Dominion represents a pretender's religious influence over a province, and the degree to which its inhabitants worship them. Only one pretender can have dominion in a province at any one time, though this is not necessarily the owner of the province. Provinces that have a pretender's dominion will have their scales slowly shifted to match those of said pretender, and will also have a number of effects on battles that take place there.

The level of dominion in a province is represented by a number of candles in the details panel of that province. White candles represent your own dominion, while black candles represent the dominion of another pretender. The maximum level of dominion a pretender can have in a single province is limited by the dominion score of that pretender. The dominion score of a pretender is initially set when creating that pretender, and increases by one for every 5 temples of the pretender built (or 5 per player on the team in a disciples game).

Dominion can be generated from several sources. It is primarily generated by a nation's pretender, its prophet, its capital, its temples, and any thrones of ascension it has claimed as its own. The chance of dominion increasing from one of these sources is [50% + 5% * dominion score]. Each chance of generating dominion is called a 'temple check' both in-game and in documentation, regardless of the actual source. A nation's capital, prophet, and each of its temples each generate a single temple check. A Pretender generates one temple check that is guaranteed to succeed, and two more, standard, temple checks. Thrones generate a number of temple checks ranging from 1-7, depending on the specific throne. The number of temple checks a throne generates is listed at the top of its description, as "Spreads dominion (x)".

When a temple check succeeds, and a point of dominion is generated, the following process determines where it is placed:

• If the province has neutral dominion, it gains one point of dominion.
• If the province has friendly dominion, there is a (30 - (3 * level of dominion currently in province))% chance that it gains a point of dominion.
• If neither of the above happen, a random neighboring province is selected and this process is repeated. There is no range limitation on this. The point of dominion can bounce through any number of provinces with friendly dominion before it sticks or finds a province with neutral or hostile dominion.
• If the province has hostile dominion, there is a (50 + (5 * dom score) - (5 * hostile dominion level in province))% chance that the dominion level is decreased by one point.

If at any point during this process a point of dominion is successfully placed, the process ends, and the next temple check is rolled, potentially starting the process again, until all temple checks are rolled and resolved.

It is more difficult for dominion to spread from land→sea or from sea→land province. During the third step, if the selected province crosses the land/sea border, there is a 50% chance that another province will be selected instead.

This sort of dominion spread happens late in the turn; notably, after combat.

Dominion can also be increased in a province by having priest commanders preach. A preaching commander has a chance to increase dominion in their current province, even beyond their pretender's dominion score, by 30% * the priest's holy level. Any points of dominion generated by this cannot spread to adjacent provinces. Having a friendly temple in the province adds 0.5 holy levels to the priest for the purposes of preaching. If the priest is preaching in a province with enemy dominion, the chance is then decreased by 5% * level of hostile dominion.

Example: A level 1 priest is preaching in a province that has -4 dominion (that is, an enemy has 4 dominion there). Their chance of successfully increasing his dominion (and thus reducing the enemy dominion from -4 to -3) is 10%. If they were preaching in a province with neutral or friendly dominion, they would have a 30% chance of increasing dominion. If there was a friendly temple in the province, their chance would be 45%-20% = 25% in -4 dominion, and 45% in neutral or friendly dominion.

Inquisitors get bonuses when preaching within hostile dominion. Their holy levels count as double for purposes of preaching under these circumstances.

If the dominion in a province is at or above 2x a priest's holy level (including the temple bonus), their preaching will have no further effect in the province.

Preaching-related dominion spread happens before combat. This can be very relevant in besieged forts, with both sides preaching in the province, trying to get their dominion in the province, in order to gain its benefits during a fort storming or siege break.

Several nations are also able to spread dominion through blood sacrifices. To conduct a blood sacrifice, a priest of an appropriate nation must be given a number of blood slaves, as though they were going to bring them into combat, and then ordered to 'Perform Blood Sacrifice'. A number of slaves equal to the priest's holy level are consumed, or fewer if the priest doesn't have that many, and an equal number of temple checks are created.

Apart from the above methods:

• Commanders with the heretic tag or a Stone Idol have a [20% * heretic level] chance each turn to reduce the dominion strength by 1
• The Juggernaut and several summoned commanders have a dominion spread ability, which generates a number of temple checks equal to its value
• Random events can change dominion level, even above maximum dominion

• Armies fighting within friendly domain get +1 Morale
• Armies fighting in hostile domain get -1 Morale
• Pretenders and Prophets gain hit points, strength, and magic resistance based on friendly dominion strength and lose the same when fighting in hostile dominions: +/- 1 Str, 0.5 magic resistance and 10% hit points per candle. Hit points cannot be reduced to less than 10% of the total.
• Higher dominion in a province increases the rate at which its scales shift to match the associated nation's scales.
• Victory/Defeat: If a pretender has no more dominion anywhere on the map they are eliminated from the game.

← This is what hostile dominion looks like on the map and the UI, by the way.

Provinces within a nation's dominion will have their scales shift towards that dominion's scales configuration. More candles means the scales will be more drastically affected.

If a player's province has hostile dominion in it, the province will not benefit from order, production, luck or magic scales. Turmoil, sloth, misfortune and drain scales will still have effect the province as normal.