense recruit.
	Retiarius 10 1 9	levy	Your mainstay expansion, rush, and counter-rush units. These deal effectively with several types of elite low strength units due to their net attack and extremely high piercing damage. Extremely cost-effective unit, with fog warriors, will of the fates, and mass flight they are weapons of mass destruction.
	Serpent Cataphract 65 56 46 Capital Only	Sacred resist poison 5 Dying Shape(Serpent) mounted	Very good for dealing with PD dumps, and very strong (albeit expensive) expanders. They have 2 forms in battle but die after if the first form is killed. Fluff these up with Body Ethereal & Luck, and 12-20 of them can clear almost arbitrary PD amounts.
	Hydra Hatchling 35 1 15 Capital Only	Sacred Regeneration 10% susceptible to fire 10 resist poison 25 Poison Cloud 4 Unsurroundable 2 undisciplined blunt resistant pierce resistant Animal cold-blooded swamp survival swimming recuperation	Hazardous to mix with other troops until your mages can grant Poison resistance. Has some uses as early expansion units in a retreat strategy, leaving behind clouds that will kill the chasing independents. Can soften up heavy cav and many other unit types but suffer vs ranged attackers and can not one turn capture provinces which makes them a bit sub par. Having Serpent Acolytes at the capital and every Swamp temple pumping them out will give stacks for later game. Make sure to have your other troops hold so Gift of the Sacred Swamp can be applied to them.
	Hydra 210 1 50 Capital Only Recruit Max 1/turn	Sacred Regeneration 10% susceptible to fire 10 resist poison 25 Poison Cloud 8 Fear 5 unsurroundable 4 undisciplined blunt resistant pierce resistant animal cold-blooded swamp survival swimming recuperation	Can be used in combination with a high morale commander and fluffed with Body Ethereal and Luck for good clear potential. Absolutely hilarious with protection buffs and Mass Flight, but in general not very often recruited or massed due to their high upkeep and how they can not easily be combined with your troops in combat. Pythium can get around that with Gift of the Sacred Swamp, and the sacred status makes these hydras cheaper than ever to maintain. You can still lose troops even with +10 poison resistance, but any sacred units/mages will easily be immune thanks to the bonus poison resistance.
	Limitane Solaris 14 26 18 foreign Rec Only	Castle Defence Bonus(1) resist fire(5)	A cross between a Limitani/Primani and a Comitatense/Palatine. Their stats are in-between the two, plus being resistant to fire evocations and not suffer Fatigue from heat. Hard to amass since you can't get them from forts.
	Primani Solaris 18 30 27 foreign Rec Only	Castle Defence Bonus(1) Resist Fire 5

Pride of Lions: Conj 3, 10, 2, Great Lion (summons 10, + 1 for every bonus Nature path): Great Lions are fast animal chaff that get two high-damage attacks each combat round.

Contact Lar: Conj 5, 16, 1, Lar (summons 1): A very good Mage in spite of how easy it is to summon him, with decent paths (112), Stealthiness, and Etherealness. His paths aren't as special in this nation as they were in past versions of it, especially since your Serpent Priests can use Foul Vapors and your Epoptes can typically cast the same Earth stuff, but he doesn't take fort turns and his Earth access is consistent.

Daughter of Typhon: Conj 9, 30, 52, Hydra - Daughter of Typhon: Summons a Unique and Immortal size 6 Hydra. Summoning the big Hydra without Empowerment or special Pretender design is technically doable, but it requires a super-rare 2 Serpent Priest who's fully-boosted in Nature with a Treelord's Staff and a Moonvine Bracelet. You might want to look into the Tartarian Strategy.

Gift of the Sacred Swamp: Ench 2, 11: An efficient-but-short-range way to put Poison Resistance on your troops before they walk into Poison Clouds. This could let you field both non-sacred men and super-sacred Hydras safely, or you could simply use it to drop Foul Vapors without worry.

Katabasis: Ench 3, 8, 11, Only cast by Renata or Renatuses: Acts like a discount Twiceborn, the mage returns alive to the lab were the ritual is cast instead of dying (and they will keep all afflictions gained). Unlike with Twiceborn, you can recast it on a favorite Renata or Renatus multiple times. The effects of twiceborn will supersede Katabasis if the mage dies, returning as a Wight Mage Instead. Like with twiceborn, this has a 20% chance to increase the mage's Death level by 1, up to 4. Renata and Renatus with Katabasis can be transformed. They still retain the twice born status, and if they die, will return as the creature they transformed into. They will no longer be able to cast Katabasis after being transformed.

Epopteia: Ench 3, 12, 1, Only cast by Epoptes: Trades Candles for a +2 in Growth scale until next spring. If you time it right, you can easily make a large profit over the game while saving some Pretender points.

Awaken Hamadryad: Ench 5, 25, 4, Only in Forests, Hamadryad (summons 1): In general, not a worthy summons, you have recruitable Nature 3s and can forge booster, and there are not many things this unit is good for since it is completely immobile and can only be cast in forests. The innate caster, Hard to kill, and 3d6 Harpys has SOME applications when your un-forted labs get attacked but hard to justify when you can have 2 Lars.

Taurobolium Thau 3, 6, 11, Only cast by Heliodromuses: One of their number gains plus 2 and plus 1 for a year but become a Heretic(5)(only one Heliodromus can benefit from this at a time). Mostly likely, this will turn them into a 32 mage, but a rare Heliodromus could start with 21 (1/20), turning them into a 42 mage.

Orgy Blood 1, 1, 11, Satyr (summons 1), Maenad (summons 6): A excellent spell with a lot of potentially if you get lucky and Start a early blood economy. For one Blood slave, you get 6 Berserking chaff and a stealthy Satyr Seducer that can make more of them for the rest of the game (Stealth lets them run from enemies with little consequence). If you had 2 Blood Revelers, you could summon 2 Satyr and 12 Maenad a turn, and each Satyr produces 1 Maenad a turn. This could potentially result in recursive growth, hopefully making entire legions of Maenads every other turn if not interrupted. With assassin items, Satyrs can steal you stronger mages from the enemy.

You can access all magic paths, but most are stuck at very-low levels (1, 2 if you're lucky), and some are not even guaranteed.

Nature is technically Pythium's most spammable path, since you can get 1's even outside Forts. Your off-fort 1's (Mystes and Revelers) are recruited in a single turn, and your Mystes are your most-efficient Research Monkeys. Pythium also has access to Lares from pre-Bishop Ermor, which elevate your low Nature and inconsistent Earth access off-capital in exchange for Nature Gems.

Off-capital Forts produce mainly Water (from Renata) and Death (from Renatuses), along with some Nature from your off-capital Priests and Astral from roughly a third of your Water/Death Mages. Astral is not very reliable off-capital, and your deepest and most-reliable access is from Theurgs (who are incidentally your only Air Mages until you get Faery Queens). Despite the nation's history, LA Pythium has a hard time building Communions.

Death can be climbed via multiple castings of Katabasis up to 4 and more. But to reach this, it will require many Renatus spending many Death Gems and dying many times and avoiding certain afflictions in the process.

Revelers offer access to Blood, but you have to mill for 1's. It helps that Revelers can be recruited in one off-fort Lab turn, like Mystes, but they also generate Unrest and wear down your Dominion. Climbing into Blood with these guys is still a little faster than trying to bootstrap without them, though.

Last-but-not-least, you get a surprisingly-high amount of Fire from the Limitanei's off-Fort Cult (Leos and Heliodromuses) – for Pythium, anyway.

Pythium relies on boosters and Summon spells if it wants higher magic. Water and Nature magic offer many Summons for path climbing, such as Naiads (33), Kokythiads (33), Lamia Queen (Strong Death and nature with some blood), and Faery Queens (33). With a Heliodromus, you can Summon Flame Spirits to have multiple 3's.

Mage power comes from the spam-ability of mages and forming communions. Boosters and empowerment are required to be responsible high in a path.

Early game magic comes from Renatus and 1 mages with gems to Spam and over well enemy with chaff.

Because you have all the paths and the ability to boost them eventually, your mages can stack a lot of buffs on your already impressive infantry. It is possible to buff your mass javelins infantry to threaten late-game armies. This does hinge on your ability to quickly Research and gathers big enough communions.

The nation has many ways to apply Poison Resistance Efficiently, which is very useful to a nation that uses Hydras. Apply it and then cast Foul Vapors.

If you keep up with the magic game, you mage lineup may look like a medium-size communion, backed by an assortment of others and a lot of 1s that act as Magic Archers and Spot debuffs. Other Words Slinging more spell then having big casters.

Because of low but wide pathing, one of the better uses for your mages outside of research and site searching is summoning chaff many different kinds. Mystes and Revelers with Ivy Crowns Making Vine Men. Death Nature Renatus and Renata can Construct Manikin,

Summoning Spectral Mages has chances to forge you Crystal Items.

• Serpent Kryss: Const 4, 1, 4. The same dagger on your Serpent Assassin. Ignores 60% of enemy armour, High poison damage, and grants some Poison resist. Useful on a counter-thug character.
• Gloves of the Gladiator: Const 2, 2, 8. Go Kung fu by two handing glove with bonus strength, MR, and 3 additional extras.
• Astral Serpent: Const 4, 11, 44. Grants extra Poison Resistance and a bonus high poison damage attack.

Expansion is fairly easy with Pythium, a group of Milite, Gladiators, and Comiatesnes plus an Assasins for harder regions, you can Claim land fast and reliably. If you need troops for number replenishments, you can build troops ahead of time and have your army pick them up as they move instead of going directly to forts.

Good idea to build several labs early. mass-producing Mystes will accelerate your Research Goals. placing a lab in an unprofitable province is the best place to recruit Revelers to get started looking for blood mages and Casting Orgy while not greatly hurting your potential income.

Outside of swarm, Vine Men, and nature spam, your magic game is limited.

Usually, your Comiatesnes plus spamming Gladiators and Milite will beat back early rushes.

What is the first big research rush, what is the first big powerspike, where do you shift recruitment? what are the big magic diversity issues, are there particular globals you should gun for

How do you close out the game if you are in it, is the high-level research stuff you can do uniquely well, does your nation fall off, aka do you have to force things to conclude swiftly

Link here to guides for the nation, on and off(?) the wiki. This should likely include things like suggested pretender designs as well as strategy guides.

Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos
Middle Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys
Late Ages	Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia