Lords of Magic
A turn-based strategy game with eight faiths vying for control of Urak.
Lords of Magic is a turn-based strategy game for Microsoft Windows, designed for Windows 95/98 by Sierra On-Line. It was meant to blend gameplay from *Heroes of Might and Magic II* and *Lords of the Realm II*. The special edition includes the *Legends of Urak* quest pack, which adds five standalone quests unrelated to the main story.
The game world is filled with wandering monsters and fixed buildings that contain enemies. Unlike many strategy games, it has only one map, with each faith starting in a different location. This can make the game feel repetitive, though a map editor helps. Players travel across the high-fantasy land of Urak, which is split into eight regions (one per faith), building armies of archers, infantry, cavalry, and creatures. The overworld is turn-based, where players manage cities and move armies, but battles switch to real-time. Champions and lords can equip treasures found in dungeons or taken from other factions. Faithless marauding parties often disrupt economies and progress, and a loose diplomacy system allows trade or research exchange with other factions.
The main goal is to defeat Balkoth, Lord of Death, by any means. After finishing once, players can start a new game as Balkoth, aiming to conquer all of Urak. Lords are the player’s avatar characters, similar to champions but with different colors and higher stats. If a lord dies, the faith is removed unless the player has an heir. Heirs are gained by befriending another faith and liberating their great temple before they do, making that faith the player’s and its lord the heir.
There are eight factions: life, death, order, chaos, air, earth, fire, and water. Each has unique units, heroes, and spells. Heroes come in three types: Warrior (close combat specialist, best leading armies), Thief (works alone, steals money, spies, can kidnap heroes for ransom), and Mage (weak but uses spells to change battles, summoning monsters or raining fire). Over 160 spells exist, divided into offensive, defensive, overland, and general knowledge types, and are different for each faction. There are also over 90 artifacts to discover. The game has single-player and limited multiplayer over LAN and the internet.
The story takes place in Urak, where people worship one of eight religions, each with a bitter opposite in the circle of life.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Lords of Magic
- Developer
- Impressions Games
- Publisher
- Sierra On-Line
- Director
- Chris Beatrice
- Producer
- Glenn Oliver
- Designer
- Jeffrey Fiske / Gregor Koomey / Steven Serafino
- Programmer
- Mike Gingerich
- Composer
- Keith Zizza
- Released
- NA · December 2, 1997 · EU · 1997Special Edition / NA · September 15, 1998 · EU · 1998
- Genre
- Turn-based strategy
- Modes
- Single-player / multiplayer
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The game takes place in the high-fantasy land of Urak, which is split into eight distinct regions, one for each faith. The people worship one of eight religions, each with a polar opposite that are bitter enemies. Balkoth, the lord of Death, has embarked on a campaign to destroy all other faiths in honor of the dark god Golgoth. The other lords scramble to expand their ranks to defend themselves and destroy their lifelong nemesis. Each faith has its own weaknesses and strengths; for example, Life has the strongest archers but weak melee fighters, while Death has potent necromancy but other faiths are initially hostile toward them. The main goal is to defeat Balkoth, and after finishing once, players can begin a new game as Balkoth with the goal of conquering all of Urak.
Reader's Guide
Lords of Magic was developed by Impressions Games and released by Sierra Entertainment in December 1997. The Special Edition, released on 30 September 1998, includes the Legends of Urak quest pack, a set of five individual quests revolving around stories unrelated to the main plot. The game includes a single-player mode and limited multiplayer features on LAN and the Internet. The overworld map gameplay is turn-based, while battles switch to real-time. Lords are avatar characters; when a lord dies, the faith is removed from play unless an heir has been obtained. The game features eight factions, over 160 spells divided into four types, and over 90 artefacts. The Legends of Urak expansion adds quests for Earth, Fire, Death, and Order, including one based on Beowulf and another loosely based on the legends of Merlin and King Arthur.
Did You Know?
- The game has only one map, with each faith starting at a different location.
- The Water faith is the only one that can summon more than one legendary creature, the Giant Arachnids.
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