Xibalba is a vast realm of dark caverns beneath the forests of Mictlan. According to legend, the sun and the moon passed through the labyrinthine caverns on their daily journey to the eastern horizon. On this journey they were guarded by the bat people, Zotz, that dwelled in the dark reaches of the Xibalban underworld. Being almost blind, they would not see and not covet the splendor of the sun. No one has seen the sun or the moon pass through Xibalba for ages, but the Zotz keep their vigil and their traditions alive. But lately the bat people has lost purpose and the priestly rulers of Xibalba look to the surface world to once more bask in the splendor of the sun and the moon. The Zotz are led by priest-kings from various cities, and only the priesthood represents centralized power. They still train the sacred Sun Guides once tasked with guarding the celestial entities through the dark world of Xibalba. The Zotz have contact with surface dwellers, primarily those of Mictlan, and have adopted some of their technology and practices. The Zotz have an affinity for blood hunting and black magic. Despite being guides of the sun, their skill in solar magic is limited. The Zotz are numerous and live in great swarming cave colonies. Numbers rather than strength allows them to win their battles.

"Xibalba is a nation inspired by Mayan mythological concepts as expressed in the Mayan texts Popol Vuh and Chilam Balam. The Popol Vuh describes the creation of the world and other mythological concepts. It also tells of the hero twins Hunahpú and Xbalanqué and their travels to Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, through which the sun travels during the night. Ever since high school, when I first came across the TTRPG Chill, and found a creature named Camazotz, I've been intrigued by bat-gods and Mesoamerican myth. The bat-god was actually the first god made for Mictlan, when that nation appeared in Dominions 2. When I started to work on Xibalba it was clear from the beginning that it would be a Mayan nation of bat-people.

Xibalba was also one of the first nations to get a national global spell based on its national backstory. The concept had been used when we remade the themes and carrion woods into a national spell, but we were never fond of how that worked out. The Xibalban Theft of the Sun along with the Agarthan Unleash Imprisoned Ones reintroduced the national global enchantments. …

Xibalba is a vast realm of dark caverns beneath the forests of Mictlan. According to legend, the sun and the moon passed through the labyrinthine caverns on their daily journey to the eastern horizon. On this journey they were guarded by the bat people, Zotz, that dwelled in the dark reaches of the Xibalban underworld. Being almost blind, they would not see and not covet the splendor of the sun. No one has seen the sun or moon pass through Xibalba for ages, but the Zotz keep their vigil and traditions alive. Lately, the bat people have lost purpose and the priestly rulers of Xibalba look to the surface world to once more bask in the splendor of the sun and moon. The Zotz are led by priest kings from various cities, and only the priesthood represents centralized power. They still train the sacred Sun Guides that were once tasked with guarding the celestial entities through the dark world of Xibalba. The Zotz have contact with surface dwellers, primarily those of Mictlan, and have adopted some of their technology and practices. The Zotz have an affinity for blood hunting and black magic. Despite being guides of the sun, their skill in solar magic is limited. The Zotz are numerous and live in great swarming cave colonies. Numbers—rather than strength—allow them to win battles." -Illwinter

Xibalba is a Hot "horde" nation, capable of creating large piles of sub-par soldiers to dump on enemies. The Zotz are basically mediocre Size-2 beings made Size-3 by their wings (and Caelum has a similar problem). Their wings let them pick their battles and allow them to attack the rear very early in combat. Their damage is decent-enough for the Early Ages to punch through with the first strike, possibly causing debilitation or a rout. In Dominions 4, this was enough; however, Dominions 5 heavily nerfed Xibalba by randomizing the attack order in combat, giving defenders the chance to attack Fliers as they land, and Dominions 6 hasn't made their prospects any better.

Beyond the first strike, Xibalba's troops aren't all that great. They don't have shields, so point-blank-range missile combat is very "hit-or-miss". They don't have much Morale, and their small HP pools make it fairly easy for squads to break in combat. Elite mages on the defending side can annihilate them with short-ranged evocations, though players typically don't script for this. The nation does have flying elites that are pretty decent in combat, however, particularly the Xibalban Guard and the Sacred Sun Guide. Xibalba also has Scorpions, ground troops that allow the nation to make their armies huge on paper; but aside from the Size-4 Scorpions, which are limited to 15-per-fort-per-turn, these are little better than Swarm chaff.

Magically, Xibalba is one of the Blood powers of the Age, albeit in an Age where most small provinces won't be ideal for Blood Hunting. Flying Mages can lug gems and Blood Slaves across the realm, and their Sabbaths can bring on Fire, Air, Earth, Death, and Nature. The nation is blessed with Mictlan's demon troops, specifically the Beast Bats and the ferocious Ozelotls, and these summoning rituals are far more turn-efficient than the generic Blood Magic of their levels. Last-but-not-least, the Zotz are good at both Blood-Hunting and Patrolling out the resulting Unrest.

Magic Access	Alt. Access	Unit Summary	Core Abilities	Buildings
4 (Rare 5) 4 (Rare 5) 2 2 2 (Rare 3) 1 2	Heroes 213 2433 13133 Summons 2423 2423 2423 2423 (req. 4) 433 4223 2423 4223 (req. 4)	Flying, Stealthy Light Infantry Scorpions	Flying Stealthy Patrol Bonus (-1) Blood Searcher Blind Fighter Cold Blooded Forest Survival Theft of the Sun Awe	Standard Forts Cave forts get extra gold and resources

Capitol Gems: 312

Sloth Limit + 1
Heat Limit + 1

Prefers Heat Scale + 1

Blood Sacrifice: Priests can sacrifice a blood slave at a temple to help extend the dominion.

: Stealthy (40), Patrol Bonus (-1), Blood Searcher (+1), Blind Fighter (1), Flying, Cold Blooded, Forest Survival

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Batab 60 4 1 Forest Recruit Cave Recruit		This is Xibalba's bread and butter commander. Being recruitable in any cave or forest means these are readily available in expansion and tend to lead most of your parties. Notably, it has less flying movement speed than the other recruit anywhere bats, which can impact the speed of parties.
	Xibalban Scorpion Trainer 85 1 1	Beastmaster (3)	The scorpion trainer fills an interesting niche in Xibalba compared to the 25g cheaper recruit anywhere batab. Although it takes fort turns, and costs marginally more gold, it has 20 mapmove (which is equal to the speed of your unarmored bats), can hold up to 100 magic units (the baby scorpions need a magic commander like the trainer and if provided, provide 3 patrol per 10g, and gives your larger scorpions a morale bonus. Although more expensive than your recruit anywhere commander, the boost in utility is non-trivial
	Ajaw 145 2 1	1 Sacred	This is the 20 map move priest commander for Xibalba. Use it with your Sacreds. Interchangable with the scorpion trainer depending on the build, but at 145g it cuts into the players income.
	Ajaw Kan Ek' 240 1 2	2 Sacred	Your best leader and a holy 2 for bless, this is a semi-elite commander. Useful for war parties, but there's steep competition for early capital mage turns.
	Ah Nakom 95 1 2	117 Sacred Inspirational (-1)	These are simple blood hunter mages. The unrest makes them sub-optimal researchers
	Chilan 145 1 2 Cave Recruit	1119 Sacred Fortune Teller (10%)	This is xibalbas Utility Mage. It can be recruited anywhere however because it needs a lab and a temple, in practice it comes from forts anyways. With earth death and holy1 it can tolerably research, thug, bless and site search, and it summons scorpions. Rarely exceptional, usually good.
	Ah K'in 155 1 2	111100%9 Sacred Theft of the Sun Awe (1)	This is a second utility mage. It can't thug, but has more path variations and can be blood for blood hunting and communions. Overall this is somewhat less exciting than the chillean most of the time, but it has its uses.
	Ah Itz 165 1 2	111100%11	This is a path access mage. It's cheap(ish) and can give you Death2, Blood2, Air1(for sitesearching and forging) and earth 1. Overall the main utility on these that isn't repeated elsewhere is they're cheap for a shot at a blood 2 blood hunter, and grant air access without requiring 2 turns recruitment
	Camazotz 225 1 4	211100%13	This is a strong mage that is slow recruit. A lot of players define xibalba by this mage, due to its easy D3 access and ability to skelespam. It's also gold cheap compared to the nations other big mages. Overall it's a nice unit to have, it's very strong, however the capital turns can be spent on even stronger mages
	Ah K'in Kan Ek' 385 10 2 Capital Only	21121100%15 Sacred Fire Resistance (5) Theft of the Sun Awe (1)	This is your expensive cap only utility mage. Fire blood can summon jaguars! Death 2 is just a nice F2D2 mage to research (or summon fire elementals), and E2 makes a great site searcher. When you have the gold, these are great sitesearchers and really flesh out the magic roster
	Onaqui 790 1 4 Capital Only	31321100% 10%21 Sacred Stealthy (40) Supply Bonus (+10) Blood Searcher (+2) Cause Unrest (+3 per Month) Blind Fighter (1) Flying Need Not Eat Demon Forest Survival Dominion Monster Summoner (Beast Bat) Summon Allies (Beast Bat) x 2	This is a light Supercombatant or heavy thug Chassis that freespawns weak sacred bats, sitesearches well, and costs a whopping 800g. They are the best death and blood recruitable mages of the age. It's biggest weakness is it's very expensive both in gold cost and mage turns earlygame, and Xibalba's other cap only mage is also very good. A trick if Xibalba goes hellscales is to not make a prophet until this guy is recruited, as you pay no upkeep on the prophet, and he's a very expensive unit. It is also the only unit on the national roster with nature access and about 1/4 of the time he grants N2 Access. It's also a fantastic blood hunter, however the unit is so valuable, that's often a waste, and it's better off fighting or site searching.

: Stealthy (40), Patrol Bonus (-1), Blood Searcher (+1), Blind Fighter (1), Flying, Cold Blooded, Forest Survival

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Large Scorpion 1 1 2	Stealthy (40) Blind Fighter (1) Undisciplined Animal Magic Being Need Not Eat Mindless Wasteland Survival	This is a very unique unit. It's size 1, mindless, patrols well and has very good stats for 1 gold (1!) . However it's a magic being (hard to lead, dies rapidly in combat and works poorly with the standard Xibalba hellbless as you lack RP. It's unique enough to enable some entertaining strategies.
	Giant Scorpion 5 1 2	Poison Resistance (15) Stealthy (40) Blind Fighter (1) Undisciplined Animal Magic Being Need Not Eat Mindless Wasteland Survival	The middle ground of scorpions, this is fairly unimpressive. Generally a player either wants to spend the extra and get the national recruit scorpions, or get 5 small ones for the price.
	Xibalban Warrior 8 1 6 Forest Recruit Cave Recruit		This is the weaker of the two Xibalban recruit anywhere mapmove 20 units. In short, the lance does less damage than the sword, even on the first hit. It's niche is it's longer than the sword and won't trigger as many repel checks and allows for repels. Basically, it's a weaker weapon that has a niche and will attrition marginally less.
	Xibalban Warrior 8 2 6 Forest Recruit Cave Recruit		This is the bread and butter recruit anywhere unit. It's cheap, hits hard with the sword and is unarmored, so will die to a stiff breeze. The tooltip is wrong - this unit has an obsidian sword - the same as the armored Xibalban guard but at 1 less attack
	Xibalban Dart Thrower 8 2 6		Neither the darts or mace do much damage. There may be a niche for these but overall these are very weak units and overshadowed by the rest of the roster.
	Xibalban Guard 10 5 12	Bodyguard (2)	These are like the recruit anywhere variant except with armor, 16 mapmove and +1 attack. They're quite a lot stronger than the unarmored variant.
	Xibalban Scorpion 15 1 15 Limited Recruitment (15/turn)	Poison Resistance (15) Darkvision (100) Eyes (8) Undisciplined Animal Wasteland Survival	These get 3 attacks, have decent weapons and armor, and have death poison. They're the strongest 'conventional' units on the Xibalban roster by a considerable margin and are worth recruiting if you have the RP and gold.
	Sun Guide 18 20 24	Sacred Poison Resistance (15) Fire Resistance (5) Bodyguard (3) Theft of the Sun Awe (1)	This is your cap sacred and it's a good one. It has decent stats and armor, flies, has built in magic weapons and hits like a truck. It's still going to die fairly quickly to troops in combat, but it carries a bless well and overall is a role player. If a player goes full hellscales, they can recruit about four of these in their capital per turn, so should be aiming for 5 dominion.

: Stealthy (40), Blood Searcher (+2), Cause Unrest (+3 or +5 per Month), Blind Fighter (1), Flying, Need Not Eat, Demon, Forest Survival, Summon Allies (Beast Bat) x 2

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Chek Ahau - Halach Uinic	Sacred Inspirational (1) Theft of the Sun Awe (1)	This is a holy 3 that comes with 2d6 sacreds for free. There's a lot of ways to use this commander, but loosely - he's a combat unit, that performs well both in an army (h3 + a few sacreds) or as a raider.
	Ahaltocob - Stabbing Demon (Multi) Earliest Arrival Turn (20)	311 Sacred Assassin	This is an assasain with sacred bat that join him in combat. He's an absolute menace with a big bless. Send him around and create mischef
	Chamiabac - Demon of the Bone Staff Earliest Arrival Turn (20)	243323 Sacred	An earth 2 Onaqui, this unit is a natural supercombatant when geared, or at the least a heavy thug.
	Chamiaholom - Demon of the Skull Staff Earliest Arrival Turn (20)	243323 Sacred	An earth 2 Onaqui, this unit is a natural supercombatant when geared, or at the least a heavy thug.
	Ahalpuh - Demon of Pus Earliest Arrival Turn (20)	1313321 Sacred Stealthy (40) Supply Bonus (+10) Reaper (5%)	These are strange. Reaper is awful if the nature heros stay in your lands, but they still site search and blood hunt ok. Overall, these have the least utility of the hero onaqui, and the reaper has to be carefully managed, lest these cause a lot of self harm. All that said, it's still a strong 800g chassis.
	Ahalgana - Jaundice Demon Earliest Arrival Turn (20)	1313321 Sacred Supply Bonus (+10) Reaper (5%)	See above
	Ahalmez - Sweeping Demon Earliest Arrival Turn (20)	311 Sacred Assassin	This is an assasain with sacred bats that join him in combat. He's an absolute menace with a big bless. Send him around and create mischef

• Break the First Soul: (Blood 2)
  1
  Commentaryy here.
• Break the Second Soul: (Thaumaturgy 2)
  1
  The break spells (especially 2-4) are anti SC anti thug spells. They all have slightly different niches but fundamentally, they do not have a resist check, so they can be very debilitating.
• Break the Third Soul: (Thaumaturgy 2)
  1
  Commentary here.
• Break the Fourth Soul: (Thaumaturgy 2)
  1
  Commentary here.

• Gift of the First Soul: (Blood 3)
  1
  Conversely to the break spells - the gift spells are all for your thugs and Supercombatants. Between these and regular buffs, you can buff your supercombatants higher than most nations otherwise could.
• Gift of the Second Soul: (Thaumaturgy 3)
  1
  Commentary here.
• Gift of the Third Soul: (Thaumaturgy 3)
  1
  Commentary here.
• Gift of the Fourth Soul: (Thaumaturgy 3)
  1
  Commentary here.

• Theft of the Sun: (Enchantment 8)
  63 and 70 in Capital Only
  This is powerful but it's likely to make everyone attack you. Use with caution.

• Scorpion Crown (Construction 7) 32 and 128 This is a pretty bad item. There are uses - like on the assasain hero but generally, Xibalba has better places to use its death and fire gems - even with the discount

See Magic Access. These guides supplement the summaries at the top.

• 2 on each Ah K'in Kan Ek' (capital-only), 1 on each Ah K'in off-capital
• 1 on one-in-four Camazotz and Ah Itzob
• No Water magic
• 2 on roughly every third Ah K'in Kan Ek' (capital-only), 1 on Chilanob off-capital

• No Astral magic
• 4 on roughly one-in-four Onaqui (capital-only), 3 on every fourth Camazotz off-capital
• 2 on roughly one-in-four Onaqui (capital-only)
• No Glamour magic

• 2 on each Ah K'in Kan Ek'
• 4 on roughly one-in-four Onaqui (capital-only), 2 on one-in-four Camazotz and Ah Itzob off-capital

Ah K'in Kan Ek' with 2 is the best option for climbing Fire, especially since its 1 allows it to forge a Skull of Fire.

4 can Summon Balam for a 1 in 4 22. With Blood boosters, the Balam can Bind Arch Devil, which has 4.

8 can Bind Demon Lord for a 2 in 6 chance of at least 4.

Both Ah Itz and Camazotz have 1 (1 in 4 chance for either). The Camazotz has an additional Death path and slightly better stats. Empowerment is the only way to climb to the key 4.

4 can Summon Balam for a 1 in 4 2.

8 can Bind Demon Lord for a 1 in 6 chance of 5.

No native access. 4 can Summon Balam for a 1 in 4 2.

4, which is very difficult to get to, can Summon Chaac, which has at least 2.

2 Ah K'in Kan Ek' (1 in 3) has the highest Earth. 11 Ah Itz (1 in 4) or 11 Camazotz (1 in 4) have Earth and Blood, which is useful for climbing Earth. Using the Ah K'in Kan Ek' in combination with one of the Mages, and an Onaqui, empowerment is not necessary. The Ah K'in Kan Ek' creates the Earth boosters, the Mage creates the Earth boosters requiring Earth and Blood, and the Onaqui creates Blood boosters for the Mage.

8 can Bind Demon Lord for a 1 in 6 chance of 4.

No native access. 3 can Summon Spectre for a 7 in 16 chance of 1.

24 can Bind Arch Devil for a 1 in 4 chance of 3.

31 can cast Hidden in Sand and Hidden Underneath which give at least 1.

3 can Summon Spectre for a 7 in 16 chance of at least 1.

8 can Bind Demon Lord for a 1 in 6 chance of 4.

4 Onaqui (1 in 4) is high enough and has the right paths to make many Death boosters without any empowerment.

EA Xibalba can make all the extra arms items, which are useful for Death boosters.

2 Onaqui (1 in 4) can make an Armor of Twisting Thorns. A Earth random with an Earth booster and a Nature booster might be able to make the unique The Tome of Gaia. Without The Tome of Gaia, a level of empowerment is necessary.

8 can Bind Demon Lord for a 1 in 6 chance of at least 4.

EA Xibalba can make all the extra arms items, which are useful for Nature boosters.

No native access. 3 can Summon Spectre for a 7 in 16 chance of 1.

3 can cast Forest Troll Tribe for a 1 in 4 chance of 1.

8 can Bind Demon Lord for a 3 in 6 chance of at least 4.

An Onaqui, even without the Blood random, can climb the Blood path without help. It can even create the unique The Black Book of Secrets.

How to win as the nation. Feel free to use the following sections, or delete them, or change them.

Different expansion options.

Expansion Guide 1 EA Xibalba Expansion Guide – Dom 6

Cavewalking Guide to faster underground movement (Shoutout to Arco!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvwBmdPQO0E&ab_channel=ArcoAlias

Early game options.

Xibalba has a few options in early game magic, especially with lucid's research mod focusing them. The paths can take the nation in very different directions so a summary belongs here.

1) (Conj 3) Summon Scorpion. This is your anti-rush spell. Scorpions carry your bless, deal AN damage, have tolerable stats, lots of attacks, and are a fantastic use of earth gems. They're mage turn inefficient, but a fantastic emergency button.

Although rarely relevant due to path access, Conjuration 1 and 2 lets you have some nature summons. These ground your troops similar to longdead horsemen at enchantment 2 and can boost your movement in caves

2) Blood 4 (Bind Jaguar Fiends). This is your earlygame 'capstone' research. There are a few useful spells en-route (blood burst, summon imps, hell power, summon bats etc), but blood 4 sort of symbolizes the shift from recruitable sacreds and scorpions, into the blood economy and sacred bats. The whole shape of Xibalba's play shifts when you get this research. Now because blood is gold and mage expensive, it's not always good to rush this, but it represents the transition into the next 'phase' of xibalbas play, where the armies will be somewhat defined by the blood sacreds.

3) Construction and Thamuturgy 3 - Alteration 2-3: These are your thug paths. They only really kick into high gear at research 3. Just note it takes quite a lot of research to buff up your thugs, with construction being the most important, then alteration, and only then thaumaturgy.

Also notably at thamuturgy 2 is the 'break soul' spell set - which can be important as a panic button against a supercombatant pretender.

4) Enchantment 2 (Summon Longdead Horseman). This is a little conceptually tricky. Flying units get a movement speed penalty in caves. If you ground them - say with a horseman commander, it can actually increase their movement. Also it's a good use for death gems in the early game as it lets you save gold on commanders.

Mid game options.

Late game options.

What are the nation's weaknesses?

Add links to guides or other overviews for this nation here.

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 • Pyrène • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia