Diplomacy is possible between these factions but difficult.

Water) begins the game extremely hostile to its counterpart. One of these considerations is that each faith's polar opposite (e.g., Chaos vs. The other lords scramble to expand their ranks to defend themselves against this dark threat but also to once and for all destroy their lifelong nemesis.Д®ach faith has its own weaknesses and strengths. Balkoth, the lord of Death, has embarked on a campaign to destroy all other faiths in honor of the dark god Golgoth. The atmosphere of the game is high fantasy, loosely inspired by the works of Tolkien, as well as Dungeons and Dragons. Each religion has an opposite in the circle of life and the people of those faiths are bitter enemies. The people of this world worship one of eight religions. The game takes place in the land of Urak. The game includes a single-player mode and limited multiplayer features on LAN and the Internet as well. There are over 90 different artifacts as well to discover and collect. These spells are divided into four types: 'offensive', 'defensive', 'overland' and 'general knowledge'. There are over 160 different spells and they are different for each faction. The Mage is very weak with low hit points, but can use spells which can change the entire battle in his army's favor, summoning great monsters or raining down fire and lightning from behind the front lines. The Thief can even kidnap other heroes, ransoming them for money and artifacts. The Thief works best alone, being able to steal money and spy. The Warrior is a close combag specialist who is best at leading armies into battle. The Heroes of the game consist of three different types which offer unique game play and tactics. Each faction represents their element with their own set of units, heroes and spells. There are eight different factions: life, death, order, chaos, air, earth, fire, and water. Heirs are obtained by befriending another faith, then liberating their great temple before they have, in which case the faith becomes the player's and their lord in turn becomes the heir.

When a lord dies, the faith is removed from play, unless the player has obtained an 'heir'. They are like champions, but colored differently and have higher stats. Lords are the avatar characters used by the player. After finishing the game once, players can begin a new game as Balkoth with the goal of conquering all of Urak. The main goal of the game is to defeat Balkoth, Lord of Death, by any means necessary. There is also a loose diplomacy system that can be used to interact with other factions as well for trade or the exchange of research. As the game progresses, many faithless marauding parties will attempt to disrupt the faith's economies and progress. Champions and Lords can be equipped with treasures found throughout dungeons or from other factions. When beginning a battle, the gameplay switches to real-time. The overworld map gameplay is turn-based here, players manage cities and move their armies. Throughout the game, players travel across the high-hantasy land of Urak (which is split into 8 distinct regions, one for each faith), building an army composed of archers, infantry, cavalry, and creatures. This results in a somewhat repetitive nature, counteracted somewhat by a supplied map editor. Lords of Magic is notably different from other strategy games in that it has only one map, with each faith starting at a different location. The world is filled with wandering monsters and fixed buildings filled with monsters.

Lords of magic multiplayer