Morale is an attribute of units, measuring their strength of character and their eagerness to fight. For many units, it is often not Hit Points but Morale that determines their staying power on the battlefield.

Morale prevents the rout, the repel, and the rakish seducer.

Morale functions a bit like Magic Resistance, as a defensive stat in response to various situations. A typical Morale roll is set against a so-called Fear roll in DRN:

• The Morale roll's base is the average Morale of everyone in the defender's squad, plus 5 times the percentage of the defender's squad that's still alive (rounded to the nearest whole number).
• The Fear roll's base is 14, unless specifically stated otherwise. (For example, all types of Seduction have their own bases.)

The Morale roll always wins ties. In the case of Seduction (and Dream Seduction), a tie is the safest result, in fact.

Commanders are not in squads, but that meant they benefitted from a full "survivor bonus" of 5 at all times in Dominions 5. If that still applies, the manual isn't clear on the situation. Regardless, one should try to have at least a single high-Morale Commander in battle.

Competent Leadership is the best source of Morale. Serving under a Commander with 200 or more (three gold stars) provides +3 Morale. Serving under a Commander with 150-199 (two gold stars) provides +2. Serving under a Commander with 100-149 (one gold star) provides +1. Serving under a Commander with 50-99 (one silver star) provides nothing. Serving under a Commander with under 50 Leadership provides -1 Morale, however. These bonuses are further modified (up or down) by Inspiration Traits.

The formation and composition of a unit's squad also impacts their Morale. Lightly packed formations, such as the "Skirmish" and the "Sparse Line", provide -1 Morale. Serving alongside an Undead being or a Demon also provides -1 Morale, if you're not one of those types of beings. Lastly, there are units known as Standards (short for "Standard-Bearers") who increase Morale for their entire squad, as long as they're not routing (or dead), though their benefits do not stack.

The unit's location has a notable effect on their Morale as well. Within their home province, they have +1 Morale, as they're fighting for a land they know and love (or at least comfortable where they are). Within their Pretender God's Dominion, they have another +1 Morale, fighting with the security that their God (or faith) is overseeing them.

A Blessed unit has +1 Morale at the very least. There was weirdness in Dominions 5, where Independents did not benefit from Blessings in any way. Whether this signified a hollowness to their beliefs, or a cut-off from holy power, was never really explained.

New to Dominions 6, spells that only mess with Morale (other than the Blessing spells) now impact a Morale Bonus value. This scales from -10 to +1. If the Bonus is negative, it randomly increases at a rate of around 1 point per 2 rounds, until it gets back to 0. Sermon of Courage and Fanaticism both increase the Morale Bonus by 1, while the effects that reduce the Morale Bonus can be broadly classified into two types:

• Fear "Damage", formerly known as "Type I Fear" or "Major Fear", has no restrictions and may also trigger a rout check.
• Frighten "Damage", formerly known as "Type II Fear" or "Minor Fear", can only reduce the Morale Bonus to -5.

These will ignore all bonuses except those granted by their specific conditions. (For example, a Sauromancer without 4-or-higher will have only 10 Morale!)

Example Monster	Their MOR
A Giant Rat	5
A Slave of Mictlan	6
A ranged Helote of Phlegra	6
A melee Helote of Phlegra	7
A Militia-man	8
A lightly-armored Archer	8
A naked melee soldier	9
A War Elephant	9
The average human melee soldier	10
A typical human Commander	11
Typical giant troops (Size 4-6)	12
A typical human Knight	13
Very-high-end human troops	14
Top-of-the-line human Commanders	16
A Werewolf on their spree	17
A Ghoul	18
A 4 Sauromancer of C'tis	20
Pretender Gods	30
Mindless beings	50
Fellas gone Berserk	99

• Fellas with 30 Morale or higher ignore Fear effects and ignore most Morale rolls outright.
• Fellas with 50 Morale or higher only rout under specific circumstances and are more likely to just stop existing.
• Fellas with 99 Morale will not rout until the very last round of battle.