Heya, I was thinking on making a fanfic concept of a Total War game AU for Looming Gaia, and I just wanted to know if you had any specific military trivia (It’s alright if it’s a rough concept) for each of the great kingdoms, as well as the Feral Nymphs and Cult of the Crescent (Who would take over Yerim-Mor in the Total War AU)
Unfortunately I don't know anything about Total War, so please forgive me if this information isn't very useful (but if there is anything specific you'd like to know, please feel free to ask!). I will talk about the specialties, strengths, and weaknesses of each Great Kingdom military + some other factions. I'll also use a little RPG logic for simplicity's sake.
Folkvar: Medieval era technology + magic. Huge naval fleets of traditional wooden ships armed with magic cannons. Soldiers are armored in thick hides, furs, and chainmail that offer protection without slowing them down too much. Favored weapons are axes and hammers. Specialty units: mammoth-mounted soldiers. Sled-dog chariots. Pretty self-explanatory.
Matuzu: Medieval-era technology + magic. Extensive land control with diverse cavalry, mostly riding okapi. Diversity is their greatest strength, with a balanced mix of units from all over the world. Favored weapons are spears, crossbows, and magic staffs. Specialty units: Dolphin-mounted Aquarian mages and elephant cavalry.
Lamai: Advanced neolithic-era technology. Uses a lot of sneaky tactics like poisons and traps. Favor blowguns, magic spells, and siege weapons like catapults. Soldiers utilize powerful drugs to make them stronger and faster in battle. Specialty units: Medusa military captain that turns enemies to stone. Assassin blowgunner; a highly camouflaged soldier with nearly perfect aim, can fatally poison many enemies without being caught.
Yerim-Mor: Soldiers have inadequate armor and weaponry, but unmatched resilience and resourcefulness. Typical weapons are chipped swords, rusty kitchen knives, rocks, etc. On rare occaions they may be armed with industrial-era guns. Camels and horses are common mounts. Specialty units: Elite gazella, a fast gemsbok-mounted soldier armed with a polearm and skilled in hand-to-hand combat should they get dismounted. Rocback bomber, a roc-mounted soldier that drops huge explosives. The roc is only loyal to its original master and will go berserk if the master dies.
Zareen: Uses industrial-age equipment such as guns, tanks, battleships, and airships. Its equipment is mostly iron and powered by dirty fuel, so it's very heavy, unwieldy, expensive, pollutive, and prone to malfunctioning from time to time. Favored weapons are guns and hammers. Their "cavalry" drives trucks. Magic use is rare. Specialty units: Super soldier, a genetically-enhanced person wearing gas-fueled power armor. Ironjaw handler, a soldier accompanied by an incredibly strong genetically-enhanced dog.
Evangeline: Medieval era equipment. Excellent sky control with flying dragon-mounted soldiers. Also has a lot of horseback soldiers. Uses pure iron armor and weapons, which blocks direct spells and deals extra damage to fae, but slows the wearer down some. Swords and arrows are preferred weapons. Special units: Siege dragon, a giant flame-breathing dragon mounted by 6 dragoneers. It can destroy entire towns. Also has nymph mercenaries in its ranks, which are the only units that are permitted to use magic.
Mogdir: Purely arcane and natural technology. Mostly mages. Preferred weapons are magic staffs, wands, and enchanted arrows. Their culture forbids the use of animals for war, but giant insects are not considered animals, so they have cavalry mounted on giant grasshoppers and dragonflies. Specialty units: Beetle tank, a giant armored beetle mounted by 3 soldiers (it can’t fly, but moves quickly). Hornet cavalry, flying cavalry that rides giant hornets, which can impale enemies with their stingers.
Etios: Uses basic neolithic-era weapons and armor, but all soldiers are gaian and therefore very strong. Has a small population of magic-using soldiers as well. Favored weapons are clubs, slings, and spears. Specialty units: Jouster, a heavily-armored centaur with a wooden shield and long spear. Builds insane momentum as it charges and impales enemies, killing even the largest enemies instantly. Rock-master, a minotaur or ogre armed with a boulder on a rope, which it swings around to insta-kill many enemies at once. Only minotaurs and ogres have the upper body strength to wield this weapon to its full potential.
Seelie: Mostly fae and faery mages that use elemental spells, with drau and kobolds as infantry/meat-shields. Never utilizes necromancy. Favors staffs, bows, and animal thralls as weapons. Specialty units: Weefolk spies, tiny units (gnomes and pixies) that can easily gather intel and sabotage enemies without being noticed. Titania, the queen herself is basically a WMD that will enter the battle if things get dire and lob powerful spells around. Resurrects if killed, but has a long cooldown.
Unseelie: Mostly fae and drau soldiers that use enchanted swords, staffs, and undead thralls as weapons. Their army is chaotic and unorderly, often deserting and not following orders. Specialty units: Necromaster, a necromantic sorcerer that resurrects dead soldiers to fight again. These zombies will keep fighting so long as their body is in-tact enough to swing a weapon, but they cannot cast spells. This unit basically gives every other soldier a second life bar, and also adds every enemy killed to Unseelie ranks. It’s really OP, but it’s compensating for the fact that the rest of the Unseelie army sucks.
Damijana: Machine-magic technology. Soldiers mostly use elemental laser rifles or enchanted blades. Utilizes power suits, but they’re much sleeker than Zareen’s, trading protection for agility. Their tanks are lightweight but the cannons do heavy arcane damage (glass cannons, essentially). Specialty units: Jetter, a soldier dressed in sleek power-armor that flies around with a jetpack, may be armed with guns or heavy melee weapons. Cycle cavalry, soldiers mounted on hovering motorbikes. The bikes move incredibly fast, can turn on a dime, and have guns mounted to them. The downside is, their high speeds and lightweight frame mean crashes are almost always fatal.
Aquaria: Almost 50/50 mix of dorikori infantry and Aquarian/nymph mages. Unmatched water control, but poor land and sky control. Cavalry rides dolphins and hippocampi. Army cannot stray too far inland for risk of dehydration. Boosted speed in the water, speed penalty on land. Dorikori units always fight in coordinated pairs, making them doubly effective and almost impossible to evade. Industrial-age tech is forbidden. Specialty units: Globeholder, a large monster that can transport thousands of soldiers in its globe. It also has a devastating melee attack with its two tentacles, but if its globe is destroyed, it becomes useless. Whale jockey, a mage riding an enchanted whale (usually an orca or similar). The whale’s large size is great for crowd control and can be used to tip over ships.
Crescent Cult: An honorless, sadistic army whose cruelty knows no bounds.. They are cowardly in small numbers, but become more emboldened the larger their troop is. The more you whittle down their battalions, the more likely the rest are to flee. Their troops, weapons, and armors vary drastically, but they are always uniformed in red and black stripes. They have a lot of skorpius, undead thralls, and pyriads in their ranks. Almost all of their troops are male because they are too vicious to females. Their aggressiveness means they often deal damage to each other. Specialty units: Elite War Priest, a soldier wearing an enchanted mask that makes them more powerful and harder to kill. This unit no longer needs to eat or drink, and instead survives by eating the suffering of others. Can torture victims to increase its power. Agony cradle, a stationary unit that’s used as an ambush trap. If it contains a victim, it will passively heal any cultists nearby.
Order of Love and Light: A righteous army that hunts down the wicked. They fight with honor and mercy, occasionally converting enemies to their side. Their attacks deal extra damage to Crescent Cultists. Favored weapons and technology level varies drastically, but their main specialization is healing. Almost all Love and Light soldiers have medical knowledge or healing spells they can use to heal other soldiers nearby. The larger their troops, the harder they are to defeat because they just keep healing each other. The majority of their troops are female, which gives them penalties to physical attacks but a boost to loyalty. They will never desert each other. Specialty units: Master medic, a sorcerer who casts powerful AOE healing spells, which can instantly bring a large number of allies back from the brink of death. Hymnotizer, a mage who sings magical hymns that cause wicked-hearted enemies to destroy themselves.
Feral Nymphs: Angry nymphs who believe peoples are harming Mother Gaia, and it’s their mission to defend Her. They deal extra damage to commoners. They only use magic and natural weapons like sticks, clubs, spells, and enthralled animals. Their armor is also made of natural materials like wood, stone, or leather. They would be powerful if they were more coordinated, but they’re quite divided geographically, so they tend to attack in small troops or alone. They prefer to attack using less direct means, like causing storms, floods, or earthquakes. They are an all-female force, but they suffer no penalties to physical strength. They are hostile to all peoples, and even other nymphs who aren’t part of their faction. Specialty units: Titan nymphs, these are diverse units with a wide range of abilities for just about any situation. However, they are incredibly hostile, even to feral nymphs, and hard to control.
I hope this is at least a little bit helpful! I've been planning to completely overhaul the military articles for a long time, and I'd like them to have more info like this.
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