Magic comes in two main forms: combat magic and ritual magic. Ritual magic is concerned with the casting of grand spells - think esoteric magic circles, weeks of mystical chanting, and the sacrifice of magic resources (or slaves!) in return for a tremendous effect. These are the spells that you cast on the strategic map of Dominions 5 and play a major role in almost every nation's toolkit.

In order to cast a ritual, you require four things: a mage with sufficient 11111111 magic paths to cast the ritual; a laboratory to staff the mage in while they cast; the magic gems to fuel the ritual; and the research to know how to cast the ritual.

You can order a mage to cast a ritual by opening their command menu and selecting 'Cast ritual spell'. This will display all the rituals you have researched which your mage is capable of casting. Select a spell to begin the ritual - if you have insufficient resources, you will be told so and the commander will be reset to the default 'Defend' order.

If you have everything you need, the mage will be set to 'Cast ritual spell'. This is all they can do for the turn; if you issue any other order they will stop preparing to cast and you will need to reissue the order (no resources are lost, however).

When you end your turn, any mage you have ordered to cast a ritual will permanently consume the required resource and cast the spell. This occurs at a specific point in the resolution, so it might be worth familiarising yourself with the turn order sequence.

The next turn, the mage will be once more set to the default Defend order, ready to carry out your next command. If, however, you select the 'monthly ritual' checkbox on the ritual casting screen, they will keep the same order and continually cast that ritual every month as long as they have the gems to do so.

There are limited slots available for active rituals. Many rituals are valuable to have, as there are many that increase gem income substantially or grant other very important buffs to give players a strategic edge. Thus, players are constantly fighting to keep their valuable rituals up and Dispel enemy rituals. By overcasting your ritual (ie. if a ritual costs 50 astral gems to cast, you may spend 70 astral gems while casting it) you can make it more difficult to dispel.

The overcast value for a spell is the difference in gems when you compare its base cost with the amount of gems spent casting it. For example, casting a 50 ritual with 70 means your overcast value is 20 . If someone wants to cast the same ritual to steal this ritual from you, they need to cast it using at least 71 or more, otherwise their gems will be wasted and their ritual will fail. Likewise, someone using the Dispel ritual will need to spend the base cost of the ritual (30 ) plus beat your overcast value (in this case, they need to add at least 21 ).

If the list of active rituals is full and you try to cast a new ritual that doesn't exist yet, you will match up against a ritual selected at random from the list and if your overcast beats that ritual's overcast value, your ritual will replace it.

Rituals have all sorts of effects, and it's hard to sum them up here, but in general casting a ritual spell will do one of the following (with examples):

• Summon particular troops or commanders under your control - Summon Wyverns
• Damage or kill enemies in another province - Fires from Afar
• Provide a permanent buff or effect on one or more of your units, usually the caster - Rejuvenate
• Cause a random event in an enemy province, usually with a negative effect such as causing unrest or killing population - Hurricane
• Create a global enchantment - Earth Blood Deep Well
• Transport the caster and/or their troops to another province - Gateway
• Gather information from enemy provinces by scrying or creating stealthy units remotely - Astral Window
• Creating fortresses instantly, or damaging enemy fortress defences - Three Red Seconds
• Find a magic site remotely - Dark Knowledge

…and more.