Bandits: The First Enemy You Will Meet
When the frontier burns, the first to arrive are never a neighbor's armies. They are Bandits.
The hostile forces of the Sandbox Map fall into three tiers — Bandits, Elites, and Bosses — and Bandits hold the bottom of the food chain: lowest in level, most mismatched in gear, simplest in motive. They want the wealth that scattered when the Old Empires came down.
They fly no common banner, yet they follow a common pattern: beside the mines, along the trade routes, at the edge of ruined cities. Wherever a legacy lies unclaimed, they are already there.
Rebels and Heretics: What the Collapse Left Behind
Behind the Bandits stand threats with structure.
Rebels are the remnants of the old era's wars — splinters of kingdom armies that broke apart in the upheaval. The world map marks them as a different breed of enemy entirely, and they are the foes whole Alliances must gather to bring down: the Alliance Boss.
The faction with the clearest face, though, is the Heretics — a complete order of 10 units:
- Common (6) — Zealot, Loyal Blade, Whisperer, Forbidden Scholar, Dusk Guard, Dark Knight
- Elite (2) — Shadow Guard, Inquisitor
- Boss (2) — Crimson Hierophant, Ashen Prophet
Their look never wavers: black robes, hooded faces, spears that strike like vipers, forbidden tomes drifting before their hands, black gold against deep blue. This is no rabble. It is a cult.
They nest in the ruins of the old city-states. In Season 0, the Age of Exploration, one of their strongholds is the Convict Tower — "a black iron nail driven into the sky."
Four Tiers of Enemies
Taken together, the NPC enemies of the Sandbox Map sort into four tiers of strength:
- T1 · Bandits — lowest tier of map monsters; low level, mismatched gear
- T2 · Rebels — remnants of the old era's wars; fought as the Alliance Boss
- T3 · Heretics — a cult fielding a full 10-unit roster (6 common + 2 elite + 2 boss)
- T4 · Garrisons — mountain passes and system cities: garrison armies, city defenders, and pass durability
Your own capital keeps NPC defenders as well, unlocked by research from level 1 to 3. Whoever holds the throne, someone must stand the walls.
The Quiet Cast: Explorers and Scholars
The old texts say it plainly: "The treasuries of kingdoms, the trade routes of empires, the knowledge of scholars and the glory of heroes — together these made the wealth of an age."
Scholars carry that knowledge. Explorers claim to have found ancient ruins on distant shores — and those claims rekindled the legend of the Golden City. But mark the boundary: neither is a force you can meet on the map. There are no explorer armies, no scholar questlines, no tag in the interface. They are the unseen hands that move the story, present only in word and memory.
The residents, though, are real. In the first hours of your reign they elect you Lord; they lay down their farm tools and take up arms. That is where your rise begins — and it is the most silent power on the continent.