The Chronicle

The Shape of the Realm

Lords of Chaos is played in ages — seasons of 28 days. When an age ends, the 25 most renowned kingdoms are carved into the Annals forever, and every army disbands, every treasury returns to founding stock. Alliances and ravens survive the turning; everything else is ash. The current age, The Age of Iron, ends in ….

The Four Peoples

Your people are chosen at the founding and held for life. Each carries one great gift:

Men of the West +25% gold income

Stewards of the realms of Men. Their fiefdoms prosper.

Elves of the Greenwood +25% espionage & sentry

Keen-eyed and ageless. Nothing escapes their watch.

Dwarves of the Deep Halls +25% defense

Stone-hard and unyielding behind their gates.

Orcs of the Black Hand +25% strike

A ravening horde that lives for slaughter.

The Turning of Hours

Every 10 minutes your kingdom earns a turn: gold flows into the treasury, 4 citizens arrive at your gates, and you bank an attack turn — up to 50. Turns accrue whether you are at the walls or asleep, but a full bank earns nothing more: spend them, or waste them. Income grows with citizens and with every trained unit in your service.

The Barracks

Idle citizens are drilled into the four trades of war:

Swordsmen The spearhead of your host. Adds strike power.

1,500g

Shieldbearers Holds the wall when raiders come. Adds defense power.

1,500g

Rangers Slips unseen into enemy lands to scout their strength.

2,500g

Sentries Guards your borders against enemy rangers.

2,500g

The Forges

One weapon arms one soldier of its kind — the finest steel is handed out first, and surplus gathers dust. Arms are lost with the soldiers who carried them.

Weapons of War

Orc-Dirk +6

2,500g

Longsword of the Mark +15

7,000g

Dragonfang Greatblade +35

20,000g

Shields & Mail

Oaken Roundshield +6

2,500g

Dwarven Chainmail +15

7,000g

Mithril Coat +35

20,000g

The Laws of War

• A raid costs 1 attack turn. Victory carries off 25% of the defender's gold on hand and earns renown — more against stout walls.
• Soldiers die on both sides of every clash, win or lose, and the fortune of war sways every battle: no outcome is certain.
• Honor forbids punching down: you may not raid a banner whose host is more than 4× smaller than yours. Raiding upward is always allowed.
• Blood debts override honor: raid someone, and for a time the wronged — and all sworn to their banner — may answer you, whatever your size.
• Sworn allies cannot raid or spy upon one another.

The Work of Shadows

• Rangers scout enemy kingdoms. Slip past their sentries and you carry home a full snapshot — gold, host, strike and defense. Get caught and your rangers never return, while the target learns exactly whose banner sent them.
• Sharp-eyed rangers also appraise treasuries from afar: when your espionage outmatches a kingdom's sentry watch, their gold shows on the battlefield and in the Hall of Legends. When it doesn't, you see only ??? gold.
• Sentries are the answer to both: they guard your numbers and catch rangers in the dark.

The Deep Vault

Gold locked in the vault is beyond any raider's reach. The keepers take 5% at the door; reclaiming is free. The vault holds 25,000 gold, deepened by 150 for every trained unit in your service — and it empties when the age turns.

Banners & Ravens

An alliance is founded for 25,000 gold or joined for nothing. Allies cannot raid or spy on each other, share in each other's blood debts, and if the warlord departs, the crown passes to the most renowned member. Ravens carry word between rulers — demand tribute, broker peace, or gloat.

The Banner-Holders

150 kingdoms of the realm answer to no player — from militias any fresh ruler can plunder to fortresses no newcomer should touch. They drill, they forge, and the great hosts among them march on players of standing. Fledgling kingdoms are beneath their notice; renown draws their gaze. Their treasuries refill between raids, and when the age turns they rise again at full strength.