That magical society we know as Amurite...

I read their Pedia entries and I really, really want to know more about them, and the Amurites in general. The things I am certain of is that most Amurite citizens have some level of aptitude for magic. Are the descendants of Kylorin, former ruler of the Patrian nation and the only human to slay a god. Are by and large only concerned with their own nation and welfare. And they are a magical bureaucracy.

Other than this, I've only got guesses and hints at things about the Amurites- What else is their to know about the Amurites?

They were just some random tribe formed in the Age of Ice from refugees from various nations with only one thing going for them: Eve (named Epona in that life) was reborn among them, and Kyorlin wanted to protect his wife at all costs. Not all Amurites are descended from Kyorlin, but a lot of them are as he took many, many wives. The best mages from other societies immigrated here to study under the masters, so not all of their magical aptitude comes from Kyorlin.


They have taken up a lot of the old ways of Patria. Dain was the first to pass the ancient tests to become the Cassawallen (strongest mage/head of the mage guilds and military), but he didn't have to defeat the old Cassawallen because there was none at the time. He is the most powerful wizard in Erebus (assuming Kyorlin isn't still around, and probably excluding Perpentach whom I suspect was a Cassawallen in the Age of Magic, as only Perpentach ever defeated Kyorlin in magical combat), but his mind wanders and he not a good administrator. He is generally a good natured and ethical man, but he was battle hardened in his youth and to have risen aven to be an archmage (which one must be to take the tests to become a cassawallen) he must be extremely pragmatic too. He is almost certainly a direct descendent of Kyorlin and Epona.


The Amurites are a Republic, but not really in the modern sense. It is dominated by the mage guilds, which form a non-hereditary aristocracy/senatorial caste that dominates society. The mage guilds recruit all small children who show magical potential, and require they cut all ties to friends and family. The families cansider this a great honor, but since it is illegal to track what family an adept comes from they will never see their children again, or know it if they do. The tasks that adepts must perform are more dangerous that those for mages and archmages, so a high percentage of them die before puberty.


I believe that they do elect their civilian government, but that these officials ether are elected to serve for life or have enough influence to prevent any rivals from being able to defeat them in any reelection. Valledia is a very shrewd politician who was elected Queen, and now subtly exercises more power than most despots. Valledia is not a powerful sorceress. She is below average for an Amurite (at least for the upper class), albeit probably still a pretty good mage by non-Amurite standards. I think that she came from a family of commoners and was not deemed gifted enough to be taken away from them. She is not an egotistical megalomaniac, but she is ruthless and wields great political power. She has no qualms about breaking the law for the good of her people. She illegally tracks the bloodlines, and she freed the convicted necromancer Samael in exchange for placing a horrible curse of Einion Logos's wife. His runes bound her soul in her flesh so she could not die and drove her mad so that she tried repeatedly attempted suicide and cursed her husband. It was made to look like a demonic act, so that the Elohim would not honor their treaty with the Infernals because she figured that her nation was the weakest and most likely next target for the Infernals. When her diviners showed that the Elohim would rejoin the war but not soon enough, she called for her people to welcome The Order.

I tend to think that Dain would favor the Empyrean, and Valedia the Council of Esus.

The magical aristocracy doesn't like Govannon since he teaches magic to those who have not passed their screening and indoctrination and could challenge their authority, but since he is as strong as any of them they can't do much about it. Valledia also realizing the benefits of having the whole army know magic, so she tacitly supports him. She likes that his teachings help keep the aristocracy too weak to oppose her. I suspect that he tries to devote himself to teaching the poor rather than the military, but that Valledia may get her most loyal military officers to pretend to be paupers around him so that he is boosting her power instead of actually helping the poor.

Wow. that explains an awful lot more than I was hoping for. Thank you very much MagisterCultuum.

I respectfully request that MC write a similar post for the other Civilizations.

I think I left of that Valledia is blackmailing practically everyone with any influence both in her empire and her rivals'.


I also should have mentioned that it is the duty of the Cassawallen to have a lot of children. Dain thus has dozens or even hundreds of concubines, chosen from the most talented female adepts and mages. (I imagine that men might seek the position more for the women than the power. I wonder if Dain might have been so awkward around the opposite sex or considered himself so ugly due to battle wounds that he found life threatening trials to attain the position less frightening than just asking women out on dates.) After getting them pregnant, he is unlikely to see these concubines again. Children born to such powerful parents tend to have more talent too, so most if not all of a Cassawallen's children would be raised by the mage guilds instead of by either parent.

There have been female Cassawallens too (albeit fewer), who are required to have sex with talented young men in order to get pregnant. A Cassawallen is required to accept any challenge or forfeit the position, even when 9 months pregnant. A female Cassawallen once gave birth at the very moment that she defeated her would be successor.

MagisterCultuum said:

She has no qualms about breaking the law for the good of her people. She illegally tracks the bloodlines, and she freed the convicted necromancer Samael in exchange for placing a horrible curse of Einion Logos's wife. His runes bound her soul in her flesh so she could not die and drove her mad so that she tried repeatedly attempted suicide and cursed her husband. It was made to look like a demonic act, so that the Elohim would not honor their treaty with the Infernals because she figured that her nation was the weakest and most likely next target for the Infernals.

Click to expand...

Where did you read this? I know Valledia's 'pedia entry mentions some of this, but I didn't think it was all that explicit about what was going on.

It isn't explicitly stated in the pedia, as Valledia is careful not to get caught. Her tracing the bloodlines is mostly speculation, but Kael seems to buy the rumors so it must be true. Kael likes his entries to allude to the story rather than tell it in full. You have to read a lot of entries and be good at reading between the lines to put everything together.


The part about Samael being responsible for the fate of Einion's wife is from the Trivia Game Thread. Kael asked who killed Einion's wife. I said Einion did, as he is the one who dispelled the rune keeping her alive. Kael said I was technically right, but that it wasn't the answer he was looking for. What Einion did was essentially take her off of life support so her suffering soul could find rest, so while he technically ended her life he is not the one responsible for her murder. (Technically, she gave the fatal wounds to herself, but she wouldn't have attempted suicide without the curse.) When someone guessed Valledia was involved, he revealed that Samael had done it on Valledia's orders. She never told anyone why she pardoned Samael, and few bothered to ask. Dain was outraged enough at the pardon as it was, and would never have let her get away with it if he had known. He is probably the only person in Amurite society safe enough from her machinations to dare try to overthrow her, but if he lead the charge her many political enemies would probably jump on the opportunity to get rid of her.


Kael has stated that he's scared of Valledia.

Wow. She's certainly accomplished something.

I think I can see what made both leaders earn their respective trait difference now, too.

That's quite something; I had no idea it tied in like that.

I think someone should try and gather the various lore tidbits from the threads in this sub-forum (i.e. the stuff that is canon but not present anywhere in the Civilopedia), and possibly some others. It would be very useful for those looking to add to it.

Incredibly interesting, Magister. Amurites has been one of the civs that interested me the least, but now that i know the story about their government i'm becoming more and more interesting.

Is the "Adepts are to be cut off from their families" an amurite-only rule, or is it like that in the other civs?

Amurite-only. Think of them as a giant university, whose only goal is to promote the best possible mages. They start training the kids as early as possible, as opposed to other nations, where becoming a mage is generally a choice.

Wow, that Valledia is a nasty piece of business, isn't she?

das said:

I think someone should try and gather the various lore tidbits from the threads in this sub-forum (i.e. the stuff that is canon but not present anywhere in the Civilopedia), and possibly some others. It would be very useful for those looking to add to it.

Click to expand...

Loocas did, let's hope he updates.

I also should have mentioned that it is the duty of the Cassawallen to have a lot of children. Dain thus has dozens or even hundreds of concubines, chosen from the most talented female adepts and mages.

Click to expand...

Dain's a pimp and a playa. It all makes sense to me now!

One thing I don't understand, and I may have read it wrong, but Tebryn Arbandi is said to have been a Amurite wizard in the age of magic? I didn't think the Amurites existed back then and I didn't think they were mages before the Age of Ice and Kylorin banging all their women.

Of course there were mages before the Age of Ice. Kyorlin and the 21 sorcerers he personally trained trained many mages. The age before the Age of Ice was called the Age of Magic, after all.

Edit: I obvious misread "they were" as "there were," completely changing the meaning. I should be asleep by now. You were tight of course, the Amurites were a tribe of refugees from Patria that had no particular magical ability before Kyorlin joined them. Well, I guess that isn't entirely true, as Eve/Epona had some magical talents as well.


According to the current lore, Amurites didn't exist back then. I think that Kael made some conflicting claims early on, in part because he was trying to take Tebyrn straight form his D&D campaign, which didn't really fit the chronology of FfH. References to the Amurites back then refer instead to Patria. The Amurites have picked up many of the old Patrian customs and like to think of themself as a continuation of this old empire, although the only think that makes them any closer to Patria than any other (human) civ is their descent from the Patrian Emperor. Ram was thus just one of the stronger of several wicked mages who ruled the corrupted Patria in the Age of Magic.

Yeah, the history of Tebryn is from a different campaign, now merged into the FfH cannon. For some time the first empire of men was known as the Amurites (so thats why Kylorin used the name again when he gathered the men during the age of ice).

But that was dropped and the first empire's name is Patria. The Amurites are a new empire formed during the age of ice.

Amurite society sounds fairly similar to Plato's Republic, although the Amurite's do have a bit more cool powers than the Guardians. I'm guessing that's intentional....