Video Game / Thera

Thera: Legacy of the Great Torment is a conversion mod for Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms that creates an entirely new campaign map with a number of new and modified factions.

Thera was once a world much like our own: a world of vast forests and windswept plains, with mighty civilizations and rich, extensive cultures. The Great Torment happened. The ground heaved and shuddered, swallowing entire cities and cracking continents. Vast storms swept over regions for weeks, months, and in some places years. Frigid blizzards iced over many of the lands, and what wasn't frozen suffered famine and plagues. The civilizations of the world broke and scattered, with only the hardiest surviving the disasters that ensued. Some civilizations turned to warfare to survive, others to science, others to religion.

That was two hundred and twenty-two years ago. The seas have calmed, the storms have passed, the plagues have ended, and the fields are green again. The survivors of the Torment have banded together into a number of small civilizations, separated by vast lands of wilderness and hostile brigands. With stable food and a growing population, the leaders of the nations of Thera have begun to look outwards from their borders, with spies, diplomats, and armies mobilizing to see what remains of civilization and what they can seize for themselves.

As a campaign, Thera places emphasis on careful empire management, intermixed with the proud Total War tradition of finding someone to beat the snot out of and crushing them in tactical battles. The player starts out with a substantial war chest and a large number of unaffiliated rebel settlements bordering their territory, encouraging rapid expansion and buildup early on before real war erupts between the various nations. There is a wide variety of factions to choose from, some of them being modified original factions from Medieval II and Kingdoms while others are entirely new, with completely new character models. Though at first glance the mod looks like an alternate Earth, there's a lot of deliberate anachronisms and some Low Fantasy elements (primarily in the form of the bestial Uruk Dominion).

The fourth version of the mod was released in late 2012, expanding on and rounding out many of the factions, as well as adding more fantasy elements.

A reboot/reimagined version of the mod called THERA: REDUX was released on the modding website MODDB in 2018, with the latest version released in October 2020.This mod fixed numerous issues with the original (combat animations etc) as well as adding lots of new battle models, campaign improvements and a variety of other additions.

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Provides examples of:

• A Commander Is You: Though most of the factions are fairly versatile, they generally fall into a few broad categories:
  • Kingdom of Avalon: Balanced. A good mixture of archers, medium and heavy infantry and powerful cavalry.
  • Bons Chevaliers/Royame de Merevangi: Elitist. Very powerful heavy cavalry, with heavy infantry as support.
  • Teutonic Order: Brute. Focused on powerful heavy infantry and cavalry, but with a lack of good light infantry and mediocre archers.
  • Ducado de Sangre Valiente: Elitist. Emphasis on elite close-combat troops and advanced firearms.
  • Faustian Reich: Elitist/ranger. Masters of ranged combat with advanced firearms, but with a limited unit roster.
  • Grand Duchy of Dracule:
    • Brute in Version 3. Focus on light/missile cavalry, with super-heavy Blood Knights, but lacking in both kinds of infantry.
    • Balanced in Version 4. The roster has been rounded out to include decent missile and melee infantry, as well as gunpowder units.
  • Holy Order of the Pale Knight: Elitist. Has some of the best infantry and cavalry in the game. They need it, considering their starting location....
  • Gaelic Nations:
    • Balanced in Version 3.
    • Guerrilla/Spammer in Version 4. Strong emphasis on rushing and ambush tactics with light barbarian infantry.
  • Men of Wotan: Balanced/Ranger. A balanced unit list , boasting stronger than average ranged cavalry.
  • Men of Valhalla: Brute. Strong emphasis on infantry with heavy, armour-piercing axes and strong charges. What do you expect?
  • Sycorax Nation: Technical/Ranger. A variety of versatile units and a mishmash of technology, making them powerful if used properly.
  • Warriors of Kukulcan: Brute/Spammer. More emphasis on the Brute side.
  • Paynal Empire: Brute/Spammer. More emphasis on the Spammer side.
  • Tahar Caliphate: Ranger/Balanced. Great ranged units and cavalry.
  • Vastha Sultanate: Balanced. Lacking in heavy armour at first, but they can develop some fairly powerful heavy troops later on.
  • Barka Caliphate: Ranger/Brute. Depends on how you build the army, but compared with the Vashta, they're a lot stronger on the heavy infantry and cavalry front.
  • Povos de Hispania: Guerrilla/Ranger. Very little in the way of heavy infantry or cavalry, but light infantry are very mobile, good at hiding and ambushes, and a lot of their troops wield javelins.
  • Lao Che Khanate: Ranger. The archery faction, through and through, with great cavalry to boot.
  • Uruk Dominion: Elitist/Brute. Best heavy infantry in the game, with a list built around charging and supporting the charge, but with a total lack of cavalry or artillery.
  • Romuli Empire: Balanced. Excellent heavy infantry, good (but not great) archers and gunpowder, and good cavalry.
  • League of Privateers:
    • Balanced in Version 3. A bit more emphasis on ranged, but still decent melee troops.
    • Ranger in Version 4. Have probably the most powerful gunners in the entire game, but close-quarters troops are limited and roster is comparatively small.
• Affably Evil: Jarl Bluetooth of the Men of Valhalla. According to his opening speech, he made good friends with a fellow jarl, listened carefully to what he had to say, sat down next to him, thanked him for his wisdom, and then cut his throat and made a cloak out of his skin.
• After the End: A major point. The world was destroyed in a huge cataclysm, leaving most civilisations as tiny remnants. It's up to you to take the reigns of one of them and try to lead them to glory.
• The Alliance: Several:
  • The various Christian nations have a loose alliance, mostly held together by the fact that they're surrounded by pagans and Islamic factions and the Inquisition is there to slap them on the head like recalcitrant children.
  • The Warriors of Kukulcan are an alliance of tribes and warriors from multiple parts of the Mesocala landmass, unified in both their worship of Kukulcan and hatred for anyone who doesn't. Their unit roster consists of troop types from both the Paynal Empire and Sycorax Nations.
  • Povos Hispana and the Tahar Caliphate are also tribal alliances made primarily to resist Christian attack.
  • The Uruk Dominion combines this with The Horde, as they are a society of former slave creatures and gladiators, coupled with the oppressed peoples of the Demos region on the southernmost continent, unified to fight against domination by the Romuli Empire.
  • The Gaelic Nations are an alliance of pagan tribes on the island of Tethra united to fight against the Christian powers of Avalon and the Merevangi and Teutonic Order.
• Alternate Universe: According to Word of God, the world of Thera is "kind of" like the real world, but has its own particular history.
• Anachronism Stew: Tech and cultures vary wildly. You've got everything from the Late-Renaissance Faustian Reich with their pikemen, musketmen, and cannons to the Paynal Empire, an Aztec-like civilization that hasn't invented the wheel, to Romuli, which is basically Ancient Rome (which can develop gunpowder, letting them field legionaries in lorica and wielding muskets and cannons). As the game progresses, you'll likely end up recruiting regional or mercenary troops to supplement your regular forces, resulting in even further anachronisms. It is entirely possible to have companies of musketeers, cannon, ballista, and rocket elephants bombarding an enemy line while being protected by Mesocalan natives wearing wooden armor and fighting with stone tomahawks, obsidian-tipped spears, and shortbows.
• Animal Motifs: Kukulcan uses the snake, Romuli uses the wolf, the Gaelics use the horse, the Tahar Caliphate uses the camel, Dracule uses the dragon, and the Sycorax use the eagle.
• The Atoner: Long ago the Kingdom of Wotan was a progressive nation that attracted traders from far and wide. When the Great Torment struck, the foreigners were blamed. The people descended on the merchant's quarter of Koslov and the streets ran red with blood. The people of Wotan now shudder at the mention of those killings as it darkens their days, and now with the savage Valhallans to the west and the dogmatic Teutonic Order arriving on their shores, it looks like the Wotan will have to once again take up arms, but this time to fight for their place in the world.
• Asshole Victim: Whoever loses in the conflict between the Uruk Dominion and the Romuli is this. On one hand, the Romuli enslaved the 'beast races' first, and the Dominion was created initially by a slave uprising of these races against Romuli. On the other hand, The Uruk have a habit of kidnapping and enslaving human women themselves to use their breeding programs.
• Attack Animal: Some of the factions have access to special units of attack dogs. They're somewhere between cavalry and light infantry in terms of speed, and work best for ripping up archer units or disrupting infantry formations. They do have the disadvantage of the fact that, once let off the leash, you have no control over the hounds, which will rampage around the battlefield attacking anything not on your side once they get done with their initial target. Fortunately, casualties among the hounds are automatically replaced after every battle, so as long as the handlers don't take any casualties, you won't have to replace them, making them ideal for being the first unit through a breach or to intercept a cavalry charge.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Royal bodyguard units, as with vanilla Total War, are very powerful units, and they only get meaner and more powerful when it's a faction leader or faction heir involved. A faction leader's bodyguard can destroy a majority of the enemy army's units if used properly, especially when you start stacking artifacts. Generic, trainable general's bodyguards are less potent but still powerful and often disproportionately strong for their size.
  • Most awesomely illustrated by the bodyguards of the Tahar Calif and his immediate family members. Other faction leaders get loyal cavalrymen or elite infantry as their personal combat retinue... the Tahars meanwhile get Elephant gunners.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Averted for a great many things.
  • Fu Fing crossbowmen for Lao Che. What makes these guys special is that they fire rocket propelled explosive crossbow bolts. Not what you'd call "accurate", but absolutely devastating against even the toughest of enemy troops, especially if they're bunched up. And volleys really are a sight to see. The Uruks also get a similar substitute.
  • Also from Lao Che: squads of Ninjas who can set up ambushes anywhere and blast enemy lines apart with grenades, and they're ninjas, so they kick ass in close combat too.
  • Faustian Stormtroopers. Heavy elites with "deckguns", which are basically primitive shotguns. And unlike Privateer Marines, they have full plate armour and a large sword, so you can throw them into the fray and expect them to do well.
  • What about Morrigan's Sworn? New for the Gaelics as of V4. Fast attack animations and run speed, great stamina, deadly armour-piercing attacks from throwing axes and melee, and 2 hit points each. They're textbook Lightning Bruisers. Throw in the fact that they can hide anywhere, they have fantastic morale, and they scare the bejesus out of enemy troops, and you have the practical covered. Basically, they're Iron Age MBTs with bear pelts and blue stinky woad.
  • Ysmir Jotnarr. Frost giants that trample enemy troops, smashing them with giant boulders and massive longbows.
  • Dracule gives us Blood Knights and Vampyres. The latter are scary-ass battlefield assassins in black, bloody robes. The former are perhaps the best heavy infantry outside the Uruk Dominion.
• Badass Bookworm: The Faustian Reich and the Privateers are the most technologically progressive of all the factions of Thera, and they may lack for asskicking melee bruisers, but the absurd amount of firepower they bring to a fight more than makes up for that.
• Badass Preacher: Many factions have a priest unit that fights on the battlefield alongside the mainstay warriors. For example, the Uruks have Priests of Callisto, and the Gaelics have druids.
• Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Uruks and Ly Kan can interbreed with human females; the male offspring of such unions are Uruks or Ly Kan, while the female offspring are human.
• Bling of War: As the campaign progresses, your generals will accumulate a substantial collection of powerful items, ranging from artifact weapons to legendary unit banners to helmets and armor to miscellaneous artifacts. Generally-speaking, each faction has two, possibly three artifacts, each of which has an "spiritual home" settlement (i.e. Excalibur's spiritual home is Castle Avalon). Any general who is in that settlement has a chance to gain that artifact, assuming that no other general has claimed it. (One of the Good Bad Bugs in Version 3 resulted in any general staying in particular settlement ending up with a copy of a completely different faction's artifact sword).
• Blood Knight:
  • The Men of Valhalla believe they will go to join the Norse gods in Valhalla if they die a good death, and thus pitch themselves into battle for its own sake.
  • It's said that pretty much everyone in Dracule society is violent and fight-happy to some degree, right down to the serfs, who have a taste for war not seen in other peasant militias. They even have elite units called Blood Knights, warriors in black, spiky armour who wield huge swords and terrify opponents.
• The Chosen One: Several cultures have "chosen" ones who they venerate who held their cultures together during the Great Torment. Avalon has King Arthur, the Lao Che Khanate has Lao Che, the Gaelic Nations has O'Neill, etc.
• Church Militant: The Holy Order of the Pale Knight, the Teutonic Order, and the Inquisition all possess large armies of fanatical religious warriors who want to conquer and kill in the name of God. The Barka Sultanate is an equally fanatical Islamic equivalent, and the Warriors of Kukulcan wish to purge Thera of all pale men, and have abandoned the Sun God of the Paynal peoples in favour of the serpent god Kukulcan.
• Cool Sword: Most of the factions have at least some form of special artifact weapon that can boost their effectiveness in combat, ranging from ancestral swords like Excalibur to the Axe of Odin to the Holy Lance.
• Cool Versus Awesome: Romans vs. Vikings! Pirates vs. Mongol Samurai! Wolfmen, Uruk Hai, lizardmen and Spartans vs. pikemen, cannons, and Renaissance swordsmen! King Arthur vs. Mesoamerican tribesman! Scottish swordsmen versus Spanish conquistadores!
• Create Your Own Villain: The Privateers and the Uruk Dominion for the Christian nations and the Romuli Empire, respectively.
• Death Seeker: The Men of Valhalla believe that the only way to reach Valhalla in the afterlife is to die in battle, resulting in greatly improved morale among their troops.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The Holy Order of the Pale Knight starts out in a bad spot, with two aggressive, hostile empires flanking it (Vastha and Barka) who both have their eyes (and AI) set on taking Eden from them. But should the Holy Order pull through and survive the early game, they've got some of the best military units in the game and can become a terrifying powerhouse in the middle to late game.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The Ducado and the Faustian Reich start out with the ability to field Carracks with cannons. Everyone else still has cogs, longboats, galleys, or dhows. Naval battles with the Ducado and Reich early on are... one-sided. The only faction that comes close to matching them are the Privateers, with their startlingly powerful Pirate Ships.
  • The Uruk Dominion starts with ten companies of Uruk Hai warriors, though a bit scattered around their territory. These speedy, hard-hitting troops will mow through just about any early-period army they encounter, with some archery/light cavalry/spearman support.
  • Some of the provinces in Syrianna allow you to hire a Monster Bombard mercenary unit. They cost a whopping amount of money to maintain, but in the face of an elephant-sized artillery piece, there's not much a fortress' defenders can do but wait for the walls to collapse and the enemy to storm the castle.
  • Some provinces (Lao Che starting provinces particularly) allow you to hire elephant mercenaries, including elephants with cannons and rocket launchers, and building caravan stops lets you hire them directly. Against early-period armies, these elephants are decisive. The Sycorax provinces allow you to hire mammucs, which are huge hairy elephants, and while they don't have the artillery, they're still massive and have a very low upkeep cost relative to the mayhem they can inflict.
• The Dreaded: Grand Duke Vaclav Dracule was the most feared warrior of the Christian world. His brutal legacy is so remarkable and still fresh in the minds of people living today that Dracule princesses of his lineage get a reduction to their Charm score instead of an increase, which other princesses of other royal dynasties get.
• Fantastic Racism: All of the bestial species in the Uruk Dominion were slaves of Romuli. Once Romuli's control of Demos slipped, they began to return the favor against their human oppressors.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: For the most part, every culture has a rough counterpart historically. Only the Teutonic Order is entirely unchanged from its Kingdoms incarnation.
  • The Inquisition is a beefed up version of the Papal States, complete with their own secure island.
  • The Kingdom of Avalon is medieval England with elements of King Arthur. It has grail knights and longbows and even Sherwood's Merry Men!
  • The Bons Chevaliers/Royame de Merevangi are medieval France. Fancy men in fancy armour on fancy horses making fancy, fancy war.
  • The Grand Duchy of Dracule is a combination of Lithuania, Poland, and Transylvania under Vlad the Impaler's rule. It's a backwards and xenophobic kingdom where peasant pike and halberd levies fight alongside the famous Winged Hussars and really scary knights in heavy black armour.
  • The Holy Order of the Pale Knight is a stand-in for the Kingdom of Antioch from the Crusades expansion in the base game.
  • The Men of Valhalla are obviously migration-era Vikings (as in the Odin-worshipping, mead-swilling, raping and raiding kind), while the Men of Wotan are a fusion of Vikings and the ancient Rus.
  • The Vashta Sultanate, Barkar Caliphate, and Tahar Caliphate are Turkey, Egypt, and the Moors, respectively.
  • The Ducado de Sangre Valiente is renaissance Spain/Aragon, while Povos Hispana are a stand-in for the Celt-Iberians, down to the slingers and paganism.
  • The Faustian Reich is a fusion of Renaissance Holy Roman Empire and Italy, though V4 gives the faction even more technology and adds some Prussia and the British Empire in for flavour.
  • The League of Privateers is a mixture of the Italian city states and theatrical pirates, but V4 throws in Colonial America.
  • The Gaelic nations are a fusion of Welsh, Irish, and Scottish cultures. Naturally, they smack headlong into the England-equivalent of Avalon. V4 changes the faction to make them more "barbaric", ala pre-Roman conquest Iron age Britain.
  • Romuli is obviously Ancient Rome, while the Uruk Dominion is a combination of Isengard, with Sparta and even a heavy bit of the film Spartacus.
  • Lao Che is a fusion of the Mongols, Ming China, and feudal Japan.
• Final Boss: For the non-Christian nations (and likely the Christian ones too at some point), the Inquisition, which is Thera's equivalent of the Papal States. They have no less than six full-sized stacks of elite troops on two small, well-fortified islands. Tackling them will take a lot of men and a lost of casualties and will likely only happen after you've conquered most of the other Christian nations. You don't have to fight the Inquisition, but they are likely to be the last thing standing between you and total domination of the entire map.
• Gladiator Revolt: Essentially how the Uruk Dominion was founded.
• Glass Cannon:
  • The League of Privateers, almost literally, as of Version 4. Their gunpowder units are capable of shredding entire ranks in a single volley, but they have very few armoured units, so things will quickly turn against them if they get swamped in melee. Using native auxiliaries as meat-shields for your fragile gun-toting troops is a small remedy.
  • The Gaelic Nations in Version 4 have a lot of troops that hit very hard, but their light armor and lack of shields means that they can't take hits in turn, and they're very vulnerable to missiles. Some of their troops go into battle with nothing but raw courage and horrible-smelling salves. They're excellent at breaking armies in the field, but have a harder time in sieges. Fortunately, they do get the Book of Morrigan item starting off, which greatly helps reduce overall casualties, but only one general can carry it at a time.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: There is no faction that is a clear-cut "good guy" but even the most brutal factions have reasons for their distrust and hate of other factions. Depending on the faction, this can stray into Black-and-Gray Morality and even Evil Versus Evil.
  • A good example of this is the Uruk Dominion. Their primary drive is to secure freedom for their oppressed and brutalized people - a noble goal, as they're the only nation where Uruks, Ly Kan, and Reptarri are actually free instead of slaves. However, they also breed stronger warriors in breeding facilities using human women - mostly captured and enslaved human women from regions they've invaded.
• The Empire: Given that this is a [1] game, all factions are perfectly capable of playing like this. The faction best fitting this trope however is the empire of the Romuli, obviously: it's even in their name. They aren't particularly cruel to their own citizens and even can build powerful sanitation and entertainment buildings and other infrastructure in the lands they conquer, but in addition to the standard fare any faction can get up to regarding defeated enemies they also enslaved the various nonhuman races they encountered during their heyday until most of them revolted and established the Uruk Dominion. They still maintain the practice, however, as evidenced by some of the flavor text on those ampitheatres...
• The Horde:
  • The Uruk Dominion is made of several bestial species formerly used as slaves by Romuli: the monstrous Uruks, the canine-like Ly Kan, and the lizard/frog/fish-like Reptarri. They also include a number of humans in their ranks, mostly as militia and auxiliaries.
  • The Warriors of Kukulcan are a Mesoamerican version of this, consisting of many tribes united in worship of Kukulcan and hatred of everything and everyone else. Their human sacrifice rituals round out the horde-ishness.
  • The Men of Valhalla, especially once they start fielding units of Jotnarr.
  • The Gaelic Nations have become more horde-like as of Version 4, replacing firearms with longbow units and having a number of brutal "barbarian"-style units, including Morrigan's Sworn and Caladoni Swords.
• Early Game Hell: A number of factions.
  • Romuli, despite its rich starting position, has shades of this due to having the misfortune of starting near the Uruk Dominion.
  • Most prominently, of course, is the Holy Order of the Pale Knight, given the fact that they're surrounded by Muslims and will constantly face Jihads for their capital.
• Horse of a Different Color: Don't bother asking exactly why Paynal cavalry ride dinosaurs, alright?
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Sycorax specialize in using enemy technology against them. They're the only Mesocala "native" faction have access to horses, guns, and elephants.
• Horny Vikings: The Men of Valhalla, naturally, although Wotan and Ysmir troops count to a lesser extent as well.
• Jack of All Stats: The Gaelic Nations in Version 3 are best described as being competent in just about every area of military and technological prowess, without excelling at any one area. They've got good light cavalry but not the best, as the Islamic/Norse nations are better overall. They've got solid heavy cavalry but the heavy cavalry specialists like the Christian kingdoms will beat them. Their heavy infantry is good, but the heavy specialists like the Christian kingdoms, the Uruks, and the Romuli Empire are superior. They've got solid archers, but the Mesocalans, Lao Che, and Avalon are better overall. They've got firearms, but Faust and the Privateers have better. The thing that separates the Gaelics is that they have all of this, while the other factions specialize and are lacking in other areas, allowing the Gaelics to be very adaptable and hit another faction where they are weakest. Less so in Version 4, where the faction has a lower-tech, more barbaric design focusing on aggressive rushes with large numbers of lighter infantry, and has to rely on mercenary/provincial units for musketry. Romuli is probably the best fit for this trope now, possessing a little bit of everything.
• Lightning Bruiser: Knights in general, as well as Uruks and Ly Kan warriors. General bodyguards, foot or mounted, move pretty quickly as well and hit like freight trains, especially when the general's got artifacts and has a lot of experience. Mounted gunners like Faustian Pistoleer Cavalry and Sycorax Mounted Thunder Braves also hit with a hell of a punch and are incredibly fast.
• Low Fantasy: There are fantastic elements in the setting, mostly in the form of the nonhuman creatures on the southernmost continent. There are also artifacts of tangible power (i.e. the Holy Grail, the Book of Morrigan, etc.) and some indications of magical prophecies in multiple factions' backgrounds. Version 4 adds more fantastic elements, such as raptor-riding Paynal cavalry, undead warriors being summoned by Dominion priests, and frost giants called Jotnaar roaming around Norselund and enormous Altzan Warriors fighting for the Kukulcan.
• More Dakka:
  • The Faustian Riech's entire battle stratagem is best summed up by this trope, right down to the point that their bodyguard units are pistoleer cavalry. Other factions can come close (the Ducado and the Privateers in Version 3 are very gun-heavy, for example) and some factions get tremendously nasty rapid-fire weapons like the Monster Ribault.
  • The Privateers have had a major overhaul for Version 4, and have moved away from Renaissance, 1500's armies into a more Colonial, 1700's one. Hence, they can field even more gunners than even the Reich. If you're charging Privateer gun lines head on, you should expect very heavy casualties.
• The Musketeer: Many gun-equipped units are just as nasty in melee as they are at range. Faustian Line Infantry and Stormtroopers, for example, are adept at both shooting and holding the line, and the latter are intended to assault cities and fortifications. Romuli also get the Praetoriani Arcebusarii, which are the Praetorian Guard, but armed with firearms on top of being fully-armed and armored Praetorians.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The random name generator has some intimidating/downright silly names, for example: Herekles Tiberius or Medusa Hades.
• Our Giants Are Bigger:
  • The Jotnarr in Version 4, a race of frost giants living in the mountains of Norselund. If you see them in a rebel army, chances are you're going to see massive casualties on your side, particularly if there are any Rok Man units in their ranks.
  • The Warriors of Kukulcan can also recruit Altzan Warriors, who are 8-foot-tall painted giants who shrug off injuries that would incapacitate ordinary men and inflict terrifying damage in melee combat.
• Our Orcs Are Different: The Uruks are the most blatant example, basically being a Captain Ersatz for The Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai. The Reptarii also have shades of this trope.
• Pirate: The League of Privateers, a loose alliance of pirates, thieves, brigands, criminals, and outcasts all brought together in a coalition whose primary goal is to conquer, loot, pillage and get revenge on the Inquisition.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: For a faction of pirates, the League of Privateers don't actually engage in much nautical piracy.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Men of Valhalla are your standard fight-for-glory-honour-and-fun Vikings. The aptly-named Warriors of Kukulcan combine ferocity and war-hunger with single-minded worship of the mighty serpent god Kukulcan and their bitter hatred of the "pale men". Uruks were specially bred to be warriors and indeed their whole culture is highly militaristic, with every single one of their population expected to fight and defend their new homeland. The Lao Che Khanate are also warriors, but they're a bit more sophisticated about it.
• Public Domain Artifact: A number of specific faction artifacts, such as Excalibur, the Holy\Grail, the Book of Morrigan, and so on.
• The Remnant: Several factions' backgrounds involve them defeating corrupt or weak governments and driving them out during or after the Great Torment. For example, the Senate Legions for Romuli, or the Otterbach for the Faustian Reich. Generally, finishing the remnants of these factions is the first step on your path of conquest. A few other vestigial or collapsed kingdoms are present in the setting, whom you can still recruit troops from after taking over, like the kingdom of Rohan in the far north.
• Rising Empire: The Lao Che Khanate was created by nomadic tribesmen of the Sumari Steppes uniting under a great warrior, Lao Che, and moving north into Huang-Chuan and settling down into cities. They believe that it is their destiny to conquer the entire world, by the will of Yamatai Yashima. Up to you whether or not their dreams become reality.
• Rock Beats Laser: Or at least, rock beats Renaissance plate armor, cannons, and muskets, if you're taking the Paynal or Warriors of Kukulcan and pitching them against the technologically advanced armies of the Ducado, the Faustian Reich, or the Privateers. Can become literal rock if the low-tech side has Jotnarr in their ranks.
• Science Is Bad:
  • The Inquisition is extremely suspicious of scientific development, and this is why the Faustian Reich is under scrutiny and suspicion by the Grand Inquisitor. Conflict between the two is likely as the campaign progresses.
  • Back and forth with the Dracule, as of Version 4. In Version 3 the Dracule were the most outdated of the Chivalric nations, even having a quote from Vladav himself saying that a "We have no need of new technology, we have the Blood Knights!" As of version 4, however, Dracule has nearly as many gun-toting units as the Faustians, and their quote has changed to "We have new technology, and the Blood Knights!"
• Scotireland: The Gaelic Nations truly are a mish-mash of every single Celtic trope you could imagine. Highlanders, Welsh archers, screaming fanatics who fight in the nude, chanting druids, giant swords, copious amounts of green clothing and blue war paint, you name it.
• Shout-Out: Countless. Everything from faction leader names to settlement names to artifacts can include references, ranging from the subtle to the obvious.
• Slave Mooks: Many factions use slave soldiers; the Romuli and Uruks use slave gladiators as auxilliary troops, and the Barka and Vashta use professional Mamluk and Jannissary troops raised from slaves.
• Token Good Teammate: The Kingdom of Avalon, while it has a very backwards view of scientific development and maintains ties with the Inquisition, is incredibly socially progressive for a medieval Christian nation, due to the ancient laws codified by the famous knight Arthur. The peasantry can never be taxed more than they need to keep themselves and their families fed, nor can they be worked to excess, and every man is entitled to a fair trial should he be accused of a crime. Avalon is a land of chivalry and fairness, a huge contrast to the oppressive and malevolent Duchy of Dracule.
• Token Evil Teammate: The Duchy of Dracule may be willing to tow the Inquisition's line like the other Christian nations, but their sheer ruthlessness, cruelty and disregard for the lives and wellbeing of the peasantry does leave you wondering. Not that the other Christian nations are particularly "nice" either, though.
• The Undead: In Version 4, the Dominion has access to Necromongers, which are skeletal warriors wielding giant clubs, summoned by the priests of Callisto.
• Vestigial Empire: Romuli once dominated most of the southernmost continent, and the Paynal Empire controlled most of Mesocala. The northernmost continent includes the collapsed kingdom of Rohan (Ysmir in Version 4), which happens to have some of the best mercenary units in the game.

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