Scales are an important thing to consider when designing your Pretender God. While their magic levels empower themselves, and while their bless empowers those considered Sacred to their faith, their Scales affect the provinces that follow them. The Dominion strength of the Pretender, on top of providing Holy Points, determines how quickly the provinces bend to the Scales of the faith.

Depending on how you look at Scales, there are either twelve different Scales put into pairs, or six Scales that can have positive and negative values. The latter view is generally more useful, and it will be used in this guide.

You might also include Dominion strength; friendly and hostile Dominion are set against each other, with all hostile Dominion strength being considered negative friendly Dominion strength for the purpose of Pretender and Prophet strength. You can't have negative Dominion strength in Pretender creation, however; that would result in your Pretender's immediate defeat.

While Dominion Strength is priced similarly to magic paths, each "tip" of the Scales either costs or grants 40 Pretender Points. If a Scale-tip is against what your nation wants, it grants points. Your nation wants a specific balance of Temperature, which it starts with in the Pretender Creation menu, and as positive of a score as possible for the other five.

The Pretender Points gained through taking negative Scales can be spent on other things, such as Dominion strength (though this will make provincial Scales adjust faster) and magic path levels.

You can only tip each Scale 2 points in either direction from zero. Many nations and Pretender forms have a "Scale Limit" adjustment, however, which increases the limit in one direction: these "pull the window", so to speak, decreasing the limit in the other direction. Also, a Pretender's Scale Limit adjustment and a nation's Scale Limit adjustment overlap.

For example, Ermor's Death Scale Limit is 4, due to having a "+2 Death Limit". This also means its Growth Scale Limit is zero. Ermor cannot then increase the Death Scale Limit to 5 by worshipping a Statue of the Underworld. However, if Ermor worshipped something with "+1 Growth Limit", their Death Scale Limit would be 3 and their Growth Scale Limit would be 1.

Dominion spreads Scales. Each turn, the chance for each Scale in a province to adjust towards the local Dominion's intended scales is 10% times the (absolute) difference in points, plus 5% times local Dominion strength. The standard increment is by 1 point (or "step" in the manual), but it can be 2 points/steps if the chance is above 100% (such as with a 7-point difference in 7 or more).

Note that Scales often change on their own, such as the Temperature changing with the seasons. This generally happens due to random events, though certain Rituals may cause a Scale shift as well.

When a Scale provides a percent change to something, it provides a (100%+X) multiplier to whatever that is. These are added up before being applied, except for in the case of income and supply deductions from Temperature.

Order is the positive scale in this pairing. In an orderly land, people get along nicely, and calm down more quickly after upsets. An orderly society is a civilized, trusting one, that serves the provider of that order well. Not much happens here, though.

Turmoil is the negative scale in this pairing. In a tumultuous land, feuds are quick to occur and slow to resolve. A society in turmoil is one where people are unlikely to cooperate. Stuff might happen here, though.

A point of Order gives +10% Recruitment Points, +3% Income, +2% Resources, and -3% events. It also impacts natural Unrest reduction: every turn, a province loses 1/10th of its Unrest, but Order reduces that denominator by its point value. The positive effects of Order are not felt in hostile dominion, so Order in hostile dominion only affects event chances (and what the random events may be).

A point of Turmoil is a negative point of Order, but all of its effects apply regardless of dominion.

Productivity is the positive scale in this pairing. A productive land has people who diligently work, seeing their projects through, and taking care of details that bother them. Much of their works will be focused to their god, of course.

Sloth is the negative scale in this pairing. A slothful land has people do only the bare minimum… or not even that, in some cases. People here walk around messes instead of cleaning them up, and they enjoy a good nap.

A point of Productivity gives +15% Resources and +3% Income. No aspect of Productivity applies in hostile dominion, since perhaps they're working extra hard to evade taxes, but all aspects of a point of Sloth (a negative point of Productivity) apply regardless of dominion.

Heat is not necessarily a positive, though it is the default. No one likes working when it's too hot for them, to say nothing of the plants and crops who can't go inside. Heat does melt ice, though, which helps with crossing mountains.

Cold is not necessarily a negative, but it's an impediment to most units in terms of movement. It can be handy for crossing rivers, but very few are trained to walk through snow. There's also the issue of going to work and farming normal crops in a snowstorm, of course.

A point off from the temperature your nation is used to gives -10% Supplies and -5% Income; stacking in a multiplicative manner instead of an additive manner, as noted at the top of the section. Your Pretender's religion is a relatively new phenomenon, after all, compared to the centuries-old habits of your people. Some nations care a lot less than others, however; these may have a mix of peasant races (such as Ragha), or an aversion towards typical revenue collection that the temperature doesn't change much (such as Yomi).

During Summer, all provinces have an extra point of Heat. During Winter, all provinces have an extra point of Cold.

Growth is the positive scale in this pairing. A land blessed with growth sees its plants and animals propagate in riotous profusion. Maybe the soil is richer, or maybe there's something in the air, but the basic needs of life are easily met.

Death is the negative scale in this pairing. It is a land in decline, where crops don't grow very well, where stillbirths are alarmingly common, and where disease is (incidentally) common. Taxpayers are prone to leave here, whether for another province or the underworld.

A point of Growth gives +10% Supplies, +1% Income, and +0.2% Population Growth; the latter of these is added to the existing rate of Population Growth, fortunately. A point of Death is a negative point of Growth, of course. Notably, all aspects of both of these apply regardless of Dominion.

Fortune, often called Luck even in-game, is the positive scale in this pairing. A fortunate land is where interesting things are more likely to happen, and where these things are more likely to be good for the land's god.

Misfortune is the negative scale in this pairing. An unfortunate land is where things left up to chance, such as whether or not the other person in an intersection is paying attention to the traffic lights, generally go wrong. Crazy things happen.

A point in Fortune/Luck makes random events 10% more likely to be good, additively; this is a zero-sum game with bad events, so 5 points of Fortune/Luck in a province makes events considered "bad" by the world incapable of happening in that province. It also gives +0.5% to the monthly chance of a Hero submitting to your Pretender, if in the capital; for reference, the chance in neutral scales is 3%. Neither of these effects apply in hostile dominion.

A point of Misfortune is a negative point of Fortune/Luck, except that both Fortune/Luck and Misfortune give +5% events, regardless of dominion.

Magic is the positive scale in this pairing. A magical land has "oddities" in it that promote imagination. Perhaps the fish here have gold teeth. Perhaps the animals here chatter amongst themselves. The faithful do best at unraveling these mysteries.

Drain is the negative scale in this pairing. A "drained" land is, on a spiritual level, uninspiring. When the Sun is out, focus is drawn towards it, instead of the colors its light reveals. It gives fellows uninspiring dreams at night, and it makes then unused to fantastical dreams.

A point of Magic gives locals +1 Research Ability and -0.5 Magic Resistance, with the latter rounded towards zero. Only those with Magic levels get the former bonus, and it doesn't apply in hostile dominion. Those who leave the province see their stats return to normal. A point of Magic also adds 50 Research Points to the 150 that the Pretender God's religion starts with, though this only matters when designing the religion.

A point of Drain is a negative point of Magic, though the research penalty also doesn't apply to the Magic-less and also applies regardless of Dominion. If there were a way to start with 4 points of Drain, that wouldn't bring your starting Research Points beneath zero.

Scales can go 5 points in either direction. However, the world itself wasn't meant for such extremes; aside from approaching tipping points in certain calculations, most Scales have additional affects when brought to 4 or higher.

Extreme Order will make people largely think the same. This lack of creativity comes with a -2 Research Ability penalty, increased to -4 with 5 points of Order. 5 points of Order is thus like 4 points of Drain, without the upsides.

Extreme Productivity is taxing on the body and spirit, and the locals will quickly realize that something is deeply wrong. This results in 1d5 Unrest being added each month, 1d15 with 5 points of Productivity, eventually negating the benefits if not addressed.

Extreme Heat kills people, of course, adding that Population Growth penalty that kept Heat from being a worse version of Death. 4 points of Heat is just as deadly as 2 points of Death, while 5 is as deadly as 5. Some cultures have climate-controlled forts, however.

Extreme Cold kills people, of course, adding an Population Growth penalty exactly like Extreme Heat. 4 points of Cold is just as deadly as 2 points of Death, while 5 is as deadly as 5. Some cultures know how to cope with this, however.

Extreme Death degrades the environment; it slowly turns farms and forests into plains, reversing the work that took many lifeforms many years to do. Turning a forest into a plain will make it better for human Population Growth, actually; but this is a temporary reprieve, for Extreme Death will also slowly turn plains into wastes.

Extreme Growth changes the environment differently; it slowly turns plains into farms or forests, with farms only happening if Order is also present, and it slowly fills shallow seas with kelp forests. The Orderly should be careful, though; 5 points of Growth will slowly turn farms into forests, as nature overpowers its tamers.

Extreme Fortune/Luck will make people feel entitled; why should they work, if everything works out in the end? This decrease in planning results in -5% Resources and -5% Income, or -15% to each with 5 points of Fortune/Luck.

Extreme Magic makes the province a less-safe place, as the bounds of logic are bent, and as the locals start to think of far-too-dangerous things. Horror Marks start to appear on the locals, and 1d5 Unrest is added each month, or 1d15 with 5 points of Magic.

Certain nations, as alluded to in the above section, have forts that are accustomed to certain temperatures. They do this by treating the Temperature as if it were 1 or 2 points hotter/colder, but only for the purpose of Population Growth.

The example given in the manual is Niefelheim, whose forts "reduce cold scale deaths by 2 steps". This means that not even 5 points of Cold would cause deaths, since that would be treated as 3 points of Cold for that calculation. However, it also means that 2 points of Heat would be treated as 4 points of Heat for the calculation, causing deaths. 3 points of Heat would cause even more deaths, of course. Fortunately, 4 points of Heat or more would be only just as lethal as 3.

Last-but-not-least, Extreme Scales exert pressure on neighboring provinces, slowly changing their Scales to match. This competes with the similar pressure provided by Dominion.