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r-lyeh-ma

MA R'lyeh, Fallen Star

Lore

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

General Overview

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.

National Features

Race Military Magic Access Priests Buildings
Illithids
Slave Alantians, Mermen, and Tritons
Hybrids troops
Amphibious Armored Slaves
Lobotomized Slaves
Illithid Mind Blasters
Voidspawn
astral 44 (uncommon 5, rare 6)
water 33 (rare 4)
earth 11 (uncommon 2, rare 3)
death 11 (uncommon 2, rare 3)
nature 11
holy 22 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 astral 44, a 7.03135% chance of having astral 55, and a 0.15625% (1/640) chance of having astral 66. Your Merman Mages have a 25% (1/4) chance of having nature 11. 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

Capital Sites

The Sunken City

Produces 3astralpearl2watergem per turn

The Void Gate

Enables recruitment of

Starspawn

Astral mages may enter to summon void monsters

National Units

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 holy 22 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.

Commanders

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
holy 11
Sacred
Land ShapeSlave 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
astral 11rp 77
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
water 22astral 11rp 1313random1100%
Land ShapeSlave 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
astral 11holy 22rp 99random1100%
Sacred
Amphibious
Blunt Resistant
Magic Being
Summoning Skill (3)
Spirit Sight
Void Sanity (10)
An expensive holy 22 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
water 11astral 33rp 1717random2100%
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 astral 55 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.

Troops

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 ShapeSlave 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 ShapeSlave 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

Heroes

Image Unit Name Special Attributes Comments
Cthugul - Stargazer
Minimum hero arrival turn: 10
water 22astral 55 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. astral 55 Starspawn are rare and should be cherished for casting powerful rituals.
Shadhul Ummush - Traitor King
Minimum hero arrival turn: 10
water 55 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
water 44astral 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 air 11astral 44 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.

Void Gate

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 (FIXME does twiceborn changes it?).

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

$\text{Summon Roll} = \text{Summoning Ability}+\text{2d6(non-exploding)}$

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.

Gate Spawn Table

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+

Gate Spawn Summary

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 astral 33 Innate Spellcaster
Shubejc - Visitor

Magic

Magic Access

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 astral 44, and a few of them have astral 55. Due to their long lives, you can sit on your astral 55'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 astral 88 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. astral 88 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 water 33's. With the Robe of the Sea and the Water Bracelet, you can reach water 55 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 earth 22 or death 22, the latter of which can be cheaply boosted to death 33, while the Slave Mages have earth 11 & nature 11. The Ring of Sorcery helps a lot with Nature, closing the gap between your nature 11's and the other boosters that you can craft the Thistle Mace and Moonvine Bracelet, bringing your access to nature 44. If you also have the Ring of Wizardry, you can then switch out the Thistle Mace for the Treelord's Staff and attain nature 66. 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 death 66 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 earth 33 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):

  • astral 55 + 70astralpearl = astral 77; astral 77 + 80astralpearl OR astral 77 + earth 22astral 22 + 10earthgem10astralpearl = astral 88
  • water 33 + 20watergem = water 55; water 55 + 50watergem = water 77; water 77 + astral 77 + 80astralpearl = water 88
  • earth 22 + astral 77 + 80astralpearl = earth 33; earth 33 + land + 55earthgem = earth 44; earth 44 + 10earthgem = earth 55; earth 55 + 50earthgem = earth 66
  • death 22 + 10deathgem = death 33; death 33 + astral 77 + 140astralpearl = death 55; death 55 + 40deathgem + (land + 30deathgem) = death 88
  • nature 11 + astral 66 + 60astralpearl = nature 22; astral 11nature 22 + 25naturegem5astralpearl = astral 11nature 44; nature 44 + land + 30naturegem = nature 66; nature 66 + astral 77 + 80astralpearl40naturegem = nature 88

Combat Magic

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).

Ritual Magic

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.

Magic Items

National

  • Anemone Mace Construction 2, water 11 5watergem. A thug weapon that grants a lot of attack skills and deals Paralysis and Mortal poison.
  • Jellyberd Construction 6, astral 11fire 11 5astralpearl5firegem. Fire Astral crosspath is not native magic. A more defensive Anemone Mace with stronger secondary damage, more Ideal for a supercombatant.

Strategy

Power Curve

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.

Expansion Strategies

List some example expansion strategies here. If a strong bless or pretender is required then leave the specifics for the pretender section.

Example Pretender Builds

List some example pretender builds. Try to use the following format to keep authorship and pretender design rationale clear.

See More

PVP Playthrough

r-lyeh-ma.txt · Last modified: 2022/07/06 04:17 by wigglefig