Triumph Studios’ Age of Wonder franchise is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and with that, the world of Ages of Wonders 4 is expanding with the old gods in mind. With the Age of Wonders 4 Eldritch Realms expansion. We spoke with the Age of Wonders 4 Game Director Lennart Sas and Creative Lead Tom Bird about the upcoming Eldritch Realms expansion.
The Ages of Wonders 4 Eldritch Realms expansion will include a new Map Layer called the Umbral Abyss, which comes with new tactical combat maps, unique locations to explore, and new independent factions of Umbral dwellers waiting for players. And of course, two new story realms where players will return to Athla and come to its defense in epic clashes. In addition, there will be a new event system where mini-crises threaten all rulers at once in the Cosmic Happenings, a series of events with unique tactical maps, units, and mechanics.
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Diving into Ages of Wonders 4 Eldritch Realms expansion with the Triumph Studio developers Lennart Sas and Tom Bird, we started by discussing the inspiration for the expansion. The short answer? “Age of Wonders 2,” Creative Director Tom Bird answered with a laugh. He continued, “Essentially, Age of Wonders 2 had a standalone expansion called ‘Shadow magic,’ which was quite popular. In that, you’re on Athla—which is the homeworld in the Age of Wonders series—and a bunch of horrible demons break in and start dumping about everywhere, and they’ve got their own dimension. It’s very similar to the Upsidedown in [Stanger Things].”
But with Age of Wonders 2 as the starting inspiration, it’s all about how you adapt to the next leg of the series. Bird explained, “You look at the game, and you’re like, well, these people really love this and expect these [specific] iconic things. We spend an awful lot of time adding things about who you are and what you want to be… But what’s just as important is what you’re doing [in a game] and where you are going. So, we took this inspiration to add a new place to explore a new realm. In [Age of Wonders 4] Eldritch Realms, there’ll be a new layer. Currently, you have the underground layer and the surface layer. Those are different, but you know, they’re kind of the same…But the Eldritch Realms are very different. It’s much more dangerous. It’s much more valuable. And it has an entirely different feel.”
The Eldritch Realms’s new and different feel doesn’t just come from the new story moments or events. It also comes from what that realm is populated with. The Eldritch Realms will come with two new forms, including Insects and the Syrons’ return from the franchise’s past. Additionally, it will bring two new mounts, three new Realm traits, two new Realm templates, and five new premade rulers.
The goal of this new and very different Realm is ultimately to give players an all-new experience in Age of Wonders 4. “[Eldritch Realms] is a combination of trying to choose to bring back some of the cool ideas from all the games and mixing it with a new kind of content so that people have a new experience when they’re playing game,” Bird added.
With a new Realm comes three new Tomes. The first embodies the old god of it all, titled the Tome of the Tentacle. This will allow you to tighten your grip. Meanwhile, the Tome of Corruption will turn your enemies’ strengths into weaknesses. But with the darkness of the Eldritch Realm, there is also the light: the Tome of Cleansing Flame. By incorporating a holy Tome into the expansion, the team at Triumph is expanding what you can do in a world of horrors.
Bird explained, “Despite what legions of Goth and Emo kids were told, you can’t be all dark all the time. You need [the light] to add some flavor to it. If you’ve got a great big, dark, evil pit, cool, going into it cool. Being a great, big, dark, evil person may be cool. Some people like that, and some people don’t. It’s also cool going into the big, dark, evil pit with a great big flaming hammer and stomping all over things. Being righteous is also cool, right?”
You do need the light to have the darkness; ultimately, that’s why the Eldritch horrors have had the staying power they do across pop culture and generations. On top of that, what do you do with the horrors when someone doesn’t want to be evil? Bird explained, “Evil is something people would rather experience than do… You need to be able to go in there and stomp on things. So we said, let’s put in a Tome for the stompers as it were the Crusaders. The Crusader social trait is coming in [this expansion]. This is a new thing you can attach to your faction, which says these guys are dedicated to stomping out evil; you get bonuses for attacking evil people and stuff like that. So you can, like, properly stomp out evil.”
New social traits allow players to expand their RPG experience, and the Syrons are also expanding the story capabilities. Like the Eldritch Realm itself, Syrons go a long way back in Age of Wonders lore. Lennart Sas explained their history, “[The Syrons] are a slave race that was captured by the Shadow Demons. But this allowed them to use their craft, which is knowing how to navigate Shadow Worlds which made them allies with the forces of good. So once you liberate them, they fought off the invasion of the Shadow Demons that drove them back.” But how do they fit into Age of Wonders 4?
Sas explained that, too. “[In Eldritch Realms], the evil has managed to break through again in a new way. Also, the Shadow Realm is not like a full-on repeat; it’s an entirely new mutation, and so are the beings you encounter. [In addition to Syrons], you also encounter the Shadow Demon as insectoid forms. In the story realms, you will discover a lot more about the origins of how they operate, and… what is the godlike forces behind everything.”
But the most important thing for Bird isn’t necessarily the history of the new Insect and Syron forms; rather, players have agency in how to use them in their stories. Bird explained, “The great thing is that now that we’ve added these as forms. If this were Planetfall, they would be factions, and they would have their own thing attached to them. In the older games, Orcs are evil. That’s it, the end. It was a good thing if you annihilated a village full of Orc because they’re evil. That’s allowed. But obviously, it’s evil if you do that to humans because they’re good.”
Bird continued, “Now, you can pick what you like. If you want to make good guy insects, you go ahead. If you want to say these Syrons have rebelled against the other Syrons and are a faction that’s trying to let the Shadow Demons win, you can do that too. Because in the end, when you were talking about making a faction that fulfills your fantasy, there’s nothing worse than going, oh, cool, I can make this, and then I can choose this gameplay thing, and the game goes, ‘No, you can’t. Elves aren’t allowed to do that.’ Or, ‘Dwarves aren’t allowed that. That’s an Elf thing. You’re trying to mix dwarves and elves and that’s not allowed.’ [Age of Wonders 4] allows that. And although there’s some pushback, which is reasonable, they have underlying logic that holds them in place. But at the end of the day, if I want to play a short, angry Elf or a hippie Dwarf, why shouldn’t I be able to do that? Why should Tolkien’s arbitrary ideas of who these races are influence your experience of our game?”
Player agency has been core to the RPG elements of Age of Wonders 4, and Bird’s comments showcase that. Lennart Sas added, “From a player perspective, we tried to keep everything as open. And if players want to, of course, when we talk about lore, and we will talk about premade factions, we try to make things consistent. So I think that it’s very important that form follows function. So there’s still some expectation. When you see someone who looks like it’s about to bite your head off, it actually does bite your head off, right? Sometimes, there might be exceptions to the rule. But in general, there’s so much content in this game, so many things to keep track of.”
With new forms, a new Realm, Tomes, and more, the new ruler type stands out for Sas and Bird. Ancient beings of terrible power, the Eldritch Sovereigns, have been corrupted by the Umbral Abyss and possess a unique Thrall spell-casting mechanic. This will have players choose their path as an Eldritch Sovereign ruler and decide between Dominating their foes, Manipulating the flesh, or using Wild, chaotic magic.
Bird responded with the Eldritch Sovereigns when asked about what they were most excited for players to experience in the Age of Wonders 4 Eldritch Realms expansion. “I think that they’re really going to like the Eldritch Sovereigns. We’ve added a new ruler type: an enormous, flying, spooky monster guy. They’re a bit like Cthulu, but you could also be sort of like a broken Dark Angel, or it’s like a flying squirrel guy or something like that. I think people will love that you fly around with immense power, manipulating everything and destroying.”
Sas interjected excitedly, “And the customization option on that ruler type is just out there. It’s just like, you know, visual customization, you know, floating majestic wing-like constructs on the back. Tentacles [for legs] or tentacles in the head. Yeah, it’s all straight body horror stuff.”
Sas added that the Thrall mechanic that comes with the Eldritch Sovereign, which Bird expanded on, “The [Eldritch Soverigns] can essentially enslave people after the battle, and then sacrifice them get spooky effects. The idea is that [Eldritch Soveriegns] get their own set of world map spells, which are Thralls. As a world map mechanic, you can essentially choose how you want to use them.
You can use them for utility spells like allowing an army to move first or adding a production boost to a city so you can quickly produce units, or you can use Thralls to summon. You can simply convert Thralls into beings that are like you, and the last option is to use Thralls in story events. We ran into this problem that, like, imagine you are a 17-foot tall, unknowable spooky creature from the depths, and a story event triggers where your neighbor invites you to a cooking competition. What do you say? There is actually an event like that. There’s a cooking competition, and that was a bit of what we in the industry referred to as ludonarrative or dissonance.”
Sas added, “It can be very funny. But you can spend thralls, basically, to bypass most events to represent the fact that you are an unspeaking [all-knowing being]. So, sort of like a mysterious being from the void.”
Whether it’s the new Realm, the new ruler type, forms, or just getting the chance to dive into the spookiest setting that Athla has to offer, Age of Wonders 4 is getting larger with Eldritch Realms. With player agency at its core and a reverence for the past history of the franchise, this expansion is set to celebrate the 25th anniversary in a huge way. Maybe a 17-foot-tall elder god with tentacles sort of way.
Age of Wonders 4 Eldritch Realms releases on Steam on June 18, 2024.
