"Marignon is a late medieval nation of inquisitors and religious fanatics. Prudent – or perhaps paranoid – priests search for vice and heresy throughout the land, putting men and women to the pyre with fiery justice. Imagine the soldiers wearing fancy and colorful Renaissance clothing, while religious and arcane officials wear red or black robes and severe miens." -Illwinter

Marignon rose out of the ashes of Ermor, just like Ulm, but under a different banner. All that it had for repelling the shadows of Death was faith & austerity. The peasants labored under feudal lords, who payed their tithes and diligently served the Inquisition, all in the name of survival. The Inquisition was assembled by the House of Fiery Justice, a powerful Priesthood that dedicated itself to purging heresy & eliminating witches that used their magic for selfish means. The start of the Middle Age rebuffed the faith & fanaticism of Marignon with the undeath of Ermor, and (if you so decide) rewarded it with the arrival of an awakening God.

Marignon is a nation of fire and faith with a sacred knightly order. Like other medieval human-only nations (pretty much just Ulm & Man), its magic diversity is not very good; unlike the other two, however, Marignon's two paths it focuses on are almost-purely offensive. One does not simply pick Marignon and avoid gunning for attack spells & elementals in their research. For what can't be dealt with by your old-&-frail mages, you have Knights of the Chalice, sacred heavy cavalry that can be recruited anywhere with a fort, a temple, and an ample pool of resources.

Marignon is held together (more or less) by its Inquisition, the militant fist of the House of Fiery 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).

A certain breed of Independents, specifically the type with Knights, is rife with heresy. The heretics claim to be fine vegetarians, and may be based off the Cathars of France, but in Dominions they are recast as warlocks. Its heretical movements will only appear in two provinces, however. Dealing with the heretics is better than not dealing with them, since they can further lower local Dominion and even attempt to revolt on their own, though they'll only act without provocation a few times.

Dealing with the heretics is done with any of your nationally-recruited Priests, with stronger responses having higher risks but higher rewards.

• Friars are the safest option, but they don't even fully undo the Dominion loss.
• Inquisitors and High Inquisitors raise Unrest and give no benefits up-front, but can get more severe outcomes if they have twenty troops in the province afterwards; the outcomes are either a conversion of some of the heretics into 200 Gold (80% chance) or a little massacre that leads to a revolt (20% chance).
• Witch Hunters and Grand Masters immediately either convert some of the heretics into two Magic Items or start a massacre that leads to a revolt. One of these items will always be an Imp Familiar, but the other can be anything crafted with Construction 4 or lower. This option is most-likely to start a revolt, since it exposes the heretics as Blood Mages, but sending the Grand Master is the safer option (probably because he's so good at magic).

You cannot fully eliminate the heretics; they'll reemerge later, though it'll take (on average) as long as it took for them to emerge in the first place.

The House of Fiery Justice	The Royal Academy
Enables recruitment of: * High Inquisitors * Grand Masters Kills Demons & Undead (50% chance) Produces 41 per turn	Enable recruitment of Architects

The House of Fiery Justice's holiness does 10 Armor-Negating Magical Damage to roughly half of the Undead & Demons in its province each turn (Magic Resistance negates).

You will love each and every Knight of the Chalice that you can produce. Most Independents won't have troops that can match them, and most nations don't have something to compare that's as easy to buff. Consider taking Productivity and Order scales to have more of these guys, or maybe just put off building forts around your capital for a while.

Your Paladins are pretty good, too (being Commander Knights), though pretty-much all of your Commanders are at least decent at leading armies.

MA Marignon's magic diversity is rather limited. It is renowned for its mastery in fire magic, has some skill in astral, and its most powerful mages dabble in air and earth magic. That's it!

In terms of rituals/forging, MA Marignon has access to the following paths:

Elements

• 4 on Grand Masters, 6 via a Flame Helmet and King of Elemental Fire
• 1 on Grand Masters
• No water magic
• 1 on Grand Masters

Sorceries

• 3 on Grand Masters, 4 via a Starshine Skullcap
• No death magic
• No nature magic
• No blood magic

• Holy Pyre: Evocation 4 2. A situational side-grade to Falling Fires that lets your weaker mages (anyone you aren't recruiting in the capital) deal a lot of damage to undead and Demons. It's also a decent alternative to Fireball in that it isn't a missile spell and thus has a much higher likelihood of hitting the enemy.

• Contact Harbinger: Conj 6 25 4 (summon Harbingerx1). Summons a flying 3 angel. The Harbinger is mobile Air Elemental summoner, a Thunder Striker, and can work as a magic-phase thug with Cloud Trapeze, though they are somewhat pricey for the job. Perhaps more significant is their ability to provide access to high-level air magic (Fog Warriors, Mass Flight, Wrathful Skies) when wired into a communion with a Crystal Matrix, which is much more straightforward than trying to do the same with a max 1 Grand Master

• Heavenly Wrath: Conj 7 35 31 (summon Angel of Furyx1). A thug chassis that's easier for Marignon to summon than the Harbinger but often outclassed by the Harbinger's utility.

• Angelic Host: Conj 7 50 5 (summon Arch Angelx1 Angel of the Hostx6). It's not cheap (this isn't the Early Age, Magic Gems of all kinds are a hot commodity now), but it's a doable summon that gets you a slightly-better chassis than the Harbinger. Marignon doesn't really need its Magical services, however, although the flying and the youth are much appreciated. Note that this is a remote summon, and the Angels of the Host are pretty strong; the most efficient use of this spell is to drop it on a raiding thug or force that it can kill, take a province, and then keep the units.

• Heavenly Choir: Conj 9 144 72 (summon Seraphx1 Angel of the Heavenly Choirx9 Harbingerx3): Casting this is theoretically possible for Marignon without specially-designed Pretenders or Empowerment, but it generally requires Const 6, an extremely-rare natural 4 Grand Master, an equally-rare natural 2 Grand Master for the Crystal Coin, a Starshine Skullcap, and significant Astral Pearl investment for the Ring of Sorcery. In exchange for twelve years' worth of Marignon's Astral Power (four years if you convert your Fire Gems), you get a very neat thug, and an entourage including some technically-discounted Harbingers.

Your standard priest's main methods of attack are raining fire, Astral and holy prayers.

Fire kills chaff and stops Air Elementals with Fire Elementals. Standard evocations like Fireball and eventually Pillar of Flame are decent gem-free options. Incinerate is a good anti-thug spell. Heat from Hell can fatigue out non-fire resistant enemies.

Astral magic has buffs and single model kill spells. Mind Burn, Soul Slay, Enslave Mind and Magic Dual. Luck manipulation of Battle Fortune and Doom. get MR Antimagic. Stellar Cascades is alterative to Falling Fires to bypass resistance.

In Witch Hunter communions, Phoenix Power, Power of the Spheres and Light of the Northern Star boost the slave's fire and astral paths to reduce fatigue.

Returning is available if you need a Grand Master to pop in cast some spell then leave.

If you take a Darkvision bless then Solar Eclipse is a castable Darkness that is half as effective.

Flaming Arrows makes crossbows more effective and Wind Guide improve precision for both mundane and magic ranged combat.

Earth magic is unreliable but communionable, providing some small access to the excellent roster of earth buffs.

Air also a big thing for Marignon. Sulfer Haze is unexpected poison damage. and Angles Thunder Strike

Harbingers can respond to attacks in the magic-phase using Cloud Trapeze, and Grand Masters can teleport armies with Gateway.

Breath of the Desert lets you spread heat scale to boost fire magic and diminish cold-related strategies before a battle start.

Eternal Pyre is something of a natural global for Marignon to cast due to its pathing and capital gem income, if it gets to Enchantment 6.

Mind Hunt pick people off.

Terracotta Army later game replaces your line troops with those heavily resistant to Fire and Poison attacks.

Fire in a Jar is a powerful economy option due to the ability of Marignon's workhorse mages to spam Fire Elementals.

make a number of thug items for angels and morale-boosting items(Helmet of Heroes and Herald Lance).

Got some casting improvers with Eye of Aiming so that Gift from Heavens hit its mark. Eye of the Void and Spell Focus penetrates enemy MR.

• Construction 2 10 for 2: Mercybrand
  An inquisitor's weapon that inflicts additional heat damage, along with giving the user fear, a patrol bonus, and inquisitor. Generally, a good tool to help your priest suppress encroaching enemy influences. can be viable on a durable thug chassis to rout enemies way by stacking more fear checks.
• Construction 4 10 for 2: Cockerel Scepter
  A strange staff that inflicts blindness and a lot of damage to demons and undead, common late-game thugs chassis. It also allows for the casting of Holy Pyre.

• Construction 2 8 for 2: Holy Scourge
  Flail that gives a lot of attack skill and deals devastating damage to the unholy.
• Construction 2 4 for 1: Just Man's Cross
  Unholy-killing crossbow. The cheapest way to keep an off-script communion master occupied if you're worried about your communion slaves.
• Construction 4 4 for 1: Flambeau
  Another anti-unholy weapon, this time it's a great sword with extra fire damage that provides the wielder with some fire resistance. Its holder can cast Holy Pyre for free, so you might consider giving it to army leaders.

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.

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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