A hive-people that survive by ingesting or converting others as they infect them with their plague, the Necrophages are scavengers and survivors. Always hungry and always hostile, they are viewed as a scourge by other people. The Necrophages always seek for Food 
to proliferate. To sate their hunger, they can consume enemy units they kill, but also rely on populations coming from villages. They can't negotiate any kind of peace, always acting with aggression towards other living beings.
Lore
The Necrophages are a scuttling monstrosity polluting the surface of Auriga; an insectoid menace that should be crushed under one's heel like the mutated cockroaches that they are. Or so the Vaulters, the Wild Walkers, the Broken Lords and every other nation on the planet would have one believe.
Naturally, the Necrophages themselves don't share this view - in fact, they hold very few views other than fight, feed and propagate. The Necrophages have found a niche in the environment that suits them very well: They will win by numbers; by elevating the colony over the individual; by constant war-fare. Something between a hive insect and an undead horde, they reproduce by laying eggs in the bodies of fallen enemies.
Occasionally the offspring even inherits elements of the host's DNA accelerating their process of change and adaptation. Emotionless, relentless, and driven by their biology, the Necrophages do not waste time with diplomacy and commerce.
Faction Traits
| Name | Type | Effect | Lore |
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| Recycling | Affinity | +1 Cadaver per any unit killed in battle (unless defeat) +1 Recycled Stockpile per 8 cadavers |
It is important that nothing goes to waste. |
| Rising Dead | Dust Eclipse Effect | During eclipses, recycled stockpiles also create a Battle Born in the target city in addition to the food bonus | When Dust Eclipses descend on Auriga, animating forces bring to life some corpses of the Necrophages' great heaps of flesh, creating not-so-fresh recruits. |
| Pitiless | Trait | No Peace/Alliance No Diplomatic Technologies No bribe and talk technologies |
One does not debate with one's next meal. |
| Agriculturally Challenged | Trait | -1 on terrain with Food
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Poor planning and mediocre tools lead to substandard yields and quality for food production. |
| Cellulose Mutation | Trait | Decreases the 2  requirement of a new district to 1 .
Decreases the cost of a district. |
A natural outgrowth of highly specialized evolution, some workers are able to excrete a semi-solid that dries into tough, fibrous material. This material, cheap and abundant, is used to speed the construction of city buildings. |
| Cull the Herd | Trait | +2 per per village  (non-converted) on cities.
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There are many different ways to pay taxes... |
| Fast Epimorphosis | Trait | +5%  Health regeneration on empire
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Extremes of evolution and environment can teach advanced organisms the secrets of rapid regeneration. |
| Will of the Hive | Trait | +10% Attack  per declared war on units
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Focused on a common goal, all soldiers dedicate themselves body and soul to victory. |
| Cannon Fodder | Technology available to unlock | Makes available the Faction-specific technology Cannon Fodder. | |
| Demanding Gods | Technology available to unlock | Makes available the Faction-specific technology Demanding Gods. | |
| Alchemist's Furnace | Technology Unlocked | Unlocks the Alchemist's Furnace Technology. |
Unique Technologies
Demanding Gods
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Hunger - for Food, recognition, or glory - can drive one to extreme behavior. | ||||||||||
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Effects:
Gives the ability to sacrifice 1
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Cannon Fodder
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Simple beings with simple lives and a single goal can be maintained inexpensively. | ||||||||||
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Effects:
-50% | ||||||||||||
Fungal Laboratory (Technology)
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Using technology discovered in the ancient ruins of Auriga, Necrophage workers improve the management of air, moisture, and fertilizer to greatly increase the output of their fungal 'farms'. | |||||||||||||||||
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Unlocks for Construction:
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Givers of Remembrance (Technology)
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A reduced breed of Givers of Remembrance, Lesser Givers only collect and share battlefield lessons between armies rather than all the histories of the hive. | |||||||||||||||||
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Unlocks for Construction:
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Mindless Slaughter
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It is easier to attack when one gives little thought of defense - and survival. | ||||||||||
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Effects:
+30% Attack | ||||||||||||
Military Units
Forager
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Base Attributes:
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Skilled at leaving and tracking pheromone-scented trails, the Forager is also capable of spitting highly corrosive acid. |
Necrodrone
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Base Attributes:
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Adept at striking from air, Necrodrones damage both by striking and by spitting clouds of caustic poison. |
Proliferator
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Base Attributes:
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The great reproduction factory of the Necrophages, a Proliferator can resurrect both friend and foe by implanting eggs which control their minds. |
Battle Born
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Base Attributes:
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Created from their fallen enemies on the field of battle, these soldiers of the hive do not feel pain, pity, or remorse. |
Heroes
Note: Base Attributes reflect the unit's attributes before bonuses from equipment or capacities.
All Necrophage heroes are able to wield Battle Axes, Claws, Swords, and Shields as weapons.
Empty Belly
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Base Attributes:
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Feeds on Bones
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Base Attributes:
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Long Fangs
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Base Attributes:
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Never Rests
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Base Attributes:
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Queenslayer
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Base Attributes:
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Strikes Far
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Base Attributes:
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Quest Heroes
Ka-Riss
Ka-Riss is received as a reward for completing Chapter 2 of the Necrophages faction quest.
Ka-Riss
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Base Attributes:
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Faction Quest
Many species run rampant on Auriga, but only the Necrophages are truly of the planet. The others are thieves and trespassers; the others must die...
| 1. Striking Out | |||
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Description | ||
| Unease riddles the nest. I can feel it everywhere: In the hurried footfalls in the tunnels, in the huddling, in the lingering in the fungal gardens. They doubt me. The sifters, the burrowers, the soldiers, even the blasted groomers - get off! They all doubt me, and their doubt seeps into my chitin. I sit in my lair, fret, fret, fret, fretting, while above hind-legs grow bolder, nipping and harrying and slicing at our tracks.
Enough! I must erase those doubts! But how? Doubts bite deeper than any jaws. Full bellies! Yes, full bellies will give them solace. Otherwise they begin to eye one another hungrily, otherwise the weak will be ripped apart by the strong. That can't happen. That mustn’t happen. We will attack the hind-legs. Tender flesh for my hungry brood... but tender flesh protected by coats of steel, defended by spiked arms. They'll stab and slice us, but the price will be worth it. My brood will feed. My brood will gain confidence. We will grow... | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| He Who Meddles, leader of a breakaway Necrophage hive, must feed his people. To do so, he has chosen to attack minor faction villages. | With a main army exclusively composed of Necrophage units, win 3 battles. | Triumph! Tonight, the hive will reek of the dead, but we will spare some. One hind-legs, a traveler and a fire-wielder, has learned our language, and stokes my curiosity with wild ideas... | |
| Reward | Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
| 1(Alt). Digging In | |||
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Description | ||
| Unease riddles the nest. I can feel it everywhere. In the hurried footfalls in the tunnels, in the lingering in the fungal gardens. They doubt me. The sifters, the burrowers, the soldiers, even the blasted groomers- get off!- they all doubt me, and their doubt seeps into my chitin. I sit in my lair fret,fret,fret, fretting, while above hindlegs grow bolder, nipping and harrying and slicing at our tracks.
Enough! I must ease these doubts! But how? Doubts bite deeper then any jaws. . .Secure. Security. Yes. Above all I must this region holds no threats for my brood. Otherwise, they will come, fighters in leather and steel. With claws and weapons, to tear apart our fragile young. We will attack the hindlegs. Teach them that this place is ours, that we will not be driven out, pushed away. They will stab and slice us, but the price will be worth it. My brood will survive. My brrod will gain confidence. My brood will grow. . . | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| He Who Meddles must destroy minor faction villages and armies that threaten the new Necrophage colony. | 1. In a nearby region called [Region], make sure all of the [Minor Faction] villages are pacified. 2. Seeking revenge, a [Minor Faction] army comes to attack your city [City]. They must be destroyed. |
Triumph! Tonight, the hive will reek of the dead, but we will spare some. One hind-legs, a traveler and a fire-wielder, has learned our language, and stokes my curiosity with wild ideas... | |
| Reward | 1. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1
2. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
| 2. A Madman's Dream | |||
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Description | ||
| Sweet, sweet, sweet flesh. The nest thrums with fevered dreams, with faith, with belief. The workers scuttle with extra fervor, the groomers with purpose, the soldiers with mandibles high. The tunnels resound with the click and scratch of anticipation. Now's the time to hatch, hatch, hatch more plans. To be a race who can command the surface as we command the dark, we must... evolve.
The hind-legs calls himself Rhiss al-Khali and tells me he is a "scientist" -- one who studies the ways of things. His quest for knowledge has led him far from his birth race, and he has roved the surface of this great land learning much. I led him through the teeming hive, hoping to awe him, even frighten him, but his eyes sparkle with glee. He speaks of strange chymistries, and wishes to study how hind-legs and Necrophage differ. He teases me with ideas of a superior breed, marrying the best of both races. The other captives are more afraid of him than me. I don't trust him, but he may be a great boon to us. To begin his experiments he needs special materials. I will ensure he gets them. And I will watch, carefully... | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| It is time to accelerate the evolution of the Necrophage. Find the resources needed for Rhiss al-Khali to start his experiments on prisoners and Necrophages. | 1. Search the [Ruins] after gathering 10 of [Strategic Resource] and 20 (5 with ELCP) of [Luxury Resource]
2. Search the same [Ruins] after gathering X Dust. |
Bloodcurdling screams issue from the captive pits, but this "Rhiss" learns much. Already the latest hatchlings show superior qualities. One day this land will be ours | |
| Reward | 1. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1
2. Ka-Riss | ||
| 3. Last Hind-Legs Standing | |||
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Description | ||
| All the captives died. All except Rhiss. Agony wrapped itself around him too, but unlike the others he came out transformed. Patches of chitin cover his soft hind-leg skin, and only his eyes show the thing he once was. He has asked for a new name, and I have granted him his wish. He will be known as Ka-Riss. I never imagined a hind-leg could show such chitin, such single-mindedness. Maybe his experiments mark our path to victory. Menials! Fetch the hind-legs!
Every cycle I find myself seeking his company over the seething activity of my narrow-minded broodmates. His mind is as fertile as before, but now there is an edge of the untamed in his ramblings. What he truly wants remains cloaked in darkness, but I am beginning to think he does indeed seek nothing more than pure knowledge. He claims he can make us more numerous using materials held by the race known as the "Vaulters" -- ancient enemies we've fought in the deep places for as long as the Giver of Remembrances remember. He has been held in the hive for long enough. Now I will test his loyalty, let him lead a swarm. Ah, he comes. Menials! Bring us some carrion! | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| Rhiss has been adopted; his name will be Ka-Riss. Driven by some ultimate goal, he speaks of valuable Resources, needed for his experiments, that are held in a secret place by the Vaulters | 1. With the Hero Ka-Riss, unlock the Level X of the skill [Skill], or the Level X of the skill [Skill].
2. With the Hero Ka-Riss assigned to an army, search the [Ruin] located in the region called [Region]. |
The enemy has been vanquished, their precious materials taken. Most pleasingly, Ka-Riss shows utter loyalty, and craves to begin work on the breeding chambers. | |
| Reward | 1. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
| 4. The 36th Chamber | |||
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Description | ||
| Peace, peace, peace, can I get any peace? Every burr, every click, every scratch echoes through the hard tunnels, drills deep into my head. I need to think! To think is to see is to plan is to survive. But the noise! The noise distracts me from my task! Menials! Get out! Ah, some peace. But a brittle one. Our acts have not gone unseen by the eyes of the hind-legs. They grow bolder by the day, sending out parties of fighters. They will be killed and feasted upon, but I fear for the day they organize themselves as well as we do. They will overwhelm us unless we have the numbers; our attention must turn to a new chamber. While we build it we will be vulnerable. The hive will need to be protected, the enemy scattered from our lands. Then? Then we can truly start swarming this world "Auriga"...
Rhiss has many ideas for how we might forge such a path. His mind is aflame, painting a blazing trail of the contraptions, strategies, and... unions... we might follow. While his mind burns, his body hardens and bends, becoming more like us every cycle. I never speak the thought, but he may be our future, a hybrid of hind-legs and hive-dweller that marries their capacity to reason with our brute strength. He has become more than a mere broodling, he has become an example. We must learn our enemies' ways, watch them, find their weaknesses... But I get ahead of myself. Nothing will come without the brood mother's new chamber. | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| A new wave of Necrophages is to be hatched. Build the Fungal Laboratory to increase the fecundity of the hive, and protect the region while it is under construction | 1. Assign the Hero Ka-Riss to your City [City] in order to build the Fungal Laboratory there.
2. For X turns, make sure there are no enemy armies in [City] and a city garrison of 6 units minimum (not including Militia). 3. Your success protecting the Hive calls wandering units to your empire. Search the [Ruins] in [City] in order to recruit them. |
The new chamber is built, the hive stronger than ever. Now our attention can turn to our enemy's frailties... | |
| Reward | 1. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1
2. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 3. Necrophage Army: 4 units | ||
| 5. Know Your Enemy | |||
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Description | ||
| What can you learn from a dead enemy? That was the question Ka-Riss asked me. A simple question, but a deep one. Answers skittered in the shadows, out of reach, until I finally understood his meaning. Nothing. Nothing can be learnt from a carcass, from a bag of bones wrapped in rotting flesh. Yes, we might feed, but we don't learn. We learn of the enemy by having one of them fighting by our side, or better, letting one of the enemy lead our own numbers. We wait and watch and learn. But how? I demanded. How do we convince a single hind-legs to join us, to reign death upon his own broodmates? You do not know men, he told me. They will betray their people, their land, even their own family for the right incentives. Money, power, pure simple hatred, he said, eyes gleaming as he looked up. He told me there are places --"marketplaces" -- where the hardiest leaders from different races can be bought, traded, sold. They will lead your armies and you will learn how men think, he said.
My carapace crawled with anticipation, but before he left he told me something profoundly troubling. It might all be for nothing, he said. His "science" tells him winters grow longer; some hind-legs claim it marks the end of days, even the death of Auriga. He scuttled away, leaving me with only the distant tic and hum of the hive. Maybe we must plan for this day, but now the light is dim and I cannot see how. For now we will learn the ways of the hind-legs, absorbing their bravest. | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| Learn about the other factions on Auriga -- to better destroy them -- by hiring non-Necrophage Heroes and defeating enemy armies with those Heroes leading your armies. | 1. Hire a (Wild Walkers/Ardent Mages) Hero and a (Vaulters/Broken Lords) Hero to be used in battle
2. Defeat 2 armies with an army led by a (Wild Walkers/Ardent Mages) Hero and 2 armies with an army led by a (Vaulters/Broken Lords) Hero |
Hind-legs lead our swarms, and we have learned much from watching them. But I fear the real enemy might not be hind-legs, but the land itself. We will survive, as always. We will endure! | |
| Reward | 1. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1
2. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
| 6. Legends of the Endless | |||
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Description | ||
| Our plight consumes me. When I rest, instead of the soothing dark that once cloaked me, I am flooded with visions of ruin. Rivers of fire cascading out the depths. Hives crushed into nothingness. Mountains upturned, the land scrubbed of all life, hind-legs and hive-dweller all dead. When Ka-Riss is lucid, a state that escapes him for most of the cycles, he scratches incoherently about a machine --built by the ancients of this planet-- that may be our salvation. He is my most accomplished leader in the field, but his mental regression, his slide into becoming yet another savage killer among thousands, fills me with dread. As my mind soars, his unravels. Maybe civilization will be beyond us. Maybe I am the freak, the monster, an evolutionary dead-end doomed to return to the dust from whence I came.
Whatever awaits us, whatever we will become, we must survive. I have decided I have no choice but to submit to his ramblings, let him lead a swarm to the bones of this "Endless" race. Therein lies an "Incubator", a machine that will grant our unhatched immortality, let them live for countless cycles beyond the reach of flame and ice until the cataclysm passes. We will swarm over the lands, lay waste to our enemies, plant our eggs in every nook, every crevice that we can find, and in time beyond measure, when the stars have shifted, a new generation will crawl out onto a virgin land. Auriga, our birthright, will forever be ours. | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| Rhiss has dreams of glory for the Necrophage - perhaps even greater than yours. Put him at the head of an army and send him out to conquer. | 1. Conquer 3 new regions, through colonization or by capturing their cities. | The machine is secured. Soon it will form the heart of the most important chamber we will ever construct. Soon we will raise a swarm the like of which has never been witnessed before. | |
| Reward | 1. Incubation Orb | ||
| 7. Unnatural Born Killers | |||
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Description | ||
| We are doomed. Doomed to be nothing more than unthinking killing machines. I have seen the evidence. The "Endless" made us to be killers, and they made us well. My hope that we might become something more than our nature lies in ruin; Ka-Riss's degeneration into savagery is complete. Nothing occupies his mind other than the next fight, the next feed. We are killers. And I? I have found peace with that. We are what we are. And we will survive.
The eggs that we will scatter to the darkest corners of this land will see to that. Before that though, our numbers must swell so that we can send our swarms far and wide. The eggs must be buried in icy chasms, the hearts of forests, desert caves; every habitat we can reach, for none know which places will heal and which will be forever blighted after the winter has passed. By conquest, by gluttony, or simply through the sheer march of time our numbers will swell to meet the task. As we grow, we must build. A factory chamber that can replicate this Endless "Incubator", this strange machine that will keep our eggs out of time's grasp, must be constructed. As I listen now, the hive is preternaturally quiet. My broodlings know change is coming to the hive. Soon though, soon it will ring with a thousand sounds of industry. And after? After it will crescendo with the tap of a million 'phages... | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| Both Minor and Major Factions must fall before the Necrophages. Assimilate Minor Factions, then grow the city to prepare for the final onslaught. | 1. Assimilate 2 Minor Factions
2. Reach the exact number of 8 population in your City [City]. |
The "Incubator" factory is built, and the hive swarms with numbers beyond counting. The time is near to scatter the seeds of our descendants across Auriga. | |
| Reward | 1. Givers of Remembrance
2. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
| 7(Alt). Less is More | |||
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Description | ||
| We are doomed. Doomed to be nothing more than unthinking killing machines. I have seen the evidence. The “Endless” made us to be killers, and they made us well. My hope that we might become something more than our nature lies in ruin; Ka-Riss's degeneration into savagery is complete. Nothing occupies his mind other than the next fight, the next feed. We are killers. And I? I have found peace with that. We are what we are. And we will survive.
The eggs that we will scatter to the darkest corners of this land will see to that. Before that though, our numbers must fall until only the strongest, the most ferocious, the most tenacious stalk our hives. Only then will we ensure that the gene-line is ready for the challenges that await on the other side of the long winter. Starvation, banishment, the sacrifice of the weak and feeble to feed the strong - the methods don't matter, only the outcome. “Cruel”, the hind-legs might say, but cruel is still better than dead. Before we slaughter though, we must build. A factory chamber that can replicate this Endless “Incubator”, this strange machine that will keep our eggs out of time's grasp, must be constructed. As I listen now, the hive is preternaturally quiet. My broodlings know change is coming. Soon though, soon it will ring with a thousands sounds of industry. And after? After it will ring with the shrieks of the dying... | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| Both Minor and Major Factions must fall before the Necrophages. Assimilate Minor Factions, then cull the population so that only the strongest remain for the final onslaught. | 1. Assimilate 2 Minor Factions
2. Reach the exact number of 8 population in your City [City]. |
The “Incubator” factory is built, and the weak have been culled. The time is near to scatter the seeds of our descendants across Auriga. | |
| Reward | 1. Givers of Remembrance
2. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
| 8. Endless Swarm | |||
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Description | ||
| The winters draw ever longer, and I foresee a time when the planet will be scoured of all life. Before that time comes we will swarm the surface, lay waste to all those whose path we cross, and set the seeds of our descendants in the halls of ancient places. There they may find some respite from the coming storm. Whatever happens, we will raise armies without equal, and even if every last mortal dies, at least the stars will witness how the Necrophage swarmed Auriga, sweeping aside all who stood in their way.
We were made to kill, and so we will kill. We are the Necrophage. | |||
| Summary | New Objective | Outcome | |
| The Necrophage hunger consumed Ka-Riss. Alone, you must prepare for the end of times. Gather Givers of Remembrance in one of your cities, reach Era IV in the Research Tree, then seed your eggs across Auriga. | 1. Build the Givers of Remembrance in one of your cities and enter Technology Era IV
2. Level up Hero Ka-Riss to 9. 3. With the Incubation Orb item equipped on a Necrophage Hero, search the 3 ruins located in the regions called [Region], [Region], and [Region]. |
If the winter devours us our descendants will rise -- of that I am sure. And at times I dream that one day another will surpass me, and take us to the stars... | |
| Reward | 1. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1
2. Mad Fairies Droplist, picks 1 | ||
