Dominion represents your pretender's religious influence over a province and the degree to which its inhabitants worship them. Be clear on one point: conquering provinces does not expand your dominion. Your armies can march across entire continents without changing the dominion in the provinces they’ve conquered.

Dominion in a province is measured in candles. The maximum number of candles in a single province is limited by the dominion score selected when creating that pretender. This number will increase by one for every 5 temples you build (or 5 per player on the team in a disciples game).

Dominion can be generated from several sources. Primarily it is generated by your pretender, your capital, your temples, your prophet and any thrones of ascension you have claimed as your own. The chance of dominion increasing from one of these sources is equal to 10% times your maximum dominion. For example if your pretender was built with a dominion score of 8, and you have five temples your maximum dominion is nine and each source will have a 90% chance of generating more dominion every turn. For your pretender, he/she/it will always generate one point of dominion and then has two chances (using the previously mentioned %) at generating additional candles. Thrones will get a chance per level of dominion on that specific throne (1 to 7 depending on the throne). These percent checks are referred to in the game documentation as 'temple checks' (regardless of actual source being a temple).

When a new candle is generated (a temple check occurs) the following process happens:

• If the province is neutral dominion (regardless of owner) it gains one candle.
• If the province is friendly dominion there is a chance to increase the number of candles in this province by one. This chance is 30% - (3% * number of candles currently in this province).
• If the above roll fails, a random neighboring province is selected and this list is checked again. (See below for special sea/land rules). There is no range limitation on this. Your 'floating candle' can bounce through any number of friendly provinces before it sticks or finds a neutral/enemy one.
• If the province is enemy dominion there is a chance that you will reduce the enemy dominion by one. This chance is equal to 50% + (5% * your maximum dominion) - (5% * number enemy candles in province).

It is more difficult for dominion to spread from land→sea or from sea→land province. During the third bullet above if the randomly 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.

Dominions can also be increased in a province by having your priest units preach. A preaching commander has a chance to increase your dominion in their current province. The chance of success is 30% * your priest's level. Any candles generated by this cannot spread to adjacent provinces. Having a friendly temple in the province adds 0.5 levels to your priest for the purposes of preaching. (So a level 2 priest with a temple would have a 75% chance of success) If you are preaching in a province with enemy dominion, the chance is then decreased by 5% * number of hostile candles.

Example: A level 1 priest is preaching in a province that has -4 dominion (that is, an enemy has 4 dominion there). His chance of successfully increasing his dominion (and thus reducing the enemy dominion from -4 to -3) is 10%. If he were preaching in a province with neutral or friendly dominion, he would have a 30% chance of increasing dominion. If there were a friendly temple in the province, his chance would be 15% (in the -4 dominion) and 45% (in neutral or friendly dominion).

Inquisitors preaching get bonuses when within hostile dominion. Their priest level will count as double for purposes of preaching under these circumstances. Effectively 60% * priest level - 5% * enemy dominion level.

If the dominion in a province is as high or higher than 2x the priest level (including the temple bonus of half a level) then preaching will have no further effect in this province.

Preaching-related dominion spread happens before combat. This can be very relevant in besieged forts where both sides can be preaching in the same province trying to control dominion.

Several nations are also able to spread dominion through blood sacrifices. To conduct a blood sacrifice, a priest of the appropriate nation can sacrifice a number of blood slaves up to and including his priest level. The province he occupies must contain a temple. For each blood slave thus sacrificed, one temple check (described below) is generated. Thus, blood sacrifices can be a powerful method of spreading 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 resist, 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 your nation's scales.
• Victory/Defeat: If a pretender has no more dominion anywhere on the map they are eliminated from the game.

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 their enemy's dominion in it, the province will not benefit from the enemy's order, production, luck or magic scales. The enemy's turmoil, sloth, misfortune and drain scales will still have an effect on the province, however.