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The Icon LifeLife Realm is one of the six magical Realms in Master of Magic. This realm focuses primarily on improving a wizard's assets - both units and cities - making them stronger and/or repairing damage done to them.

The Life Realm provides a wide array of Enchantments for improving units and cities, but has far fewer Instant Spells and Combat Instants. Other than the Icon ArcaneArcane Realm, it has the smallest variety of Summoning Spells in the game; Instead, the Life Realm is intended for use with large armies of Normal Units, which must be augmented by this realm's spells and lead by the few powerful support units that Life does provide, making such armies far stronger than usual. The Life Realm is strongly opposed to the Icon DeathDeath Realm, and may be either particularly effective against it or particularly vulnerable to it, depending on the circumstances.

The Life Realm is associated with the color white, and the concepts of devotion, strength, protection, and healing. It is marked with the Icon LifeWhite Ankh symbol, both in-game and on this wiki. The familiar associated with the Life Realm is the dove that appears at the top of this page.

Overview[]

The Icon LifeLife Realm is the premier support color for Cities, Normal Units, and Heroes. There is much room for discussion over which Race serves a particular Realm best, but when one asks which Realm serves a Race best, the answer is always Icon LifeLife.

Life realm Enchantments inspire units with heightened abilities and control travel between Arcanus and Myrror. They make particularly deft use of the game's Icon MultiFigureUnit Multi-Figure and Icon Experience Experience mechanics. On the domestic side there are enchantments to raise revenues, production, and growth, and eliminate unrest. There are some Instant Spells to heal the injured and revive the fallen.

Summoned creatures from this realm are not cost-effective at all as primary troops; instead, individual creatures are meant to accompany an army and augment its abilities through their presence. The ultimate hero, Torin, is available through this realm and can either continue in this role or serve as a One-Man Army. In general, white is extremely strong in human hands thanks to its ability to produce great quality in the absence of quantity.

Life also offers some direct counters to Icon DeathDeath and Icon ChaosChaos magic. This color is so strongly antithetical to Icon DeathDeath in particular that wizards are barred from owning Spellbooks of both types.

Description[]

Master of Magic's in-game documentation alludes in some measure to the existence of a Life Realm, and there are grounds for suspecting that good deities, or perhaps a monad of awesome strength, exist in the backstory and are now starting to make moves in Arcanus and Myrror. The planar landscape is probably suspended in astral space above and between the two worlds, taking the form of a sovereign utopia— civilized, erudite, and gorgeous.

While this plane cannot be entered and explored, it is the source of all Icon LifeWhite Magic channeled by spellcasters, and the home of all Fantastic creatures of life. These creatures answer to prayers and may form pacts of allegiance with honorable spellcasters. If slain, discharged, or otherwise unable to maintain a link to the earthly realms, they return to the Life Realm revived to full power.

Magic can be channeled directly from this realm in the form of light rays and divine energy. The Life Realm is tied as well to the revelation of truth, and is likely the source of intelligent mortals' "will to power." Aware of the potential in harnessing this school of magic for glory and civilization, priests and magic-users from among the advanced races study the Life Realm carefully.

Advisor Life
Familiar
A wizard with mainly Life spellbooks will take a Dove as a familiar. Doves are believed to serve as vessels for certain holy transformations. They have a history of usage in communion rites and augury, and to this day, they symbolize peace, romance, and even martyrdom.

Realm Details[]

White has 10 spells per degree of Spell Rarity, totaling 40 spells with a cumulative research cost of Icon Research 59,950. Each member holds a discrete cost increment along the spectrum between Icon Research 20 (Bless) and Icon Research 6,000 (Charm of Life).

White magic is heavy, almost to the point of exclusion, on instant and sustained spell effects targeting friendlies.

List of Life Spells[]

Name Rarity Type Target Overland
Cost
Combat
Cost
Upkeep
Icon Research
Altar of Battle ­Rare Town Enchantment Friendly city ­300 -- 5 ­­1300
Angel ­Rare Summoning Spell ­-- ­550 -- ­15 ­­1400
Arch Angel ­­Very Rare Summoning Spell ­-- ­950 -- ­20 ­­5000
Astral Gate ­­Very Rare Town Enchantment Friendly city ­350 -- 5 ­­2250
Bless Common Unit Enchantment Friendly unit 25 5 1 20
Charm of Life ­­Very Rare Global Enchantment ­-- ­­1250 -- ­10 ­­6000  
Consecration ­­Very Rare Town Enchantment Friendly city ­400 -- 8 ­­3000
Crusade ­­Very Rare Global Enchantment ­-- ­­1100 -- ­10 ­­4500
Dispel Evil Uncommon   Combat Instant Enemy unit -- ­25 -- ­450
Endurance Common Unit Enchantment Friendly unit 30 -- 1 60
Guardian Spirit   Common Summoning Spell ­-- 80 -- 1 ­220
Healing Common Combat Instant Friendly unit -- ­15 -- ­100
Heavenly Light Uncommon Town Enchantment Friendly city ­150 -- 2 ­740
Heroism Common Unit Enchantment Friendly normal unit   ­100 ­20 2 ­250
High Prayer ­­Very Rare Combat Enchantment   ­-- -- ­60 -- ­­1850
Holy Armor Common Unit Enchantment Friendly normal unit 90 ­18 2 ­130
Holy Arms ­­Very Rare Global Enchantment ­-- ­900 -- ­10 ­­2500
Holy Weapon Common Unit Enchantment Friendly normal unit 50 ­10 1 80
Holy Word ­Rare Combat Instant ­-- -- ­60 -- ­­1700
Incarnation ­Rare Summoning Spell ­-- ­500 -- -- ­960
Inspirations ­­Very Rare Town Enchantment Friendly city ­350 -- 2 ­­2000
Invulnerability ­Rare Unit Enchantment Friendly unit ­200 ­40 5 ­­1040
Just Cause Common Global Enchantment ­-- ­150 -- 3 ­160
Life Force ­­Very Rare Global Enchantment ­-- ­­1000 -- ­10 ­­3500
Lionheart ­Rare Unit Enchantment Friendly unit ­200 ­40 4 ­880
Mass Healing ­Rare Combat Instant ­-- -- ­50 -- ­­1600
Planar Seal Uncommon Global Enchantment ­-- ­500 -- 5 ­500
Planar Travel Uncommon Unit Enchantment Friendly unit ­150 -- 5 ­680
Plane Shift Uncommon Instant Spell Map square ­125 -- -- ­350
Prayer Uncommon Combat Enchantment ­-- -- ­30 -- ­800
Prosperity ­Rare Town Enchantment Friendly city ­250 -- 2 ­­1200
Raise Dead Uncommon Combat Instant Dead normal unit -- ­35 -- ­620
Resurrection Uncommon Instant Spell Dead hero ­250 -- -- ­400
Righteousness ­Rare Unit Enchantment Friendly unit ­200 ­40 2 ­­1120
Star Fires Common Combat Instant Enemy unit -- 5 -- 40
Stream of Life ­Rare Town Enchantment Friendly city ­300 -- 8 ­­1500
Tranquility ­­Very Rare Global Enchantment ­-- ­­1000 -- ­10 ­­4000
True Light Common Combat Enchantment ­-- -- ­20 -- ­190
True Sight Uncommon Unit Enchantment Friendly unit ­100 ­20 2 ­300
Unicorns Uncommon Summoning Spell ­-- ­250 -- 5 ­560

Rival Wizards[]

Main article: Wizard

When the world is generated, computer-controlled wizards each make a lottery-ball style roll for Personality and Objective. These traits modify the wizard's behavior, giving them some hard-to-resist compulsions and adding flavor to the match. If the wizard's shelf is stocked primarily with Icon LifeLife Spellbooks, this realm will convey influence on the rolls. In cases where spellbook ranks are tied, and the game needs to decide which realm conveys influence, precedence descends in this order:

Icon Nature Icon Sorcery Icon Chaos Icon Life Icon Death

Therefore, a default split-profile wizard like Horus (Icon Life5 Icon Sorcery5) will take a personality and objective corresponding to probabilities dictated by his sorcery ranks, not his life ones.

Dominant Life ranks drive the wizard towards a Personality of "Peaceful" and an Objective of "Perfectionist" (but do not by any means guarantee these traits). The table below shows the chances each character trait has of appearing on a Life wizard, before accounting for the influence of Retorts.

    Icon Book Life     Personality Objective
Peaceful 50% Perfectionist 40%
Lawful 20% Theurgist 30%
Aggressive 20% Militarist 20%
Ruthless 10% Expansionist 10%
Chaotic --
Maniacal --
Peaceful
On the diplomatic scale of 100 to -100, a "Peaceful" wizard has a +20 Core Reaction to all of the other wizards, including the human player, and the chance this wizard will elect to perform hostile actions (overland spells and armed assaults) is reduced by 20 percentage points. As all diplomatic standings gravitate towards the core reaction at a speed of 1 point per turn, it is therefore easier to maintain a quiet, if not friendly, front with this marshmallow of a wizard.
Perfectionist
A "Perfectionist" wizard has double the chance of initiating construction of a Town Building, and a correspondingly reduced chance of commencing work on a new unit. The wizard is also dedicated to throwing positive enchantments on his cities, when these are available.

White wizards can usually be left alone in favor of more threatening opponents. While they will be very strong if allowed to prosper quietly, this realm does not give them any tools for nuking their enemies with crippling magic.

White Diplomacy Modifiers[]

Rival wizards make the following initial adjustments to their Core Reaction to a white wizard (human or otherwise):

  • +2 per Icon LifeLife Spellbook owned by either side
  • +2 extra per Icon LifeLife Spellbook shared in common with the rival
  • or if the rival is Icon DeathDeath, −5 times the sum of Icon LifeLife and Icon DeathDeath ranks held in total.  

Example interactions:

Example 1: Ariel and Horus have a mutual Core Reaction adjustment of +40 (Icon Life15 owned by either side, with Icon Life5 held in common)
Example 2: Ariel and Jafar have a mutual Core Reaction adjustment of +20 (Icon Life10 owned by either side)
Example 3: Ariel and Rjak have a mutual Core Reaction adjustment of -95 (Icon Life10 & Icon Death9)

Note: Core Reaction can't fall below -90 after all factors are taken in. So the real adjustment between Ariel and Rjak is -90 in the last example.

Fantastic Units[]

The Icon LifeLife Realm has only four native Fantastic Creature types, and a corresponding overland Summoning Spell for each degree of rarity. These units have increasingly-huge support capabilities and maintenance costs. They are a bit expensive to cast and maintain en masse. One Hero is also considered a fantastic unit of the Life Realm for most purposes, and is available through his own Rare summoning spell.

The Guardian Spirit plays a more extensive role than the higher units in this realm. While a Magic Spirit may be cheaper, the Guardian is ideal for melding any Node that might come to be within a rival's reach. It can be taken as a starting spell in a variety of wizard builds, and makes a formidable combatant in the early stages of the game.

The Unicorns, Angel, and Arch Angel are support-and-strike units, but the last two may be preempted by Incarnation, which is not only cheaper to research and cast, but also creates the mightiest unit in the entire game. ­Still, nothing is keeping you from backing up Torin with an Arch Angel.

Fantastic Creatures of Icon LifeLife
Icon Name Icon Research C U Icon MultiFigureUnit Moves Icon Melee Normal Icon Ranged Bow Icon Defense Icon Resist Icon Hits Icon ToHit
Unit Icon GuardianSpirit Transparent Guardian Spirit Icon Research 220 Icon Mana 80 Icon Mana 1 Icon SingleFigureUnit 1 Icon Movement Water1 Icon Melee Normal 10 Icon Defense 4 Icon Resist 10 Icon Hits 10
Resistance to All 1, Non-Corporeal, Meld
Unit Icon Unicorns Transparent Unicorns Icon Research 560 Icon Mana 250 Icon Mana 5 Icon MultiFigureUnit 4 Icon Movement Ground2 Icon Melee Normal 5 Icon Defense 3 Icon Resist 7 Icon Hits 6 Icon ToHit +20%
Teleporting, Poison Immunity, Resistance to All 2
Unit Icon Angel Transparent Angel Icon Research 1,400 Icon Mana 550 Icon Mana 15 Icon SingleFigureUnit 1 Icon Movement Air3 Icon Melee Normal 13 Icon Defense 7 Icon Resist 8 Icon Hits 15 Icon ToHit +20%
Illusion Immunity, Holy Bonus 1, Dispel Evil
Unit Icon Archangel Transparent Arch Angel Icon Research 5,000 Icon Mana 950 Icon Mana 20 Icon SingleFigureUnit 1 Icon Movement Air4 Icon Melee Normal 15 Icon Defense 10 Icon Resist 12 Icon Hits 18 Icon ToHit +30%
Illusion Immunity, Caster 40 MP, Holy Bonus 2

Good Champions[]

Having at least one Life spellbook marks the wizard as sufficiently virtuous to attract the attention of the following high-grade Champions, either as random petitioners when he qualifies, or by summoning.

Hero Prerequisites Or Spell:
Hero Elana Elana the Priestess     Icon Fame 40   Icon Gold 500 Summon Champion  
Hero Roland Roland the Paladin Icon Fame 40   Icon Gold 500 Summon Champion
Hero Torin Torin the Chosen never Incarnation

Item Crafting[]

Ranks in this color unlock the following spell-like effects that may be employed in Item Crafting, to augment heroes' gear. Spell knowledge allows combat spells to be Charged into an item.

Ranks Item Powers Unlocked
Icon Life2 Bless
Endurance
Icon Life3 Holy Avenger
Icon Life4 Righteousness  
Icon Life5 Planar Travel
Invulnerability
Icon Life6 True Sight
Lion Heart
Icon LifeSpell Charges
Common Uncommon Rare Very Rare
Bless True Sight Lionheart Mass Healing
Star Fires Dispel Evil Invulnerability Holy Word
Holy Weapon Raise Dead Righteousness High Prayer
Healing Prayer
Holy Armor
True Light
Heroism

White Encounter Zones[]

By the odds, life creatures are the least common Fantastic Units to be encountered. The world generator has a chance of spawning a garrison of life units in the following Zones:

TerrainSpecial AncientTemple TerrainSpecial FallenTemple TerrainSpecial Ruins TerrainSpecial Tower
Ancient Temple Fallen Temple Ruins Tower of Wizardry
25% 25% 25% 16.7%
Encounter AncientTemple Dialog Life

Every lair makes a procedural selection of guardians through what is essentially a Icon Mana Mana budget, when it can afford guardians. Typically there will be one or more high-end units of the lair's Realm (this is the creature sighted by scouts who peek into the lair), attended by a lesser unit type. The Ancient Temple, Fallen Temple, and Ruins will harbor Icon DeathDeath creatures most of the time. The Tower can have anything; the world generator always places six towers, so about two-thirds of the time, a map is going to have at least one tower populated with creatures of Icon LifeLife.

Note that a white encounter zone never ejects Rampaging Monsters. The idea of a horde of angels and unicorns attacking a village and cutting down every last soul in the place is, perhaps, an awkward interpretation of this realm's ideology. Any other unconquered lair on the map is a candidate for hosting this periodic event.

Related Treasure[]

Items Unlocked
Icon LifeLife Spellbook ranks are needed to unlock no less than 103 of the 250 pre-fab items in the game. A full list of these, with their prerequisites, is located in this section of the main treasure article.
Most pre-fab Magical Items demand the seeker possess certain spellbook ranks in order to show up in Treasure. The spell-like effects that appear on these items, such as those listed in the Item Crafting section, are the cause for these requirements. However, the spellbooks required do not necessarily match the effect. For example, the "Chaotic Staff of Fire", apparently on account of having the powerful red enchantment Chaos, requires Icon Life6 Ranks. We have to suppose that these mechanics are unintentional, because life ranks are needed for such an inordinate number of high-quality pieces of gear.
Finding Life Spellbooks
Any spellbooks found in the Ancient Temples and Fallen Temples described in the section above will always be Life. Spellbooks found in Towers, Mysterious Caves, and Monster Lairs have a 20 percent chance of being Life. It does not matter what realm of creatures actually inhabits the location and guards the books.

Related Wizard Skills[]

Divine Power[]

Divine Power requires Icon Life4 ranks in Life magic and costs 2 picks. It increases the power and the pacifying effects obtained from Shrines, Temples, Parthenons, and Cathedrals by 50%. While it is redundant with Stream of Life, and lacks the synergy of Icon DeathDark Rituals with Infernal Power, an economy driven by Life magic enables these expensive buildings to be constructed in a hurry.

Infernal Power may be found by Life wizards and yields exactly the same effect as Divine Power. The two retorts together do not exhibit cumulative effects.

Warlord[]

Warlord has no prerequisites and costs 2 picks. It lowers Icon Experience Exp requirements, effectively raising the level of all units under the wizard's control by one, and unlocks higher levels for Normal Units. This is the ideal realm for this retort, most notably on account of the Heroism and Crusade spells. Through a Warlord, the former can be used to promote units to Icon ExpLevel 4 Ultra-Elite in the very beginning of the game, while the latter unlocks the Icon ExpLevel 5 Champion level when cast. The retort also has synergy with Altar of Battle and the general emphasis Life places on Normal Units and the Cities producing and backing them up.

Alchemy[]

Alchemy has no prerequisites and costs 1 pick. It allows Icon Gold Gold and Icon Mana Mana to be converted at a one-to-one ratio, and equips all units built in cities with Icon Melee Magic Magical Weapons. Both benefits should appeal to Life wizards; the first because they can roll their strong tax revenues over into mana, and the second because they are likely to be building Normal Units early on.

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