A unit with awe forces attackers to pass a morale check of 10 + the awe value before they can initiate an attack. Units which fail their morale check briefly glow white.

A number of abilities confer awe, but only under certain situations:

• Animal Awe - effective only vs animals
• Halt Heretic - effective only vs sacred units, prophets, and pretenders
• Sun Awe - effective only when the sun is visible

Additionally, some EA Xibalban units have "Theft of the sun awe", which appears to grant awe only while their national global enchantment Theft of the Sun is active. This ability displays no icon, regardless of whether theft of the sun is active or not.

Some items (such as the Crown of Command) grant commanders the ability to lead more troops. Any commander to gain a total of +100 leadership from such items gains awe 1, then another 1 for every 25 points of leadership added over 100.