Barrad Magocracy



Ruin has come to our family.

'''I remember our venerable wiki, opulent and imperial. Gazing proudly from its stoic perch among the Fandom. I lived all my days in that ancient, rumor-shadowed place. Fattened by roles and admiration. And yet I began to tire of conventional wiki-writing.'''

'''Singular, unsettling tales suggested the role itself was a gateway to some fabulous and unnamable position. With keyboard and mouse, I bent every effort towards the advancement and recovery of that long buried position. Exhausting what remained of my sanity on developer secrets and esoteric lore.'''

'''At last, in the messages-soaked crags of the deepest channels, we unearthed the damnable article of antediluvian evil. Our every word unsettled this ancient page but we were in a realm of death and madness!'''

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You remember our venerable wiki, opulent and imperial.

'''It is a festering abomination! I beg you, return to the page, claim your birthright, and deliver our wizards from the ravenous clutching shadows...'''

...Of the Barrad Wiki Page.

Barrad: a place of dark magic and mysterious curses, where even its name can strike fear into the hearts of creatures. Lead by the Pentarchy, a group of five creatures free to pursue their aims with no oversight or qualms, the ponies that live in Barrad are treated as nothing more than experiments. But more is happening here than meets the eye, with strange horrors and unnatural occurrences taking place every day. Can the Pentarchy unravel the secrets behind this tainted land, or will they fall to infighting and betrayal first?

Lore
While hard to imagine, Barrad has not always been the place of dark magic it is now. Once it was a province of the Kingdom of Wittenland, one rich and filled with abundant minerals and fertile farmlands. This all changed, when one day a wealthy merchant and artisan named Ambrosius, a pony who had always wanted to join the ranks of the nobility but never could, retreated to his estate in Barrad and began to unravel the true mysteries of magic. Voices spoke in his head of dark magic, and he listened. Building up power and influence, one day he finally made his move. Barrad became shrouded in mist and clouds, nopony knowing what was happening within for weeks until they cleared. The reign of the Mad Count of Barrad had begun, with the ponies unable to flee becoming playthings.

Over the years, Count Ambrosius invited other like-minded creatures to join his court, free to pursue knowledge without ethical strings attached. Ambitious creatures from all over the world came to join him, but only four rose above the rest. Silver Star, a paranoid sibling of Queen White Star so afraid of death that he turned to dark magic to ensure nothing could ever hurt him. Leopold Schmeller, a sickly griffon from the Herzland who believes that technological enhancement replacing flesh would allow Griffonia to thrive through the leadership of mechanical demigods. Asinti, a zebra once a slave, communes with a power beyond the material realm and works to bring creatures from that realm into his own. And Viira, a magical deer with incredible abilities for her race, wants to dominate the material realm through her magic so she can bring this knowledge and rule back to the rest of deerkind. Together, these creatures form the Pentarchy, the masters of Barrad.

However, these creatures only cooperate because they have to, and each carries their own agenda. And, when the time comes, each won't be afraid to betray the others.

Starting Situation
Barrad does not start in a good situation in 1007. With only a few factories, a very weak army and more powerful players, the country will have to rely on the bonuses from its focus tree and unique tech tree to remain on par with its neighbours. In the hands of a competent player who knows how it works, Barrad can turn from an irrelevant backward to a dominant power on Griffonia, especially if it is able to defeat the River Coalition.

Military
Barrad starts with 15k ponypower deployed, consisting of 7 infantry divisions, 6 of which are only 2-width noblepony groups. The nobleponies however will eventually be reformed into a better template, but either way, the Barradian army will need a major overhaul to fight its future enemies.

Threats and Opportunities
Barrad has enemies on all sides and can be attacked by all of them under certain circumstances. Kása Free State can attack fairly early with certain leaders, and Austurland will be able to as well once their political situation is dealt with if Kasa does not exist. Wittenland will move to reclaim Barrad in all paths, and the AI frequently manually justifies since they have claims on your land. Finally, Free Towns of Gryphus can declare if the Knights took over and started the Southern Crusade. Kasa and Austurland can be taken on after decent army buildup, but for Wittenland you should focus on playing defence unless you have the definitive advantage, as they may call in the entire River Coalition.

Gameplay Mechanics
The Pentarchy is the focus of Barrad, as reflected in its mechanics. Biographies for all five members are available by pressing Ctrl + P to open the Pentarchy menu. It also contains Viira's journal, which will change as you progress down the focus tree. You can check back here whenever you see a tooltip about the journal for new writing.

The main mechanics, however, are in the decisions tab. At the top is a timer for Count Ambrosius, and every time it reaches 0 a random effect will occur. This can be a research boost or malus, increased or decreased relations between Pentarchy members, and more. It provides an unpredictable variable that can seriously help or hinder you as you play.

The majority of the decision tab, though, is filled up with the other four members. Each has a resource count which can be increased through various means, and can be used on their decisions for buffs and decreasing the negative effects of Outdated Industrial Sector. However, it may be smart to save some in case unforeseen events occur. Each character also has a relations stat with the members of the Pentarchy, not counting Ambrosius. Having it above 70 can provide a positive national spirit as well as new available options, but having it drop below 30 can give a mixed national spirit and result in unforeseen consequences. The main way to increase relations is by having Leopold carouse with other members, though they may be affected through other means as well.

Finally, Barrad has a unique tech section, with four branches each dedicated to a member. These technologies can provide very substantial bonuses to Barrad, but require the corresponding member to be alive. This can be one of Barrad's main strengths, as they are incredibly powerful and can allow the country to catch up fast and punch far above its weight.

Reactor Start-Up
Once you start the reactor (as shown in the focus tree), an RPG-style battle GUI will appear with you fighting as whoever you sided with, the Pentarchy or Viira. Each character will have three abilities: a simple attack that deals damage to an enemy, and two others that cost resources to cast. All actions take up stamina points, which can be recharged by skipping your turn. You may find it very difficult to defeat your opponent(s) if you have low resources, especially if you are Viira, so saving up them is essential for claiming victory. An alternative is simply killing off your soon-to-be enemies before the fight even begins, to make it easier or even prevent it entirely.

National Focus
Barrad's national focus tree does not work like other nations. Instead of being shown all at once or loading in entirely new trees, instead, it just continues downward whenever a "segment" of the tree is finished. Each segment is self-contained, and focuses in it can only be taken if the last focus of the segment is not yet completed. Once that last focus is taken, the next segment will be unlocked. Each focus will give short and/or long-term benefits, and while you can take all of them before moving on in the focus tree, it will be very time-consuming. Therefore, it may be a better idea to pick and choose the focuses you want to save time.

Some unnecessary focuses may also focus on a certain character in the Pentarchy. Those require that particular character to be alive, meaning that you should aim to keep every character alive to get the full range of focuses. These focuses may also affect your options in future focus trees, so keep that in mind.

Fall of the Pentarchy
Should the entire Pentarchy fall, one way or another, a new tree will load in for Barrad. Count Ambrosius will retreat to his study, and when he returns he will be fully consumed by the voices in his head. His focus will turn to defending Barrad from invaders, creating a bulwark against any who would see his sacred land fall.

The focuses are fairly straightforward, all centring on preparing Barrad for conflict against its future enemies. Progressing down the tree will give free military factories as well as infantry divisions, and will eventually remove the Fallen Pentarchy national spirit you receive at the start of the tree. The lower half branches into two paths, with the left focusing on military modernization and doctrinal advancement, and the right granting a research slot, even more factories, resources and a way to fully remove the Outdated Industrial Sector development.

Asinti's Rise
Once Viira has been defeated and the Reactor is online, choosing Asinti to lead will result in loading his focus tree. The first section will result in locking your economy and conscription laws to Civilian Economy and Volunteer Only, but will almost immediately be counteracted with incredibly powerful national spirits which will give huge amounts of recruitable population and excellent economic benefits. The military section is woven into the branch, allowing you to choose between a mass assault doctrine and improving your special forces. Shared between them is another research slot and an increase to your scientific base.

The Summon Generals focus will be your only source of more unit leaders due to Barrad being unable to recruit more in the normal way. You will be able to choose between Count Ambrosius and Captain Gąsienica as a general, and if Silver Star and/or Leopold are alive, you can choose one of them as well.

The final section has focuses for gaining more factories, improving your air force, and declaring war on Kasa, Gryphus, Austurland and finally the entire River Coalition at once. Asinti's trait means that you will gain absolutely no manpower from conquering these territories through compliance, so be cautious with your ponypower early on.

If you finished building the Temple during the Pentarchy focus tree, Repurpose Temple will allow you to use the Blood Mechanics. Each month, every single casualty you inflict in war will give you one blood. You can spend blood on various effects, such as resources, non-core ponypower, and even cores on Kasa, Austurland and the River Coalition. However, your blood stockpile drains by half every month, so make sure to spend it whenever you have enough for the effect you want.

Leopold's Ascendance
After the Pentarchy secures the reactor and Leopold is chosen to take over, his focus tree will load in. Ascension, the second focus will spawn in the new crown jewel of the Barradian army: Leopold himself, a hero division and general with incredible stats able to wipe away entire armies by himself. However, it is not until Waking The Titan that he will be at full strength. Should you have defeated the Titan by digging the mine shaft deep enough previously, Leopold will be buffed further, turning him into a truly unstoppable force.

Taking the focuses relating to the fate of the Pentarchy will grant a research slot and largely depend on the past relationship Leopold had with the other members. If he considered Asinti and/or Silver Star enemies, they will be killed, but if they were considered friends than Leopold will allow them to become generals once more or act as advisors, which will be represented by national spirits.

The majority of Leopold's tree is about rapidly industrializing Barrad into a powerhouse for its size, especially if you chose Clockwork Factories in the previous tree before powering the reactor. Having done so will allow the special Clockwork Industry development status, which increases factory output and resource efficiency gain. The two off-split branches focus on magical equipment, artillery and tanks, giving them large bonuses at the expense of increased production cost.

However, the bulk of the new army will be made up of Leopold's invention: The Clockworks. Easy to mass produce, these special battalions can be outfitted with magical infantry equipment instead and will support Leopold himself in warfare. There are Crude Clockworks, the weakest and cheapest type, Military Clockworks, which are more expensive and powerful, and Commanding Clockworks which increase the division's organization. If you chose the Military Applications For Clockworks focus in the Pentarchy tree instead, you will also have access to Soul-Bound Clockworks, which are a better version of Military Clockworks.

While Leopold gets no direct war goals in his tree, he does get access to raiding decisions on all of his neighbors. With Leopold's hero division, any border war you attempt should be won easily.

Silver Star's Immortality
Should Silver Star gain access to the power of the reactor, his focus tree will take the place of the Pentarchy one. His is the largest of the three Pentarchy members, having two distinct paths available depending on whether you gave your undead autonomy. You will also make the former Pentarchy members undead generals, with Asinti and Leopold being available if they remained alive by the end of the Viira fight. The more autonomy you have given to your undead, the more powerful your new generals will be.

The left path will be available if your undead do not have autonomy, and is focused on rapidly ramping up your armed forces to fight the Riverlands. It is fast and provides quick bonuses, hinging around simply having too large an army for the River Coalition to fight. Silver Star will be able to instantly deploy forces straight from creation, so taking advantage of his large ponypower pool is recommended. Any Riverlander state you are able to take can be made into your core, removing all its factories and state ponypower but transferring all that ponypower into your recruitable population. Finally, Silver Star will eventually unlock decisions to support his undead army by focusing on enhancing a part of it, whether it be through assault, defense or other factors.

The right path is unlocked if Silver Star gave full autonomy to his undead in the previous tree. Do not take the decision to "Look Through It's Remains" after Silver Star's ascension if you wish to go down this path, as it will remove "Undead Autonomy" and lock you out of it. Instead of going for a rapid unending attack on the Riverlands, Silver Star instead turns his nation into a true kingdom, one of eternal life through undeath.

While much longer than the alternative, this branch allows you to remove almost all the negative effects of the national spirits you gain, turning them into purely positive ones. It will also actually allow you to hire advisors, design companies and high command again. Once the various industrial, scientific and military problems have been addressed, Silver Star can finally turn his attention to the conquest of the Riverlands. The bottom-left branch will further expand your industry and allow you to achieve Modern Society, while the bottom-right will have doctrine choices between Grand Battleplan and Mobile Warfare, as well as an event between Gas Weapons or Biological Warfare. The centre branch gives wargoals on Wittenland, Kasa and Austurland first, Gryphian Host second, and the rest of the River Coalition last.

The coring mechanics remain the same for this path as well. However, you will also gain a decision once you have annexed Wittenland to claim the crown for your own, coring all of their territory and renaming your nation.

Viira, The Herald
For Viira to take her place as the Herald of Barrad, she must first defeat the surviving members of the Pentarchy before claiming the reactor. Trying to take on all three members is highly difficult and ill-advised, and it is recommended to have killed off at least 1-2 other members before igniting the reactor. You will also need 2000 resources to survive starting the reactor, so keep a stockpile for after the fight.

Unlike how other paths work, Viira does not actually become the leader of Barrad. Count Ambrosius keeps that position, albeit with a new trait. Instead, Viira becomes a national spirit in a supporting role, and decisions unlock to use her new powers to aid your divisions in war. Otherwise, it works similarly to the Fallen Pentarchy path: working to secure Barrad against its enemies. Only in this tree, the effects you receive are much stronger.

The left branch starts with two mutually exclusive focuses which can buff your defensive capabilities in different ways for three years. Once you choose one, the focuses following it will grant reduced production cost of infantry equipment, buffs to magical equipment and a large bonus to combat on core territory.

The middle path both has army bonuses and industrial bonuses. It removes The Pentarchy national spirit and has a large bonus to recruitable population, later giving factories and reduced consumer goods. A Bright Future will change your development to Modern Society.

The right path increases your scientific capabilities, granting two research slots, research bonuses and an upgrade to your scientific base. Once you build another nuclear reactor, you can also take Singularity for another major boost to research speed.

Viira, The Goddess
For Viira to be able to control the immense power that the reactor and the being inside it contains, she must first understand what is behind the strange happenings in Barrad. To do this, she must finish her journal, which requires you to complete every focus she has past the first segment, build Asinti's temple and discover the living rock, have her investigate the mutant plant attack after Captain Gąsienica finishes their quest, digging deep enough in Leopold's excavations to unearth the Titan and defeat it, and search Silver Star's library for information. You will also need to save Viira's resources to survive the reactor startup. However, the fight can be made much easier by killing Leopold after defeating the Titan and killing Silver Star after going through his library, and allow you to save more resources as well. Note, however that killing Silver Star will decrease your resources, similarly to destroying Asinti's temple. There may be a way to not need to kill your fellow mages, but no matter what, Viira needs the reactors power, as well as what lurks within it

Despite how the tree looks, each part of the focus tree must be fully completed before you can move downwards. The first segment is about establishing order and your rule in Barrad, giving divisions and removing The Pentarchy national spirit. The second segment grants increased research speed, a research slot and war goals on Austurland and Kasa.

The final section has wargoals on the griffon nations in the Evi Valley and the River Coalition. Once either of the two focuses are taken, you can start the middle focus line, which grants and changes the Unconditional Servitude national spirit. It gives massive buffs to recruitable population and only increases as you go down the line, but requires harsher conscription laws as you progress and will continue to decrease your factory output and research speed. The left branch gives factories, an upgrade to your science base and another research slot. The right branch has research bonuses for military technologies and beneficial national spirits relating to warfare. There is a strong focus on magical warfare and use of the harsh terrain.

However, the true power of this path lies outside of her focus tree: her abilities. Wielding powers most can not even dream of, possibly the most powerful being on the planet, she has access to an even greater number of spells than her other path. Her greatest abilities, though, are available in the state GUI. Any enemy state close to your border can be nuked endlessly by Viira, creating complete devastation. Not only that, but any state you control that doesn't already have the Barrad Climate modifier can be given it, which also gives an instant 30% compliance.

To realize how immensly powerfull true Viira is, there is also her decision to "pacify" the regions in the Evi Valley and the Riverlands. This gives additional manpower, although it decreases the population in those regions.

When Viira has spread her domain across the superregions of Evi and The Riverlands, she can unlock a decision to truly become a Tyrranic hegemon over Griffonia.

There is a catch, though. Viira, for all her immense power, still has her limits. She can only do so much magic at once, and going over that limit will have dire consequences. You can keep track of how close you are to breaking that limit in the decisions tab. She will recharge over time, so if you're approaching the limit of her abilities just give her some time to cool down before starting to throw magic around again.

The mana count goes as follows:

Using more magic in her last mana state will turn Barrad into a body without a head

Return of the Count
To go down the last path for Barrad, you must follow similar steps to that of Goddess Viira's path: following her journal to its end. However, you must also prevent the fight between the Pentarchy and Viira when the reactor starts. This means that all other members of the Pentarchy must be dead before you take the final focus. You can do this by killing Asinti by collapsing his temple, killing Leopold after the Titan fight and killing Silver Star in his library if you have 1000 resources while searching it. The last requirement is that Viira must have less then 2k resources when she ignites the reactor; collapsing Asinti's temple will cost 1000 resourses and might be helpful to reduce their number.

Once Ambrosius finds the truth behind the being in Barrad, the first section appears about finally bringing sanity back to Barrad and fixing Ambrosius' old mistakes. The central line has power consolidated behind Ambrosius once more, the right path gives you various cultist divisions and the left path gives you the aid of the griffon villages in exchange for either a promise of autonomy or a promise to restore Gryphus when the time is right. When Ambrosius is finally ready to heal the entity behind the mysteries of Barrad, sanity will finally return to the troubled land. The County of Barrad will become more in-line with a typical nation, gaining illiteracy and poverty. The economic, army and air force trees will also be unlocked.

The economic tree will gradually increase your science base and decrease your illiteracy and poverty, and you can increase your development by taking the Improve Society decision that should appear. Strangers No More is an excellent focus in particular for its +20% attack and defense on core territory.

The army tree is fairly generic, giving a choice between Mobile Warfare, Grand Battleplan and Superior Firepower doctrine, as well as research bonuses. The air force tree is similar, granting free air bases and a choice between Strategic Destruction and Battlefield Support. For territorial expansion, there are two main options. The first is forming the Grand County of Barrad, which will give +0.25% compliance gain and allow you to core Kasa and Gryphus, utilizing the war goal decision you get on them, with Gryphus' being if you chose the relevant focus in the first section. The second is reforming the Kingdom of Wittenland, granting coring opportunities on it, Austurland and Ponaidhean. You can only form one or the other, so choose wisely. Either way, Barrad will have cosmetic puppets for the nations that you can not core.

Staff and Designers
Political Advisors

Ship Designer

Aircraft Designer

Materiel Designer

Industrial Concern

Theorist

Chief of Army

Chief of Navy

Chief of Airforce

Military High Command