The Phoenix Court (High Elf Politics)
Features a frankly excessive amount of lavish new art, all of it either hand-drawn or modified from official sources.
- Compete over loreful Seats, each with its own flavor text and thematic effects
- Deeply integrated with High Elf gameplay: buildings, edicts, traits, technologies, rituals, and even post-battle options all have political effects
- Adds over two dozen Intrigue dilemmas to all participating factions
- "Insult" system lets your rivals react realistically
- Clear, fully integrated help text guides you on your path to power
- Changing weather, seasons, and lighting beautifully measure the passage of time
- Animated flames and candles that light when you reach a goal, translucent windows and other visual touches fully immerse you in the Court ambiance
- Even generic UI elements change when you are in the Court, for the maximum elf experience
- The Court creates a significant disadvantage for High Elves by blocking normal diplomatic confederation, balanced out by the positive effects of Court Seats
- Court Seats buff underpowered and underused elements of the faction, adding choice while avoiding excessive power
- Some events trigger (official) voiced dialogue from other faction leaders, and all include detailed, immersive flavor text
- Event text is rewritten (fifteen times!) to be unique to the Kingdom involved: interacting with each Kingdom is unique both story-wise and mechanically
- Usurping Seats creates thematic consequences. Each Kingdom punishes you in a different way
- Claim every seat for a final event unique to your faction, choosing between loyalty and ambition
A sanctuary of learning and philosophy, the White Tower of Hoeth is also a powerful force in elven politics.
Examples:
- High Priestess of Lileath – Crafts magical items for you.
- Grand Historian – Improves relations with other long-lived races of Order.
Ulthuan has an elective kingship, and its noble houses strive for centuries to position their candidate to be the next Phoenix King. Between such struggles, day-to-day administration falls to a council of princes and lower nobles.
Examples:
- High Priest of Mathlann – Summons a great Merwyrm when fighting at sea
- Royal Seneschal – Grants Influence for each Council of Nobles seat
The Everqueen’s position is hereditary, requiring no election. Thus, its intrigues focus on gaining Her Serenity’s attention, which is drawn as easily by poetry or dance as strength of arms.
Examples:
- Oracle of Isha – Empowers the "Banish Corruption" province edict.
- Consort of the Everqueen – Permits vision over all Magical Forest regions.
- Play as any of the Ten Kingdoms of Ulthuan, each with unique political strengths
- Fulfill the unique, lore-based goals of each Kingdom in order to unite with them
- Normal diplomatic confederation is disabled for the Ten Kingdoms; earn it at court!
Six out of ten Kingdoms are playable in the vanilla game. The other four still participate in the Phoenix Court, but will be unplayable unless a mod supporting them is installed. The following mods are fully supported:
- Alshua’s Ellyrion (for Ellyrion)
- medusa0’s Surthara Bel-Kec (for Tiranoc)
And the following two mods are fully functional but still await tweaking to make text match their new faction leaders:
- Mixu’s Legendary Lords (for Chrace and Saphery)
- Note: Caledor is represented by Imrik
Though politically weaker, the Elven Colonies also participate at Court.
This mod is an equal partnership between Rhox and Alshua, who both feel they tricked the other into doing the annoying part of the work.
Rhox is arguably the greatest living expert on Total War UI files not drawing a salary from CA. Responsible for porting the Tower of Zharr feature, UI code, and scripting.
Alshua is arguably the greatest living expert on High Elf chairs. Responsible for the art, gameplay, database, and writing.
All four beautiful hand-drawn skies were contributed by the talented artist Megatruh, who Alshua has been happy to know for a long time. Check out her gallery!
Merwyrm guest starring thanks to ChaosRobie.
Uses with permission heraldry originally ripped by Nimue for their excellent Asur Cosmetics.
Includes art assets that are sole property of Games Workshop.
Contains large amounts of original artwork. Do not use without permission.
No AI was used in any part of this production.
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
