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The Late Ages (also known as the Late Age, or LA) is the Third of Three eras that one can set their Ascension War in. For the most part, the greatness of the Middle Ages has been relegated to history, while the legends of the Early Ages are either fairy tales or completely forgotten. Civilization has continued to progress, and life has materially improved for most people. On the other hand, magic has declined somewhat, and many of the twenty-six nations in this game have taken a darker path, either to try something new or to regain the glory of the past.
Click on the flags to get to the in-depth pages for each nation.
Late-Age Arcoscephale is themed after the successor-states of Alexander the Great, such as Antigonid Macedon and the Seleucid Empire. The Arcoscephale of the Middle Ages no longer exists, having declined after the death of its finest leader, the Great Conqueror (Alexander himself). However, the Arcoscephalian culture he spread still remains, with new concepts added to it from the conquered peoples. Among these new things is pantheism; according to the Sibyls and other Mage-Priestesses, all Pretenders are true gods, but they're also meant to serve the Arcoscephalian "Master of All". Thus, foreign Temples can be reworked by a Priestess instead of being razed, saving their Master a pretty penny.
Late-Age Pythium is modeled after the Late Eastern Roman Empire, partially with its Late Imperial Legions (which were also used by the early Byzantines) but most-definitely with its religious situation. You see, the state religion of the Middle Ages was a glorious, Heaven-focused, Eastern-Orthodox-themed faith; that faith has been sidelined in favor of mystery cults, however, such as the C'tissian-idolizing Serpent Cult. Other cults based on the Mithraic, Eleusinian, Dionysian, and Isis Mysteries can be found in the Empire, but only the Serpent Cult (and the old religion's state Priests) can spread the Pythian God's Dominion. The other cults produce weak-but-useful mystics that have their own disturbingly-effective rituals.
Sceleria is DEAD! At least it out-"lived" Ermor, its parent-state and its undead shame. They didn't beat it themselves, though, and they even repeated its terminal mistake. You see, after Ermor was stopped, Sceleria's commoners got over their fear of skeletons, and the skeleton-reanimating Mage-Priests of the Death Cult were petitioned to till the fields with their puppets. The Mage-Priests had no interest in Death anymore, since their cross to bear (causing Ermor's Undeath) had been lifted, so they ultimately decided to open a Soul Gate to the Underworld. They were hoping that the souls of Ermor & Sceleria's deceased would love to return to work in the land of the living… let's just say they were partially right.
Man is about as mundane as a high-fantasy feudal Kingdom can get, especially in Dominions. It wasn't always as mundane as it is now, though; the Kingdom was practically built by a coven of Witches, who discovered the arts of a vanquished race of "elves" and used them to empower their Magic. With the apparent final death of the "elves" (though correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation) came a Curse on this Magic, however, salting the land with Magic and Misfortune wherever it was used. The King forsook his title's original benefactors for the sake of the country, and now sponsors universities in the capital to replace the Old Magic with something safer. Man's army loves ranged weapons, by the way.
Ulm is a spooky Kingdom, with heavy German-Gothic influences from Bavaria and Prussia. Founded shortly before the Middle Ages, the "Iron" Kingdom hadn't been truly tried-and-tested until near the end of that period, when it was wracked with a series of civil wars. The worst of these ended with the Night of Treason and the Malediction laid on the land in that fateful night, which made many soldiers and nobles thirst for blood. Magic outside of religion was banned the following day, and the last Smiths that could make Ulm's trademark Blacksteel were purged by their inquisitorial rivals. The Kingdom still lacks the power to fully enforce the ban & clean itself up, which is nice if you like Vampire Lords and the Illuminati.
Marignon is a Spanish-themed Kingdom, and about as close to modern-day technology as it can get (pre-gunpowder). Born from the ashes of Ermor, it accomplished its great crusade for survival at the end of the Middle Ages by destroying the Undead menace. This took everything the Kingdom had, however – well, actually, it took more than the Kingdom had, so now Marignon has a debt that it can never repay. That debt is owed to Hell itself, but the Lords of the Inferno are easier to bargain with than mindless Undead Legions. Even now, Marignon is somewhat-reliant on Devils, since its Knights died fighting Ermor and the urgency for new ones to enlist is gone. It can now pick out weaker foes overseas, however, which is nice.
There was a time when this Aztec-themed Empire wasn't a chaotic, Human-sacrificing hellhole. That time has passed, ushered out by Atlantians who fled the collapse of their own Kingdom of Coral. Seeing that the Rain was one aspect of Mictlan's deity, the Atlantian Kings demonstrated their Water Magic to the isolated Empire, and rebranded as Kings of the Rain Priesthood. In the temple they now work at, the "Kings of Rain" have found and reimplemented the practices of the Blood Cult of the Early Ages, regressing the Empire in an effort to gather enough Magic power to retake the seas. They probably didn't understand that Blood Magic is totally unusable underwater, or that Mictlan's deity has a major addiction to Blood.
The Celestial Empire, in the Late Ages, has been terrorized by Mongol-themed barbarian nomads. The Imperial Family has been deposed, and the Bureaucracy has crumbled. The invasions appear to have recently ceased, however. The ruling Khans, or "Barbarian Kings", have brought ancestor worship back to the Empire after an entire era of its absence; their Mage-Priests have deduced that the best way to understand the already-dead is to be close to death yourself, so all of them are incredibly old, though terrifyingly-fit for their age. The Barbarians' (and T'ien Ch'i's) best troops are excellent Horse Archers that let the spirits guide all of their attacks.
Jomon is a nice, arable region, at least relative to neighboring Shinuyama. It's no surprise that Shinuyama's Bakemono Kings conquered Jomon first in the Middle Ages, subjugating the Human residents to their chaotic whims. By the end of those Ages, the Humans had had enough of chaos and disorder; after revolting, they established a strict feudal hierarchy in the lands they had control of, with the mercenary Samurai as their nobility. Jomon is also quite isolated from other civilizations, especially since T'ien Ch'i's collapse; much of its technology, and even its Magic, is thus stuck in the Middle Ages or earlier. Many powerful Magic beings seem to like this quiet feudal realm, though, including "gods" & sea Dragons!
Agartha is a subterranean realm, populated by Humans who revere the remains of the previous inhabitants. It's currently led by the Ktonians, Mages "of the Earth" (assuming Ktonian is a corruption of the Greek "Chthonian") who inherited the Magical secrets of the Oracles that led the previous inhabitants, though a few are Alchemists who fled Ulm's ban on Magic. Being irreplaceable, the mummified predecessors are tended to with utmost care, and only the finest Ktonian Necromancers are trusted with "reawakening" them. Everything else in Agartha is used to its fullest extent, however, including Cave Drakes and Human remains.
Abysia is a theocracy of lava-men on the decline. When Malphas, the Fiendish Early-Age architect of Abysia's traditions with Blood, set out to corrupt and destroy the Abysian people, he was playing the long game. The ruin of Abysia came, not from a disloyal army of Demonbreds rising against the nation, but from the still-loyal hordes of Humanbreds breeding the "pure-blooded" Abysians out of it. This has coincided with Abysia's volcanic heart (which once made Abysia hot enough for the "pure-bloods" to be happy) cooling, though centuries of dumping Blood Sacrifices into it might have done the job instead of "the dilution of the Pure Blood". The "pure-bloods" have veered deeper into cruelty & dark magic ever since.
Caelum is nominally a "magocracy", though it's apparently led by whoever can strongarm the other Caelian Clans into compliance. In the Late Ages, the heads are the Raptor bros; they were exiled from Caelum during the Middle Ages due to an issue between their Harab Seraphs (Mage-Leaders) and the Seraphs of the Airya Clan, but a new God rallied them to return home by the end of those Ages. Thus, the black sheep of the Caelian Clans returned with iron and "grounded" practices, and the lofty Airyans were scattered like dust around a Titan's footstep. The demons that the Raptor bros' ancestors once served would be proud, especially since the purged Raptors' ghosts have tempted the new Elders to re-Summon them.
C'tis is an Egyptian-themed Priestly Kingdom of only-herbivorous lizardfolk – the carnivorous ones were all expelled, after a particularly-nasty slave revolt assisted by semi-divine crocodilian Giants known as the Sobek. At around the same time as this revolt, the Sacred Swamps of C'tis started to turn to desert, and the Marshmaster fad of the Middle Ages has now lapsed into history. While the Marshmasters had risen as a sort of denial of Death after Ermor's Undeath, other Sauromancers (C'tissian wizards) rallied in the tombs of previous administrations in response to the disaster; perfecting the ancient art of reanimation in secret, these Sauromancers have now returned with a new God and old Kings.
Times have changed, even for Pangaea. At first, civilization was firmly rejected by the halfmen of the woods, but some had begun to adopt its fruits by the Middle Ages. In the Late Ages, steel, trade, and other Human curiosities have encouraged those convinced of civilization's power to assume it for themselves. The Centaurs now hold lordships, and the matriarchs of the Old Faith have become sacred soldiers in an effort to try and catch up to them in importance, leaving the Sacred Groves to the Panii and Minotaurs. The halfmen still revere Nature, but with violent protectors instead of gentle caretakers, the Sacred Groves have started to whither. Even Pangaea's new God is semi-civilized, much to the Panii's chagrin.
Midgård is the Norse-themed realm of Mankind. Before the Late Ages, however, it was called Vanheim, as the homeland of a race of "elves" known as the Vanir. Naturally strong and gifted with Magic, the Vanir once treated Humans as lesser beings; however, they busied themselves with fighting other races, and dwindled in number while Human tribes migrated to their Magical lands. Though the Vanir are still sacred and their Vanjarls still carry great influence, Human Jarls, Mages, and Priests have already begun to take their place. Among the Mages are the Völvor, seeresses who assist the Vanjarls with their fortune-telling, and the Galdermen, Skinshifters who learned Magic after being given lycanthropy by the Vanir.
Named after the "Outyard" of a Giants' stronghold in Norse mythology, Utgård was once called Jotunheim, as the homeland of the Jotun Giants. The name-change came with the arrival of Mankind, who hadn't ventured into the frozen lands until relatively-recently. Their arrival coincided with a stark decline in the Jotun population, and the Jotun Jarls saw them as potentially-useful allies. Offering the alliance against their Gygja advisors' wishes, the Humans accepted, and the Gygjas and their Vaettir servants eventually left the realm in disgust. At Utgård's heart is the Magical Well of Urd; here, Human (female) Seithkonr known as the Nornir divine and weave the fates of both Men and Giants.