"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 |
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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 |
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Roots of the Earth | The Chamber of the Seal | Halls of the Oracles | The Womb of the Earth |
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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.
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Pale One Scout 20 7 1 + Cave Rec | Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(2) eyes(1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat Stealthy(50) Mountain Survival | An amphibious, relatively cheap scout. | |
Pale One Commander 35 19 1 + Rec Caves | Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(2) eyes(1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | Generic, inexpensive commander, suitable for doing odd jobs. Your mages can lead troops, so you likely won't recruit many. | |
| Wet One Captain Wet One Captain 35 7 1 + Underwater Rec Only | Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(2) eyes 1 cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat |
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Troglodyte Lord 65 1 1 | Animal Trample | A trampling thug chassis. Relatively flimsy but is an expansion tool when clad in Blacksteel Full Plate and used against the right targets. They have no separate head that needs protecting. |
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Engraver 70 4 2 + Cave Rec | 1 9 Sacred Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(2) eyes(1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | Since 1 is not a terribly useful battlefield path, Engravers find themselves confined to labs. Thankfully, they are efficient researchers for their cost. | |
Earth Reader 185 1 2 | 211100% 11 sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(2) Fortune Teller(10%) eyes(1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | Earth Readers are your workhorse combat mage. 2 boosts to 3 with Summon Earth Power, and they can wear Earth Boots if necessary for one more path. Since many strong combat spells require 3, this allows them to cast critical spells like Strength of Giants, Marble Warriors, and Maws of the Earth. The extra point of magic generally sees little use. | |
Ancient Lord 125 21 1 | sacred Darkvision (100%) inspirational(1) Siege Bonus(5) eyes(1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | A big sacred troop leader, capable of leading troops in formation. With a lot of gear they can be inefficient thugs, but it is not generally worth it. | |
Olm Sage 175 1 2 + Cap and Cave Rec | 21 11 sacred spirit-sight blind Amphibious need not eat Resist Cold(5) Resist Poison(15) Fortune Teller(10%) | These give you reliable access to 2, but cannot boost as high as your Oracle of Subterranean Waters since they can't wear Robe of the Sea. If you need a W2, though, these are pretty efficient. | |
Oracle of Subterranean Fires 355 1 4 Capital Only | 1331100% 10% 15 sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(15%) eyes (1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | One of three major cap mages, differing only in their second path. All these Oracles can lead troops, cast Divine Blessing, claim thrones, and are powerful mages. Half are 4, capable of casting almost any Earth spell in combat; half are 22 and can cast Magma Eruption. You will likely begin recruiting Oracles midway through Year 1 and never stop from your capital; they are extremely useful. | |
Oracle of Subterranean Waters 355 1 4 Capital Only | 1331100% 10% 15 sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(15%) eyes (1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | These get you 2 access, and can boost to 4 with Water Bracelet and Robe of the Sea. Earth/Water is not an especially strong crosspath, and Olm Sages are cheaper pure water casters, so these will likely just cast earth spells in battle. | |
Oracle of the Dead 355 1 4 Capital Only | 3131100% 10% 15 sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(15%) eyes (1) cold-blooded Amphibious need not eat | Their death crosspath is useful; a 2 Oracle of the Dead holding a Skull Staff is your best recruitable death mage. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Troglodyte 50 1 50 | Animal Trample | Like elephants but flimsier and less cowardly. Circumstantially useful. | |
Pale One Militia 6 2 12 + Cave Rec | Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(2) eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Incredibly weak in combat, but some of the most efficient siege chaff in the game. Useful for tearing down walls quickly at a low price. | |
Pale One 9 4 18 + Cave Rec | Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(2) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | No armor and a weak shield means that they will be cut to pieces by arrows. Recruit the armored ones if at all possible. | |
| Wet One Wet One 9 1 18 + cave Rec + Underwater Rec | Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus 2 Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Weak, cheap and quickly massable source of HP and siege strength that comes out of underwater forts. Suffers from the same problem as the land-based unarmored Pale Ones. Faster underwater. |
| Wet One Wet One 9 5 18 Underwater Rec Only | Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(2) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat |
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Pale One Warrior 9 11 18 + cave Rec | Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(2) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Reasonably well armored and gold cheap making them good chaff. They are bad at hitting things, but that's what Earth Meld and Olm mindblasts are for. | |
Pale One Warrior 9 19 18 + cave Rec | Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(2) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat |
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Cavern Guard 12 23 24 + cave Rec | Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(2) Castle Defence Bonus(1) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | The more respectable of the size 3 Pale Ones with better stats and respectable body prot for the EA. Have a high damage glave that will kill most units if they manage to hit them with their very low attack skill. Useful as siege attacker and defenders. Suffer from missing and being hit back a lot, but become more effective if you can use magic for better stats. |
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Ancient One 40 19 32 | Sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus 5 Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Big, sacred, decently geared, and reasonably skilled for Pale Ones. They are not exceptional but are not bad either. They are Recruit anywhere Sacreds and bigger stats for being giants, but size 4(the worst size) and still have bad attack and defence. They are still good to mass if you use a bless or spell to fix or compliment them. |
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| Ancient Wet One Ancient Wet One 35 7 32 + Underwater only | Sacred Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(5) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Inferiorly geared Ancient One from underwater where they are faster. Could consider if you need all the few provinces you have to be pumping out sacreds. |
Ancient Stone Hurler 40 1 32 | Sacred Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(10) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Stone Hurlers somehow have higher HP than their Melee equivalents. Boulders are high damage but extremely short range. Their best use is as very cost-effective siege strength. This does require very high finesse in scripting skills but if you line it up right you can devastate elves with thrown rocks that ignore their glamour and protection. You usually want to invest in armour as resources are rarely a limiting factor. |
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Ancient Stone Hurler 40 11 32 | Sacred Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(10) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat |
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Seal Guard 45 37 39 Capital Only | Sacred Darkvision(100%) Siege Bonus(5) Eyes(1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | The most elite of the ancient, geared in the best armour and weapon but only has average human attack and defence. Not that expensive for a giant and the magic glave will obliterate health through prot and several other damage protection abilities if you can get the attack to land. |
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Great Olm 50 1 21 Capital and cave Rec Only | Sacred Blind Amphibious Need not Eat Resist Cold(5) Resist Poison(15) Spirit Sight | One of your better expansion options. Has good HP, MR and Morale for a mindblaster unit. Despite Pale Ones having horrible reaction times, it only a matter of walking up and impaling the foes one by one when a large stack of Olms paralyzes them in place. Olms are an early game enabler, so Fortify all caves and protect your early Olm Stacks. |
Sprite | Unit Name | Special Attributes | Comments |
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Ogon - Earth-Blooded Hero Arrival turn Limit(20) | 253 19 Sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(20%) Reinvigoration(4) Eyes (1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | Your biggest earth mage, if for some reason you didn't take earth on your pretender for the free bless points this guy will be your big earth caster, dropping things like Earth Blood Deep Well, Riches from Beneath, and King of Elemental Earth. If you did take an earth pretender then Ogon lets you spam Earth Attack or get off big earth spells early in fights when it is absolutely crucial. | |
Moss Agate - Member of the Closed Council Hero Arrival turn Limit(10) | 1423 19 Sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(15%) Supply Bonus(20) Eyes (1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat Female | Your ticket to breaking into nature magic! If for some reason you haven't found a single independent nature mage in the early age. On top of site searching for nature sites directly they can Contact Naiads to produce more nature mages. High level nature magic is fantastic for Agartha, letting them cast Mass Regeneration in combination with the usual earth based protection boosters for some fabulously tough troops as well as putting up Foul Vapors for important fights or to make PD traps all the nastier. | |
Lapis - Member of the Closed Council Hero Arrival turn Limit(10) | 2423 21 Sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(20%) Horror Mark Eyes (1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat Female | Oracle of the Dead with water magic! Another nymph summoner, use two water boosters to summon the 33 Kokythiad and use all the new water/death mages to cast Stygian Rains and toss around big water magic. |
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Obsidian Eye - Member of the Closed Council Hero Arival turn Limiet(10) | 433 19 Sacred Darkvision 100% Siege Bonus(5) Fortune Teller(20%) Eyes (1) Cold Blooded Amphibious Need not Eat | The most powerful death mage you are likely to get. Important for casting Darkness to win fights out of caves and casting Lichcraft to get more darkness casters. Remember to use twiceborn to keep them safe. | |
Deepthought - Ancient Olm | 33 17 Sacred Spirit Sight Blind Amphibious Need not Eat Resist Cold(10) Resist Poison(15) Fortune Teller(15%) | Most powerful water mage in Agartha. Makes summoning a Queen of Elemental Water a snap. All other major water spells as well. | |
Emberstream - Olm Spawn Multi-hero | 1111100% 11 Sacred Spirit Sight Amphibious Need not Eat Resist Cold(5) Resist Poison(15) | The Agarthan multi-hero, it's most notable feature is that it's EA Agarthas best leader with 120 Leadership and 55 Magic Ldr. It's a decent thug chassis. Slower than normal but decent combat stats for an Agarthan. |
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).
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:
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 | |
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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 |