Azurael

## Description

*"Far within the vastness of the sapphire desert lies a civilization fueled by it's rich sources of a strange, otherworldly material simply called Azurae. With this, the Azuraelites reigned supreme within the blue dunes of the Square, and their entire civilization revolves around this material. Without it, they may as well be headless chickens running amok." (WIP)*

The Azurael stand their ground within their sapphire dunes, their entire civilization solely dependent on the strange deep-blue pigmented materials aptly named 'Azurae'. They start with the unique Nodes tech which replaces the roads tech but allows the construction of Nodes that allows them to safely travel away from their territory or they'll take damage over time.

## Terrain and Resources

* Fruit: Sourbulbs (just imagine a blue bunch of sour berries with pinkish hues)
* Animal: Scorpion
* Field: Blue sand dunes with purple soil
* Forest: Pink cactus patch
* Mountain: Purple jagged spires that becomes lighter near the top
* City: Light pink walls with matte purple foundations, blue framing and flat roofs.
* Color: Navy Blue
* Helmet: Pillbox-styled hat with a blue gem at the top-center

The terrain is mostly made up of sapphire-blue colored sand, which is just regular sand that is heavily affected by Azurae. Mountains rarely appear, but when they do it's mostly alien in appearance, forming a jagged structure that looks like a spear coming out of the ground. Gold is replaced by Azurae, which is always found within mountain tiles.

In place of trees are wide patches of cactuses that have grown to become an exceedingly good substitute for wood in the blue desert.

The most common wildlife found in these sands are the large and passive marble-white Scorpions which come in packs and are said to be incredibly delicious (and nutritious!) when prepared properly. Sourbulbs are always found within the cactus patches. The name comes from the fact that it has a very sour aftertaste.

## Special Features

As a special tribe, Azurael has modified technologies that unlock unique units, buildings, and abilities.

\*Every Azurael unit has the Dependency trait, which makes them take damage whenever the unit is not within the tribe's territory or if they aren't within a Node region.\*

Nodes are similar to concept with Cymanti's Mycelium buildings and can connect cities, but it can only heal Azurael units and cannot cure any debuffs. If a city with a Node is captured by a non-Azurael tribe, the healing function will not function. The building can support Azurael units within a 5x5 radius and can only be built twice within each city. \*Subject to change\*

The Guard replaces the Defender unit. They have a toggled ability that increases their defense, but disables retaliation as well preventing movement.

The Sabre replaces the Swordsman unit. They wield swords known as Sabers (hence, the name) which are crafted from Azurae and can also inflict a unique debuff called 'Malady'. After the turn when 'Malady' is inflicted onto a unit, deals 2 damage to the affected target and transfers the effect to a nearby non-Azurael, human unit, dispelling the effect from the original carrier. This effect clears if it cannot find a target to transfer to and can be cured by healing. \*WIP debuff might be too op :b\*

The Inflictor replaces the Archer unit. A ranged unit that deals slightly weaker damage than a normal archer, but can inflict the Malady debuff.

The Nodebearer replaces the Mind Bender unit. Losing the ability to convert an enemy unit, this unit can ultimately function as a Node whilst being able to move. They can also strengthen a single unit that's beside them. A famous Nodebearer once said, "Mind bending is pointless if your targets can't eat what you grow, or something like that."

The Bastion replaces the Knight unit. Bastions are heavily armored soldiers that can withstand a heavy beating. They're main focus is defense and retaliation, and are not advised to be the first ones to engage in combat. If they retaliate against an enemy and kill them, this unit will proceed to attack a random nearby enemy without retaliation.

The super unit of this tribe is the Arbiter. These are the titles of the people who retain a high position within the tribe, and are regaled to be highly "attuned" with the Azurae metal. They can fire mysterious blue orbs from their specters which damages the target as well as inflicting Malady to the target and surrounding units on nearby tiles. They can also strengthen Azurael units surrounding them within a 3x3 radius with Attuned, which slightly increases their overall stats.

## Author Notes

* This is going to be one of the first of the tribes that I'll be making. This isn't final, and I still have to make several changes, maybe some things are too overpowered or not balanced enough. The Malady debuff was something I made up in the middle of writing so I'll probably make some adjustments to how it works, maybe add a stat table for the units too. I could probably make my own sprites, but since I mostly do pixel art it'll be a good struggle for me to find a suitable program for editing. Until then, this is all you'd be seeing. Thanks.