"Oceania and Pelagia are nations inspired by medieval bestiaries abundant with creatures of the sea corresponding to beings living on land. As most of these creatures are half-men and fish-beasts, Oceania as a nation became quite similar to Pangaea. The development of the Triton Kings incorporated modern concepts and imagery of mermen, and in Dominions 4, Pelagia was made a nation of its own, less Pangaean in style. Knights armed in mother-of-pearl armor, Triton Kings on hippocampoii-drawn sea-shell chariots, and golden tridents are all part of the Pelagia setting.

"With the release of the Dominions 4 UW-patch the backstory of Pelagia was developed. It became intermingled with Berytos and my first ideas on later developments for the nation emerged. I prefer if nations are primarily culturally defined, and secondarily racially defined. Pelagia always felt more like a race thing and less like a kingdom with its own cultural setting. The changes in the patch was a step in this direction, although I find the new nation Erytheia more interesting." –Illwinter

Pelagia is the first civilized realm underneath the sea. It's a Kingdom of the Tritons, the undersea equivalent to Mankind, with amphibious Mermen as middlemen between them and their counterparts. The Mermen don't seem to have a history (though they appear Oceanic in nature), but the Pelagian Tritons trace their origins back to the Lord of the Waves and the Old Man of the Sea. One ancient Triton, Thaumas "the Wondrous", grew to enormous proportions and taught his secrets to a small clan of his people; other Tritons from this clan eventually grew large as well, and styled themselves as Pearl Kings, founding a Kingdom by uniting with a clan of coral-using warriors. Thaumas's acolytes used his special Water Magic to cultivate shining Pearls, and the Kingdom began using Merman subjects to trade these beauties with coastal realms above the waves. Therodos and its successor were its major business partners. Pelagia enjoyed its hegemony; unfortunately, it would not last, as other organized and/or ambitious factions would soon join them under the sea.

The Tritons are still mostly tribal; the Kingdom was founded by a union of the militant Coral Clan with the small-but-blessed Pearl Clan, and its Tritons pride themselves on their "purity" and strength relative to the other Tribes, who only serve the Kingdom as allies. The ocean isn't a particularly-conducive environment for metalsmithing, so Tritons typically use whatever's easier for them to work with; The Shark Tribe uses armor made of stuff gathered from hunting Sharks, the Turtle Tribe uses armor made of stuff gathered from hunting Turtles, the Coral Clan uses armor made of cultivated Coral, and the Pearl Clan uses Magic armaments made of their cultivated Pearls (in addition to Coral armor). Most Pelagians use Coral armaments and not a ton of armor; their weapons deal a little Poison Damage on hit, as long as at least one point of non-Poison Damage is dealt, by the way.

Contrary to its old-looking flag and lore position, Pelagia is a Dominions 4 concoction; in Dominions 3 (when the series first had Ages), this nation was Oceania, and the Triton Kings were replaced with the Capricorns and other "Ichty" folk in the Middle Ages. Much of the nature-based stuff was kept with Oceania when the split happened.

Early-Age Pelagia gets a lot of flak for being the least-effective land nation in the game… Which is fair, it's an Underwater nation. They probably weren't expecting most of the Thrones to be on-land, or perhaps they weren't prepared for the Ascension Wars at all. Trying to snag a coastal province before land nations claim it is hard enough; setting it up for churning out self-defense is harder (in a Multiplayer game), and don't get me started on trying to project force inland. You have a very interesting Magic game, however, since you can do a lot more with the sea's (hopefully) plentiful Water Gems than anyone else. The longer the game goes, the more likely you'll be able to pull something off.

Most of your Mages can convert into at a 1-for-1 ratio, but with a maximum rate per turn.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Very Fast Underwater +1 MOR vs. Humans "Pure" Tritons: Aquatic Base 1 PROT +2 HP, STR, & MR vs. Humans +1 ATT vs. Humans Tribal Tritons: Aquatic +1 MR vs. Humans Mermen: Amphibious Base 1 PROT +2 MR vs. Humans	Poisonous Coral Gear Some Primitive Armor Strong Triton Infantry (Light and Heavy) Triton "Unicorn" Cavalry Weaker Mermen Heavy Infantry On Land Sacred Triton Heavy Infantry with Magic Pearl Equipment	4 (rare 5) 2 (rare 3) 2 (rare 3) 1 (rare 2) 1 Hero: 3431	3 Capital-only 1 in land Forts	Fortresses Coastal Mages & Warriors

Getting your highest-level stuff on land requires some investment, sadly.

EA Pelagia's troop lineup may perhaps be best described as Berytos-level garbage - at least on land. It is saved from immediate and devastating demise by the underwater advantage, and by the fact that underwater combat is often decided more by the number of Water Elementals one can summon than it is by troop quality. Its ability to operate on land without some serious investment is very limited due to the poor quality of its amphibious troops.

Pelagia's mages somewhat make up for this. In addition to being perfectly capable of spamming Water Elementals, Pelagia is famous for its Pearl Cultivation ability, potentially allowing for some powerful late game plays with the usual high-astral suspects of Wish and Arcane Nexus. However, Pelagia's strongest mages are just as aquatic as its troops and take a lot of investment to get on land in usable numbers.

The following commanders may be recruited underwater.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Merman Scout 25 4 1	Stealthy (50) Land Shape ⇔ Merman Scout Amphibious	Amphibious scouts are neat.
	Turtle Chief 40 10 1 + Coastal Fort Rec	Land Shape ⇔ Turtle Chief Amphibious	A 60 leadership, amphibious commander for when EA Pelagia must reach above the waves. Does not provide many advantages over standard amphibious indie commanders.
	Pelagian Captain 70 16 1	Poison Barbs (5) Aquatic	EA Pelagia's standard 80 leadership commander, enabling formations - but only underwater! Poison Barbs is neat but unlikely to dissuade the determined opponent.
	Merman Priest 45 1 1	1 Sacred Land Shape ⇔ Merman Priest Amphibious	Temple-building boys.
	Pearl Clan Priest 80 2 2	2 Sacred Aquatic	Pearl Clan Priests gain access to Sermon of Courage and better preaching abilities, though at nearly twice the price of their merman colleagues. They are also more proficient at banishing R'lyeh and Therodos's undead. Merman Priests are better for building temples, however.
	Pelagian Mermage 95 1 2	11100% 9 Land Shape ⇔ Pelagian Mermage Amphibious	Your underwater research monkey variant. Should you happen upon Earth Boots, make sure to take them off before you go underwater, or else you'll lose them!
	Ichtyid Pearl Mage 80 4 2	11 7 Inept Researcher (-2) Amphibious	EA Pelagia's cheapest amphibious mage that reliably has astral magic, but capital-only. A serviceable communion mage and much cheaper than Pearl Kings, but not particularly impressive for a capital-only recruit.
	Pearl Mage 195 1 2	2111100% 15 Pearl Cultivator (3) Supply Bonus (10) Aquatic	Pearl Mages fulfil the absolutely necessary role of summoning Water Elementals for the underwater knife fight, should you have underwater neighbors. Pearl Cultivation is great utility, and can be a very powerful in combination with Maelstrom and especially Arcane Nexus. While these are the fastest way for Pelagia to turn CP into research, your amphibious mages are much more gold-efficient for the task.
	Pearl King 485 7 4 Capital Only	41131100% 10% 19 Sacred Resist Cold (7) Pearl Cultivator (5) Supply Bonus (10) Dominion attracts units/20: Hippocampus Aquatic	Pearl Kings are somewhat similar to EA Xibalba's Onaqui, as ultra-expensive and ultra-powerful Mages who can summon troops over time. Onaqui can go on-land, however, and Hippocampoi are significantly worse freespawn than Beast Bats. They can wield the Ichtyids and other Pearl Mages as Communion Masters, but keep an eye out for Magic Duels on-land, especially when going alone. Among EA water nations, only R'lyeh shares massable astral mages, but they are not uncommon on land (see EA Ermor, EA Marverni, and EA Kailasa). Some Pearl Kings will be magic phase-capable with Teleport, providing EA Pelagia with highly mobile throne claimers.

The following commanders may be recruited in coastal forts.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Turtle Chief 40 10 1 + Underwater Fort Rec	Sea Shape ⇔ Turtle Chief Amphibious	A 60 leadership, amphibious commander for when EA Pelagia must reach above the waves. Does not provide many advantages over standard indie commanders.
	Pelagian Shore Commander 40 19 1	Sea Shape ⇔ Pelagian Shore Commander Amphibious	More resource-expensive than the Turtle Chief for the same amount of leadership.
	Pelagian Explorer 75 3 2	11100% 11 Adept Researcher (2) Sea Shape ⇔ Pelagian Explorer Amphibious	Extremely gold-efficient research monkeys. The lucky astral randoms can serve in communions.

The following troops may be recruited underwater.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Pelagian Militia 8 2 5	Aquatic	EA Pelagia can choose between two naked militia troops. Neither is particularly appealing, and the latter's length 0 weapon puts it at risk of being repelled by nearly everything.
	Pelagian Militia 8 1 5
	Turtle Tribe Triton 10 7 9	Aquatic	Turtle Tribe Tritons are unlikely to feature in Pelagia's underwater armies due to being strictly worse than Coral Clan, and are unable to go on land due to their aquatic nature.
	Shark Tribe Triton 10 3 9	Berserker (2) Aquatic	Although Shark Tribe Tritons are quite scary as an indie type, they are much less impressive as line troops at 10 gold a pop and almost no protection. Potentially viable with some serious buffing, but otherwise their low protection puts them in serious danger to pretty much anything. They will at least not rout due to going berserk!
	Pelagian Soldier 10 3 9	Aquatic	The Pelagian soldier's 1 protection makes them essentially another kind of militia, but with marginally better combat stats than the others.
	Merman Net Thrower 10 3 9	Land Shape ⇔ Merman Net Thrower Amphibious	Amphibious militia with a net! Potentially viable as a way to tie down high-defence troops and thugs, like elves.
	Turtle Warrior 11 3 12 + Coastal Fort Rec	Land Shape ⇔ Turtle Warrior Amphibious	Sadly, the Turtle Warrior is EA Pelagia's best troop for an initial incursion onto land. With low protection, low damage, and mediocre stats overall, it is not a very inspiring troop type. You'll have to take what you can get, however!
	Coral Clan Soldier 13 15 16	Formation Fighter (2) Poison Barbs (5) Aquatic	Coral Clan Soldiers are EA Pelagia's strongest underwater troops, and gain rather significant increases in combat stats for a small cost increase, but the problems of mediocre protection and low damage output remain. They are still quite reliant on magical support for dealing with more well-protected opponents, unless the battle goes long enough that poison starts to matter. They also cannot operate on land!
	Pearl Guard 20 23 23 Capital Only	Sacred Formation Fighter (2) Bodyguard (2) Poison Barbs (5) Aquatic	Pearl Guards have mostly the same problems as Coral Clan Soldiers, but they are at least quite cheap for a sacred and have magic weapons built in. Some stats could make these capable of doing some serious damage, but being aquatic limits the utility of this sacred.
	Triton Rider 40 7 48	Recuperation Aquatic Mounted	Low protection and low damage output makes Triton Raiders far less usable than their MA successor, the Knight of the Deeps. They cost four times the gold of EA Pelagia's line troops and will die only somewhat slower. They are very fast in combat, however, giving them some utility as flankers.

These units may be recruited in coastal forts.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Turtle Warrior 11 3 12 + Underwater Fort Rec	Sea Shape ⇔ Turtle Warrior Amphibious	Still not great, even on land.
	Pelagian Shore Fighter 11 9 12	Sea Shape ⇔ Pelagian Shore Fighter Amphibious	Light infantry with a javelin. Unlikely to be all that useful against competent troops due to their low damage output and the nation's lack of access to Flaming Arrows.
	Sideraspist 13 19 16	Sea Shape ⇔Sideraspist Amphibious	The Sideraspist is EA Pelagia's most well-armored unit (which is not saying much), making it one of Pelagia's better line troops for land combat. Its damage output is still low and it has very mediocre stats all-round for its cost, but at least it has 15 protection!

EA Pelagia has one thing going for it over its Middle Age incarnation: it actually has a hero! Thaumas is pretty powerful too.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Thaumas - Wondrous	34313 31 Sacred Resist Cold (7) Resist Shock (5) Adept Researcher (4)​ Pearl Cultivator (7) Supply Bonus (10) Dominion attracts units/20: Hippocampus Aquatic	A strong mage hero, providing moderate access to air and astral magic in addition to being a throne-claimer like other Pearl Kings.

EA Pelagia has no national combat spells or rituals.

EA Pelagia has moderate breadth of magic access, with particular mastery of water magic.

For rituals, Pelagia has reliable access to the following paths:

Elemental

• No fire magic
• 1 on a variety of mages
• 4 on Pearl Kings, 7 via a Water Bracelet, Robe of the Sea and Queen of Elemental Water (expensive!)
• 1 on Pelagian Mermages and Pelagian Explorers

Sorceries

• 2 on Pearl Mages and Pearl Kings, 3 via a Starshine Skullcap
• No death magic
• 2 on Pearl Kings, 6 via a Thistle Mace, Moonvine Bracelet, Awaken Ivy King, Awaken Treelord (expensive!)
• No blood magic

• Construction 2 11 for 44: Clam of Pearls Const 2, 44, 11
  Clams of Pearls provide temporary 2 for use during battle only, as opposed to acting as permanent gem-generators as in Dominions 3. Astral has a number of very strong late-game spells which require the use of pearls, making this a very useful item for reducing the pain of gem logistics. Notable spells include: Master Enslave, Light of the Northern Star, Will of the Fates.

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.