The last tomes left and the affinity of the last culture.

[EvilEyeSigma]

Greetings, is a great tradition of the forums to go and post ramblings and unfounded theories based on dubvous patterns, so here i will take my shot and guess what will be the last tomes of the DLC, Archon prophecy, but first lets analize what we have:

First we list all the DLC tomes and on the right the affinities represented in each tier:

T1 tomes

Evolution Chaos Nature
Alcgemy Materium Nature T1
Tentacle Shadow Astral Shadow, Astral, Order, Chaos: 1, Nature 2, materium 2.
Discipline Materium Order

T2

Dungeon Materium Materium
Construct Materium Order T2 Materium: 4 Others: 1
SHade Materium Shadow
Fey Astral Nature

t3

Dragon Nature Chaos
Corruption Shadow Astral
Flame Order Chaos
Dread Materium Chaos T3, Nature: 1, Order: 1, Materium: 2, Shadow: 1, Chaos: 3, Astral: 2
Geomancy Materium Astral

T4

Calamity Chaos Shadow
Prosperity Order Nature
Severing shadow Materium T4: Shadow: 2, Order: 1, Chaos: 1, Materium: 1, Nature: 2, Astral: 1
stormborne Astral Nature

Here is the total affinity distribution: materium: 9 chaos:5 order: 4 nature: 6 shadow:4 astral: 5

Next we have the represented tome affinity combos

Materium order: 2 Materium shadow: 2
Materium Nature: 1 Materium chaos: 1 Materium astral: 1
Chaos nature: 2 Chaos Shadow: 1 Chaos astral:0
Nature order: 1 Nature shadow: 0 Nature Astral: 2
Chaos order: 1 Chaos materium 1
Order astral: 0 Shadow astral: 2 Shadow Order: 0
Order shadow: 0

Missing combos: Chaos astral, Shadow nature, Astral Order, Shadow Order.

Based on this distribution and the content of the DLC (Confirmed culture and story realm) three tomes is the very likely number, making the DLC comparable to WoW

Given the previous distribution the Likely combos are Shadow/Chaos, Astral Order and Shadow Order, it fits the thematic of the DLC and gives the final Affinity lineup:
materium: 9 chaos:6 order: 6 nature: 6 shadow:6 astral: 6, pretty balanced if you ignore materium the outlier.

The Tome distribution also points at a T1, T2 and T4 tomes since T3 already have 5 tomes while everything else has 4.

On the cultures we have this distribution

Feudal monarchy Order materium
feudal aristocracy Order nature

Barbarian nature chaos
industrious materium materium
high order order
dark shadow shadow
Reaver Materium chaos

Mystic summon Astral astral
Mystic attunement Astral astral
Mystic potent Astral shadow

Oathbound strife order chaos
Oathbound harmony Order nature
Oathbound righteousness Order order

With the total affinities acounting culture Nature: 12 astral: 6 order: 9 chaos: 4 shadow: 4 materium: 5

Since Order is so well represented on culture side, making an Archon culture is redundant (hight) and extremely lore breaking (they are human form only) and the last DLC culture was order foccused i think the last culture will not have Order or Nature in its lineup, and for sure will have Shadow and/or Chaos.

My prediction based on all of this is the following;

T1 Shadow/Chaos tome based on Rogues, criminal activity, city state manipulation and one last accursed demon, likely a succubus/kitsune hybrid since succubus are requested.

T2 Order/Astral tome based on the Archons, a foil on Doomherald that focusses on getting benefits from being Good, including a city structure on the capital that can unlock archon/celestial units gatekeeped by city/wizard towed level and alignment.

T4 Order/Shadow tome based on fall from grace, Urrah unholy whispers, evil benefits and making vassals betray their owners.

The last culture based on bronze age civilizations is the most fitting to bring back egypt (Astral shadow) and welcome the newcomer assyria (Astral chaos)
I also hope that the last update gives us a Reaver commonwhealt subculture (order/materium)

Nature: 12 astral: 8 order: 10 chaos: 5 shadow: 5 materium: 6 would be the final culture affinity lineup, well, its not possible to balance that much.

Theorycrafting the tomes is better reserved for another posts, in the mena time what do you think? do anyone else has their own hypothesis about the last DLC content?

 

[Blanch Warren]

As you've already mentioned, since some Vampire/Bloodmagic is rumored, one would figure we'd get more shadow/chaos in there somewhere next season, unless it ends up under a Dark subculture. There's a shadow/chaos Tome under Tome of Calamity, but it's Tier IV.

Shadow order is... well, Tome of Inquistion does enable weakened, so Dark may end up taking it anyway. The devs probably believe you have the tools to make a Shadow-Order faction, but some people don't seem to think they have enough Evil Order Empire.

IMO the isolationist Dark Elves of AOW2 were pretty straightfowardly Shadow affinity, but a Dark culture themed more similarly to AOW1 or AOW3 (i.e. storm cult) could easily be a Shadow/Chaos faction. They do have some Astral leaning in there, but... well, I suppose that would have also worked for either Melenis pre-AOW3 (apart from the whole undead thing she was kind of arcane artifact oriented) or Werlac in AOW3, but she and Werlac were pretty straightforwardly... chaos world-shakers, even if he was using arcane means to bring it about. The storm cult probably would have taken the Tome of Evocation somewhere in there anyway, and then there's Hermit Kingdom.

Although I wouldn't necessarily expect to see it next season, If we got another Shadow/Astral t2 or Shadow Materium t3, I envision a kind of shadow arcane artifact thing. Melenis seems to have liked that kind of thing. Materium/Astral is more like what Larissa (Commonwealth Dreadnought) was trying to do, though would also fit under Mystic dabbling in materium.

 

[EvilEyeSigma]

Another season was confirmed?

 

[Diovidius]

Another season was confirmed?

It was not. All the devs said that they have potential ideas for a third season (chaos-focused, vampires) but not that a third season will happen.

 

[Pvt_Classified]

Greetings, is a great tradition of the forums to go and post ramblings and unfounded theories based on dubvous patterns, so here i will take my shot and guess what will be the last tomes of the DLC, Archon prophecy, but first lets analize what we have:

First we list all the DLC tomes and on the right the affinities represented in each tier:

T1 tomes

Evolution Chaos Nature
Alcgemy Materium Nature T1
Tentacle Shadow Astral Shadow, Astral, Order, Chaos: 1, Nature 2, materium 2.
Discipline Materium Order

T2

Dungeon Materium Materium
Construct Materium Order T2 Materium: 4 Others: 1
SHade Materium Shadow
Fey Astral Nature

t3

Dragon Nature Chaos
Corruption Shadow Astral
Flame Order Chaos
Dread Materium Chaos T3, Nature: 1, Order: 1, Materium: 2, Shadow: 1, Chaos: 3, Astral: 2
Geomancy Materium Astral

T4

Calamity Chaos Shadow
Prosperity Order Nature
Severing shadow Materium T4: Shadow: 2, Order: 1, Chaos: 1, Materium: 1, Nature: 2, Astral: 1
stormborne Astral Nature

Here is the total affinity distribution: materium: 9 chaos:5 order: 4 nature: 6 shadow:4 astral: 5

Next we have the represented tome affinity combos

Materium order: 2 Materium shadow: 2
Materium Nature: 1 Materium chaos: 1 Materium astral: 1
Chaos nature: 2 Chaos Shadow: 1 Chaos astral:0
Nature order: 1 Nature shadow: 0 Nature Astral: 2
Chaos order: 1 Chaos materium 1
Order astral: 0 Shadow astral: 2 Shadow Order: 0
Order shadow: 0

Missing combos: Chaos astral, Shadow nature, Astral Order, Shadow Order.

Based on this distribution and the content of the DLC (Confirmed culture and story realm) three tomes is the very likely number, making the DLC comparable to WoW

Given the previous distribution the Likely combos are Shadow/Chaos, Astral Order and Shadow Order, it fits the thematic of the DLC and gives the final Affinity lineup:
materium: 9 chaos:6 order: 6 nature: 6 shadow:6 astral: 6, pretty balanced if you ignore materium the outlier.

The Tome distribution also points at a T1, T2 and T4 tomes since T3 already have 5 tomes while everything else has 4.

On the cultures we have this distribution

Feudal monarchy Order materium
feudal aristocracy Order nature

Barbarian nature chaos
industrious materium materium
high order order
dark shadow shadow
Reaver Materium chaos

Mystic summon Astral astral
Mystic attunement Astral astral
Mystic potent Astral shadow

Oathbound strife order chaos
Oathbound harmony Order nature
Oathbound righteousness Order order

With the total affinities acounting culture Nature: 12 astral: 6 order: 9 chaos: 4 shadow: 4 materium: 5

Since Order is so well represented on culture side, making an Archon culture is redundant (hight) and extremely lore breaking (they are human form only) and the last DLC culture was order foccused i think the last culture will not have Order or Nature in its lineup, and for sure will have Shadow and/or Chaos.

My prediction based on all of this is the following;

T1 Shadow/Chaos tome based on Rogues, criminal activity, city state manipulation and one last accursed demon, likely a succubus/kitsune hybrid since succubus are requested.

T2 Order/Astral tome based on the Archons, a foil on Doomherald that focusses on getting benefits from being Good, including a city structure on the capital that can unlock archon/celestial units gatekeeped by city/wizard towed level and alignment.

T4 Order/Shadow tome based on fall from grace, Urrah unholy whispers, evil benefits and making vassals betray their owners.

The last culture based on bronze age civilizations is the most fitting to bring back egypt (Astral shadow) and welcome the newcomer assyria (Astral chaos)
I also hope that the last update gives us a Reaver commonwhealt subculture (order/materium)

Nature: 12 astral: 8 order: 10 chaos: 5 shadow: 5 materium: 6 would be the final culture affinity lineup, well, its not possible to balance that much.

Theorycrafting the tomes is better reserved for another posts, in the mena time what do you think? do anyone else has their own hypothesis about the last DLC content?

Love the speculation. Aren't they doing color themes for the seasons? I thought this season's theme was gold, so I doubt they will do they shadow & chaos focus you mentioned for tomes. I vaguely remember mention of a potential red theme for season 3 including vampires from a dev livestream for Ways of War. I would anticipate a High culture rework I like the idea of the Egyptian culture and agree that it is most likely, even though I wanna see some Roman style legionnaires.

 

[EvilEyeSigma]

Love the speculation. Aren't they doing color themes for the seasons? I thought this season's theme was gold, so I doubt they will do they shadow & chaos focus you mentioned for tomes. I vaguely remember mention of a potential red theme for season 3 including vampires from a dev livestream for Ways of War. I would anticipate a High culture rework I like the idea of the Egyptian culture and agree that it is most likely, even though I wanna see some Roman style legionnaires.

ER had Cleansing Flame despite beign focused on Shadow/Umbral Demons, i think the Expansion will add Archon Stuff and stuff that opposes Archons.

 

[aadf97799c]

just notice order are the only affinity with only 1 major transformation

hope the new order major transformation will be order shadow

 

[Diovidius]

just notice order are the only affinity with only 1 major transformation

hope the new order major transformation will be order shadow

Both Order and Materium only have 1 major transformation. There is a perfect Order/Materium transformation, a Construct transformation. But I don't see that being part of this dlc.

For my part I'm hoping for a Centaur Transformation in this dlc (because it might Greek/Roman themed) which could be Nature/Order.

 

[Deus von Vult]

From the picture of Archon prophecy it looks like the next DLC will heavily focus on "good" and maybe angels /paladins. It would go hand in hand with a "good" afinity rework, because "good" is one of the weakest builds right now. But of course this doesn´t mean there can´t be additional tomes from chaos or astral in the DLC. The Eldricht DLC had a "good" tome too to fight agianst the Eldricht rulers.

If there is ever a possibilty of a another round of DLCs after Archon prophecy i really would like to see real vampire tomes.

 

[aadf97799c]

From the picture of Archon prophecy it looks like the next DLC will heavily focus on "good" and maybe angels /paladins. It would go hand in hand with a "good" afinity rework, because "good" is one of the weakest builds right now. But of course this doesn´t mean there can´t be additional tomes from chaos or astral in the DLC. The Eldricht DLC had a "good" tome too to fight agianst the Eldricht rulers.

If there is ever a possibilty of a another round of DLCs after Archon prophecy i really would like to see real vampire tomes.

order simply have the worst empire tree since the first day of this game

hope for some rework soon

 

[seperamos]

order simply have the worst empire tree since the first day of this game

hope for some rework soon

Yeah, order branch needs a side branch for combat and/or economics without vassals being integral.

Every affinity branch needs more combat research nodes, economic research nodes, and miscellaneous theme-specific nodes. Especially if t1 units are supposed to be more important without evolving!

 

[EvilEyeSigma]

From the picture of Archon prophecy it looks like the next DLC will heavily focus on "good" and maybe angels /paladins. It would go hand in hand with a "good" afinity rework, because "good" is one of the weakest builds right now. But of course this doesn´t mean there can´t be additional tomes from chaos or astral in the DLC. The Eldricht DLC had a "good" tome too to fight agianst the Eldricht rulers.

If there is ever a possibilty of a another round of DLCs after Archon prophecy i really would like to see real vampire tomes.

Well, i also speculated on the tomes, im assuming no more DLCs so im also closing files for rogues, and since Archons *Cannot/shoud not* be a culture and they seems to not be a dwelling this is the best i can think.

Tome of Discord, T1 Shadow Chaos:
Recruit Scroundrel, T1 Skirmisher unit
Summon tempress (accursed demon kitsune/succubus hybrid in looks), T2 Fighter unit
Marauding warband: Summon a dormant bandit camp infestsation.
Organized crime: give Whispering stone gives -20 stability on targeted city state, gain 15 gold for each target.
Courtesans: Whispering stones give +5 research, 20% discount on trades, other player vassals give 20% of the income intended to the overlord to you instead.
Special improvment: Thieves guild, forester +10 gold - 10 stability, +5 gold for each adjacent farm, +10 gold for each foreign empire border.

Tome of Providence, T2 Astral Order:
Recruit Paladin, mounted shield t3
Bearers of light (Vassals give +15 gold and mana, +10 imperium for each empire ally, Whispering stones provide +10 stability)
Holy champions (+1 Defense/resistance, +8 hp and faitful to celestial units, shield units and support units, or all units if Good aligned, +2 spirit and +2 lighting damage against undead/fiends and evil aligned empire units)
Divine aid: Units in 1 hex radious get blessed and cured 15 hp.
Sanctifier domain: Enemy units invading this city territory get -3 spirit resistance, friendly units get regeneration in combat.
City structure, capital only: Archon Altar +20 stability, +5 research and mana for each good alignmentlevel. allows recruitment of;
Archon centurion (Guy from the cover) (Good alignment and T3 city required and Wizard tower level 3) support t3
Archon titan (Very good alignment T4 city and tower) Mythic t4
Radiant angel (Pure good, Apex Wizard tower and max level city) Mythic T5

Tome of the Fallen: Shadow Order T4
Summon fallen angel: Mythic T4
Seeds of rebellion: Whispering stones can be given to other people vassals, the city gets -50 stability, city states also get -200 relationship with its overlord.
Unholy champions: +3 blight damage and +8 hp added to ranged/melee attacks of Fiend, undead and umbral demon units, or all units if evil aligned, +3 frozen damage against celestial and good aligned empire units, umbral malady inmunity is given to fiend and undead units)
Fall from grace: Target unit gets -3 sundered defense/res and insanity.
Urrath taint: Units in 1 hex radious suffer 6 frost/blight/spirit samage, spreads umbral taint.
Whispers of treachery: Target vassal city with lowest stability and relationship level with their overlord, it stops being vassal and declares war on the former overlord.

This gives us rouges, Archons, their enemies and tomes thast focus on diplomacy and city states.

 

[Orphalesion]

Yes, I do think Order is relatively unlikely to be the primary affinity of the next culture. As it stands now, we have whopping three cultures who have order as their primary affinity (High, Feudal, Oathsworn). That is pretty disproportional.

 

[Kitschy]

Well, i also speculated on the tomes, im assuming no more DLCs so im also closing files for rogues, and since Archons *Cannot/shoud not* be a culture and they seems to not be a dwelling this is the best i can think.
...

Lol they will be a form. ;P (a space robot form)
but more seriously, most likely Archons will be integrated as Happenings.

 

[seperamos]

Yes, I do think Order is relatively unlikely to be the primary affinity of the next culture. As it stands now, we have whopping three cultures who have order as their primary affinity (High, Feudal, Oathsworn). That is pretty disproportional.

Thats what subcultures were supposed to help with.

 

[Gali77]

order is very likely in the next culture. The devs has said this is the order and materium season. Giant Kings as all about materium and reworked it. The devs have also said they're going to go over the order tomes for the next dlc. It is the archon dlc who are the epitome of order in the AOW universe. Now we will get non-order stuff just like oder got half its tomes from the first expansion pack in the shadow dlc eldritch realms.

The wanted to look at chaos next season and also wanted to look at vampires so shadow too.

 

[Balthazar69]

Yeah, "Master of house" (+10 % of all ressources) for example, for his price give ridiculous bonuses. First vassal I found on this old save : 8 gold / 3 research / 4 mana (And this is totally endgame like turn 90+, and a big city with vassal at max level...).

For 400 imperium, stock for gain a new city is always better at this point.

 

[aerothgow]

If you want season 3 buy season 2 and gift it to friends and family. Only way they will pump more content is if people buy it.

 

[Diovidius]

order is very likely in the next culture. The devs has said this is the order and materium season. Giant Kings as all about materium and reworked it. The devs have also said they're going to go over the order tomes for the next dlc. It is the archon dlc who are the epitome of order in the AOW universe. Now we will get non-order stuff just like oder got half its tomes from the first expansion pack in the shadow dlc eldritch realms.

Like others have said, we already have 3 Order cultures (High, Feudal and Oathsworn) so another Order culture seems unlikely. Plus on Discord the devs have alluded to the fact that the next culture is not an Order culture.

I expect the next culture is Astral focused with an Astral/Order subculture for regular Archons and an Astral/Shadow subculture for fallen/corrupted/undead Archons.

 

[Pvt_Classified]

I also don't think Order is likely. I'm expecting to see a materium Egyptian culture. My reasoning is that there are already a lot of order cultures, I assume High is the new envisionment of the old Archon culture, Egyptian culture would represent the old Tigran race, and that Materium fits the theme for the season.