In ages past, a distant star inhabited by a great race of strange, alien beings was struck with an unimaginable catastrophe. The star fell from the heavens, breaking into tiny shards. One such shard fell through the Spheres and down upon the world. The shard came to rest on the ocean floor and there a remnant of this great race adapted and survived. They multiplied and enslaved a race of fishlike humanoids by sheer strength of mind.

R’lyeh, the Sunken City, is a mind-defying place built under the sea with an architecture unlike any known to man. In the halls of R’lyeh the Starspawns, the Great Ones who survived the Fall, plan the re-emergence of their Great Race. The Starspawns are powerful mages with great knowledge of distant stars and all of the Great Race are powerful mindcrafters.

All coastal forts of R’lyeh have a special well where women can submerge themselves in the hope of being impregnated by a Great One. However, most will be taken by Deep Ones instead, and the women’s offspring will be strange, fishlike humanoids instead of the noble Starchildren they wanted. These half-human hybrids are usually devoted to the cause of putting mankind below the sea and often join the army of R’lyeh free of charge. – Nation Description

MA R'lyeh is an underwater nation that often relies on hordes of chaff backed by powerful mages and void monsters. R'lyeh is often building for communions to further push this strategy. The R'lyeh capital contains a Void Gate, which any astral unit (regardless of the nation) can enter in an attempt to tame the void spawn beyond.

Race	Military	Magic Access	Priests	Buildings
Illithids Slave Alantians, Mermen, and Tritons Hybrids troops	Amphibious Armored Slaves Lobotomized Slaves Illithid Mind Blasters Voidspawn	4 (uncommon 5, rare 6) 3 (rare 4) 1 (uncommon 2, rare 3) 1 (uncommon 2, rare 3) 1	2 in all Forts Communion Priests	Castles (Can build UW)

R'lyeh's best Mages get two 100% randoms and one 10% random, each with the same paths (), so each of those Mages has a 45.15625% chance of having 4, a 7.03135% chance of having 5, and a 0.15625% (1/640) chance of having 6. Your Merman Mages have a 25% (1/4) chance of having 1. Technically all of the nation's paths except for Water and Astral are uncommon, since only those two paths are guaranteed on any of your Mages.

• Costal Forts in your Dominion spawn a Hybrid each turn

LA R'lyeh has access to two units named Starspawn. The capital only one is a very powerful mage for its cost. The other is an otherwise mediocre 2 priest. Many of R'lyeh's front line units have the slave tag, halving upkeep costs. The Meteorite Guards, Illithids, and Crab Hybrids are among your stronger troops but note that Crab Hybrids are not amphibious.

The following commanders can be recruited underwater.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Scout 25 1 1	Amphibious Darkvision (50%) Stealthy (50)	Amphibious scout to see things on land and sea.
	Traitor Prince 80 49 1	Amphibious Darkvision (50%)	R'lyeh's sole 80 leadership commander for formations. Rather expensive in both gold and resources for the job, and he cannot lead Illithid mind blasters!
	Illithid Lord 80 51 1	Amphibious Blunt Resistant Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (10) Taskmaster (+2)	Starting commander. Can lead an even mix of standard and magical units, and comes with the ability to mind blast like other Illithids.
	Slave Priest 45 1 1	1 Sacred Land Shape ⇔ Slave Priest Amphibious Slave	Cheap access to a minor priest. Extremely cheap upkeep due to being both sacred and a slave, but R'lyeh does not have many jobs for weak priests to do beyond putting up temples.
	Star Child 85 1 2 +Rec Costal Forts	17 Amphibious Blunt Resistant Stealthy (55) Spirit Sight Assassin (2) Void Sanity (5)	Makes for an excellent assassin, especially when given a Water Bottle to do the killing while it stuns its victim with mind blasts. Also a gold-efficient researcher.
	Slave Mage 175 1 2	21131100% Land Shape ⇔ Slave Mage Amphibious Slave	The primary combat mage of R'lyeh, especially for Water Elemental combat. A fast researcher with low upkeep due to being a slave, but has very low morale! Has some capacity to lead both normal and magical troops, allowing it to shuffle troops around or lead raids/expansion in a pinch.
	Starspawn 200 1 2	1291100% Sacred Amphibious Blunt Resistant Magic Being Summoning Skill (3) Spirit Sight Void Sanity (10)	An expensive 2 priest that can join communions to spam Smite or cast Fanaticism. Also R'lyeh's most competent void summoner.
	Starspawn (Capital) 290 1 4 Capital Only	13172100% 100% 10% Amphibious Blunt Resistant Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (10)	Very strong mages with relatively high magical leadership. Capital Starspawn are your strongest mage to recruit after you move your commander recs to other forts, providing crucial access to higher-level earth, astral and death. They are very important ritual casters, forgers, and out of the box battle mages. Having a potential 5 is significant for any nation.

The following commander can only be recruited from coastal forts.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Hybrid Commander 50 19 1	Amphibious Spirit Sight	A mind blasting leader; much cheaper than the Illithid Lord, but has lower magic leadership. Note that their armor can rust.

Unlike EA R'lyeh, MA R'lyeh has an excellent scales troop option in the form of the Meteorite Guard, as well as amphibious mind-blasting Illithids that can actually move onto land. It is therefore highly incentivized to pick some scales to take advantage of this newfound ability to reach above the waves.

The following units can be recruited underwater.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Lobo Guard 5 1 2	Amphibious Darkvision (100%) Magic Being Slave Mindless	Ludicrously gold-efficient siege chaff and good blockers. They will never rout, but beware: they are perfectly capable of HP-routing your mages and non-lobotomized troops, and they will die very quickly if left on their own!
	Slave Trooper 9 2 6	Amphibious Darkvision (100%) Slave	With an 18 pierce-damage trident, the Atlantian slaves can certainly punch above their weight, and they are capable of operating on land or in the sea. However, their low protection across the board makes them rather vulnerable to generic weapons or evocations.
	Slave Guardian 9 10 6
	Slave Guardian 9 11 6
	Slave Trooper 9 2 6	Land Shape ⇔ Slave Trooper Amphibious Slave	Merman slaves are somewhat less survivable than their Atlantian equivalents, not that either will survive all that long against strong troops. The naked mermen at least come with a net that can greatly decrease the defence of netted opponents.
	Slave Guardian 9 10 6	Land Shape ⇔ Slave Guardian Amphibious Slave
	Slave Trooper 9 1 6	Aquatic Slave	Slightly improved stats over the other slave types, but consigned to the water due to being aquatic. The Triton Guardian has a large 20 damage trident, giving them the highest damage output of all of R'lyeh's cheap slaves at relatively low cost.
	Slave Guardian 9 11 6
	Meteorite Guard 13 33 16	Amphibious Darkvision (100%) Slave	Meteorite Guards are one of the best recruitable nonsacred troops in the game. They have protection competitive with that of MA Ulm's Blackplate infantry and LA Atlantis's Ice Guard without the limitations of either (low MR and inability to operate in heat, respectively). They wield a high-damage magic weapon to counter Fog Warriors and Body Ethereal. To top it off, they are slaves with good morale, meaning their upkeep is halved for no downside! In summary, Meteorite Guards are fantastic troops and a strong incentive to take as much Productivity as you can afford.
	Shambler Thrall 20 1 22	Amphibious Darkvision (50%) Magic Being Slave Mindless Trample	Cheap for what they are but they still cost some amount of gold and recruitment points. Note that there are many indie types which Shamblers cannot trample, both on land and underwater. Examples include Kulullus, Krakens, and any human cavalry.
	Crab Hybrid 35 1 33	Aquatic Darkvision (50%)	A moderate protection unit with two decent attacks for almost no resources but high recruitment points, making them a good candidate for early expansion. They can carve up most common infantry found underwater. Has the limitation of being stuck underwater after expansion and is not a slave.
	Illithid 50 1 37	Amphibious Blunt Resistant Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (10)	Unlike EA R'lyeh's Aboleths, the mind blasting Illithids of MA R'lyeh are amphibious. Mind blasters are a force multiplier; paralyzed units cannot protect themselves even from slaves poking at them, and well-placed mind blasts can stop enemy mages and thugs from getting important spells off. They do however become much less effective in army vs. army combat as soon as Antimagic comes online.
	Illithid Soldier 50 51 37	Darkvision (100%) Amphibious Blunt Resistant Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (10)	Illithid Soldiers come with the same magical trident that Meteorite Guards carry, but suffer from a lack of specialized role. It may be more efficient to spend the resources on Meteorite Guards when ordinary Illithids will mind blast just as well as Soldiers.

The following troops can only be recruited from coastal forts.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Hybrid 12 3 21	Amphibious Spirit Sight	Generally poor units with very high recruitment point cost, and they are not slaves! The armor-piercing tentacle is cool but too low damage for practical use, and they do not have the armor to absorb incoming damage.
	Hybrid Trooper 13 6 24

Image	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Cthugul - Stargazer Minimum hero arrival turn: 10	25 19 Sacred Amphibious Blunt Resistant Magic Being Summoning Skill (5) Spirit Sight Void Sanity (10) Taskmaster (3)	Cthugul has the rather unique property of having no Soulless shape, meaning he will not be revived with Life after Death. This would have been the easiest way of removing Cthugul from existence while retaining his paths, so this strange trait combined with his unique status means he cannot easily be repeatedly Wished for to generate more Wish casters. However, if you somehow empower him in death, he can be Twiceborn just fine. Cthugul is far too valuable to risk in the Void Gate. 5 Starspawn are rare and should be cherished for casting powerful rituals.
	Shadhul Ummush - Traitor King Minimum hero arrival turn: 10	5 15 Amphibious Gift of Water Breathing (20) Resist Cold (9) Darkvision (50%)	A high water caster for Queens of Elemental Water and Maelstrom. Also has a limited ability to bring land troops underwater.
	Auluudh - Aboleth Minimum hero arrival turn: 20	44 21 Aquatic Resist Cold (7) Magic Being Spirit Sight Void Sanity (15) Taskmaster (3) Eyes (4)	A high astral mage is always valuable!

Shubejc is a unique commander that can be summoned from the Void Gate, making it somewhat similar to a national hero.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Shubejc - Visitor	14 15 Sacred Poison Resistance (15) Resist Cold (15) Shock Resistance (15) Blind Unsurroundable (1) Magic Being Ethereal Blink Amphibious Spirit Sight Need not Eat	Shubejc is not much of a fighter but is somewhat protected by being ethereal. It does add air to your communions. Teleport is its true power, giving it the ability to ferry gear and Gems to the front line. It can also do light raiding if paired with a Vastness.

Details provided by user iRFNA¹⁾

The Void Gate is a site in R'lyeh's capital that can be entered for the chance of summoning a random creature from the Void. It can be entered by any astral mage, including those of enemy nations that gain it by conquest. Only one mage may enter per turn.

Each mage has their own, independently-tracked chance of making a successful summoning. This starts at 20%, with each unsuccessful summoning attempt increasing this chance by 20%. When a successful summoning occurs the mage's chance of success is reset to 20%, whether the creature is friendly or not. A mage's percent chance will persist as long as it is not killed ( does twiceborn changes it?).

If a mage makes a successful summoning attempt, they make the following roll to determine what is summoned:

After this roll is made, the unit's Summoning Ability is increased by 0.5-1.5. This increase will not apply to the current summon roll. While the game will display the rounded down value, an extra .5 will still be stored.

The creatures corresponding to the Summon Roll then appear. If Astral Corruption is active, however, there is a 50% chance that the roll will be ignored; if this occurs, there is a 75% chance of being attacked by horrors (equivalent to a Summon Roll of 2-3) and a 25% chance of being attacked by Agon - Eater of Dreams.

Otherwise, there is a 20% chance the summon(s) will immediately attack the summoner. Certain summons are more likely to be hostile. Notably, the chance of being attacked is multiplied by four (to a base of 80%) if the summoner does not belong to R'lyeh, making it highly inadvisable to attempt summoning if this is the case.

In addition to the summon attempt, there is a 2% chance for the unit to get feebleminded. There is also the possibility that the summoner gets lost in time and space or gains insanity. The base chance for either is 65%; these are independent rolls and both can occur at the same time. This chance is divided by the unit's Void Sanity and rounded down; a Starspawn, which has 10 Void Sanity, therefore has a 6% chance of either.

If the summoner gains insanity, they make an exploding roll of 1d(65 / Void Sanity). A summoner without any Void Sanity would make a roll of 1d65, whereas a Starspawn would make a roll of 1d6. If the result is greater than 100, the summoner gains 100 insanity. Otherwise, they make another roll with the same parameters and the result is added to the summoner's insanity.

All creatures summoned from the Void Gate are sacred, but they are likely too difficult to mass to justify a bless. Nevertheless, there are some very strong summon results such as multi mind-blasters, national Water Elementals, and a powerful, teleporting mage!

Sprite	Unit Name	Summon Roll	Comments
	Horror	2-3	100% chance to attack
	Lesser Othernessxd6	4-5
	Vile Thingxd4	6
	Thing Of Many Eyesxd3	7
	Thing From The Voidxd3	8
	Elder Thingxd3	9
	Formless Spawnxd4	10
	Thing From Beyondxd3	12
	Othernessxd4	11
	Dweller-In-The-DeepXd2	13	40% chance to attack
	Greater Othernessxd4	14
	Thing That Should Not Be(1)	15
	Vastness	16
	Greater Otherness(1)	17
	Shubejc - Visitor	18	Can only have one Visitor, if you already have one then you get a Greater Otherness
	Greater Otherness(1)	19
	Vastness	20
	Greater Othernessxd2	21+

They are sacred but won't be able to gather enough to justify a bless specify for them. Higher Summoning skill increases the chances to summon the better units.

Sprite	Unit Name	Comments
	Vile Thing	Weakest of the spawn. slow and only two weak un-damage-typed tentacle attacks.
	Thing Of Many Eyes	Can't Leave the Capital except for army-wide teleports. is a defense turret with a Ranged and melee weaken attack to punish besiegers.
	Thing From The Void	another not so great slow unit. Has 3 tentacles and a Slime attack.
	Elder Thing	Free Illithids with no upkeep. Not only dose it Mind Blast, it also punishes backfield attackers with additional paralyze Damage, stalling long enough for guards to come to your aid.
	Formless Spawn	Hard to kill Regenerating slime. Hold up Chaff while Crushing them.
	Thing From Beyond	like the Vile Thing, a defensive mind blaster and 3 tentacle attacks if threatened.
	Lesser Otherness	A hard to kill regenerating slime with with resistant to the main elemental damages and is a trampler. Easy to see how this would run over your enemy's especially if your gathering the Size 4s and 6s.
	Otherness
	Greater Otherness
	Dweller-In-The-Deep	Similar to Elder Things but can't leave the water. Has poison barbs and Life Drain + paralyze attack for defense.
	Thing That Should Not Be	A big high strength fear monster with 4 Life drain attack. Should be saved for pivotal moments in a war.
	Vastness	One of the great terrors to come out the gate. A monstrous creates, that starts fights with 4 mind blasters, then blinks around the battlefield and attacks with its strength stealing melee attacks, having Damage reversal for protection. Even more terrifying if made a commander as its a 3 Innate Spellcaster
	Shubejc - Visitor

R'lyeh is a Communion nation, so magical depth isn't too big of a deal in combat. The nation's depth in a specific path is arguably what it's best-known for, however. The following ignores the 1/640 chance of a capital-only Starspawn having all of its potential random Magic levels match, and doesn't show numbers for summons.

Astral is the nation's primary path; most capital-only Starspawn have 4, and a few of them have 5. Due to their long lives, you can sit on your 5's until you need them, a luxury that isn't shared with most Human Mages that have special randoms. Using a Starshine Skullcap, a Ring of Sorcery (+), and either a Ring of Wizardry (+) or a Crystal Coin Forged by an Earth-random Starspawn, you can reach 8 without Empowerment. Unfortunately, you can't put all of your boosters on the same Starspawn so they can make Wishes, because Starspawn lack the imagination to put rings and trinkets on their extraneous tentacles. 8 still lets you cast Master Enslave and other top-tier Communion spells without too much fuss, however.

Water is certainly not the Starspawns' specialty, but R'lyeh somehow has access to better Merman Mages than most other nations, giving them a relatively-steady supply of 3's. With the Robe of the Sea and the Water Bracelet, you can reach 5 on a quarter of your Slave Mages without spending too much. You can then pass those boosters on to a Queen of Elemental Water for another two levels, and the Ring of Wizardry gives you another level, but both of those options are expensive.

The Starspawn and their Slave Mages have two minor paths each; a few capital-only Starspawn have 2 or 2, the latter of which can be cheaply boosted to 3, while the Slave Mages have 1 & 1. The Ring of Sorcery helps a lot with Nature, closing the gap between your 1's and the other boosters that you can craft the Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet, bringing your access to 4. If you also have the Ring of Wizardry, you can then switch out the Thistle Mace for the Treelord's Staff and attain 6. You can also climb two levels with the Ivy King or Faery Queen by the time you have either Ring, but they're both dry-land Summons. On the other hand, Death requires both Rings up-front for further climbing, but allows you to reach 6 with the highest booster; Lichcraft then gives you another two levels once you claim a Lab on dry land, allowing you to open Tartarian Gates. For the Earth path, your climbing is hampered by the lack of feet on your Starspawn, limiting them to 3 with the Ring of Wizardry; fortunately, you can then climb onto dry land and summon a Troll King, who does have feet, and then have him wear Earth Boots & the Ring of Wizardry so that he can summon a King of Elemental Earth for another level (the Earth Kings don't have feet, either).

In terms of Gems (including level gains from the Summons):

• 5 + 70 = 7; 7 + 80 OR 7 + 22 + 1010 = 8
• 3 + 20 = 5; 5 + 50 = 7; 7 + 7 + 80 = 8
• 2 + 7 + 80 = 3; 3 + land + 55 = 4; 4 + 10 = 5; 5 + 50 = 6
• 2 + 10 = 3; 3 + 7 + 140 = 5; 5 + 40 + (land + 30) = 8
• 1 + 6 + 60 = 2; 12 + 255 = 14; 4 + land + 30 = 6; 6 + 7 + 8040 = 8

Your a communion nation with some of the most cost-effective communion mages.

Even without communions Slave Mages are strong water mages that can be mass-able numbers.

Already they can random in Earth and Nature into communions with Starspawn adding Higher Astral and death to it.

Just by themselves, a group of Slave Mages is a force, especially when leading groups of Meteorite guards, Illithids and lobotomized hoards. A decent-sized communion can use Army of Giants, Howl and Bone Melter, Marble Warriors.

Starspawn adds Stygian Rains, Darkness, Fields of the Dead and Enslave Mind. For laughs, a Starspawn with minimum support and boosters can cast Soul Drain (don't have important units around when you cast that nuke).

You are very flexible and can help you climb important end game magic, death, and Nature.

Can summon Kokythiads and Naiads with boosters. Nabbing a Ether Gate for Ether Lord could add Air and blood to communions, if not better death.

A Starspawn can easily nab a High-level Astral global like Stellar Focus out the box or Arcane Nexus with boosters.

You have very good Mind Hunting game.

• Anemone Mace Construction 2, 1 5. A thug weapon that grants a lot of attack skills and deals Paralysis and Mortal poison.
• Jellyberd Construction 6, 11 55. Fire Astral crosspath is not native magic. A more defensive Anemone Mace with stronger secondary damage, more Ideal for a supercombatant.

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.

MA R'lyeh: Uplifting Experiences by Perun

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