Ind is based on the medieval myth of Prester John. John was supposedly the king of a huge, wealthy and powerful Christian kingdom somewhere beyond the known world, possibly India. The nation draws heavily from this myth, with many of its units and abilities lifted directly from a letter supposedly written by Prester John himself.

Ind is a magnificent kingdom with pious citizens and wondrous creatures. Its people live long lives as they drink from the Fountain of Youth. The religious, long-lived people of the capital are relatively few in number, so they make use of various vassal states to help fight in war. Ind sends out Bishop Vicomtes to the barbaric lands that surround it to rule over the unruly cannibals and heathens that live there. These heathens are used in war, and comprise the majority of Ind's military.

Other vassals are also expected to fight: the Cynocephalian (dog-headed) people of Gog and Magog; the lady-knights of the great Feminie; the forest-dwelling Orionde who enslave woodland creatures (such as Centaurs); the little men of Piconye and the Giants of the Lost Tribe who are bound by divine decree to remain in their own land.

Ind is a very complex nation. They play very differently compared to other nations. This along side being a blood/communion nation means Ind is not recommended for beginners.

There is no other nation quite like Ind in the whole of Dominions 5. They introduce several new gameplay mechanics that are unique to Ind and Ind only. Auto-blessed troops, terrain dependent forts, +1 Holy recruitment per temple, along with a host of new units are some of the things Ind can bring to the table.

• Best Blood nation in MA by far
• Majority of units are sacreds which autobless allows for customizable strategies
• Great summons

• Terrain dependence for specific unit types is a limitation to higher paths of magic
• Access to certain paths of magic are locked behind a slow to recruit, cap only, expensive mage randoming into it

How the nation plays and what it is good at should go here, aka why would it be cool to play, whats good about it (in general terms) and where they falter possibily there could be a standard for nation classification (sacred heavy, elves, communion nation, blood nation, research, economical, forging, stealth, thug based etc) National Features

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Prefers 1 Cyphocephalians Humans Half-men Piconye Giants	Self-blessing sacred infantry Cyphocephalian raiders Heavy cavalry Half-men slaves Size 1 halflings Homesick giants	3 (rare 4) 3* 2 (rare 3) 2 (rare 3) 2* 2* 1 (uncommon)	3 Priests 3 Foreign Recruits 4 Summons	Castles Starts with a Fortified City

*Cave/highlands dependent

• +1 astral bless points
• +1 sacred recruitment for every temple built
• Only commanders with 3 or more can become the prophet. Primate King or Viceroy Primate prophets transform into an inspirational Prester King with 160 leadership; other eligible units will not transform. Note that the Viceroy Primate will not gain paths upon transforming into a Prester King, despite the Prester King's listed paths.
• All national sacred units are blessed at the start of the battle (includes Province Defence)
• -2 Dominion Conflict bonus
• Dominion hides province ownership (provinces are displayed as independent-owned)
• Fort recruits depend on terrain.

Ind is highly unusual in that the vast majority of the units in its roster are capital-only - it has separate rosters for non-capital forts built in different terrain. See The Vassals of Magnificent Ind for more details.

Note: because of the Fountain of Youth site in Ind's capital, all capital units will be younger than their displayed age when recruited. Most will be recruited at around 33 of age, so the Old Age tag is largely irrelevant.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Description
	Abbot Sage 110 11 2	12 9 Sacred Fortune Teller (5) Adept Researcher (+2)	Not a particularly gold-efficient researcher, but has reduced upkeep due to being sacred. Can form smite communions to accompany Ind's native 3s. Unlike the rest of the roster, the Abbot Sage can be recruited in any fort with a lab and a temple.
	Bishop General 115 15 2 Capital Only	2 Sacred	80 leadership priest.
	Archbishop Marshal 165 15 2 Capital Only	2 Sacred Old Age	120 leadership priest. Will not be old when recruited due to the Fountain of Youth.
	Primate King 200 20 4 Capital Only	131100% 9 Sacred	120 leadership greater priest. Can join communions to add water and nature magic, as well as cast higher-level divine magic. Can be made Teleport-capable with two astral boosters to quickly get in position for throne-claiming.
	Abbot Magus 240 18 2 Capital Only	1122 15 Sacred Old Age Fortune Teller (10) Adept Researcher (+2)	Cap-only communion masters. A fast, if expensive, researcher that provides fire, earth, astral, and divine magic in battle.
	Abbot Magus Supreme 335 18 4 Capital Only	11321100% 10% 21 Sacred Fortune Teller (15) Adept Researcher (+4)	A bigger Abbot Magus that can add water and nature magic to communions with the right randoms (which may take some time to show up, since the Abbot Magus Supreme is both cap-only and slow-to-recruit).

The following commanders can be recruited anywhere outside of forts (provided you have temples/labs where appropriate).

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Description
	Cannibal Warlord 30 8 1	Berserker (+2) Pillager (+2) Cause Unrest (+2/month) Wasteland Survival Mountain Survival	A very cheap commander for performing odd jobs. Raises unrest.
	Cannibal Shaman Chief 90 5 2	11100% 5 Inept researcher (-4) Pillager (+2) Cause Unrest (+2/month) Heretic (1) Wasteland Survival Mountain Survival Forest Survival	A recruit-anywhere 40 leadership blood hunter, unique among all blood nations in Dominions 5. Requires additional patrol strength to control his natural unrest generation. Singlehandedly makes Ind the most bloody nation of the Middle Ages.
	Bishop Vicomte 115 3 2	2 Sacred Reduces Unrest (1) Lord Over Heathen Tribes (4) Tax Collector	80 leadership priest that reduces unrest and can Mobilize Heathens. Can also be recruited from Cynocephalian forts.
	Viceroy Primate 160 8 4	3 Sacred Reduces Unrest (3) Lord Over Heathen Tribes (6) Tax Collector	40 leadership greater priest that can be massed from any province, but very slow to recruit. Can Mobilize Heathens, claim thrones and cast Smite, which is particularly useful with the death and blood smites. Can also be recruited from Cynocephalian forts.

Ind's cap-only troops auto bless themselves at the start of combat. Ind's +1 holy recruitment/temple feature is extremely significant for these troops, allowing Ind to mass cap-only sacreds like no other nation.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Description
	Archer Priest 13 4 9 Capital Only	Sacred	One of the few sacred archers in MA, but otherwise unremarkable.
	Soldier Priest 15 18 14 Capital Only	Sacred	Sacred medium infantry. They are very cheap for a sacred with decent overall stats and super massable due to Ind's ability to get +1 sacred recruitment for every temple and the maximized order in their capital. With a good statbless, Soldier Priests have the potential to be one of the most cost-effective units in the game by just being better humans in every way.
	Baculite 19 14 31 Limited Recruitment (2) Capital Only	Sacred Standard (1)	Baculites have worse stats (particularly protection) compared to Ind's other infantry, but come with unique length 3 magic weapons that do AOE fatigue damage to other sacreds. Too fast to be safely used as a morale booster for most of Ind's troops who are often high morale anyway. Can still do so for Gog Reavers, Satyr Slaves and the different lions summoned by Great Huntresses without running ahead of them.
	Mirror Guard 19 21 21 Limited Recruitment (2) Capital Only	Sacred	Mirror Guards are simply upgraded Soldier Priests, but their recruitment is limited to 2/turn.

Most of the units that can be recruited from Ind's capital are cap-only. The units that can be recruited from non-capital forts are dependent on terrain; these represent the various vassals that the Magnificent Kingdom of Ind has brought under its glorious rule, organized into more formal vassal states than the hordes of cannibals that can be recruited outside of forts. Note that, in addition to terrain-specific recruits, all Ind forts can also recruit the Abbot Sage.

If a fort is built on terrain for which multiple recruit types are possible, then only one will be selected. The function used to determine which recruits you get can be found in Loggy's Misc Reverse Engineering Notes under "Ind's poptypes".

Ind gets no fort recruits whatsoever from forts built in swamps.

Ind has huge magic diversity, assuming terrain-specific recruits can be obtained. Caves/highlands are particularly important in this regard, making them a high priority for early game expansion. Notably, Ind has relatively straightforward access to the Ring of Sorcery and Ring of Wizardry universal boosters, meaning most path boost methods mentioned below can have steps skipped, or can be boosted one level higher than indicated.

Elemental

• 2 on Abbot Magus Supremes
• No air magic at all! Can eventually summon 3 via Faerie Court
• 2 on Abbot Magus Supremes, 7 via a Water Bracelet, Robe of the Sea, Sea King's Court, and Queen of Elemental Water
• 2 on Kings of the Lost Tribe, 6 via Earth Boots, a Blood Stone, Troll King's Court and Kings of Elemental Earth

Sorceries

• 4 on Abbot Magus Supremes, 7 via a Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Ring of Sorcery
• 2 on Magog Bitch-Mothers, 3 via a Skull Staff
• 2 on Magog Bitch-Mothers, 5 via a Thistle Mace, Moonvine Bracelet, Armor of Twisting Thorns
• 3 on Magog Bitch-Mothers, realistically as much blood as required via empowering and boosters.

Notable Crosspaths:

Combat

• MA Ind does not have any national combat spells.

Ritual

• Conjuration 3 2 for 10: Pride of Lions ( Great Lion×10 + 1/2 [lv])
  Turn nature gems into low-tier killing power. Ok if your getting rushed in the early game but they don't do much after that.
• Conjuration 3 2 for 10: Ambush of Tigers: ( Tiger×10 + 1/2 [lv])
  Better Lions with +1 more HP.
• Conjuration 3 2 for 10: Herd of Buffaloes ( Buffalo×5 + 1/2 [lv])
  Decent units being like Berserking Nobles. Will die quickly when faced with big numbers but more proficient then nobles at killing Size 4 and bigger enemies that they can't trample.
• Conjuration 3 2 for 25: Herd of Elephants ( Elephant×5 + 1/2 [lv])
  Expensive tramplers.

Ind-specific

• Conjuration 3 2 for 12: Call Cyclops Tribe ( Cyclops×5 + 1/2 [lv])
  Pay 0.5 gems more per unit for Ogres with more strength and HP. They are more gem-efficient siege strength then Ogres. Cave Grubs remain the king of earth-based siege strength (and Ind is incentivized to build infrastructure in caves anyway), but caves are not always readily available.
• Conjuration 6 21 for 9: Call the Birds of Splendour ( Yllerion×1 + Yllerion×1)
  Summons two unique bird commanders (a male and a female) which have a moderate siege/patrol bonus and summon 3d6 assorted birds in combat. If one dies, the other will also die the following turn of a special event, after which they can be summoned once more.

Abrahamic Angels
These summons are shared mostly with MA Ashdod and LA Gath except for Release Lord of Civilization, which only EA Hinnom shares the ability to cast.

• Conjuration 4 2 for 9: Call Malakh ( Malakh×1)
  Flying, stealthy, awesome 1 commander with full slots and some invulnerability. Potential light repel thug or Lifelong Protection-bearer.
• Conjuration 6 31 for 21: Call Hashmal ( Hashmal×1)
  A 2 angel with ethereal and fire shield. Similar to a Malakh but tougher and not stealthy. Only has hand and misc slots.
• Conjuration 7 41 for 39: Call Arel ( Arel×1)
  A 33 angel with the ability to heal afflictions. Provides big nature magic on demand without the need for a communion.
• Conjuration 8 52 for 49: Call Ophan ( Ophan×1)
  A bigger Hashmal with trample and 3, allowing it to be a highly mobile throne-claimer (perhaps not so useful for Ind given its abundance of 3s). Replaces invulnerability with natural protection. Also only has misc slots.
• Conjuration 9 73 for 222: Call Merkavah ( Chayot×1 + Ophan(units)×4)
  The Chayot is an extremely powerful 4 mage-angel that alternates between four forms: 4, 4, 4 and 4. It is also incredibly, astoundingly expensive, costing more pearls than two Wishes, and comes at a high research level.

• Blood 9 8 for 177: Release Lord of Civilization
  Summons one of the six Grigori who, apart from being powerful mages and 3 priests, have the corrupter (universal seduction) ability and occasionally sire Nephil offspring as lucky events.

Ind's magic diversity makes a lot of magic tactics possible, but several options stand out for early combat power. At a cool Blood 1 and Enchantment 3, Summon Imps and Strength of Giants combined with Ind's efficient sacred infantry go a long way towards discouraging an early rush (or fueling one of your own).

At Conjuration 5, Howl forces enemies to guard their backlines and distracts enemies from attacking actual units. If your bless includes Spirit Sight, Darkness at Alteration 6 hits enemies with an enormous -6/-6 debuff to attack and defence which your sacreds completely ignore; Cynocephalians will partially ignore it due to their 50% darkvision. High Alteration also provides access to many components of the healthy buff sandwich described in Not-Lola's Basic Magic Use Guide.

• Construction 4 1 for 5: Salamander Silk Garments
  A cheap resistance item for mages, providing Awe, Magic Resistance and Fire Resistance.

• Ind can have some problems with research due to being one of the only Middle Age nations that has a major gold sink in blood hunting. Imp Familiars and even Skull Mentors may be worth considering to help overcome this weakness.

This is probably the most difficult section to get consensus for. Describe how strong the nation is during expansion, the early, mid and late game, and what makes it strong/weak at each of those points. This should give readers an idea of where the weaknesses of a nation lie (if they have not been shown already) and when to take advantage of a nation's strengths.

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

Stacks on Stacks - A Guide to Ind By Baalz

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