Eldritch Soveriegn

[GrandMajora]

These guys are gonna be FUN to design in the faction customization!

I'm not entirely sure yet, but I think they had significantly more options than the Dragon Lords did. Possibly being the most customizable ruler type out of all of them.

And, of course, the dev stream featured a caked up, dommy-mommy Cthulhu.

[GrandMajora]

Heh, you could make an ES named 'The Wyrm' and assign them to primal canines called the Black Spiral Dancers.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Looking forward to using the thrall spells and the story missions.

I am going to enjoy turning enemies into servants.

[Balekai]

Here's my updated Astral/Order Summoning Sovereign Build if anyone is interested, based off the new info from the new Dev Diary. Also the AoW4 database has been updated with Eldritch Realms placeholders (note I had to take another weapon other than Relic of Cosmos, because it wouldn't create a link to the build with it. :p ),

https://minionsart.github.io/aow4db/HTML/FactionCreator.html?u=20:48:47,e,e7,5f,eb,e9,f2,bc:a4:92:9f:ee:91:a2:ef:9c:90:8f:a1:8e:f0,000000

The last 5 Tomes are optional and based on a few different things. Like whether the new Umbral Demon Transformation is minor or major (pretty sure it's major so it doesn't conflict with Naga). If it's major that means I won't be taking Exaltation Tome at all for example.

The idea is very close to what I was hoping for with the following new tomes:

Tome of Corruption = The Umbral immunity Tome, with a transformation that makes racial units Umbral Demons (+2 defense, -2 Fire Resist and -2 spirit Resist, Floating, Curse Eater) but also mind control and positive/negative effect consumption/manipulation. I have my fingers crossed that the transform makes your racial units Magical Origin... here's hoping! That would allow perfect synergy with summoning focus and Tome of Summoning lol.

Tome of Cleansing Fire = A great way for "Faithful" Order tome line builds to gain access to condemn effects which they usually lack completely without zeal line inestment. Support, Battlemages and all melee units will be able to inflict condemn (-3 status resist. Mind Control and neg effects easier to apply) on attacks with the two new unit enchantments, in addition to creating AoE cleansing fire hazards your units are immune to (or any faithful, zeal enemy units). This is basically the AoW4 version of Planetfall's Promethium Secret Tech with a holy fire theme instead.

This all fits with my idea of an "Eldritch Horror's Eldritch Horror" theme. A Celestial/Order themed Eldritch Sovereign saviour that "sides with the people" and completely counters Umbral influence... while becoming the all powerful evi-good benevolent overlord of all. There's a lot of synergy in this build to counter some negatives.

Like Umbral Demon transform's negatives (-2 fire and spirit resist) being balanced out by Magical Wards (+2 Front, Lightning and Fire Resist) + Annointed People (+3 Status Resist, +3 Spirit Resist).

Umbral Demon transform also gives an important +2 to defense to make my resist heavy armies physically tougher. For example squishy (but ethereal) Phantasmal Warriors that start with only 1 defense, will get +2 from Umbral Demon and +2 from Tough form trait for +4 to base defense. Then stack bolstering Resistances for resist. Well assuming that Umbral demon transformed units don't become magical origin. In that case things would change. :p

New diary:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-diary-31-eldritch-sovereign-and-tomes.1685857/

Edit:

Sovereign Specialization is either Mindbreaker-->Enthraller or Fleshweaver-->Fleshsculpter

Forgotten Tomes: Likely Archfire (Astral if this doesn't fit and Astral has summons with Astral Rift) and Blessings.