There are 14 Races available in Master of Magic. Nine of those races are found on the plane of Arcanus, and the other five are found on the plane of Myrror.
Towns are populated by a single race, and that race determines its food and production, its available buildings, the standard and racial units it can create, and other race-specific attributes. When starting a game each wizard selects a race to populate that wizard's starting town. Only wizards who select the Myrran Retort may select a Myrran race. Neutral towns in Arcanus are populated by Arcanian races, and neutral Myrran towns are populated by Myrran races.
Background on Races[]
This section aims to summarize the strategic context of each race. They are covered in greater depth on their respective pages.
Barbarians[]
- Barbarians are a low-tech expansionist race native to Arcanus. Their troops use Thrown weapons when making attacks, and their townsfolk seem to mate and multiply faster than any other race, making Barbarians a good choice for expanding the tax base through conventional warfare and settlement. They get along with Nomads and Orcs, and strangely, they seem to be on better terms with Dark Elves than anyone else.
Beastmen[]
- Beastmen are an expansive and versatile Myrran race. They are the fastest-growing race both among Myrrans and among those races which generate raw power within the population. Beastmen also field relatively cheap and diverse units. They lack the specialized talents seen among the other residents of this plane, but they are excellent at complimenting them, doing and building whatever things the other(s) cannot.
Dark Elves[]
- Dark Elves are a powerful, magically-gifted Myrran race. Dark Elf townsfolk make other magical beings look like amateurs, generating a full power point each. Their troops can make ranged magical attacks, with higher-tier units boasting a great variety of powers and defenses. Dark Elves grow very slowly and will need to build a lot of town structures to reach their full potential. They are the most hostile race, and particularly despise Dwarves, Trolls, and High Elves.
Draconians[]
- Draconians are a magical flying Myrran race. They are an ideal choice for small landmass games begun on Myrror. With their fiery breath attacks from above, airborne Draconian troops may have high initiative or stalling-power, depending on your needs. Their cities can be nurtured to produce great amounts of raw power and wealth, which is a feature they share in common with Beastmen. Draconians are poorly-disposed towards all other races.
Dwarves[]
- Dwarves are a rich and powerful Myrran race. By virtue of their tax revenues, mining, production, and advanced road construction techniques, the Dwarves are the game's premier economic race from start to finish. Spread the Dwarven race far and wide, and they will earn the wizard an immense treasury and rapidly advance the game. The Dwarf military consists of heavy infantry, rounded-out with cannons and golems in later stages. Dwarves are friendly towards High Men, Nomads, and Halflings, while detesting elves and non-humans.
Gnolls[]
- Gnolls are a low-tech military race native to Arcanus. Their regulars are the strongest units of their type on this plane. Using this race may be difficult and confining; with severely limited end-stage economic and military potential, the Gnolls commit the wizard to a strategy of early conquest. Conquered neutrals and plunder from lairs will decide the empire's growth and direction. Fortunately the Gnolls have rather easy race relations. They are most compatible with Beastmen, Halflings, Orcs, and Trolls.
Halflings[]
- Halflings are a friendly agrarian race native to Arcanus. Their inherent Lucky trait and high unit figure count makes the Halfling military— and especially their Slingers— unexpectedly powerful. At home, Halflings are more skilled at farming than any other race, giving them a relatively strong economy from the very beginning. Halflings also get along with pretty much anyone, only having trouble with usual recalcitrants such as Klackons and Dark Elves. Altogether, these features make them an absolutely meta starting race. It is not unheard-of to start with Halflings on Myrror.
High Elves[]
- High Elves are an advanced magical race native to Arcanus; in fact, they are the only magical race found on this plane. The elves are often useful in a bid to maximize early spell-casting power, as even just two or three extra power points will speed up spellcasting in the opening turns. The High Elves are otherwise a slow-growing race very reliant on infrastructure. Their military units are somewhat fragile for their expense, and their race relations are discordant. High Elves are allied with the Halflings, High Men, and Nomads and distrust everyone else.
High Men[]
- High Men are an advanced military race native to Arcanus. This race seems purely average or even weak, but if the High Men can hold on, their Paladins are immensely powerful units that lie conveniently at the end of a town's religious development path. High Men are popular both as a starting race and as a target of conquest. They get along best with Dwarves, Halflings, High Elves, Nomads, and Orcs, with easy relations all around.
Klackons[]
- The Klackons are an expansive industrial race native to Arcanus. They have a strong edge in morale, finances, and production when the Fortress city is Klackon, and are nearly useless when it is not. All of their build options are tailored to settlement, integration, and defense of Klackon holdings. Generally, players will want the entire world to either be covered with them or completely rid of them, and games involving a Klackon wizard or multiple Klackon rivals might proceed with unusual violence and genocide.
Lizardmen[]
- Lizardmen are a primitive military race native to Arcanus. They have virtually no urban development potential. The Lizardmen propose to circumvent this matter with their cheap, tough, amphibious units, rapid population growth, and one might argue, the savings from all the foregone infrastructure. They are an ideal choice for small landmass games begun on Arcanus. Lizardmen will rely on conventional warfare and settlement to expand their tax base and hopefully bring in some more advanced races. They have tensions in some degree with all of the other races except for Halflings.
Nomads[]
- Nomads are an advanced mercantile race native to Arcanus. The Nomad military is noted for its high mobility and emphasis on ranged combat, if not much else. Like many others with high potential, the Nomads are unremarkable early on and will require patient development; for instance, their +50% Road/River/Ocean Gold only applies in-full to a size 17 city or greater. Members of this race are well-received almost everywhere and rank just behind Halflings in relations.
Orcs[]
- Orcs are an advanced utilitarian race native to Arcanus. They might be considered the least remarkable race in both realms; arguably, the Orcs are strictly weaker than High Men since they field weaker units at most stages. Encountering them overland is usually preferable to starting the game with them. Orcs can build whatever an empire needs, for they have no building restrictions, and their units come at bargain rates. Orcs have problems with Dwarves, Klackons, and both types of Elves, but their diplomatic situation is otherwise in good shape.
Trolls[]
- Trolls are a low-tech warmongering Myrran race. They exist for no other purpose than to build troops and win battles. Trolls have overwhelming combat stat boosts and regenerative powers, and are bottom-ranked on domestic growth. Their shoddy Myrran relations may prevent the Fortress from bending captured towns fully to its needs, but it is not impossible; furthermore, there is plunder from lairs that Trolls can obtain long, long before any other race. As with the militaristic Arcanians, the Troll wizard should concentrate fully on conventional army build-up.
Economic Summary[]
- Powerhouse Economies - Dark Elves, Dwarves
- These two races represent the most effective use of land for generating magical power and raw wealth respectively. They do not get along. Dark Elves are essentially a superior Advanced Economy, Dwarves are a superior Rush Economy.
- Advanced Economies - Beastmen, Draconians, High Elves, High Men, Nomads, Orcs
- Advanced races, with very high end-game potential that requires costly infrastructure.
- Rush Economies - Barbarians, Halflings, Klackons
- Races with frontloaded economic advantages and lower end-game potential.
- Depressed Economies - Gnolls, Lizardmen, Trolls
- These races should generally avoid creating new outposts if possible. One strong city will enable access to their superb units, dodging arduous and redundant town building projects under their economic handicaps.
Magical Power Summary[]
The table below ranks the races by how much they contribute to the controlling wizard's Power Base. The table considers cities at maximum population with all Power and Research Town Buildings available to the race. Additional columns represent the cases where the wizard has either a Retort of Divine or Infernal Power (these are interchangeable but do not stack) and where the black enchantment Dark Rituals is active. These assets exhibit multiplicative effects with one another.
The buildings that contribute power are the Shrine, Temple, Parthenon, Cathedral, and Alchemists' Guild. The research buildings are the Library, Sages' Guild, University, and Wizards' Guild. The Wizards' Guild's availability is noted, but its contribution is not shown in this table because the building eats power.
Race | Size 25 | Retort | Ritual | Both | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Klackons | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
Lizardmen | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | ||
Gnolls | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 9 | ||
Dwarves | 6 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 12 | ||
Barbarians | 9 | 5 | 11 | 15 | 21 | ||
Trolls | 10 | 2 | 15 | 20 | 30 | ||
Halflings | 13 | 5 | 18 | 23 | 33 | ||
Nomads | 13 | 10 | 18 | 23 | 33 | ||
High Men | 13 | 10 | 18 | 23 | 33 | ||
Orcs | 13 | 10 | 18 | 23 | 33 | ||
High Elves | 18 | 10 | 19 | 21 | 24 | ||
Beastmen | 25 | 10 | 30 | 35 | 45 | ||
Draconians | 25 | 10 | 30 | 35 | 45 | ||
Dark Elves | 34 | 10 | 37 | 40 | 46 |
Citizens, Units, and Buildings[]
The following sections aim to highlight distinctions among the Races on plainer statistical terms. Races have varying degrees of technology, Worker and Farmer productivity, population growth, ability to get along with other races, and of course, military capabilities.
Units[]
- Main article: Normal Units
The military table shows attribute information for each individual Figure of a unit produced by that race, as it differs from the baseline for archetypal units of that sort. Many races have Unit Abilities above and beyond the archetypes, as well. They can also cost a lot more Hammers to create.
- For example, an Orc Swordsmen unit defaults to 6 Figures and completely normal Swordsmen stats. A Troll Swordsmen, on the other hand, gets only 4 Figures, but each figure is far mightier, enjoying +2, +3, +3 and the unit's Regeneration ability. The Troll unit costs 60, compared to the Orc unit's 20.
In combat, the Figure mechanics and unit abilities have pretty serious consequences. 60 hammers' worth of Orc Swordsmen might be able to kill a Troll Swordsmen if they swarm it and take it down fast. If the human player controls the Troll and employs proper hit-and-fade tactics for a couple turns of Regeneration, though, this chance vanishes.
Arcanian Races - Military | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Race | Attributes | Abilities | Cost | Racial Units |
Barbarians | +1 | x1.5 | ||
Gnolls | +2 | |||
Halflings | -1 +2 | x1.5 | ||
High Elves | +10% +2 | x1.5 | ||
High Men | ||||
Klackons | +2 +1 | x2 | ||
Lizardmen | +1 x2 | |||
Nomads | ||||
Orcs | ||||
Myrran Races - Military | ||||
Race | Attributes | Abilities | Cost | Racial Units |
Beastmen | +1 +1 x2 | x2 | ||
Dark Elves | +3 | x2.5 | ||
Draconians | +1 +2 | x2.5 | ||
Dwarves | +4 x3 | x2.5 | ||
Trolls | +2 +3 x4 4 | x3 |
The table below shows what archetypal units are available to each race. Most of these units have their Figure stats adjusted, and racial Unit Abilities added, as per the chart above. There are exceptions, including the "universal" units like Triremes.
Normal Unit Archetypes | Races | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unit | Class | |||||||||||||||
Spearmen | Light infantry | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||
Swordsmen | Light infantry | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |
Halberdiers | Medium infantry | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||
Pikemen | Heavy infantry | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||||
Cavalry | Mounted | ■ | □ | ■ | ■ | □ | ■ | □ | ■ | |||||||
Bowmen | Ranged missile | ■ | ■ | ■ | □ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||
Shamans | Light support | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||
Priests | Medium support | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
Magicians | Ranged magical | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | □ | ■ | |||||||||
Engineers | Roads & siege | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||
Settlers | Outposts | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |
Universal Normal Units | ||||||||||||||||
Unit | Class | |||||||||||||||
Trireme | Light cargo ship | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||
Galley | Medium cargo ship | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||
Warship | Heavy gunship | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||
Catapult | Ranged & siege | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ |
A hollow point □ indicates the existence of a racial unit with identical building requirements but points of distinction from the archetype. A colored point indicates that the unit for the race does not obey the rules above in at least one way:
■ for the better, ■ for the worse, ■ slightly for the worse, ■ discount but no Thrown or Fire Breath.
Citizens[]
Domestically, some races have large building trees while others have higher productivity to begin with, or stronger units, meaning that they will shift in prominence as a game advances. For instance, Lizardmen have strong, early-rising units, heightened population growth, and very poor late-game potential. High Men are in a weak position, on the other hand, until they get Paladins and their suite of high-end Town Buildings.
Arcanian Races - Domestic | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race | Growth | Farmers | Workers | Rebels | Notes | |||
Barbarians | +20 | 2 ½ | 2 | |||||
Gnolls | -10 | 2 ½ | 2 | |||||
Halflings | 3 ½ | 2 | ||||||
High Elves | -20 | 2 ½ ½ | 2 ½ | ½ | ||||
High Men | 2 ½ | 2 | ||||||
Klackons | -10 | 2 ½ | 3 | -20% Rebels under Klack govt | ||||
Lizardmen | +10 | 2 ½ | 2 | |||||
Nomads | -10 | 2 ½ | 2 | +50% Trade | ||||
Orcs | 2 ½ | 2 | ||||||
Myrran Races - Domestic | ||||||||
Race | Growth | Farmers | Workers | Rebels | Notes | |||
Beastmen | 2 ½ ½ | 2 ½ | ½ | |||||
Dark Elves | -20 | 2 ½ 1 | 2 1 | 1 | ||||
Draconians | -10 | 2 ½ ½ | 2 ½ | ½ | ||||
Dwarves | -20 | 2 ½ | 3 | Doubled Minerals and Tax | ||||
Trolls | -20 | 2 ½ | 2 |
The numbers above are the initial potential; in the theoretical case of a maximally upgraded city, actual production would be as follows:
Arcanian Races - Domestic | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race | Growth | Farmers | Workers | Rebels | Notes | |||
Barbarians | +20 | 2 1 | 4 | |||||
Gnolls | -10 | 2 1 | 4 | |||||
Halflings | 3 1 | 4 | ||||||
High Elves | -20 | 3 1¼ ½ | 5 ½ | ½ | ||||
High Men | 3 1¼ | 5 | ||||||
Klackons | -10 | 2 1 | 6 | -20% Rebels under Klack govt | ||||
Lizardmen | +10 | 2 ½ | 2 | |||||
Nomads | -10 | 3 1¼ | 5 | +50% Trade | ||||
Orcs | 3 1¼ | 5 | ||||||
Myrran Races - Domestic | ||||||||
Race | Growth | Farmers | Workers | Rebels | Notes | |||
Beastmen | 3 1¼ ½ | 5 ½ | ½ | |||||
Dark Elves | -20 | 3 1¼ 1 | 5 1 | 1 | ||||
Draconians | -10 | 3 1 ½ | 4 ½ | ½ | ||||
Dwarves | -20 | 2 1 | 6 | Doubled Minerals and Tax | ||||
Trolls | -20 | 3 ¾ | 3 |
Buildings[]
- Main article: Town Building
Town buildings can be likened to technology. Creatures like Gnolls, with scarce building options, are considered primitive. Other races are advanced in particular building paths and deficient in others, like the secular High Elves. Orcs are the most advanced race of all, but they have difficulty leveraging this with Normal Units.
Urban Tech by Race | |||||||||||||||
Infrastructure | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Builders' Hall | all | ||||||||||||||
Granary | |||||||||||||||
Farmers' Market | |||||||||||||||
City Walls | |||||||||||||||
Industry | |||||||||||||||
Sawmill | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||
Foresters' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||
Miners' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||
Mechanicians' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||
Commerce | |||||||||||||||
Smithy | all | ||||||||||||||
Marketplace | |||||||||||||||
Bank | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||
Merchants' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||
Military | |||||||||||||||
Barracks | all | ||||||||||||||
Armory | |||||||||||||||
Fighters' Guild | |||||||||||||||
Armorers' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||
War College | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||
Religious | |||||||||||||||
Shrine | all | ||||||||||||||
Temple | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||
Parthenon | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||
Cathedral | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||
Oracle | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||
Academic | |||||||||||||||
Library | all | ||||||||||||||
Sages' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||
Alchemists' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||
University | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||
Wizards' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||
Husbandry | |||||||||||||||
Stables | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||
Animists' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||
Fantastic Stable | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
Naval | |||||||||||||||
Shipwrights' Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||
Shipyard | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||
Maritime Guild | ■ | ■ | ■ |
Unrest & Relations[]
The town containing the Fortress has an important effect on all other towns in the same empire (including itself) - depending entirely on which Race populates this Fortress town and the other towns.
Relations between the various races is sometimes strained and uncomfortable. When an empire includes towns belonging to two or more races, race-relations can become an important factor in the efficiency of the entire empire. No race likes to be conquered or ordered around by another race, and especially if the dominating race is their mortal enemy.
For example, if the Fortress town belongs to the Klackon race, Unrest in each town in the same empire that is not populated by Klackons will increase by exactly 20% - i.e. turning 20% of the town's citizens into unproductive Rebels who only drain your resources. This is because every race hates the Klackons equally (relations are -20% between the Klackons and all other races), and no one seem to like being part of an empire that is controlled by these insectoids. On the other hand, while the Fortress is in a Klackon town, all Klackon towns in the empire receive an Unrest reduction of 20% - meaning they will have 20% fewer Rebels per citizen than normal (allowing for a higher Tax Rate without negative repercussions).
The Klackons are only the simplest example of this. Race relations are much more complex, with some races reacting more strongly to specific other races. For example, High Elves do not mind being part of an empire run by Halflings (i.e. they get +0% Unrest), but will vehemently oppose being part of an empire run by Dark Elves (+40% Unrest).
Note that relations are completely symmetrical. In the example above, High Elves will resent living under occupation by Dark Elves, but the same is true in reverse: a Dark Elf town in an empire run by High Elves will receive the same +40% Unrest penalty.
The chart below illustrates the various race relations, as of patch 1.2 to 1.31. The numbers indicate the change in a town's Unrest as a percentage of the town's total population. For example, a value of "+10%" means that 10% of a town's citizens will turn into Rebels - on top of whatever unrest is caused by the current Tax Rate.
Capital Race | BA | BE | DE | DR | DW | GN | HF | HE | HM | KL | LZ | NO | OC | TR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barbarians | -- | +10% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +20% | +10% | -- | -- | +10% |
Beastmen | +10% | -- | +20% | +20% | +20% | -- | +10% | +20% | +10% | +20% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +20% |
Dark Elves | +10% | +20% | -- | +20% | +30% | +20% | +20% | +40% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +30% |
Draconians | +10% | +20% | +20% | -- | +20% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +20% | +10% | +10% | +10% | +20% |
Dwarves | +10% | +20% | +30% | +20% | -- | +10% | -- | +30% | -- | +20% | +10% | -- | +30% | +40% |
Gnolls | +10% | -- | +20% | +10% | +10% | -- | -- | +10% | +10% | +20% | +10% | +10% | -- | -- |
Halflings | +10% | +10% | +20% | +10% | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | +20% | -- | -- | -- | -- |
High Elves | +10% | +20% | +40% | +10% | +30% | +10% | -- | -- | -- | +20% | +10% | -- | +20% | +30% |
High Men | +10% | +10% | +20% | +10% | -- | +10% | -- | -- | -- | +20% | +10% | -- | -- | +10% |
Klackons | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | -20% | +20% | +20% | +20% | +20% |
Lizardmen | +10% | +10% | +20% | +10% | +10% | +10% | -- | +10% | +10% | +20% | -- | +10% | +10% | +10% |
Nomads | -- | +10% | +20% | +10% | -- | +10% | -- | -- | -- | +20% | +10% | -- | -- | +10% |
Orcs | -- | +10% | +20% | +10% | +30% | -- | -- | +20% | -- | +20% | +10% | -- | -- | -- |
Trolls | +10% | +20% | +30% | +20% | +40% | -- | -- | +30% | +10% | +20% | +10% | +10% | -- | -- |
Note: This is the table that is used on other pages for reference.
Relations Overview[]
- Civilized Arcanians - Halflings, High Men, Nomads
- These races inspire trust. They are friendly with intractable creatures like High Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs, and create no more than 20% unrest for anyone under their banner.
- Marauding Arcanians - Barbarians, Gnolls, Lizardmen
- These militaristic races probably have a history of raiding their neighbors but do not have any mortal enemies. Trolls take their qualities and shortcomings to an extreme, and do have enemies.
- Myrrans - Dark Elves, Draconians, Beastmen, Dwarves, Trolls
- Tensions on Myrror are high, with all of these races having at least 20% mutual unrest.
- Xenophobes - Dark Elves, Draconians, Klackons
- These three races abhor those who are not of their own race, for various reasons.
- True Adversaries - Dark Elves, Dwarves, High Elves, Orcs, Trolls
- Most of these races hate each other. Overcoming the interracial unrest will be a headache.
- Odd Alliances
- Raiders: Barbarians—Nomads—Orcs
- Canine: Beastmen—Gnolls
- Naturalists: Halflings—Lizardmen
- Trollfriends: Halflings—Gnolls—Orcs—Trolls