Gath, dev diary or something

[Gregstrom]

Ooh, cannibals. Does that offset starvation by killing off troops?

[Kristoffer O]

It is mainly the ancient rephaim of the EA that devour their lesser kin.

[WraithLord]

Ahmm, no hope then from new nations. An LA nation that would be designed specifically to counter (thematically) LA Ermor and R'lyeh would be nice.

I agree about Arco, but my point was about the general tendency of LA nations - more human and more death magic.

About the next point I want to tread carefully since I don't want to start a religious related argument, however I must stay I strongly object to the statement "Not to mention that Old Testaments God is not a benevolent one". Not religious myself but I have studied enough to know that Judaism doesn't agree with that view. True, there were strange factions coming out of Judaism with similar views but never the main stream. I'm not familiar enough with Islam and Christianity but AFAIK they more or less share Judaism's view about God's benevolence.

[Kuritza]

Believers are entitled to their opinion, of course, but I'm entitled to mine. Basically, 'serve me properly OR ELSE!' isnt what I expect to hear from a benevolent deity.
But thats off topic, of course. And, well, its a good thing that death magic is popular during the LA, since dust to dust is a good counter to Ermor amongst other things.
For example, you can say that LA Jotunheim is designed to beat Ermor. It has nature (to feed starving armies and for eagles eyes), death (dust to dust) and astral (solar rays) against Ermor. Surprisingly effective.
And Rlyeh... I think that only a coalition can stop Rlyeh. Not kill it, but stalemate till its too late. You cant even hit Rlyeh underwater: thugs/SC will be paralyzed and killed, armies will be hit by Dreams of Rlyeh and drown as commander with breathgiving artifact is assassinated.

[WraithLord]

Yes, lets keep beliefs out of it

Your point about LA Jotun is true from practical standpoint not from thematical one. Jotun culture and background has nothing pious or anti ermor about it. I would expect an anti-ermor nation to be along the lines of MA Marignon or Pythium, only in LA so some adaption is required.

As for LA R'lyeh, what's wrong with high MR thugs/SCs with starshine cup and amulet of antimagic? - they will be pretty hard to paralyze/kill. As for dreams, doesn't high MR and bodyguards help?

[Sombre]

Sounds a bit like Ulm Reborn. They have specifically anti undead/demon units, high level priests and their own freespawn. Can't get much more anti ermor than that.

[Kuritza]

With MR thugs wrong thing is, MR wont help. In one of our current games, Jotunheim lost a God with MR 30+, because with many recruitable and, occasionally, freespawn paralyzers you are bound to lose at least one roll.
Dreams - well, you will probably have -1 to -2 MR thanks to dominion (I dont believe in Rlyeh without magic scale), and caster is guaranteed to have at least +3 to penetration. With halved stats and MR, your commander cant do much against the following soul slay / enslave soul (with the same +3 to penetration)

Regarding anti-Ermor, I am fighting Rlyeh right now as Bogarus, and it feels great. I lack nature (or, rather, I've got nature just recently), so my troops starve, but otherwise its just what you are looking for. The whole 'Bogarus' name means 'God's Rus' , quite a religious country. Tainted with a blood cult, but still pious. Not peoples fault their new God has seen the worth in Blood and sent some FFA to look for virgins in several conquered provinces... Field army, simple peasants and city dwellers drafted into militia to fight for their homeland, heavy cavalry with weapons of honest sharp steel, and holy birds with voices of saints - what more can you ask for?
Since I pretty much backstabbed Ermor who was busy killing Utgard, I'm about to finish him off soon, so this story even has a happy end.

[Kristoffer O]

New developmnet. I've read more on Ugaritic religion found great inspiration for MA Ashdod. Especially concerning the banquet for the deified dead.

While LA Gath and EA Hinnom have blood magic, MA Ashdod will have death instead. The repahim are strongly connected with the dead in the Ugaritic texts, even more so than in biblical and talmudic traditions.

Cultural inspiration:
Hinnom - antediluvian (biblical myth), a mesopotamian touch, a bit of canaanites.
Ashdod - canaanite and philistine, mosaic time
Gath - philistine and israelite of the time of the temple

[Agrajag]

My dreams of a biblical Israeli nation have been shattered

[Kristoffer O]

Lol