T'ien Ch'i is obviously influenced by China. I couldn't even resist the name Spring and Autumn, from the period of the same name in Chinese history. Chinese history is rich and there is plenty to draw upon. Daoism and its five elements, inner alchemy, and quest for longevity inspired the Masters of the Way as did the T'ien Shih—celestial master—of institutional Daoism convert into the Celestial Master of T'ien Ch'i. Heroes come in plenty in the Chinese tales and the Seven Immortals are all interesting figures. Sun Wukong and his friends are perhaps even more so. There is plenty of stuff to expand on should I or a merry modder find the time. Finally, T'ien Ch'i has been inspired movies from Hong Kong, China, and Korea. – Illwinter

The Celestial Empire has not yet been founded. The magic of The Way permeates the realm and reclusive mages conjure Celestial Beings to do their bidding. Nobles wage war upon each other for honor and glory. A few chosen warriors and mages dedicate their lives to training in the Way of the Five Elements. The deceased are worshipped and village priests conjure the dead to ask for guidance and aid. It is a time of legends. – Nation Description

If you are considering picking this nation to play, what should you know?

Magic Access	Alt. Access	Unit Summary	Core Abilities	Buildings
2 2 (Rare 3) 3 (Rare 4) 2 2 (Rare 3) 1 2 2 (Rare 3) 2 Cap-only 1 in Forts	Heroes 12 11232 222 Summons 13150% 50% 25% (req. 2)	Well-equipped Units for EA Chariots Long-lived mages with wide magic spread	Combat Caster Need Not Eat Trample	Standard Fortresses

Capitol Gems: 1221

The Gate of Spring and Autumn: Boosts astral ritual range in the capital by 1 province .

T'ien Ch'i has one of the best human line troops of the early age with a very flexible cap and Forien Recruit mages.

Variety in commanders is limited. Only one troop leader, though decent, can be expensive. Is pretty clear which mages you should be recruiting off-fort, in-fort, and in Cap.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Scout 35 4 1	Stealthy (50) Mountain Survival Forest Survival	Commentary here.
	Noble Commander 135 52 1		Commentary here.
	Cataphracted Chariot	Animal Trample	Commentary here.
	Student of the Sword 70 5 2	1100% 3 Combat Caster	Commentary here.
	Master of the Sword 170 5 2 Non-fort Forests Only Non-fort Mountain Only	2200% 5 Combat Caster Mountain Survival Forest Survival Need not Eat	Commentary here.
	Student of the Five Elements 85 1 2 Non-fort Only	1100% 7 Sacred	Commentary here.
	Master of the Dead 100 2 2	11 7 Sacred Spirit Sight	Commentary here.
	Student of the Way 120 1 2 Non-fort Recruit Available	11100% 9 Sacred Need not Eat	Commentary here.
	Master of the Way 265 1 2 Non-fort Only	12100% 100% 11 Sacred Need not Eat	Commentary here.
	Master of the Five Elements 355 1 2 Capital Only	1111111100% 17 Sacred Supply Bonus (10)	Commentary here.
	Celestial Master 485 2 4 Capital Only	1121122100% 10% 100% 21 Sacred Need-Not-Eat Spirit Sight Flying	Commentary here.

Line troops are made up of 3 tiers of body armour. (Full Leather: port 9 Def -1 Enc 1, -2 mapmove) (Scale mail Cuirass: Same but +1 Prot Iron and +3 Resources) (Full Scale Mail: Prot 15 Def -3 Enc 3 -6 mapmove Iron) Even the lighter armored grunts are well protected from arrows. Regardless of the Armor worn, almost all troops wear Half Helmets (Prot 18 Iron), which negates most damage inflicted to the head.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Footman 10 9 9		Commentary here.
	Footman 10 11 9		Commentary here.
	Footman 10 11 9		Commentary here.
	Archer 10 12 9		Commentary here.
	Medium Footman 10 14 9		Commentary here.
	Medium Footman 10 14 9
	Heavy Footman 10 20 9		Commentary here.
	Heavy Footman 10 20 9
	Horseman 25 17 24	Skilled Rider (1) Mobile Archer	Commentary here.
	Armored Steppe Horse	Animal	Commentary here.
	Noble 40 52 31		Commentary here.
	Cataphracted Chariot	Animal Trample no-move-penalty-for-armor	Commentary here.
	Warrior of the Five Elements 35 6 31 Capital Only	Sacred Fire Resistance (5) Cold Resistance (5) Poison Resistance (5) Shock Resistance (5) Strength of the Spring (50) Ambidextrous (2)	Commentary here.

As T'ien ch'i, you get Immortal Mages. They have human stats but still useful for light thugging and Casting spells. Keep them way from Soul Slayers.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Ho Hsien-Ku - Immortal	1211 Sacred Immortal Supply Bonus (20) Healer (1) Ethereal Flying Female	Commentary here.
	Lu Tung-Pin - Immortal	1123219 Sacred Immortal Ambidextrous (3) Flying	Commentary here.
	Li T'ieh-Kuai - Master With The Iron Crutch	22217 Sacred Immortal Fear (7) Old-Age (865\500) Spirit Sight Plague Carrier (5) Start Affliction (100)	Commentary here.

: Sacred, Magic Being, Need-Not-Eat, Spirit-Sight

Summon Spell	Unit	Special Attributes	Comments
Celestial Servant (Conjuration 1) 11 and 1	Celestial Servant	Gluttony (3)	Commentary here.
Heavenly Rivers (Conjuration 3) 11 and 9	Demon of Heavenly Rivers x 3	Berserker (+4) Amphibious	Commentary here.
Ambush of Tigers (Conjuration 3) 2 and 9	Tiger x 15+	Darkvision (50%) Undisciplined Animal Forest Survival	Commentary here.
Herd of Buffaloes (Conjuration 3) 2 and 8	Buffalo x 5+[1/2 lvl]	Berserker (2) Animal Trample	Commentary here.
Celestial Hounds (Conjuration 4) 11 and 2	Celestial Hound x 2	Resist Shock (15) Patrol Bonus (10) Animal Flying	Commentary here.
Heavenly Fires (Conjuration 5) 11 and 4	Demon of Heavenly Fires x 3	Resist Fire (25) Heat Aura (3) Fire Power (1) Flying	Commentary here.
Contact Huli Jing (Conjuration 6) 2 and 30	Huli Jing ⇔ Huli Jing	13150% 50% 25% 15 Stealth (80) Magic Power (1) Supply Bonus (10) Animal Forest Survival Mountain Survival [Fox Form] Spy [Humanoid Form] Female Shapechanger (Huli Jing ⇔ Huli Jing)	Being also an extremely stealthy spy is the least notable feature; instead, being your strongest national Glamour mage in addition to 1/4 being able to make both Glamour boosters with Earth Boots. Even able to Summon Fairy Queens for late game. Keep in mind that they are still just about as fragile as humans and cost 30 gems when used in battles.
Call Celestial Soldiers (Conjuration 7) 21 and 15	Celestial Soldier x 6		Commentary here.

• Celestial Chastisement: (Evocation 5) 3
  A gem-less version of Control, inficts some damage and then takes control of the target. Only works against Magic Beings. A lot of good units are Magic Beings.

• Internal Alchemy: (Alteration 5) 21 and 10
  Reduces the caster's age by 15 years but has a chance to give the caster insanity. Your troop lineup is unlikely to get old unless hit with Decay, but it is occasionally useful if you luck into a strong indie with the given paths.

• Sword of the Five Elements: (Construction 3) 11 and 22
  Grants the user Reinvigoration and a lot of Attack and Defense. Useful on a Mage to protect himself and reduce Fatigue; because of the low price, you could mass-produce them to give to all of your Communion mages. Other weapons have better DPS effects.
• Armor of the Five Elements: (Construction 3) 11 and 22
  Light but high-PROT armor that grants +4 HP plus minor resistance to Fire, Shock, Cold, and Magic. It's useful on thugs since the resistances it provides offer some survivability against a broad array of thug-killers (Incinerate, Lightning Bolt, Frozen Heart, Mind Burn, etc.).

• Chi Shoes: (Construction 3) 1 and 4
  Provides the wearer with an additional attack per round. This is useful on high-strength units who can already get around quickly; unfortunately, your Flying Mages aren't that strong, while your Strong commanders aren't that mobile (or can't wear shoes).

T'ien Ch'i Magic is characterized by a wide-but-shallow spread of paths. For lower levels of Research, this is pretty neat, since you'll be able to use almost any spell that isn't Blood Magic. Later on, however, other nations will be able to take advantage of their higher-level path access, and you'll have to do some "ladder-climbing" with Summons and/or Items to catch up. The following is how to climb, barring Predender design, Empowerment, Charm stealing, or PvP trade deals.

Water is your deepest path by far, thanks to your Celestial Masters and the relative ease of Boosting the path. You'll have a Robe of the Sea by Construction 5 & a Water Bracelet by Construction 7, allowing you to boost roughly a fourth of your Masters to 5, which will allow you to cast almost any pure-Water Combat Spell or Ritual you could think of. Expanding underwater will allow you to summon a Queen of Elemental Water at Conjuration 8, if it's not too late in the game, who will be able to use your Boosters to reach 7 and cast all of those pure-Water Rituals you weren't able to cast beforehand.

Glamour Your other deepest path. Celestial Masters can random 2, but your nature randomed 5-element mages can cast Contact Huli Jing at Conjuration 6. Every Huli Jing has 13 with a 5 in 100 chance of 4. About 25% with Random an Earth, Getting boost boosters of Gossamer Veil (const 5) and Mirage Crystal (const 7), ending with a foxgirl with 5.

Fire is your second-easiest path to climb, unfortunately (that's not to demean Fire, but to demean how tough it is to climb other paths as this nation). A quarter of Celestial Masters will have 11, allowing you to Forge a Skull of Fire at Construction 7, which an 2 Mage in your nation can use to get to 3. Though 3 already gets you Fire Elementals and other cool stuff, the ladder doesn't end there; you can then cast Summon Flame Spirit at Conjuration 6 and equip your fresh Flame Spirit with the Skull, who will then be able to Forge a Flame Helmet and boost itself to 5. From there, you can summon a King of Elemental Fire and boost them to 7.

Nature is next. Each Master of the Five Elements has a 20% chance to have 2, allowing them to Forge a Thistle Mace at Construction 5 & Contact Huli Jing at Conjuration 6. Every Huli Jing has 13, Letting them summon Faery Queens at Conjuration 8 with a booster, and around (1-in-4?) (real percent?) of them have at least21, allowing them to Forge a Moonvine Bracelet at Construction 6. With that, you have 5, allowing you to switch out the Thistle Mace for a Treelord's Staff and reach 6 on a Faery Queen or Ivy King. Alternatively, if you're focused entirely on Celestial Masters, 1-in-4 of them will have 21 and will be able to Contact Naiads at Conjuration 5 with a booster or even no booster if you get lucky, allowing you to skip the green-shirted Masters. Though you cap out a little lower (on average) than with Water & Fire, at least you won't need to rush for Kings or Queens(?).

Death is actually easier to ascend than the next three paths, despite the lowly stature of your Death Mages. The same Celestial Masters that have 11 will also have 21, which can be Boosted to 41 if you got a 3 by the time you reached Construction 6. The Celestial Master of Death can then cast Streams from Hades at Conjuration 6 to secure a Kokythiad, who will have 3 and full equipment slots. You can then try to abuse the Twiceborn Ritual at Enchantment 4 to get a 4 Wight Mage, who will be able to craft the Skullface with a Skull Staff that she probably already crafted while she was alive, allowing you to graciously top out at 6 with a little luck. If you're not willing to burn Water Gems to roll the dice (Twiceborn path-boosting has about a 20% chance of happening), however, you'll still have 4 through the Kokythiad & her Skull Staff.

Earth doesn't beget many avenues for climbing, but it's straightforward to climb. Each green-shirted or sword Master might have 2 (20% chance) they can forge Earth Boots, they can summon a Troll King's Court to get a natural 3 Mage, the Troll King can wear Boots, and presto, 4.

Astral is unfortunately convoluted to climb, in spite of the Celestial insights. At least a fourth of your Celestial Masters will have 2, allowing them to Forge a Starshine Skullcap and reach 3. About 1/90 of them will have 3 to start out with, but they're 4-point capital-only Mages, not exactly "spammable" for that random path. To climb higher, you'll need help from other paths: the Huli Jing has a small-but-not-insignificant chance of having 11 and will be able to craft the Crystal Coin with the appropriate already-mentioned Boosters (a smaller portion might have 21 or 12, boosting your 3 Celestial Masters to 4. Roughly 1-in-12 of your Celestial Masters will have 21, and can be boosted to 41 to open an Ether Gate for 90, summoning an Ether Lord that always has 32 and has a 1-in-4 chance of having 4 to start out with, allowing you to reach either 5 or 6 depending on how lucky and/or loaded you are. If you get the 6 and still have Astral Pearls to spare, you can craft the Ring of Sorcery to boost to 7 (and/or to get 7/8 if you're lucky/7) if you were also pushing the ladder on those), and then you can get the Ring of Wizardry with your remaining Astral savings to boost yourself in the Elements (8, 8, & 6, if you have/can-still-get Royals) and Death (8).

That leaves Air; despite being a favorite secondary for your Mages, They can't get the Boosters they need. Realistically you are caped at more than 1 in 4 Celestial Masters being 2 outside of battles, and 4 in 1000 being a 3. Late game With the Ring of Wizardry and a Staff of Elemental Mastery, you get 4 on a 1 in 4 Celestial Master, which lets you forge the Winged Helmet and then the Horn of Storms for 5, which can all be held by a Queen of Elemental Air (if you were fast enough to edge out the Air Nations in summoning one) for 9.

If you can't wait & pay for Ether Lords, a Pretender with paths to forge Staff of Elemental Mastery and or Rings is a boon to your wide path cap mages. Also Celestial Masters or Huli Jing with boosters can cast Lore of Legends Boosting all thier paths at the cost of 20 for 1 turn, so use the most of that short time frame.

Add links to guides or other overviews for this nation here. How Zan Reviews a Nation, featuring EA TienChi Dom5 by Zan

Dominions 6 EA T'ien Ch'i SIMPLIFIED by AO Reaper

Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Pyrène, • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Muspelheim • 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 • Pyrène • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Nidavangr • 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 • Feminie • Piconye • Andramania • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia