"In the late era the Spanish influence is heavier than the Albigensian. Later Gothic concepts of occultism and devil worship are incorporated along with seafaring and missions abroad." – Illwinter

Let’s start with the good news: Marignon defeated Ermor. It took everything that they had, and each & every Knight of the Chalice perished in the penultimate battle, but Eldregate had finally been put to rest. The Holy Chalice itself was captured and brought to the House of Fiery Justice, posthumously completing the Sacred task. The bad news is that this required a Deal with the Devil(s); as other Kingdoms fell to Ermor, Marignon’s leaders had the Inquisition strike a bargain with infernal forces, and Blood Magic was accepted by the feudal theocracy. Marignon’s army became dependent on the Devils that the Infernal Lords supplied, especially in the face of ever-mounting Undead hordes, and the Infernal Lords themselves were called to smite Ermor after the previously-mentioned penultimate battle exhausted both sides’ forces. Marignon had thus taken on a debt that they could never repay, and anything that might placate the Infernal Lords is now permitted as long as the Inquisition oversees it. Still, blood-spilling is a lot less worrisome for Marignon’s nobles when it’s on their terms, and many of them are now looking for stuff to do. Recent advancements in shipbuilding and navigation have allowed them (and the Priests) to look to distant shores, with God, Gold, & Glory in mind.

Similar to Ulm, Marignon undergoes a bloody transformation in the Late Ages. Instead of the straightforwardly powerful sacred cavalry of MA Marignon, LA Marignon gains a serious blood economy and expertise in Devil-summoning. However, its expansion can be challenging due to its horrible starting army and a complete lack of shields in a crossbow-heavy age. Its magic access is also quite shallow, in line with most nations of the Late Ages.

In the hands of a player who can overcome these challenges, LA Marignon promises enormous scaling potential and overwhelming demon power at bargain-bin prices. Its troop roster is solid, its mages are cost-efficient, and it is just as capable of spiraling out of control as any other blood power.

Marignon is held together (more or less) by its Inquisition, the militant fist of the House of Justice's militant arm, the House of Just Fires. These guys repel hostile Dominion even if you haven't hired them, in provinces and forts that belong to you, having a 30% chance to remove an enemy candle from each of these places each turn (and a 60% chance if there's a Temple). They're less effective at spreading your own Dominion, able to do so only to a maximum of 1 candle (2 where there's a Temple).

The House of Justice	The Royal Academy
Enables recruitment of: * High Inquisitors * Goetic Masters * Hand of Justice Kills Undead (25% chance) Produces 1 per turn	Enable recruitment of: * Architects * Admirals * Royal Navigators Produces 12 per turn

• The House of Fiery Justice's holiness does 10 Armor-Negating Magical Damage to roughly half of the Undead in its province each turn (Magic Resistance negates).
• Prefers starting on a Coastal province.

General description of the units in the nations rooster, any standouts, shared qualities aka temperature, any foreign rec, what makes a good basis for planning around

Marignon's main lineup is stronger than Jomon's but suffers the same weakness of lacking shields in the age of crossbows.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Flagellant 10 4 5 + Foreign Rec	Sacred Start Affliction (75)	Despite being crippled naked men, Flagellants are killy (if fragile) troops. They do lose out to other infantry as mainline expanders and line units as they die too quickly to be cost-effective prior to protection buffs like Marble Warriors.
	Crossbowman 10 10 9		Cheap crossbows with low protection. Supported by Marignon's access to Flaming Arrows.
	City Guard 8 10 5	Castle Defence Bonus (1)	Cheap Halberdier that is poorly trained but uses fewer resources. Their low morale, melee stats and protection come together to make them function very poorly as line troops.
	Pikeneer 10 20 9		Marignon is able to recruit three kinds of cheap, two-hander infantry, each characterized by medium protection, solid damage output and mediocre combat skills. Pikeneers compare somewhat poorly to the others, lacking the damage output of the other two and having low defence skill, though they are able to repel more kinds of weapons. Halberdiers deal more overall damage and hold walls up slightly better, while Swordsmen have the best melee stats due to their great sword, and have the best protection of all three. These troops are all rather vulnerable to crossbow fire due to lacking shields.
	Swordsman 10 28 9
	Halberdier 10 22 9	Castle Defence Bonus (1)
	Palace Guard 20 27 31	Castle Defence Bonus(2)	Elite Halberdier. Better protection and body armor at double the cost and extra fatigue.
	Royal Guard 20 33 31	Bodyguard (3)	Well-armored infantry with good melee stats, but comes at a significant premium.
	Hand of Justice 19 22 21 Capital Only	Sacred Castle Defence Bonus (1) Patrol Bonus (3)	Sacred mixture of Halberdiers and Palace Guards. Cap only but they have less upkeep than Halberdiers while being better a patrolling out unrest from blood hunting.

At a glance, LA Marignon has access to the following paths for rituals and forging:

Elemental

• 3 on Goetic Masters
• 2 on Royal Navigators
• 2 on Royal Navigators, 7 via Water Bracelet, Robe of the Sea, Sea King's Court and Queen of Elemental Water
• 1 on Goetic Adepts and Masters

Sorceries

• 2 on Royal Navigators, 3 via Starshine Skullcap
• No reliable nature access. 20% chance on Plague Doctors
• No recruitable death access
• 3 on Goetic Masters, realistically as much blood as required via empowering and boosters.

In combat, all the elements can be brought into communions, though earth and fire communions require slave-expensive sabbaths.

Due to the ease of blood empowerment, Reascendance is an accessible (though research-intensive) route into 3.

Combat

• Evocation 4 2: Holy Pyre
  A situational side-grade to Falling Fires that is somewhat difficult more difficult to cast with LA Marignon's mages than MA Marignon's. It is a decent alternative to Fireball in that it is not a missile spell, and thus has a much higher likelihood of hitting the enemy.

Rituals

• Conjuration 6 4 for 25: Contact Harbinger ( Harbinger×1)
  LA Marginon does not get enough Astral to summon any of the Angels watching it, meaning empowerment or pretender assistance is essentially required to access this. As an 32 Angel, the Harbinger provides access to magic-phase thuggery and a mobile alternative to communions for casting high-air combat magic.
• Conjuration 7 31 for 35: Heavenly Wrath ( Angel of Fury×1)
  A thug chassis that cannot bless itself. Comes with a potent anti-undead/demon weapon and decent combat stats, but is hindered by its lack of paths.
• Conjuration 7 5 for 50: Angelic Host ( Arch Angel×1 + Angel of the Host(unit)×6)
  An 43 Angel with a big flaming sword & a small entourage of smaller big-flaming-sword-users.
• Conjuration 9 72 for 144: Heavenly Choir ( Seraph×1 + Angel of the Heavenly Choir(unit)×9 + Harbinger(unit)×3)
  An 4444 Angel with a large entourage of smaller angels that could be made more-useful with Divine Name; the Harbingers are the same as those summoned by Contact Harbinger, while the Angels of the Heavenly Choir can be made into excellent commanders.

• Blood 1 1 for 1: Bind Harlequin: ( Demon Jester×1)
  A standard-bearing demon, though this quality is really only useful for demons as mixed undead and non-undead squads take a -1 morale penalty by default. Extremely cheap compared to the generic Devil, but mage turn-intensive and a good deal weaker.
• Blood 7 41 for 88: Reascendance ( Fallen Angel×1)
  An 333 Arch Angel with a fear aura and a more-sinister sword, this summon is an excellent way to break into death. However, it is somewhat fragile for supercombatant duty, being both a magic being and a demon.

Communions are the Basis of your combat magic.

Navigators form lighting batteries including Storm and, Conjure Air Elementals. your army needs Arrow Fend to get them by without shields against crossbows, Though Mist, or Teach men to fly with Gift of Flight as an earlier counter. Poler to your blood mages, Water is cold magic, Freezing Mist, Falling Frost, and Frozen Hearts as an alternative to shock damage.

They also single out enemies with Mind Burn/Paralyze and Soul Slay. Body Ethereal, Battle Fortune and Antimagic make your troops tough along with Fog Warriors, and Quickening.

Your Cultist on the other side provides a flipside for your Navigators, creating Blood communions, Throwing Fire spell, Buffing with earth, sniping with blood, and conjuring Horrors. The sabbath buffs with spell-like Iron Warriors, Strength of Giants, Rush of Strength

Get anti-thug/Supercombatent Curse of Stones, Maws of the Earth, Blood Boil, Agony, Harm, Life for a Life, Magma Eruption, Call Horror, Astral Fires.

Depending on how you set up your scale or in which climate your fighting in, You can lean into Cold or Fire as your main source of AOE damage.

Your Rituals of Summoning Devils. Starting with cultist Bind Devil, then casting Ritual of Five Gates for more diverse summons. Late game conjuring Arch Devils and Heilophagus.

A use of Fire gems is Terracotta Army to replace the human element.

As a late game goal, by Blood 8 you can summon a Fallen Angel to make Vampire Lords.

Do you have any National items(Construction Level, Price, and required Paths). Any unique generic items few other nations can forge? What item would be useful on your unit lineup (non-standard recommend thug gear)?

Despite being humans, You have access to a lot of good thug items for your Angles and Demons.

Evening Star, Carmine Cleaver, Frost Brand.

Helmet of Heroes and Horn of Valor grants an extra +2 from your Admiral.

Handful of Acorns or Bottle of Living Water for your assassin.

Crystal Matrix with Plague Doctor.

Boost your mage hitting power with combination Eye of Aiming, Eye of the Void, Spell Focus.

• Construction 2 31 for 724: Soul Contract
  A situational way to spend your early Slaves. Conjures a devil every turn for as long as you keep the commander alive.
  You have to make sure that paper stays in your possession for a long time to earn those slaves back instead of summoning 10 devils normally, or save it for vampires. Can be hard to keep due to a chance of being attacked by horrors and stealing that paper.
• Construction 4 2 for 32: Lifelong Protection
  Summons 2 Imps every round of each battle. Excellent for generating chaff and highly scale-able. Cancerous on Assassins.

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.

A guide to late age Marignon: awake sage into buffed devils by 7thPath

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