I cast rezzurection, not to be a douche, but because it sounds like a neat idea.
Well, I would recommend reading over the previous posts unless u are quite familiar with them. Now, I will say the rest of my post in the spirit of the thread, jumping right into a suggestion.
- I think their should be a commander slot, and a religious commander slot. And, agnostic civs, like the Grigori, would have 2 slots for military commanders.
- The Illians I think should still have the Religious commander slot, instead of a second military one, being the Three winter priests as switchable Relig commanders. Agantios, Rurios, and Dumanios.
Another option would simply be for the Illians to have three commander slots at all times, but only allow these commanders. THis would leave the Illians to be uncustomizable, but allow all three priests at a time, while having them be a commander, and maintain the Static feel of the Ice Sphere. Also, they would only gain this "commander" power upon re-establishment of the White Hand (the ritual that spawns the priests) instead of starting off with one and being able to gain a hero later.
Also, if each religious hero is connected as a religious commander, most likely a nation could only field one religious hero at a time.
Well, I suppose if having 3 commanders for the Illians is too much power if everyone else just gets a possible 2 ... you could make the third slot for other civs be the "trophy" commander, like Orthus, Barbatos, Acheron, ect. OR a domestic or economic "administrator" instead of a troop commander, Which would make the Illians the only nation with three -unit- subcommanders, while every one else has max of 2 unit commanders.
On the other hand, if you went with the trophy slot option, some commanders should probably not represent themselves. Ie Acheron. I would suggest a half-dragon Dragon disciple, that comes with a building in your capital called dragon shrine, which allows such shrine to be build in other cities, which enables the building of specialized orcish Dragon cult units. Or even just specialized units of your race that can upgrade to half dragons at tier 4. Each special unit would probably have a limit of one or two here, and I understand I am getting out of hand perhaps.
I think another Idea to implement the Acheron commander is by having a 4 limit on the Half Dragon disciples (which can fly and breath fire, I would imagine) only buildable by dragon hoard. And having Acheron as a trophy commander places the Dragon Hoard in your Capital. If this version has cult of the dragon initialised, the Hoard should probably have a high chance of giving any unit the cult of the dragon promo or religion.
In any event, Dragon disciples are generally arcane casters that gain physical attributes of the Dragon in order to become less vulnerable, perhaps even a tank caster, although their are probably easier ways to be tank casters, but these people are obsessed with dragons, or have some draconic blood already, ectetera (eventually becoming half dragon at the later stages). So I would imagine them starting with (hopefully the Dragon promotoin), but if not, then at least Earth II and Fire II, and maybe Air II just to represent their magical nature. Stone skin is definitley a must have, and all half dragon disciples have some fire breathing abilities. Nothing too powerful in ways of strength, but definitely stronger than archmages ... (well, I think there should be two phases) the first phase is stronger than mages, and only Fire II (unstead of meteor from dragon) and the second phase is stronger than an archmage with dragon race and flying. Both would get stoneskin and earth II of course, as well as arcane unitclass and channeling I and II, with the second phase getting channeling III as well. Honestly I see the second phase should be unlocked by Theology, to represent the religious (maybe obsessive?) nature of the cult, even though they are actually arcane casters. In any event, Theology feels more true for these cult leaders, as opposed to strength of will. It also gives intersting strategies to someone that focuses on a religious path with the Dragon subcommander.
Im not sure why Acheron would follow a mortal, but same goes with Orthus and Barbatos, and they are "trophies" after all. Maybe an option to dissallow trophy commanders
But expanding on that thought, it would be nice to see a dragon lead an empire, and not the Kuriotate kind, but more of an Obsessive, Megalomaniac, Charismatic cult leader kind of like Khad, but a dragon, probably Chromatic dragon, green or red. A dragon that wants power and highly enjoys having followers, in addition to being charismatic and headstrong. Probably a character that might not really *want* to bring back the gods war, but has a strong habit of bending and breaking as many rules as possible, in order to make erebus is own personal playground. I would guess he would have a gladitorial type building for Pit fights, similar to the Balseraph arena. Only these are usually more pride oriented battles between followers of the cult, putting on a life or death display for their Draconic leader. It may bet too similar to the Doviello duel system, but I think it must require the Arena/ Pit fight building in the city, and be a fight between two units with Cult of the Dragon religion. Probably give a small (or large) bonus to the winner. Probably depending on how good the leader is, But I digress, I beilieve I have gotten far off topic already and may or may not be wasting your time at the moment. However, suffice it to say that I definitly like dragons, and would like to find some way for just a couple more of them to enter erebus.