A game of Dominions will start in one of three Ages. These set the available nations to play as, along with the independent cultures in provinces between the various capitals. These also set the economic conditions of the game, both materially and magically, though these effects can be modified to an extent in the settings.

The Early Ages have 35 different nations to choose from; of these, less than a third are predominantly human, though some element of humanity is present in around half. Much of the world does have iron, but it hasn't been made impressive yet. Steel armor is restricted to a few, powerful melee weapons are only a bit more prevalent, and the strongest ranged weapons in the world are merely giant bows. Most role models of the world are literal giants, most of whom have some reason and magical powers; these fellows can often be viewed as miniature Pretender Gods in their own right.

Even now, the "independents" of the surface world are mostly human, though civilization is unknown to a very-large chunk of them. Many still live in tribes; the plurality are ruled by barbarism, though some provinces have the magical oversight of druids, totemic shamans, Amazons, or even long-dead marshals. The "civilized" men typically fight like Berytians, or Mekoneans, or occasionally like Sauromatians.

The disorganization of mankind allows even good parts of the surface to be held by inhuman races; among these are trolls, half-elves, carnivorous lizardfolk, monkeys, goblins, dog-headed men, and even some cavemen. The caves are almost-evenly split between pale giants, bat-men, lava-men, troglodytes, cavemen (of course), beasts of the dark, the undead, and the aforementioned goblins and cavemen. The "independents" of the underwater realm are mainly Triton merfolk, despite the resistance of ichtyid and kulullu half-fish; they, in turn, are encroached upon by the frogmen of the gorges.

Starting populations in the Early Ages are generally smaller than they are in the Middle Ages; in Dominions 5, the percentage was 20%, though this has yet to be confirmed for this game. The default value for Magic Site generation in these Ages is 65.

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