Originally, the game was known as "Populous: The Third Coming", but the name was changed by the time the game was shown in a fully playable beta form in late 1998.
Pleme vodi šamanka, ki pa je hkrati edina ženska v plemenu, razen v filmskih izsekih, kjer so prikazane tudi ostale ženske v plemenu; vsi bojevniki v igri so torej moškega spola.