Dominions 3 lore and nation backgrounds !

[Ragnarok-X]

Hey everyone,

one thing i like the most about Dom 3 is all the lore associated with the eras and races. Basicly, you can figure out a race's lore by reading the background info when selecting the nation, by looking up how the national sites are called, by getting some info out of unit descriptions and finally, by hopefully having some decent heroes with a good description. There is more or less information to be found for certain nations so my goal is to list what i have found out and hopefully others can share their knowledge so i get to know more. I would like to know which nations split in a later era, and why. When new nation emergy, how ?

I figured i should write up what i have concluded so far.
History in general
In general, normal humans are "rare" in the early era, but get more and more common over each era
Early era, there are many purebloods, wether it be the people of abysia, the descendants of the nephillim (hinnom), the giants of jotun and niefelheim or the Vanir and Aesir.

With each era passing, men are getting more common. With them they bring "technology", allowing refinement of bronze and iron to allow heavier armor and more powerful weapons to be forged mid- and especially late-era.

However, since men become more common, they mix up the ancient bloodlines, lessening the magic essence in the old races in exchange for more powerful forgery. It is a reference of the real world.



Atlantis, Ryleh and Oceania
Judging from their names and looks, Atlantis probably resembles the famous atlantis of the real world. Once a powerful nation and a continent on its own, it did supposly sink due to some quake or whatnot some couple hundred or thousands years ago. Either that, or atlantis was actually submerged in the beginning and then did rise to the surface. Who knows.

In dom 3, early era atlantis is called "emergence from the deep", supposing that that atlantis definitly started underwater and was never on the surface.

Oceania obviously has no realworld reference. These guys came to existance underwater, probably an offspring of some some smart fish.

Unlike atlantis, they werent forced underwater, but rather opposite. They were forced overland by ryleh late era !
Ryleh has a a pretty cool background. Of course no realworld reference, but more of an adaption of the famous cthullu lore by H.P. Lovecraft, the developers decided to turn his pure fictional race (out of books, oldschool RPGs) into an actual dom3 nation ! Cool stuff indeed.


Pre-early era, oceania is ruling the sees. Atlantis is rising in power and by the time early era comes around, atlantis is on par with oceania, mainly because oceania didnt acknowledge that the people of atlantis pose a threat due to their longliveness.

Early era, both atlantis and oceania are at war with each other. A third party, the starspawns, awaken and use their powers to partly enslave atlantian and oceania for their own benefits. While atlantis and oceania are waging war against the other, the starspawns notice a falling star, focusing less on the war but more about the omen of the star itself.

The war between atlantis and oceania is ends in a draw but seems to favour Atlantis. The atlantian basalt kings rise to rule, oceania adopts a new way of life, ryleh growing in power at the cost of atlantis and oceania.

Mid era the star has fallen and with him the voidspawns descend to be united with their brethren of ryleh once again. Atlantis and oceania are suffering under the evergrowing influence of the starspawns.

Elsewhere, on the surface, men are spreading even into the realm of the animals. The creatures of pangaea are confused and while they partly adopt forgery and the new ways, large portions of satyrmen and even some pan flee the surface and adopt to a life underwater, mixing up with the aquatic beings of oceania, resulting in the capricorn (water-pan) and satyrchthidon (water-merman).

The starspawns grow in power, more than enver foreign people. Even surfacer-human are being secuded by the dreams now.

Late era, the struggle for dominance underwater is fully concluded. The nation of oceania has gone extinct and atlantis has been mostly enslaved by the powerful starspawns of the ryleh.

Being wise, a few of the powerful atlantian kings did listen to the visions of their mages and prepared themselves for the moment their nation was defeated. They did seek shelter and adopted a new way of live, almost abandoning the sees. Now organized in parties, thy hunt the ice shelves above water, mostly evading the starspawns for now.

On the other hand, the promise of the falling star was even too blunt for ryleh and so all but the most powerful spawns have been driven insane by the pure astral energy of the void. The dreams are are not controlable anymore, expanding with every day and ryleh is to doomed.

Regardless of controlling men on the surface or slaves under water, eventually every being will succumb to the madness and it is only a matter of time before ryleh is either defeated or the entire plane threatened with insanity.



Ermor, Pythium, Ctis
Regarding origin, Ermor does obviously resemble the mighty imperium of rome of ancient times. Just like in the real world, Ermor/Rome did conquer considerable parts of the world, but did eventually succumb due to sheer size and corruption. Ermor mostly resembles a democracy with a senate, very similar to Rome.

Pythium is a splitter faction of Ermor. I dont exactly see a reallife-reference to this, but then again, im no history guy.

C'tis resembles a part of tribal lizard people and they are unique in that they are the only faction of lizards. They are only listed together with Ermor and Pythium because they had an integral part in the downfall of Ermor. Unlike Ermor and Pythium, Ctis has no historical reference in our world.

Early Era, Ermor is doing just fine. The Imperium is expanding and an everincreasing legion is marching forth. While expanding more and more, Ermor begins to feel the strain though. However, everything is still ok.

Pythium doesnt yet exist.
Ctis is a tribal kingdom of lizards. They are coldblooded and religion has considerable influence. In addition, though it is early era, the mages utilize necromantic magic.

Middle Era is when it gets worse for Ermor. At some point inbetween early and middle era the imperium had considerable problems maintaining its strength. Since the nations background is rome, i suspect both size and the inner battle for power were too much of a burden and Ermor lost a lot of its earlier conquered territories. Somewhere around the same time, the people of ermor got in touch with the lizardman of Ctis (apparently contact was peaceful) and the lizardman teached the secrets of necromancy to Ermor. Dazzled by those dark powers and their promise to restrenghten ermor, the mages dabbled in necromancy and for a while it did work out just ok. Already in the middle-era ermor is populated by the living and the dead alike giving it a grim longterm outlook indeed.

Ctis had death magic knowledge in the early era but apparently they further invested themselves into the necromancy. Only because of this were they able to hand out their knowledge to ermor. At the same time, ctis is relying more heavily on necromancy as well. The lizard kings use their magic knowledge and priestly power to try to shape the world in their picture, everincreasing the lands of ctis with a blight to turn them into more fitting swamps.

Due to the fact that ermor lost parts of its size and strength, pythium was created. Pythium is a splitter faction of ermor who did seize the moment of weakness in between early/mid to rebel and form their own nation. Ermor was unable to reannect pythium. Location-wise, Pythium is likely found directly between Ctis and Ermor, uniting ermorian legion tactics together with hydras from the swamps of pythia (swamps = connection to Ctis, so likely partly Ctis, partly Ermor terrain).

Late Era is when the heresy really unfolds. Earlier Ermor was able to partly regain is strength due to enbracing death magic.

Unfortunally, the sages of Ermor werent teached very well by ctis (perhaps on purpose) and the dark secrets of death magic took their price. While dabbling in the necromantic arts, the mages unleashed a terrible force that did consume the entire nation of Ermor. Only death is to be found in Ermor anymore and the dark god hungers for more with every day passing.

Ermor has become a nation of the dead for the dead and as such strong necromantic spirits can enter the plane on ermorarian terrain and they only hunger for more spirits to reanimate.

Similar to Ermor, Ctis apparently didnt quite understand death magic that good as well because they heavily rely on reanimation in this era as well.

The splitter faction of Pythium still exists and is apparently not influenced by the happenings in Ermor. Pythium worships their hydras more than ever and secret cults are forming. It is unknown i Pythium is able to prevail against the Ctis and Ermorian neighbours, but i find it very unlikely. Pythium is likely to succumb to the necromantic arts from ermor.

I find the thought that ctis offered necromantic knowledge on purpose to ermor very intrigueing. Was it ctis goal to bring the downfall to ermor and control the dead afterwards or were they really trying to help them ?!





Arcosephale
Arco is kind of boring. Just like Ermor, they have a static reallife background, they resemble greece in basicly every aspect. They utilize myrmidon, flying men, pegasus, later on the famous phalanx. There isnt really much to talk here, they are like a port of greece into a fantasy game.

In addition, there really isnt much change throughout the eras with them. In each Era, Arco basicly uses the same army units, they just apply heavier, more advanced troops and equipment, just like most races do.

Apparently they are pretty educated even in the early era, their myrmidons already apply bronze armor and their "mages" are about art and crafting really than about magic in a conservativ meaning. There is no shocking development, taint or twist about them at all. Doh.


Hinnom
Hinnom is a nation made up of the sons of the Nephillim. The Nephillim again are the descendants of the Grigori, ancient Ur-Beings, Fallen Angels teaching civiliation to the plane. Even though Hinnom is basicly made up of third-grade+ thinblooded descendants of the mighty Grigori, they are still vastly, vastly superior to any human. They equal the giants of jotunheim and niefelheim in size and strength. Due to their ancestors, Hinnom has powerful mages and is applying forbidden blood magic since the early era. Again, due to their ancestors, the pureblooded Hinnom also require no normal food, instead devouring actual population for food. They are indeed incredible strong and could be seen like the "evil" giant-nation.

Over the course of the 3 Eras, Hinnom lives through only little change. Since already in the early era thinbloods are common, it gets way worse middle and late era where only very few purebloods can be seen. As such, they lose parts of their uniqueness and apply more human-like armies later on. However, even though they are less "giant" later on, even their thin-thin-thin blooded troops are still considerably more powerful than humans of the same era. In all three Eras, the nation of Himmon is true to their ancestral gift, featuering skilled blood mages and the ability to sacrifice in blood. However, this trait is more stronger early game.

As mentioned, the Grigori are apparently tainted Angels, teaching "civilization" to the people on the plane of dominions 3 so it is probably ok so state that Hinnom, their direct descendants, is the most ancient race in the game. This claim is further proven by the fact that only early era Hinnom can sacrifice 177 blood slaves to actually release of the six Grigori. That is the most expensive blood spell indicating the ancestral knowledge of Hinnom. Long story short, Hinnom is powerful, cool, has decent Lore and can actually Release the lords of civilization !!!!! These guys look really cool. Release them sometime soon !









Now, i have only been playing Dom 3 for a couple weeks and i didnt test all races yet (by far).
I hope you enjoyed my report and if you anyhting to add or can help me in fixing some wrong things i wrote up, feel free to do so I love lore !

[LDiCesare]

There are a few things I think you're missing.
Most nations have a reference to a historical nation, or myth. This can often be seen in leader names.
Ermor is obviously Rome. Pythium is Byzantium. C'tis is more Babylonian or Egyptian (animal headed gods, eater of the dead, undead chariots lean towards Egypt, while names lead towards Sumer).
I disagree with Arcoscephale keeping the same units in each era. EA and MA have little in common. MA lacks seducing witches and flying troops. History-wise, LA also introduces ape warriors, so Arco has had contact with Bandar Log or their successors somewhere between MA and LA.

Another big thing you didn't mention is the weakening of Blood magic in Middle Era. Mictlan, Hinnom, both lack blood in MA. Lanka vanishes, leaving Bandar Log as only heir to both them and Kailasa. Pythium (formerly Sauromatia) loses blood too. Man, more or less Marverni's heir, also lacks blood. LA sees a blood comeback (f.e. Mictlan, Marignon)

[Ragnarok-X]

Cool, thanks for the correction. I really only played 5 races early and did a quick look at them middle and late era and wrote this stuff up at work.
Thanks a lot for your insight.

[Gandalf Parker]

Quoting from Wikipedia

The nations in the game are based upon world history and mythology, rather than standard high fantasy races such as elves and orcs. Amongst others, the mythologies of ancient Greece (Arcoscephale), Rome Republic (Ermor), East Rome (Pythium), Sarmatians (Sauromatia), Egypt (C'tis), Medieval France & Spain (Marignon), Medieval England (Man), Ireland (Fomoria, Eriu, Tir na n'Og), Scandinavia (Vanheim, Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Utgard, Nieflheim), Germany (Ulm), China (Tien Chi), Africa (Machaka), Japan (Jomon), Aztecs (Mictlan), Rus' (Bogarus), and India (Kailasa, Lanka, Bandar Log, Patala) are represented. Other nations are based on the work of recent writers, particularly H. P. Lovecraft (R'lyeh), or Abysia, that looks loosely based on Yezidi faith, as it contains Melek Taus in its list of random general names and is mostly associated with holy flames, beings of flame, fire worship and magma, or Hinnom, which is based on Semitic mythology, featuring Nephilim.

We can thank Kristoffers (one of the 2 developers) day job for this. He teaches ReligioMythos. If you go to Kristoffers profile, off to the right is a link for "show all statistics" which will give you a link to "find all posts by Kristoffer O". That would give you a way to track down any others.

[llamabeast]

I guess LA Arco gaining monkeys (Bandar Log, i.e. Indian race) is related to Alexander the Great conquering parts of India?

[Zeldor]

LDiCeesare:

Marverni transforms into Marignon, it's Spain.

[Trumanator]

Originally Posted by Zeldor

LDiCeesare:

Marverni transforms into Marignon, it's Spain.

Huh? Marverni is Celtic right? That would more easily transfer to Man/Britain than Marignon/Spain.

[NooBliss]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

Huh? Marverni is Celtic right? That would more easily transfer to Man/Britain than Marignon/Spain.

As far as I understand, Marverni is Gallic France, yet to be conquered by Ermorish analogue of Caesar. And the galli were, indeed, celts.

[nordlys]

Originally Posted by Trumanator

Huh? Marverni is Celtic right? That would more easily transfer to Man/Britain than Marignon/Spain.

Pre-moorish Spain was heavily celtic as well. In fact, irish lore hints the ancestors of modern gaels had arrived from Spain.

[Foodstamp]

Zeldor are you sure? I would expect that Marverni was based on this tribe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arverni

They lived in central France.