Magic research technologies

This ultimate skill proves that your city's mages have unlocked the hidden powers of the arcane. Forbidden knowledge is at your disposal, and a fifth school of magic can now be studied here.

The first true step down the path of arcane knowldge, the Arcana skill unlocks the Mage Tower building type to start generating Mana for your cities, and allows you to choose your first School of Magic.

The Art of Magic is truly practiced in this city. This skill unlocks a fourth School of Magic.

The Blights School of Magic allows you to project various woes onto the cities of your enemy.

Maddened by the success of his illustrious counterparts, the obscure magician Carrigen devoted his energies to hampering their efforts and thwarting their successes. He devoted his life to developing a magical infestation in order to destroy the contents of libraries and academies.

Destroys a portion of research points, mana and books

Building on the instant successes of his Infestation spell, Carrigen developed a Blight that would also damage his enemy's ability to recover swiftly from the loss of his research.

-6% to Mana and Research Production at this city

A more vicious version of the previous Mark, this Rune has the power to strike dead up to 20 hostile units at a stroke. Like all of the Slaying runes, this spell has charges that deplete with each use.

An enhanced version of Rotten Timber, Forest Blight sends an infection sweeping through the woodlands at your enemy's city, rotting the timber and sap at great speed.

-6% Wood Production at this city

Through the Geomancy School of Magic you gain some control over the environment - harnessing natural forces to benefit your and your allies' cities.

When casting Gift of Earth, your spellcasters give offerings to the spirits of the land, beseeching them to increase the Clay production in another city.

+5% Clay Production in another city

When casting Gift of Iron, your spellcasters give offerings to the spirits of the mountain, beseeching them to increase the Iron production in another city.

+5% Iron Production in another city

When casting Gift of Nourishment, your spellcasters give offerings to the spirits of the earth, beseeching them to increase the Food production in another city.

+5% Food Production in another city

When casting Gift of Stone, your spellcasters give offerings to the spirits of the hills, beseeching them to increase the Stone production in another city.

+5% Stone Production in another city

When casting Gift of Wood, your spellcasters give offerings to the spirits of the forest, beseeching them to increase the Wood production in another city.

+5% Wood production in another city

The Glyph of Horror is a powerful magic. When triggered it strikes madness and temporary insanity into the minds of up to 75 hostile units.

Agricultural production suffers substantially under a series of mild frosts, where the crop stalks become brittle and the grain damaged.

-3% Food Production at this city

This blight causes veins of Iron ore to rust sharply and quickly at your enemy's city, hindering his iron production as his workers struggle to find usable nuggets.

-3% Iron Production at this city

The third milestone in developing your city's magic, you have uncovered secret tomes of mystic knowledge. This skill unlocks a third School of Magic for your city.

Demonstrating your mastery of the darker sides of the arcane, this spell takes the blood and screams of the slaughtered and transfers it into a Glyph as black as the night. This glyph will strike up to 75 units stone cold dead.

Ripples of geological activity race through your enemy's lands, causing widespread danger to the citizenry - and especially to those workers on the rockface.

-6% Stone Production at this city

The Mark of Fear is a very useful minor magic, especially early in the game. Your mages place a smear of iron dust in the shape of demonic horns, facing outward from the city. The mark is then imbued with the power to strike fear into the hearts of hostile visitors, driving up to 10 of them away before losing its charge. However, if a force larger than the remaining charges arrives at your city, the spell will immediately fail.

The Mark of Seeking is a slaying Mark that is imbued with the ability to discharge its deadly force on enemy diplomats arriving at your city with specific hostile intentions. Before you prepare the spell you must choose the target type that will activate it - scouts, spies, thieves, saboteurs or assassins. Due to the Mark's targetted nature, it carries more charges than the comparable Mark - capable of slaying 12 foes. Diplomats arriving of types that are not targetted by this mark are unaffected.

The Mark of Slaying is cast under a dark moon, where the ritual sacrifice of an innocent beast imbues the rune with a terrifying power to instantly slay up to 5 of those whose intentions are hostile.

The land shakes and undulates for a few minutes at your target city. Whilst this is not enough to damage buildings, it is certainly enough to cause great difficulties for their workers toiling in the stone quarries, as boulders rain down on them.

-3% Stone Production at this city

The land itself can be persuaded by your masterful spellcasters to provide the optimal environment in which to grow crops.

+8% Food Production in any city

A very advanced magic, the spellcaster's mages are so attuned to the natural and arcane orders of the universe that they can bend natural spirits to their will.

+8% Clay Production in any city

The spellcaster's mages are so attuned to the natural and arcane orders of the universe that they can bend natural spirits of the forest to their will.

+8% Wood Production in any city

The very mountains themselves can be shaped and bent by your arcane abilities, forcing them to give up their resources more easily.

+8% Iron Production in any city

The spirits of the hills are so attuned to your mages, that they willingly offer their services to assist you.

+8% Stone Production in any city

The caster summons dark clouds that hang - heavy, black and pendulous - over the target city. The resulting deluge causes the rivers and creeks to overflow, sending sheets of water across the land - greatly hindering outdoors workers without shelter.

-3% Clay Production at this city

A swarm of hungry locusts descend on your target, blotting out the sun and driving the citizens to seek shelter, cursing the fickle fates as they scurry indoors.

Destroys a portion of food, livestock and horses at this city

The second milestone in developing your city's magic, you have uncovered more details about the nodes of power that circle the land. This skill unlocks a second School of Magic for your studious mages to pursue.

Acting as a catalyst on the ferrous materials being mined by your enemy, this spell causes Iron ore to rust and flake at great speed, severly hampering Iron production.

-6% Iron Production at this city

A mysterious blight races through the forests surrounding your target's city, forcing his foresters to search far and wide for suitable wood to cut.

-3% Wood Production at this city

The Rune of Terror is an upgrade to the Mark of Fear - a more powerful magic capable of driving away forces of up to 30 hostile units.

Runes are mystic marks, carved or written onto a surface and imbued with your mages' power. Runes are predominantly used in weaving defensive magics to protect your city.

The Seeking Glyph is a slaying Glyph upgrade to the Seeking Rune, that seeks out specific hostile diplomatic intentions against your town. The Glyph can slay up to 130 units of a specific type before expiring. Diplomats arriving of types that are not targetted by this Glyph are unaffected.

The Seeking Rune is a slaying Rune that is a more potent version of the Mark of Seeking, capable of striking dead 40 specific hostile diplomatic units that arrive at your city, before dissipating. Diplomats arriving of types that are not targetted by this Rune are unaffected.

Every day the farmers awake at your enemy city they react with disbelief at the severity of the frost that has blighted their croplands.

-6% Food production at this city

Your geomancers harness some of the energies coursing underground and direct them towards the surface outside this city. These energies loosen the compacted clay that runs underhill, making it easier for your workers to excavate.

+3% Clay Production to this city

In the depths of the iron mines where even the most seasoned miner fears to linger, dwell the ancient spirits of the mountain. Spirit of Iron pursuades these spirits to assist your miners in their endeavours.

+3% Iron Production to this city

Mother nature is fickle, but she can be encouraged to help more than hinder with this spell. Your mages direct their energies into the earth itself, causing increased fertility in your city.

+3% Food Production to this city

Living stone is, indeed, alive - imbued with the spirits of the hills. Casting Spirit of Stone bends these spirits to your own purposes.

+3% Stone Production to this city

Tapping into the spirits of the forest in your location, this spell sways these normal recalcitrant entities into assisting your city by releasing the resources in their care more easily.

+3% Wood Production to this city

The famously scatterbrained alchemist Tenaril did not succeed in his attempts to transmute metals into gold - but in the course of his research he did manage to summon a wispy green mist that settled on his iron ingots, dissolving them entirely.

Destroys a portion of iron and swords at this city

Vast stormclouds gather over your enemy's city, unleasing a torrent of driving rain to flood the surrounding lands, driving all but the hardiest workers to seek shelter indoors.

-6% Clay Production at this city

When triggered, the ward of destruction smites foes with a great thunderclap, leaving up to 250 of their charred carcasses strewn outside your city gates.

Your most disturbed spellcasters have spent hours toiling to produce the most mind-numbing horrors imaginable to being or beast, and then encapsulated them in a symbol of Warding above your city gates, capable of driving away up to 300 units until expiring.

The Ward of Intentions is the final slaying Ward that is imbued with the ability to discharge its deadly force on enemy diplomats with specific hostile intentions. It's power is strong and defensive; capable of striking dead up to 400 specifically targetted hostile diplomats arriving at your town, before losing its force. Diplomats arriving of types that are not targetted by this Ward are unaffected.

During the reign on the Ork-King Aglap, the court sorceror Zashlak was obsessed by heretical research into his belief that everything - even the very land itself - would ultimately revert to dust and scatter itself into the void. A side effect of his research was this useful spell for hastening the process in miniature and, thankfully, at a distance.

Destroys a portion of stone and clay at this city