Balauria
Eras and the Balaur
An era is one life of the world. The admin starts it with a length — 84, 50, 30 or 15 days — and a shorter era simply runs faster: production, construction, research and training speed up, queues get longer. Costs stay the same, so the balance does.
While the Balaur sleeps, clans build, fight each other and hold the six support fronts around the lair: a war camp adds damage, a ritual site pierces the dragon's shield, a supply line spares your men and teaches your hero. Hold points fade by half each day, so fronts must be defended, and scouts can sabotage them.
When the preparation ends the Balaur wakes on its own; a clan with ten members and a treasury of aether may provoke it earlier. Then only armies led by heroes may march on the lair. The dragon has three phases, heals when left alone, and its wrath grows every few days, cutting the whole world's production. The clan that lands the killing blow — with at most two allies — wins the era, enters the Hall of Fame with its name and the loot, and a fresh world begins. Accounts, titles and the Hall of Fame survive; settlements, armies and companions do not.
War campA fortified camp on the road to the lair. The clan that holds it strikes Balaur harder.
Supply lineWagons, wells and roads to the front. The clan that holds it meets a thinner brood and its heroes learn faster.
Ritual siteOld stones that sing against dragonfire. The clan that holds them pierces Balaur's shield of fire.