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MA Ermor, Ashen Empire


Lore


"Ermor was initially a conglomerate of the Roman Empire and undead nations of general fantasy stock. With time, it has received a history that begins as something like the early Roman republic, with military units of that age and priests and diviners inspired by Roman religious officials. The New Faith replaces the old state cult of the Numina, as Christianity eventually replaced the old Roman state cult. With the turn of the age, the mistake of the Augurs becomes apparent, and the nation is brought into darkness.

Ermor is one of the first conceived nations in the Dominions universe. In the first Dominions, the Ermorian backstory influenced many of the other nations. When the eras were introduced in Dominions 3, the undead empire ended up in the late age and the Dominions history lost some of its coherency. With Dominions 4, I tried to straighten things up and once more placed the Ashen Empire of Ermor in the middle age where its antagonists and splinter empires can be found.

The backstories of Sceleria, Pythium, Marignon and Ulm are all influenced by Ermor. Several other nations have interacted with the nation or its shadow. It would be difficult to imagine the Dominions setting without Ermor." –Illwinter, in 'The Origins of Nations' section of the Dominions 5 Manual

Ermor was once a great empire that had conquered most of the known world. The realm crumbled as the great mages of the Empire studied dark magic under the Sauromancers of C'tis. Unaware of the dangers of dark sorcery, priests performed unholy rites in the capital city of Eldregate. But there were voices who demanded the foul practices to stop. Theurgs and Thaumaturgs foresaw the cataclysm and advised generals, governors and consuls to revolt. When the Apostate Emperor marched on Ermor itself, the Augurs and Bishops of the Empire were forced to act in concert. In one cataclysmic event, Death was let loose and the empire was shattered. The Cataclysm attracted attention from an earlier God, a dark and hungry God. The vast power of this Awakening God erased the boundaries between the land of the living and the land of the dead. Ermor is now a cursed land of ashes and darkness where nothing grows. The bones of long-dead inhabitants reassemble to form legions of undead under the leadership of the cursed priests of the old Ermorian faith. Undead legions march forth to reconquer a world once theirs. The Ermorian Dominion reanimates the dead without the aid of unholy priests. It also destroys the land, turning crops and forests into ashes and people and livestock to bones. The Pretender God of Ermor will also be able to sense where any corpses are in provinces under his Dominion. –National Description of MA Ermor in the nation selection screen, copy pasted from Dominions5.exe


National Features


Nationwide Effects:

  • Your dominion kills the local Population at a rate of 5% per candle per month.
  • Your dominion spawns undead units and commanders passively.
  • All owned priests can reanimate undead units.
  • Non-Undead troops have their Morale decreased by 1 in your Dominion, even if they belong to you.
  • Your Dominion counts Corpses for you, potentially relevant for the raising of Soulless with spells and the Reanimate order.
  • Your Pretender already starts with their Growth/Death scale at Death 3. This does not provide any additional design points.
  • Hiring mercenaries is 100% more expensive.
  • Starting population is 1/4 that of a normal nation's.1)


Capital Sites:

The Unholy Sepulchre The Unholy Sepulchre
- Produces 9deathgem per month.


Infrastructure:

  • Standard Fortifications for MA (aka: can build Palisades and upgrade up to Castles).
    • Starts with a Fortified City in the Capital.
  • Each Temple owned adds a 1deathgem to your gem income, up to a limit of current base Dominion Strength.


Starting Army

Role Idle Sprite Unit Card Amount
Scout Spectator 1
Commander Censor 1
Troop 1 Longdead Velite 15
Troop 2 Longdead Legionnaire 15


Province Defense

Non-Fort PD:

Non-Fort PD

Show Non-Fort PD:

Title

Fort PD:
Type/Function Idle Sprite Unit Card Amount
Commander at PD 1+ Mound King 1
Troop at PD 1+ Longdead Velite +2 per point
Troop at PD 1+ Longdead Legionnaire +2 per point
Commander at PD 20+ Censor 1
Troop at PD 20+ Longdead Horseman +2 per point


Fort Defenders

Type Idle Sprite Unit Card Siege Defense Amount
Commander Acolyte of Eldregate 1.3 1
Troop Longdead Archer2) 0.1 +10 per level of the fortification's Base Defenders value



National Units


Recruitable

Commanders:
None.

Troops:
None.

Passively Spawned

Commanders:
Idle Sprite Unit Card Spawn Conditions Notable Comments
Mound King Any province Can lead some non-Undead units in addition to Undead.
Mound King Any Province Same leadership as above, and with very high Mapmovement what with being both Mounted and Undead.
Censor Fortification Only Sacred but not a Priest. Not Amphibious, can lead some additional Undead units compared to Mound Kings but many less non-Undead.
Troops:
Idle Sprite Unit Card Spawn Conditions Notable Comments
Ghoul Land Only Not Amphibious. No Prot and low Damage make them a liability in combat due to Hp Routs. They are not Mindless nor undisciplined, meaning they have Siege Defense that MA Ermor otherwise lacks.
Soulless Any province No Prot, high Hp, and abysmal Damage make them more likely to Hp Rout your armies than help. Can sometimes function as "Evo Bait" due to the aforementioned traits, if the rest of the army is healthy enough to survive their loss.
Longdead Any province Capable of fighting well enough, their 16 Damage and good Attack Skill make them capable of killing many non-elite things. Extremely low Hp means they will quickly succumb to Aoe effects and passive abilities like Fire Shield, and lower than usual Magic Resistance means they will easily die to some versions of Banishment.
Longdead Any province Functionally same as above
Longdead Any province Functionally same as above
Longdead Any province Functionally same as above
Longdead Any province Much lower Damage at 13, has a Length 3 weapon, otherwise same as above. Additional survivability from having and avoiding Repel is not useful enough to make a difference in the vast majority of cases.
Longdead Any province Functionally same as above
Longdead Horseman Land Only Light Lances hit for 18 damage on their first landed hit, then 13 after that. Hoof always hits for 13. Horsemen hit the hardest out of all MA Ermor's troops barring sacreds, especially with their Piercing damage type on the Light Lance. Defense Skill and halved Defense Harassment from being Mounted is still not enough to give them much survivability in most cases.
Knight of the Unholy Sepulchre Any province Sacred. At base strength, their Lance hits once for 27 Piercing damage. Broad Sword and Hoof hit for 17 and 13 damage respectively. With 16 base body Prot and 16 Defense Skill with halved harassment from mounted they can survive quite well against foes without AoE attacks like Banishment or other such Spells. Due to only being able to acquire them on rare rolls from passive spawns, they are very hard to build a bless around, compared to the comparatively plentiful Lictors, though consistently a few of them will spawn in any given game.
Longdead Velite Fortification Only Has a Javelin and Tower Shield, otherwise near identical to a naked Spear Longdead. Javelins can be useful for being able to add some ability to attack while behind other Longdead, though still only deal 13 damage.
Longdead Legionnaire Fortification Only Functionally same as above, but with some low Prot armor.
Longdead Triarius Fortification Only Has a 15 Damage Long Spear with Length 4, as well as 16 Prot armor and a Tower Shield. While a good fighter they still have very low Hp and Magic Resistance, therefore using "Evo Bait" to draw fire away from them is useful.
Longdead Principe Fortification Only Functionally same as a Longdead Legionnaire, but with a 16 damage Short Sword instead of a 14 damage Spear.


Summoned

Commanders:
Idle Sprite Unit Card Magic Paths Notable Comments
Censor None See: Passively Summoned, Commanders
Acolyte of Eldregate holy 11 Potentially useful as a early game way to build a temple, if your Prophet is somehow busy. Once a first temple is built on a province that can recruit indie Priests to function as H1 reanimators they cease to be particularly useful. Can potentially serve as a very expensive Undead leadership option. As with all Undead with Priest levels they cannot Preach.
Bishop of Eldregate holy 22 Functionally identical to above, but with H2 reanimation options and spell access.
Arch Bishop of Eldregate holy 33 Requires D3 to be cast. Very important tool, as it is able to cast Battlefield Wide Unholy Blessing, and can consistently reanimate 1 Lictor every turn as a reanimation option when not leading armies.
Spectator death 22 While some Spectators are always useful for their ability to can cast a variety of "workhorse" rituals like Summon Lictor, as well as craft items like Black Laurels and Skull Staffs, their combat utility is very limited compared to Dusk Elders. Combat spells like the anti-Undead Dust to Dust and Control the Dead are useful enough but very niche. The summoning capabilities of Horde of Skeletons and Raise Dead (as well as their lower research alternatives) are less useful than they are on other nations since MA Ermor usually has enough indie Priests to reanimate often literally hundreds of Longdead every turn and consistent counters to that will usually never be swayed by the addition of even more Longdead in battle. Disintegrate is as always a very impressive spell, and if the game manages to go long enough to get to Research Level 8 for MA Ermor, a nation infamous for having slow, gem-based researchers, then Spectators once again become a very good tool in the late game.
Dusk Elder fire 11astral 11death 33
+ 100% FAWESD
+ 10% FAWESD 		Requires D3 to cast. Dusk Elders are expensive, but by far the best mage Ermor has in terms of "workhorse" combat spells that can be consistently cast to good effect, such as Bane Fire, Cloud of Death, Drain Life, and can access even higher path levels with a gem and a turn spent on Power of the Spheres for spells like Pillar of Fire, and Vortex of Unlife. Even a single Dusk Elder can provide great utility to a large stack of Longdead with spells like Rigor Mortis, Darkness, and Antimagic (Keep in mind that any S1 can cast Antimagic with Power of the Sphere and two gems, and that Rigor Mortis and Darkness require a D4 to cast due to the maximum a mage only spending gems up to their path level to boost casting level and spend on spell for each cast). In addition to being the main combat mage for Ermor, they are also required for casting other Dusk Elders and Arch Bishops, needing either them or having a Pretender and/or Skull Staff.
Troops:
Idle Sprite Unit Card Notable Comments
Lictor Sacred. Can be amassed very quickly with the item Black Laurel plus the basic Reanimate Lictor Spell for 1 gem per saacred, and the Arch Bishop's Priest Reanimation. They have 29 damage Battleaxes with 13 attack, as well as 20 hp, 5 head prot, 19 body prot, and 14 Magic Resistance. These all at base, without a Bless for them. Due to being able to be fielded in relatively great numbers and their very good ability to fight they are considered my most to be The MA Ermor Sacred, with KotUS and Wailing Ladies passively benefiting from whatever bless is tailored to the Lictors instead of trying to cover all bases with a bless for all and losing the strength of any of them. Lictors not having a head armor is a notable problem, as well as their weakness to anti-Undead spells, but as the sole massable unit that Ermor can muster their faults have to be accepted and worked around.
Wailing Lady Sacred. Extremely expensive on a nation with an intense need for Death Gems, Ethereal and 20 hp do very little to protect Wailing Ladies, who by and large will die unless they receive prot buffs like Iron Warriors, Marble Warriors, or the non-native pathed Nature spells of Wooden Warriors and Mass Protection. If however, the exorbitant price for them is paid and they survive to see combat, they do have a Wail attack that forces a whole square to pass a MR check or die (even Undead, Inanimate, and/or Mindless units), and even if they survive there is a Fear effect rider too. Ladies also have Stealthy, potentially allowing them to choose engagements for fights against SCs and Thugs when lead by Dusk Elder, but any such threat used against Ermor likely has a way to cut through theoretically infinite amounts of Longdead and will probably kill them before they fail an MR check. Again, at the judgement of 8 Lictors who can consistently deal 29+ damage every turn or 1 Wailing Lady, this unit is almost always a trap in terms of gem usage for multiplayer games.
Longdead Legionnaire At a price of 50 for 15 gems, the spell Ermorian Legion would be a steal for many nations that would like functional chaff for a frontline. Given that any MA Ermor that survives to cast a level 6 spell likely produces literally hundreds of Longdead every single turn passively, purposefully spending gems to summon this unit is likely a waste of resources in a multiplayer game.
Great Lion3) MA Ermor does not natively have Nature casters, and even if they did Great Lions are not worth 1 gem per unit with the Pretender Homerealm spell. They have a 17 and 15 damage at 13 attack skill, which with 10 defense skill and 13 morale doesn't fall into the usual flaw of animals in that they are easily repelled by even length 1 swords, but their decent offensive characteristics are failed by their undisciplined nature and having only 20 hp and 4 prot at size 3. Overall a passable (potentially even good) unit on near any nation that has been made absurdly expensive, and can't even be cast natively on MA Ermor.


Heroes


Repeatable:
None.

Unique:
Idle Sprite Unit Card Magic Paths Only Arrive After X Turns? Notable Comments
Alcastos - Forgotten King holy 33 No. None.
Caractor - Arch Censor None No. Sacred but not a Priest. Has innate Fear and an Axe that deals 35 Armor Piercing Magic Damage.
Etimmu - Wraith Lord holy 22death 33 Yes, 15. Ettimu can self bless, use Ermor's Unholy buffs, and potentially cast Soul Vortex. Combined with a 1 month Immortality Reform time, high Mapmovement, Fear, good armor, and a Bane Blade, Etimmu can be thrown around as a Thug without any equipment or regard to his safety while still being able to reliably take provinces. Care should of course be taken with using him against nations with high Astral or Death mages, as Control the Dead, Enslave Mind, and Soul Slay are all ways he can be taken out permanently.
Putrescator - Dusk Elder fire 22astral 33 death 44 Yes, 15. Potentially provides access to a variety of magic otherwise only available through expensive Empowerment or pregame designing of a Pretender God. Among these is the ability to craft a Skullface while holding a Skull Staff for an additional Death magic booster.

More details on hero arrival mechanics can be found on this page: Heroes


National Magic


Highest Unaided Magic Access

With Recruitables:

  • N/A


With National Summons:

  • Without Randoms:
    • holy 33 - - fire 11air 00water 00earth 00 - - astral 11death 33nature 00blood 00
  • With 1 in 6 Randoms:
    • holy 33 - - fire 22air 11water 11earth 11 - - astral 22death 44nature 00blood 00
  • With 1 in 360 Randoms:
    • holy 33 - - fire 33air 22water 22earth 22 - - astral 33death 55nature 00blood 00


Spells

Combat:
Spell Card School, Research Level Paths Needed Fatigue Cost Effect
Unholy Blessing Divine, 0 holy 11 None Blessing
Unholy Command Divine, 0 holy 11 None Enslave
Unholy Protection Divine, 0 holy 11 None +4 MR
Unholy Power Divine, 0 holy 11 None +4 Att, CS
Unholy Blessing Divine, 0 holy 22 None Blessing
Unholy Protection Divine, 0 holy 22 None +4 MR
Unholy Blessing Divine, 0 holy 33 None Blessing
Protection of the Sepulchre Divine, 0 holy 33 None +4 MR
Unholy Power Divine, 0 holy 33 None +4 Att, CS
Power of the Sepulchre Divine, 0 holy 44 None +4 Att, CS
Ritual:
Spell Card School, Research Level Paths Needed Gem Cost Effect
Revive Lictor Conjuration, 0 death 22 3deathgem 1 Lictor troop.
Revive Censor Conjuration, 0 death 22 4deathgem 1 Censor commander.
Revive Acolyte Conjuration, 0 death 22 10deathgem 1 Acolyte of Eldregate commander.
Revive Spectator Conjuration, 0 death 22 12deathgem 1 Spectator commander.
Revive Bishop Conjuration, 0 death 22 16deathgem 1 Bishop of Eldregate commander.
Revive Dusk Elder Conjuration, 0 death 33 20deathgem 1 Dusk Elder commander.
Revive Arch Bishop Conjuration, 0 death 33 23deathgem 1 Arch Bishop of Eldregate commander.
Revive Wailing Lady Conjuration, 2 death 33 8deathgem 1 Wailing Lady troop.
Lictorian Guard Conjuration, 3 death 33 10deathgem 5 Lictor troops.
Pride of Lions4) Conjuration, 3 nature 22 10naturegem 8 (+1 per level), so 10 at the minimum of N2, Great Lion troops.
Lamentation Conjuration, 5 death 33 25deathgem 5 Wailing Lady troops.
Great Lamentation Conjuration, 7 death 55 33deathgem 14 Wailing Lady troops.
Lictorian Legion Conjuration, 8 death 44 35deathgem 25 Lictor troops.
Ermorian Legion Enchantment, 6 death 44 15deathgem 50 Longdead Legionnaire troops.

Items

Items:
Sprite Item Card Construction Level Paths Needed Cost
Black Laurel 2 death 22 10deathgem



Reanimation Information


  • Priests with the Reanimate Ghouls order will still try to carry out that order when underwater
  • Priests with the Reanimate Ghouls order will still try to carry out that order with 0 population
  • Priests with the Reanimate Soulless order will still try to carry out that order with 0 corpses available
  • Priests with the Reanimate Lictors order will still try to carry out that order when underwater
  • FIXME What exactly does the + mean? My current assumption is that they are affected by priest reanimation bonuses?
Priest Level Ghouls Soulless Longdead Warriors Longdead Horsemen Lictors
holy 11 6+ 8+ 3+ N/A N/A
holy 22 7+ 16+ 5+ 1+ N/A
holy 33 8+ 24+ 7+ 2+ 1
holy 44 9+ 32+ 9+ 3+ 2
holy 55 10+ 40+ 11+ 4+ 3
holy 66 11+ 48+ 13+ 5+ 4
holy 77 12+ 56+ 15+ 6+ 5
  • Reanimate Ghouls summons
    • Ghoul
  • Reanimate Soulless uses the same calculation as most other Soulless effects, so for MA Ermor (no national Soulless) that will, depending on several factors5), summon from this list:
    • Soulless, Soulless Warrior, Soulless Warrior, Soulless Warrior
  • Reanimate Longdead Warriors primarily summons at random from this list:
    • Longdead, Longdead, Longdead, Longdead, Longdead, Longdead
    • 10% chance to summon a national Longdead instead, as follows:
      • 50% chance to then: pick evenly between Longdead Velite, Longdead Legionnaire,
      • Else: pick evenly between Longdead Triarius, Longdead Principe
  • Reanimate Longdead Horsemen summons
    • Longdead Horseman
  • Reanimate Lictors summons
    • Lictor



Passive Freespawn Explanation


Taken and reformatted from Loggy's Freespawn reverse engineering notes.

If you don't have candles, you get nothing.
If you don't own the province, you get nothing.

  1. CandleValue = (candles / 2) + 2
  2. If you have a temple, add (8 * game setting's gold multiple)/100, rounded down, to CandleValue.
  3. Number of Spawn Attempts = CandleValue * 175/100, rounded down
  4. If the number of Spawn Attempts is 0 or negative, you get nothing.

For each spawn attempt:

  1. If this is your capital (90% chance of change), OR any other fort (30 * (1 + commander point bonus))% chance of change:
    1. Consider the roll below to instead be a closed d6 + 89
  2. Roll a closed d(candles) - 1, and spawn accordingly:
    1. If 0 and the province is not UW:
      1. 50% chance for: 1 Ghoul troop
    2. If 1, 3:
      1. 100% chance for: 1 Soulless troop
    3. If 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10:
      1. 100% chance for: 1 (random, equal chance between: Longdead, Longdead, Longdead, Longdead, Longdead, Longdead) troop
      2. Separately, 2% chance for: 1 Mound King commander
    4. If 5, 8:
      1. If not underwater, 50% chance for: 1 Longdead Horseman troop
      2. Separately, 1% chance for: 1 Mound King commander
  3. Any other value (So only applicable to a result of 95 that the fortification roll might get):
    1. 50% chance for: 1 Knight of the Unholy Sepulchre troop
  4. If 90, 91:
    1. 100% chance for: 1 Longdead Velite troop
  5. If 92, 93, 94:
    1. 1 in 3 chance for: 1 (random, equal chance between: Longdead Triarius, Longdead Principe) troop
    2. Otherwise: 1 Longdead Legionnaire
    3. Separately, 1% chance for: 1 Censor commander



Important Notes for Playing


Dusk Elder Access: Although MA Ermor starts with a D2 Spectator, to access their Dusk Elders (and thereby any magic paths outside of Death or independents), they need a D3 to cast Revive Dusk Elder. This can be achieved through building a pretender with at least D3, or by the use of path boosting items, notably the earliest Death Booster is the Construction 4 Skull Staff.

Low Income: Low starting capital population and a hefty passive population loss from dominion means MA Ermor often has much less income than other nations, despite having no percentage based income reduction like EA Yomi.

Lictor Summoning: The Black Laurel's ability to boost the amount of Lictors summoned applies to all spells that summon Lictors, but not the Reanimation order of H3+ priests.

Applying MR with Priests: Due to Protection of the Sepulchre's buff not being applied to your units if they pass an MR check, it can be more effective to use Unholy Protection even when an H3 could cast the former.

Dusk Elder S: It is useful to keep in mind the Dusk Elder's ability to "opt out" of battles while still following armies by moving with stealth. Because of the fact that all Dusk Elders have at least S1 but rarely more than that, this is especially pertinent when a Magic Duel trap may be on the table.

Siege Defense: Due to the mindless trait of Longdead, and the mindless and undisciplined traits of Soulless, the siege defense stat of most of MA Ermor's freespawn is only 0.1. The major exception to this are Ghouls, who have 0.6 siege defense per troop.

Freespawn HP: Longdead have much lower HP than one would expect of troops their size. When mixed in with armies with units like Ghouls and most especially Soulless, MA Ermor's armies might rout unexpectedly early due to the larger HP (and generally lower protection) non-Longdead being targeted and killed first; see the illwiki page for Morale and Loggy's Morale Notes for details on HP rout.


Strategy


Expansion Strategies

If you can know some example expansion strategies unique or uniquely affected by the nation here, please get access and add them or contact someone with access to explain the strategy and/or tip!

As always, there are some more general expansion strategies available on this page: General Expansion Notes

Power Curve

This is probably the most difficult section to get consensus for. Describe how strong the nation is during expansion, the early, mid and late game, and what makes it strong/weak at each of those points. This should give readers an idea of where the weaknesses of a nation lie (if they have not been shown already) and when to take advantage of a nation's strengths.

Example Pretender Builds

If you want to add your own build here, get an account and it'll be more than welcome! Try to use a format to keep authorship clear and pretender design rationale visible.


Community Guides and Videos




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
, ,
1)
Negate's Starting Population Research
2)
Notably does not have a Banefire Bow, despite the attack sprite
3) , 4)
Available to all nations with access to the pretender homerealm 7, Africa
5)
Loggy's Longdead and Soulless notes
arbuckle-ermor-ma.txt · Last modified: 2024/01/29 23:55 by jonarbuckle

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