Berytos is the melting pot of the Early Ages. It is the surviving remnants of the empire built by the Telkhines, now a kingdom of ghosts under the sea. Ruled over by an avaricious Melqart king and his wily Telkhine consort, the once-crippled colony of Berytos has birthed its own phoenix empire. Hinnom-style blood worship is in fashion, the sacrifices dedicated to the King of the City, but the cult itself is presided over by a priesthood of Machakan exiles who look to turn the cult to their own ends. It is the Dominions equivalent of Carthage and the Phoenician city-states with a spicy dash of Caananite Ba'al worship, tied into the history of Therodos and its former Telkine overlords as well as the downfall of the Machakan Lion Queens.

Berytos exists only during the Early Ages; by the Middle Ages the Phoenix Empire has been crushed by the armies of Arcoscephale. Like its parent empire, it is succeeded by just one of its colonies: Phaeacia.

Berytos is a nation with strong magic diversity, boasting access to all the elements, depth in blood (along with crosspaths that make blood interesting), and even some minor astral magic. Its mage corps is eminently combat-capable, it is a major blood power, and it has some very potent summons including the nation-defining Se'irim, angry sacred goat demons that can shred even the most durable front lines.

Unfortunately, Berytos suffers from a mediocre unit roster that lacks the protection and damage output to compete with their contemporaries in the Early Ages. The aforementioned strengths are also highly terrain-dependent, which may be an issue on less kind map generators. In summary, Berytos has some powerful tools and the magic diversity is awesome, but balancing these strengths with its weaknesses is not a straightforward task!

Special Race Attributes	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Prefers 1 Sailing commanders Trace income across oceans	Greek light to medium infantry Elephants Sacred half-giants National blood summons	3 (rare 4) 3 (rare 4) 3 (rare 4) 3* 2 (rare 3) 1*	2 Cap-only 1 in Forts 3 Summons Blood Sacrifice	Castles Coastal Fort Income Bonus (10%)

*only via coastal provinces

Berytos's unit lineup is mediocre, even for the Early Ages. The most durable of Berytos's units are the cap-only Colossi Warrior and fort-recruit Berytian Heavy Spearman; both have only 14 prot which is easily pierced by even indie weapons. Most do not deal enough damage to make up for the low survivability either, which can make it difficult to expand and survive an early war against nations with more powerful national troops.

Berytian mages are also highly specialized: the Storm Caller casts great combat magic, but is an inefficient researcher; the Berytian Priest blood hunts but is only slightly less inefficient at researching; the Berytian Sage does research efficiently, but does not fight well. This makes mage recruitment a much more deliberate task than for other nations, and limits the nation's flexibility during the early and mid game. However, they provide powerful options for combat magic as well as access to Berytos's nation-defining national summons

Berytos's heroes are very impressive; all are powerful mages and a big bonus if they do appear.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Dis Mater - Bride of the Gods Minimum hero arrival turn: 10	31332 25 Sacred Fire Resistance (13) Female	Provides moderate death access with good crosspaths. Although she looks less physically impressive than the other Berytian heroes, Dis Mater opens up the option of an immortal lategame with Vampire Lords. She can also forge Skull of Fire and Shademail Haubergeons.
	Ba'al Hammon - King of the City Minimum hero arrival turn: 20	3233 21 Sacred Fire Resistance (13) Adept Sacrificer (1) Fear (5) Gluttony (20) Blood Searcher (3) Cause Unrest (+8 Per Month) Kills Population (80) Old Age (770/735) Need not Eat Wasteland Survival	Unlike Berytos's summonable Melqarts, Ba'al Hammon is size 6 and immune to trample. Despite being old, he remains a strong heavy thug chassis and is capable of magic phase attacks with Cloud Trapeze.
	Makelo - Queen of the City Minimum hero arrival turn: 25	344423 39 Sacred Fire Resistance (5) Cold Resistance (5) Poison Resistance (15) Shock Resistance (20) Healer (1) Fear (5) Sailing (Max size 4) Pathboost: +1 +1 Supply Bonus (20) Shapechanger (Makelo - Queen of the City) Master Smith (1) (second shape only) Amphibious	An incredibly powerful mage. Makelo is a master smith with a plethora of crosspaths, a high path ritual caster, and is capable of singlehandedly laying down battlefield wide buffs and army killers. She can even heal wounded Melqarts! Having avoided the study of stygian magic that caused the rest of her kind to be imprisoned in Tartarus, Makelo does not cast Foul Vapors at the start of battle or kill 5% of the population in her province every month like other Telkhines. Strangely, Makelo does not have the [female] tag (unlike her daughters, who are both Therodian heroes).

Berytos gets excellent magic diversity from the coastal fort Storm Caller and cap-only Bride-in-Waiting.

Elemental

• 3 on Brides-in-Waiting
• 3 on both Brides-in-Waiting and Storm Callers
• 3 on Storm Callers, 7 via a Water Bracelet, Robe of the Sea and Queen of Elemental Water
• 2 on Brides-in-Waiting, 6 via Earth Boots, a Blood Stone, Troll King's Court and King of Elemental Earth

Sorceries

• 1 on Storm Callers
• No death magic at all except for a 3 hero
• No nature magic at all except for a 2 hero
• 3 on Brides-in-Waiting, as much blood as required via empowering and boosters.

Notable Crosspaths:

• for Call Melqart on Brides-in-Waiting
• for Summon Shedim on Brides-in-Waiting
• for Blood Stones, Father Illearth on Brides-in-Waiting
• for Freezing Mist, Summon Telkhine on Storm Callers

Berytos is relatively unique in that it can natively summon a mage that opens up even more magic diversity, the Telkhine. The new paths you get include:

• 2, 3 for forging. Fire randoms open up Flame Helmets and Kings of Elemental Fire
• 4 for Winged Helmets and Queens of Elemental Air
• 2, 3 for forging. Death randoms equipped with a Skull Staff open up Skullfaces for 5 rituals.

They can also forge the Staff of Elemental Mastery using either the or crosspath.

Combat

• Berytos does not have any national combat spells.

Ritual

• Conjuration 3 2 for 25: Herd of Elephants ( Elephant×5+[1/2 lvl])
  Expensive tramplers.
• Conjuration 3 2 for 10: Pride of Lions ( Great Lion×10+[lvl])
  Somewhat fragile but reasonably hard-hitting.

Rulers Returned From Their Slumber

• Conjuration 8 52 for 69: Summon Telkhine ( Telkhine Telkhine×1)
  Summons a size 4 amphibious 233321100% mage with a second form. The Telkhine autocasts Foul Vapors in battle and kills 5% of population in its province every turn. Human form has Master Smith, demon form has a Fear aura and a +1 pathboost to air and water. An expensive but useful diversity summon, and very powerful combat mage.

The Cult of the King

• Conjuration 3 1 for 3: Summon Mazzikim ( Mazzik×8)
  Nature equivalent of Summon Imps, but cast outside of battle. Can disrupt enemy lines, harass unprotected mages, or patrol blood hunting provinces.
• Conjuration 5 4 for 15: Summon Lilot ( Lilot×1)
  Dream seducer. Nature equivalent to the Succubus.

• Blood 3 1 for 8: Scapegoats. Wasteland Only ( Se'ir×2)
  Summons sacred, triple-attacking berserker demons. Extremely hard-hitting and a defining summon for the Hinnom line of nations. Just as useful for Berytos, if not more so due to Berytos's poor infantry.
• Blood 4 31 for 28: Summon Shedim. Wasteland Only ( Shed×3)
  Summons lightning-flinging, flying demons. Their lightning attack is similar to Lightning Bolt but the damage is based on strength instead, making Shedim mini evocation mages that scale with strength buffs. Much more mage turn-efficient than the generic equivalent, Bind Storm Demon.
• Blood 6 32 for 99: Call Melqart ( Melqart×1)
  Summons a size 5 332200% mage which kills population and raises unrest in its province. Notably different from Hinnom's Melqarts in that they are 3 (can claim thrones) and random air instead of astral. Makes a great heavy thug with minimal gear!

Due to its total lack of nature magic, Berytos has a significant weakness to Foul Vapors early on. A Poison Resist bless may be worth considering to mitigate this problem, especially since the abundance of Jade Amazons in the Early Age can make many nations Foul Vapors-capable.

Berytos has neither unique national items nor discounted items.

Brides-in-Waiting have great paths for forging thug equipment, such as the Fire Brand, Shield of Gleaming Gold and Girdle of Might. Berytos can also forge the Owl Quill and Lightless Lantern research boosters.

Berytos starts off slow: expansion can be very challenging with its mediocre troops, and some help in the form of a significant bless on Colossi Warriors or an awake pretender is essentially mandatory to fend off a determined rush. Outside of summons and a slow-to-recruit coastal-only mage, Berytos's combat magic is not straightforward to use. However, Berytos's unique blood summons, anyfort blood hunters and powerful mages mean that it can scale very well into the mid game. Once blood hunting operations have become established and you are able to mass Se'irim, Berytos's threat level increases significantly. This can provide the breathing room for a powerful late game based on strong, plentiful magic support and blood summons (Melqarts and more Se'irim).

Berytos has a couple of options for expansion. Berytos is not famous for lightning fast expansion like Arcoscephale or Abysia, but it is definitely possible to expand well enough. Here is a non-exhaustive list of example expansion parties:

• 15-20 Berytian Light Spearmen + 4 Elephants on the flank: pretty safe against indies that do not hit very hard, but also expensive. Can make it more difficult to afford early infrastructure.
• Pure Berytian Light Spearmen: use a large quantity of javelins to make up for poor quality troops as these parties will definitely suffer attrition. Not great against indies with shields or armor, but can do well against Barbarians etc. if you have at least even numbers.
• 8-10 Colossi Warriors + Berytian Light Spearmen/Elite Soldiers: viable expanders with or without a stat bless. Colossi Warriors can take 50 Lion or Deer Tribe without losses in parties of this size, and can also go toe-to-toe with Heavy Cavalry/Jade Maidens as long as they have a slight numbers advantage. Can expand in smaller parties with a stat bless.

Dominions 5 National Analysis: EA Berytos by Perun

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