"Agartha is inspired by fantasy RPG's in general, and an Earth Dawn setting of my brother's imagination, ripe with mummified ancestors entombed in ancient cavern halls, in particular. Old ideas of a race of pale, cave-dwelling humanoids from my ideas of the game “Shepherds of Creation” completed the conglomerate. Think of opulent halls adorned with riches of the deeper earth in which reside ancient bloated oracles with pallid skins ruling their kin with increasing desperation; desperation because their proud race is dying. Agartha is perhaps the most tragic of the nations in Dominions. Surviving oracles cling to memories of a glorious past unable to stop the unavoidable disappearance of their ancient race. I wanted a sense of loss to permeate the nation. " -Illwinter

In dark caverns under the Roots of the Earth a strange kind of one-eyed humanoids has evolved. Untouched by the sun, they have become known to humans as the Pale Ones. The Pale Ones are gifted with perfect darkvision and gills and inhabit underwater rivers and lakes as well as cavernous halls. Pale Ones never stop growing and ancient ones can grow to huge proportions. The wisest of the Ancient Ones are known as the Oracles, priest-mages of great power. The Oracles are gathered in a great, cavernous hall where they divine the fate of the Pale Ones.

EA Agartha is a nation of Pale Ones, a slow and clumsy race that excels at enduring punishment but has trouble hitting enemies and avoiding attacks. All Pale Ones are amphibious, need not eat, and excel at tearing down forts. They are arguably the most dedicated Earth nation in the game, with E4 mages from their capital and E2 available elsewhere; they otherwise have access to Fire, Water, and Death.

EA Agartha has access to a variety of national summons in Fire, Earth, Water, and Death. They can recruit Olms, sacred mindblasting worm-creatures, from their capital and any cave. They can also recruit Ancient Ones, sacred giant Pale Ones, from any fort.

At its strongest, EA Agartha presents its opponents with a formidable wall of Pale Ones, able to endure magic and arrows, fortified by earth magic. Their clumsiness doesn't matter, since opponents find themselves rooted to the ground by spells like Earth Meld or paralyzed by Giant Olms. Summons like Magma Children and Umbrals provide killing power that the Pale Ones lack, while large enemy armies can be battered with Earthquakes. Their siege bonus allows the slow-moving Agarthan army to crack forts in one round before moving on to the next.

At its weakest, EA Agartha's clumsy Pale Ones will find themselves cut down by superior troops of other nations; their high hp total doesn't matter if they can't hit anything and are always hit themselves. Their limited magic access – mostly Earth with a bit of Fire, Water, and Death – leaves them without mobility and utility from the other paths.

The Agarthans are guardians of the Seal, a chamber deep within their caves that seals away the spirits of fallen gods. They may break this Seal (with the spell Unleash Imprisoned Ones); in the lore, they do this to gain short-term power to win a war, at the sacrifice of their civilization in the long term.

EA Agartha has very strong national summons. EA Agartha also gets +2 earth bless points, a welcome gift for a nation who loves so many of the earth blesses.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Pale Ones: Amphibious options Siege Bonuses 100% dark vision Cold blooded	Powerful Defense Siege Bonuses Earth bless points +2	4 (Rare 5) 2 (Rare 3) 2 (Rare 3) 2 (Rare 3) National Heros 2, 3, 3, 5	Strong Priests (lvl3)	Standard Forts Can build Underwater Forts

add the site pics

Roots of the Earth	The Chamber of the Seal	Halls of the Oracles	The Womb of the Earth
Generates 31 per turn.	Enables recruitment of Seal Guard Generates 1 per turn.	Enables recruitment of Oracle of Subterranean Waters Oracle of Subterranean Fires Oracle of the Dead	Enables recruitment of Olm Sage Great Olm Generates 1 per turn.

Agarthan units are mostly Pale Ones, clumsy one-eyed creatures larger than humans. They have good strength and HP, and are inexpensive, but have poor attack and weapon skill. Thus they will usually be hit and have trouble hitting thing themselves. Combined with the fact that they are Size 3 (and thus have low attack density), they struggle in melee against human troops. Their cold blooded nature makes them even worse in cold scales.

However, their national characteristics have advantages. They are inexpensive, and their good magic resistance and HP (along with the fact that they only pack two in a square) make them resilient against magic. They need not worry about supply, and can march through popkilled wastelands and park massive sieging forces on a fort without worrying about starving. Their armies have massive siege bonuses, allowing them to tear forts down quickly. They are amphibious. Finally, their darkvision allows them to tip the attack/defense score math in their favor against humans once Darkness is cast.

Earth (max 4 - 2.5% chance of 5)
Fire (max 2 - 2.5% chance of 3)
Water (max 2 - 2.5% chance of 3)
Death (max 2 - 2.5% chance of 3)

Boosters elevate Earth by 1 (Earth Boots), Death by 1 (Skull Staff), and Water by 2 (Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea).

• Revive Cavern Wights Conj 3, 11, 8. (Cavern Wight x3). Upgraded undead version of Cavern Guard. Comes with better stats with more defence and Cold Aura. Very expensive ritual for the benefit, also you're likely to take heat scales so the cold aura won't benefit you.
• Bind Penumbral Conj 3, 11, 1. (Penumbral x1) Summons a ghost of a Pale One, comes with ethereal and life drain.
• Bind Umbral Conj 5, 21, 2. (Umbralx1). Summon a ghost of an Ancient Pale One. Comes with ethereal and life drain like the lesser Umbrals. Armor piercing High damage life drain counters lots of things. Has the HP and Strength when paired with other troops to take the heat off them to be a good investment in death gems.

• Barathrus Pact Conj 3, 2, 2, Cap only. (Earth Elemental x1) Summon one 3rd stage Earth Elemental. Too situational to have to produce one in the cap then have to lug it to the battlefield when Summon Earth Elemental works just as well.
• Rhuax Pact Conj 3, 11, 2, Cap only. (Magma Child x5). Fire elementals at a steal. One of the best units Agartha can use as a frontline troops and another reason why Agartha likes scales. This is why you rush Conjuration 3.
• Living Mercury Enchantment 5, 11, 7. (Living Mercury x1) Poisonous Water Elemental with more HP and Strength, Don't forget the Poison Cloud. Given water elemental's normal durability, you will be saving gems in the long term. A mid to late-game erosive troop. Be careful as this will kill your own living troops and mage with bad placement. Pairs best with the poison-resistant Magma Children, and undead spam as they build a wall between the aura death while holding enemies in it.

• Liquid Flames of Rhuax Evocation 5, 31. A Falling Fires sidegrade, doing 24 AP Fire DMG scaling with (+2 Dmg) in the square hit, and doing 10 AP Fire DMG (unscaled) with a larger AOE. Squares caught in the second AOE get lingering clouds of Heat that cause 15 AN Fatigue. Unfortunately, it's not a very accessible spell; Only 52.5% of your Oracles of Subterranean Fires are cast it without spending gems.

• Mirror of Earths Memories Thaumaturgy 4, 21 for 5. Remote site searching for all Earth, Fire, Water and Death sites, limited to caves though.

• Unleash Imprisoned Ones Alteration 9, 64, 100. (God Vesselx1 & God Vesselx1 & God Vesselx1). You nuke your own capital, replacing your capital's Magic Sites with the Chamber of the Broken Seal, which provides 5 but increases Death Scales. In exchange, you get three super-powerful Undead chassis styled after Tartarians, who kill a LOT of your taxpayers each turn and passively turn a lot of Corpses into Soulless. Your control over the three varies, with the Cyclopean one always making its own moves and the Cronus-like one listening to you a quarter of the time, but all have the same 25% chance to flip independent on you. On death they irreversibly turn into the (Legion of Gods), a True Ethereal Soul-Eater which also generates Unrest but actually has a lower chance to turn against you – provided that it hasn't flipped already. This breaks you into Astral, by the way, and may give you powerful Air.
  • Should your Legion of Gods flip on you, do NOT try thugging it; its three attacks are an AOE-1 Luck-Cursing, an AOE-1 Life-Draining, and a single-target suck that steals the target's ENTIRE HP AND Soul-Slays them. All three attacks can be negated by Magic Resistance, but the high magic paths on the bastard make these tougher-than-normal to resist. The Legion also has multiple tricks to handle traditional armies, such as a 50% chance to dodge magic spells, a massive bonus +10 against harassment, and a Fear Aura that's thick enough to sometimes reach two squares out. On the other hand, the only tricks the Legion has against the Mindless are standard Etherealness, Damage Reversal, and the chance it might teleport right on top of your mind-possessing commanders.

Discuss the top few generic spells that most increase a nation's combat power or synergize with national strategies. These will generally be early-to-mid game spells since individual spells matter much more during those periods of the game. Some examples are Foul Vapors for MA C'tis, Horde of Skeletons + Sabbath Master/Sabbath Slave for the Niefelheim line of nations, Mother Oak for the Pangaeas, Wailing Winds access, etc. For broader advice on magic use, link to Not-Lola's Basic Magic Use Guide.

This is also a good place to point out notable magic weaknesses, such as a lack of nature access making a nation vulnerable to Foul Vapors.

List and describe any unique national items or discounts in this section, discuss and compare with similar generic items. Also discuss generic items that are useful and accessible for the nation. These may include:

• Thug gear (if the nation has good thugs)
• Research boosters (particularly if the nation needs help researching or is already very good at researching)
• Other items that synergize with the nation (e.g. Dwarven Hammers for MA Ulm)

Barring a major bless everything hinges on the Great Olm in the early game, so that's what your pretender design philosophy hinges on in most things.

Order/Turmoil: Recruitment points are in high demand for most troops but not vital to your Olms and Holy Points will be the main limiter on recruitment. Still a good pick for the turmoil reduction if you want to use Foul Air and/or Burden of Time in the late game.

Productivity/Sloth: Resources will come from your starting position, in a cave surrounded by mountains provided the map does allows it, it's inadvisable to pick Agartha on a map with few cave tiles with how heavy future recruitment depends on it. You will not need the full glut of resources your position likely provides you and can safely go 3 Sloth with few downsides.

Growth/Death: Death is a non-starter as with everyone living, Growth gives you more money long term from population Growth and you like money. Non-critical, always nice to have.

Fortune/Misfortune: Fortune and Misfortune do not play nice with Sloth scales anymore than it does Turmoil, dipping deep into Fortune here may still be wise as Agartha has some top tier national Heroes that will be more likely to appear.

Magic/Drain: You have a cheap workhorse researcher in the Engraver to fill your Labs and push the value of Magic scales up and his bigger brother the Earth Reader when research is more valuable than gold to you. Drain makes your Olms less effective, do not touch it.

Sacred blesses for EA Agartha's roster are fairly tricky and subject to personal strategy judgement. Usually you just take whatever fits your Pretender paths best and try to make it work.

In Conclusion: You don't need scales for most things, and it's entirely reasonable to go all in on an awake Earth Snake. At the same time you can go deep into Fortune and Magic just to inch out that little bit more of an edge in the race to reach your ludicrously strong national summons and heroes, but it's not mandatory.

As EA Agartha it's important to not rush into a blind expansion turn 1 without an awake Pretender. Your starting army is mediocre by cave dweller standards and expansion into a non-cave province is not going to succeed. If you have an awake Pretender fit to expand use your own judgement, it's always a gamble.

To fix this you're going to recruit Great Olms, 8 is the target minimum for a decent expansion army but you may wish to delay your expansion even longer to shore up the numbers. There's no maximum amount of Great Olms to send out but the minimum can be quite harsh to replace if things go wrong.

On turn 2-3 when you're able to take a look around don't worry too much about the hard targets, expansion is largely to find magic sites and pick up farmland for gold because you really don't bother with traditional recruitment when things get running.

A pair of Troglodyte Lords in blacksteel backed by 4-10 Olms makes a relatively cost effective expansion force you can put into the field around turn 4-5. An individual Troglodyte may be fine, but fatigue death becomes a risk, go without the olms and you really need to double down on the armour. Feel free to invest more and turn them into true thugs if they pick up a good Heroic ability but dont count on their long-term staying power otherwise. Olms backing damage dealers are your only real expansion option and this is the best way to cut down on gold expenses.

Focus turns 6-12 on magic site scouting and try to pick up another cave for more Olm recruitment. Take your time and only be concerned about how other nations are doing if they're making a proper move for your land. You hit your stride in the mid-game and you rise fast once you get there, so don't feel rushed or like you need to split your expansion forces to grab land faster. It's a race for everyone else, you picked Agartha so you get to chill.

Flying enemies, especially Xibalba are the greatest threat to your strengths and it's so great that if you met them early enough it may already be over. If you are fighting flying enemies you want to pull back, build up a summon army and push out Troglodyte thugs. Even if they win against the thugs it's not cheap for them most times and you can make every step forward pyrrhic on budget until you're ready to throw a full size elemental army into the grinder. Just be careful and accept you'll be on the backfoot for a while because they really do butcher your contemporary forces with correct targeting. You may be able to mix forces to bait them into scripting ambushes but 5D chess galaxy brain moves are outside the scope of this simple guide.

Research: Conjuration 3 is always your first research target, your second target will be conditional on how things develop. If you scout or can trade for a glut of Death Gems then Enchantment 3 for Revenant researchers is a decent follow-up (Oracle paths allowing). Construction 4 is particularly favourable to your national paths to serve as your default secondary target. If your site hunting isn't yielding a lot to put into Construction you can just go whole hog at Evocation 5/6 (the first mid-game target) instead.

You're probably going for Evocation 5-6 first and it's time to start hitting the national rituals as much as your gem income allows to really build up an army.

It's not yet time to start eyeing your neighbors land but it's coming soon.

Research: Targets throughout the mid-game are in no particular order Alteration 5, Evocation 6, Construction 6, Conjuration 5 (6 if Lapis, Member of the Closed Council arrives) moving into Conjuration 7 for Living Earth/Water as you get closer to the Late Game. You may also want Thaumaturgy 3 or 4 to remote site-search but this is non-critical as E2F1 Earth Readers have good coverage and Dark Knowledge is in Conjuration 3.

Everything starts getting fluid and hard to pin down as a "must do this" thing around now so you're really looking at going for a spread of things.

Your casters will smash it out of the park with Magma Eruption and Maws of the Earth to a degree few nations can match once unlocked, so back them up with a token force (as needed, use judgement) and march forth.

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

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