| Spell of Return | ||
|---|---|---|
| Realm |
 Arcane | |
| Spell Type | Instant Spell | |
| Casting Cost |
 1,000 | |
| Research Cost |
 20 * | |
| ||
| The caster is returned from Banishment. The caster's new Fortress and Summoning Circle are placed at a targeted friendly Town. | ||
Spell of Return is an Instant Spell belonging to the Arcane Magic realm. This spell behaves very differently from all other spells.
The Spell of Return may only be cast after a wizard has been Banished from the world (due to an enemy conquering that wizard's Fortress town). It is in fact the only spell that can be cast in this situation.
Spell of Return can only be cast on the overland map, and has a Casting Cost of 1,000. During Banishment a wizard cannot generate any additional Mana (though may still acquire Mana through various other means), so if sufficient Mana cannot be acquired the wizard will not be able to cast the Spell of Return and has thus effectively lost the game.
The Spell of Return allows the wizard to choose a friendly Town in which to place his/her new Fortress and Summoning Circle. If no town is available, the wizard loses the game - though this actually occurs when the last friendly Town is lost, not upon casting the Spell of Return.
Effects
The Spell of Return ends a wizard's Banishment, returning him or her to regular play. The spell places the wizard's new Fortress in a targeted friendly Town.
Ending Banishment
- Main article: Banishment
When the Town containing a wizard's Fortress is conquered by an enemy force, the Fortress is destroyed and the wizard is Banished. The wizard's Summoning Circle is also removed, from whichever Town it happens to be in at the time.
While Banished, a wizard can continue to move his/her forces and micro-manage his/her Towns, but cannot cast any spells - other than Spell of Return, whose casting begins automatically and immediately upon banishment.
Once the spell is completed - assuming it can be completed at all - the Banished wizard returns to play, regaining his/her former capabilities and resuming the game as normal.
New Fortress Town
When the casting of the Spell of Return is completed, the game allows the caster to choose a friendly Town where he/she would like to place the new Fortress. The game then opens that town's overview window, and a few moments later the new Fortress will appear among the town's buildings.
This choice of Town is of great importance, because most wizards cannot move their Fortress after it has been placed. The location of the Fortress determines how easy it would be to defend it. It also determines Mana expenditure during combat, because spells cast during battles far away from the Fortress will cost more Mana proportionally to their distance.
Note: Wizards who possess the Move Fortress spell from the 
Nature realm will be able to move their Fortress again at a later time, though this costs Mana. Having a free opportunity to place the Fortress anywhere, however, should not be taken lightly in any case.
The wizard's new Summoning Circle is automatically placed in the same town as the new Fortress. Any wizard can acquire the ability to move the Summoning Circle later, using an Arcane Spell of the same name.
Usage
Spell of Return may only be cast on the overland map, for the base Casting Cost of 1,000 - making it one of the most expensive spells in the game.
The spell is only available for casting while the wizard is Banished. It cannot be cast otherwise.
The Spell of Return is automatically and immediately selected for casting as soon as a wizard is Banished. It is the only spell that can be cast in this state anyway.
If the player is Banished, the game will immediately report the minimum amount of turns it would take to complete casting this spell, based on the wizard's Spell Skill and available Mana reserves. The player is offered a chance to simply resign the game immediately, as coming back from Banishment may be impossible and in any case may already have cost the player his game.
Gathering Mana
While a wizard is Banished, he/she does not get any 
Power income, and thus cannot generate more Mana.
Therefore, wizards who did not have at least 1,000 at the time of their Banishment may find it impossible to return to the game at all, as they might not be able to complete casting the Spell of Return. This is exacerbated by any Enchantments, Curses or Fantastic Units that the wizard attempts to maintain while Banished, as these all draw additional Mana out of the wizard's reserves as long as they are allowed to continue to exist.
Therefore, even if the wizard has plenty of Mana in reserve, the main priority would be to get more - in order to avoid ending up with no Mana nor the means to get more Mana, and thus losing the game entirely.
Though it cannot be generated from Power, Mana can still be gathered from other sources even while Banished. The most reliable way of getting more Mana to complete this spell would be to transmute 
Gold into Mana by way of Alchemy. The wizard's units may seek and defeat Encounter Zones for possible Mana rewards. Magical Items may be broken on the Anvil in the wizard's vault to convert them into Mana as well.
Enemy Wizards casting Spell of Return
When the Fortress town of an enemy wizard is captured or destroyed (by anyone), that wizard may either be Banished or completely defeated.
Defeat always occurs if the Fortress town was the wizard's last remaining town - in which case, just like player wizards, he/she has nowhere to return to and thus cannot cast the Spell of Return. In this case, defeat is immediate.
If the enemy wizard has other towns still under his control, the game instead checks that wizard's current Mana pool. If there is exactly 0 Mana in the pool, the wizard is defeated as explained above. Otherwise, the wizard is Banished instead, and will begin casting the Spell of Return immediately. An on-screen animation will reveal which of these is occurring.
Once the enemy wizard has finished casting the spell, an animation will notify you of the town they chose as the location of their new Fortress.
Acquisition
The Spell of Return is available to all wizards as soon as the game begins. It requires no Research, and cannot be traded between wizards (since everyone already possesses it).
Strategy
There is little strategy involved with the casting of Spell of Return, since it is automatically selected for casting as soon as a wizard is Banished, and cannot be cast at any other time.
The primary points that need to be understood are means to gather the necessary Mana to complete the spell (this is discussed earlier in this article), and the reason why it is often better to make sure that an enemy does cast this spell after they've been Banished (discussed below).
Why Let Another Wizard Cast the Spell of Return?
When an enemy wizard's Fortress is captured, the conquering wizard may gain one or more of the spells already Researched by the conquered wizard.
This is a great way to increase one's repertoire - by forcibly taking spells from enemy wizards. Note that in many cases, the conquering wizard can obtain spells that he/she may not have been able to Research otherwise at all! It seems that the primary requisite for being able to steal a spell from a defeated enemy is that the conquering wizard must have at least one or more Spellbooks in the same Realm as the spells being stolen.
Therefore, the act of capturing a rival's Fortress is very beneficial. However if that wizard is allowed to cast the Spell of Return, then their new Fortress can later be captured to acquire more spells. Otherwise, the wizard is defeated and all of their researched spells are lost!
As a result, many players will actively ensure that an enemy wizard is kept in play as long as possible - defeating them over and over again until all of their spells have been acquired.
If the situation allows, try to capture an enemy's Fortress while they have plenty of Mana left in reserve, and have at least one more Town they could return to after Banishment is ended. This ensures that they will be Banished (instead of being defeated), and can later be assaulted again. You may need to give that wizard some time and space to re-establish lost Towns in order to have some place to return to.
If the enemy wizard is low on Mana when their Fortress is attacked, this can lead to them using up all of their Mana during the battle for their Fortress, and thus be defeated instead of being Banished. If at all possible, try to win the battle as quickly as you can to prevent the enemy from wasting all of his remaining Mana.
Note that the Global Enchantment called Suppress Magic may dispel a Spell of Return as it is being cast. This results in the enemy wizard being defeated, since they will never start casting the spell again. If you are concerned about this, you may want to cancel Suppress Magic before taking an enemy's Fortress.
The other way around, if you want to ensure to defeat a Wizard instead banishing you can use Drain Power to sap all Mana prior to attacking his fortress.