Mastery Of Magic

More Magic Than Dominions 5, More Politics Than CK2, More Madness And Monstrousness Than Both

Axioms Of Dominion is a game of fantasy geopolitics. Emphasis on fantasy, well also geopolitics relative to other games. The magic system is connected to pretty much all the major systems. Magical options exist for communication, espionage, magitech production, magical items, magical resources, magical logistics, magical religion, magical combat, etc.

Populations have racial magical capability plus potential modifications from magic, breeding, and other things like that. A divine blessing could be applied to a whole race or a specific population or populations. This magical ability manifests practically in a few ways. You can train magical military and industry units, with or without magical gear. Characters generate with their base race magical potential plus modifiers and can be altered further by education/training and other methods.

Magical Options

There are several magical systems and styles in the game. Transfering properties of resources, creatures, other races, etc. Leeching magical, and nonmagical, capability from one population to another. The same between characters and characters/populations. Think Bestowments from The Rune Lords. There is standard combat magic with tons of elements both in offense, defense, support, control, and so forth. Time/Space/Meta/Arcane/etc. Divinations, Rituals, Divine Magic. And of course Enchantment. You go from raw resources to products to items. Items can be equipment as well as be incorporated into buildings which give bonus effects to the structures.

Magic can be used to alter living beings of various kinds. Monster/creature taming. Population level mind control or alterations. Fusing man and beast. Plenty of wild stuff. Anything you can do in a Dominions game plus more. Think of the Abyssinians and their various breeding stuff. The Blood Magic hybrid spells but with more control and options.

Magic In The World

As far as the Magic Level in the world there is even more going on. Environmental magical energy regenerates at a fixed rate based on magic settings. You can start with a small or large resevoir, “left over from creation”, in settings as well.

The overall level of magic slowly drops over time but is also influenced by the actions of groups in the game. Magic decreases based on the population of sentient creatures in the game but this mainly affects the nature of magic research. That is, research into magic is sort of an act of creation. Magic solidifies into a natural law as it is created.

Essentially magic begins as a primal and undirected force. As more magical power is directed its harder to find new magic to direct and eventually its tapped out. Already directed magical power remains in the world so whatever magic is discovered will always exist and function. Magic must be rediscovered in ancient ruins or learned from spirits/deities/immortals and can't be created by "research" anymore when its all gone.

Therefore over time as magic is lost to time it seems that the world is less magical. However existing magical knowledge spreads, making it more difficult for it to be wiped out, so there is a sort of magical rock bottom below which you cannot go.

It is possible to directly wipe out a specific type of magical knowledge or to go after magical knowledge in general and it is also possible to lock away ambient magical energy. When sealing away magical energy although knowledge is not lost all magic becomes weaker as the total pool of magic is limited. You can however attempt to shatter magical seals and release magic back into the world. You can also collect and lock away magical items. Various natural resources, geographic locations, magical beings, and magical items can be used to draw out magical energy for use in various actions.

Unique Magical Capabilities

Magic can fill in technological or climate gaps. For instance ice mages could supply the necessary temperature changes to allow for underground food storage vs living in an icy place or importing ice and having special buildings to mitigate temperature change.

You can summon or create creatures, affect weather, boost crop yields, cover the land in shadow, generate storms, terraform the land, create portals to other dimensions or gate between locations. You can build or power structures. You can use magical tools or spells to spawn roads or dig out harbors, or do it the old fashioned way. Mages can combine powers for greater effect. You can boost the life span of a character or grant them immortality.

Magical Divinities

In the early start there is a large bonus to magical research and magic in general sort of signifying the traditional age of magic/legends/enchantment in fantasy stories. The world is simply more magical at the dawn of time.

There is a set of primal gods which exist at the start of every game, a set of randomly generated lesser gods, the player's god immortal designer character, and the potential for various races to sort of will their own god into existence. Gods with similar powers draw from the same well, so if you have a god of the hearth, god of the sun, god of the forge, etc, they all draw from the well of fire. Or if multiple races have their own gods of the forge or w/e they still draw from the well of fire.

When a race/religion generates its own god through an act of magical and mental will that god is bound to that religion. However gods require sacrifices and worship to act on a race's behalf and may act against a race that changes their beliefs. Thus spawning a god is not a permanent increase in power for a temporary cost in various resources like magic or the heat of a volcano or w/e. Gods have multiple attributes that define their desires which must be dealt with to gain their blessing. These attributes are drawn from the creators of the gods at the time of creation. For gods who are primal or randomly generated at the start, as well as nature and elemental spirits, these gods mostly tend to reward those who support their essence. Racial gods are a lot more into punishment as part of their closer link to their creators than natural deities. A war god will often bless any nation/tribe that shows reverence for war. A racial war god will punish its race if they start to deviate from its desires as well as perform blessings. Racial gods tend to only bless their creator nation/tribe/race.

Created gods are powered by worship and will slowly fade away as their number of followers falls. Natural gods are sometimes empowered by worship but don't ever really pass on for the same reason. Worship powered gods can grow in power while natural gods generally don't. They do start out stronger. Because all gods/spirits of similar natures draw from the same well primal gods may be dethroned if another god surpasses them in power. Generally primal gods will have more tricks related to their nature than created or even randomly spawned gods. Their nature will be more focused on their well primary attribute.

Gods are implemented as regular characters in the code and they can actually do things like lead a nation. A player designed immortal will generally start as the initial ruler of their people. Similarly a regular character though generally only a mage or ruler, can gain power equal to that of a god through magic and worship.