Dark Lord
The Dark Lord comes to dominate the realms of men and gods alike, and from their ruin forge a new and mighty dominion. To that end, he seeks to control nations already bound by order, whose rigid institutions can be corrupted, and nations in turmoil, where his law can be enforced without mercy.
The Dark Lord was a rival to the previous Pantokrator and possesses an exceptionally powerful pretender chassis that functions as an out-of-the-box supercombatant. He offers a wide range of utility; exceptional combat prowess, mobile innate spell caster, and immortality. At the start of the game, the Dark Lord also has four unique construction level 9 artifacts. However, choosing him as your pretender comes with limitations: he begins the game imprisoned, is restricted to nations with an order/turmoil alignment, and suffers a significant loss of power after his first death. Upon reforming, the Dark Lord does not regain the four unique artifacts (loss of power), instead they become available for all nations to construct.
The Dark Lord’s four unique artifacts are: Dominator’s Helmet, Dominator’s Armor, Dominator’s Boots, and the Dominator’s Mace. Each artifact emphasises a different aspect of his character, enhancing stats accordingly. Alongside these artifacts is the Ring of the Dominator, an expensive, late-game, unique construction level 9 artifact whose immense power can single-handedly decide battles and alter the course of entire wars. Should the Dark Lord seize the ring, his conquest shall be unstoppable, and all lands will soon bend the knee.
Long before the Ascension Wars, the Dark Lord’s loyal servants and the nation under his thrall started building the Dark Fortress, a bastion to secure his dominion and prepare for his return. The Dark Fortress is a powerful site that strengthens the early game economy and gem production, whilst allowing the thrall nation to recruit unique commanders and troops. At the start of the game there is a scripted event that gives the thrall nation control of the fortress commander… a Wraith Lord loyal to the Dark Lord. The recruitable units are as follows:
- Sorcerer of the Shadow. Mage with Death, Blood and potential Astral path access.
- High Orc. Taskmaster commander that can produce resources.
- Dread Knight. Gryphon riding mage with potential access to all magic paths except astral.
- Orc. Strong foot solider, capable of taking a nation’s cap circle. Limited recruitment.
- Battle Troll. Recruitable elite troll. Limited recruitment.
- Black Guard. Powerful sacred defender. Limited recruitment.
The unique mages allow a nation to access a wider array of magic paths whilst the Dark Fortress provides consistent death and blood gems. The blood mages and blood gems provided by the fortress can help break a nation into blood magic and build a strong blood economy. Furthermore, the unqiue troops can help a nation take their cap circle quickly without an awake/dormant pretender and the Black Guard’s will defend your capital in a losing war.
Note: I have included a second variant of the mod, Dark Lord v1.X – Pretender, if you only want the Dark Lord pretender and not the Dark Fortress.
This mod should be compatible with most other mods, as long as they do not modify base game IDs or introduce elements that conflict with the IDs used in this mod. Used IDs: MONSTERS: 5900-5908, WEAPONS: 1200, ARMORS: 320-321, SITES: 1788, ITEMS: 700-704
In multiplayer, this mod should work fine and even allow multiple players to use the Dark Lord pretender simultaneously. However, please note that each Dark Lord’s starting items are marked as unique. As a result, if there are multiple Dark Lords and one of them dies, that player will be unable to reforge the unique artifacts until all other Dark Lords have also been killed. This can also happen in singleplayer if multiple AI choose the Dark Lord pretender.
Should you wish to use the Dark Lord with most nations instead of just order/turmoil nations, add the following code to the Dark Lord pretender’s newmonster definition:
Should you wish to use the Dark Lord with a specific/modded nation, select that nation by ID, add the Dark Lord to it as a god, and include that code at the bottom of the dm file:
Special thanks to Sturm for the sprite work and Usagi Doodles for the banner art.
- Sturm – Dark Lord sprites
- Sturm – High Orc sprites
- Sturm – Orc sprites
- Sturm – Battle Troll sprites
- Sturm – Black Guard sprites
- Usagi Doodles – Banner art
Mod made using the illwinter Dominions 6 modding manuals & larzm42 dom6inspector.
