Dominions 3: The Awakening/Units/Mage

In Dominions, a Mage is a commander with 1 or more picks in a Path of Magic. Mages with priest skill are called Priest-Mages. Mages are referred to either by the Paths of Magic they have (Death Mage, Fire Mage etc.) or by their name, especially if they are well known mages.

Types of Mages
Mages can be split into National Mages and Independent (or Indie) Mages. National mages are available by nationality. A well known and feared example of a national mage is the Arch Seraph of Caelum. Only Caelum can recruit them, even if they were conquered by another nation.

Independant mages are available from special provinces or magic sites. Sages, Amazon mages and Druids are the most well-known independent mages.

Paths of Magic are used to describe mages. One can say that "Jade Sorceress is a 2N1W mage." This means that a Jade Sorceress has two picks of Nature and one pick of Water magic. See the Abbreviation section under "Things to Know".

What mages can do
Special commands for mages include the follow:
 * Search for magic sites: A mage searches the province for magic sites. See Magic Sites & Gems for more details.
 * Research: A mage contributes his Research Points to the research pool. Can only be done in a Laboratory.
 * Forge magic item: The mage forges a magic item. Can only be done in a laboratory. This action always takes one turn.
 * Alchemy: The mage performs alchemy with magic gems. Usually in Dominions, the Alchemy is an instant action. A mage can alchemize some gems and then move from province to another or go back doing whatever he was doing before alchemy.
 * Build Laboratory: All mages and only mages can build laboratories
 * Blood Hunt: A Blood mage tries to capture sacrificial virgins called Blood Slaves. This takes one turn and is on by default once a mage is ordered to do this. He or she will keep doing it until told otherwise. The better the mage is, the more often he'll find Blood Slaves. The less unrest there is in province the more successful he'll be. The more population, the more success. Blood hunting upsets the population a lot.