The Dark Prince's Realm is a special province or area of the campaign map. It appears in The Realm of Chaos campaign.
Overview[]
- "I saw a hungry Princeling of Chaos, and he was nourished by our ravings..."
To enter the Dark Prince's Realm, an army must use a Chaos Rift to cross into the Realm of Chaos, and choose the destination as "The Dark Prince's Realm."
The Dark Prince's Realm consists of several sub-sections called "circles" that go down to the Palace of Slaanesh in the center. To reach to the lower circle and the Palace of Slaanesh and fight The Courtesan (Slaanesh Daemon Prince), enter through the purple portals.
There are two obstacles there, aside from rival factions:
- Fighting the armies of Rapturous Excess, who guard the realm.
- The dilemmas when you enter each circle, which ofter tempting rewards. If you accept, you are immediately kicked out of the Dark Prince's Realm back into the main game's map, and you cannot enter the Dark Prince's Realm again for a number of turns.
Additionally,
- Allied recruitment and regiment of renown recruitment is disabled in this province/area
Circles of Slaanesh[]
- The Circle of Avidity
- The Circle of Gluttony
- The Circle of Carnality
- The Circle of Paramountcy
- The Circle of Vainglory
- The Circle of Indolency
Notable rewards[]
- The Dark Prince's Paramour
- Slaanesh's Blade
- Personal Sycophant
Strategy[]
The Dark Prince's Realm has the potential to be extremely straightforward. Once you appear at a starting Rift, you must proceed through a series of gates (effectively teleporters) to reach the bottom. Each gate fully drains your movement points when you pass through, so you can descend at most one level per turn; as such, the absolute minimum speed you can reach the bottom is eight turns, effectively guaranteeing you to receive at least two levels of Slaneesh's negative realm trait. It CAN be done in eight turns, however, as it is possible through March stance to chart a path where you can reach a gate each turn. With a little luck (as each layer is shrouded until you reach it), you might not even have to fight anything on the way down!
The difficulty comes from the gates themselves, each of which offers you a choice -- either proceed down, or receive a reward. These rewards are very tangible and very, very real, always including a huge stack of cash that can get to frankly obscene sizes by the lowest gate in the late game, along with additional rewards ranging from an array of items, to frankly enormous (though temporary) realm-wide boosts to Growth or Control or diplomatic approval, to mass level-ups for every unit in the present stack or to every Lord and Hero you control. The Slaneesh-unique reward items, only found lower down on the circle, are extremely powerful and can be acquired in no other way.
These rewards come with two significant drawbacks. First, taking any reward will boot you out of the Realms of Chaos immediately, and prevent you not just from re-entering Slaneesh's domain, but entering ANY of the other Realms for the duration of that cycle, effectively sacrificing a chance at a Soul in exchange. Additionally, the player's Lord will be marked by Slaneesh with a trait showing that you have taken their favor, which cannot be removed. The first time, the effect is just +1 Slaneesh corruption in the local region per turn so long as the Lord is present. But that's if you can make yourself only take one...
Despite the drawbacks, the rewards offered by Slaneesh can be very genuinely tempting -- in money alone, the final gate can offer you as much as 100,000 gold for taking its offer, which is life-changing money no matter how large your empire is at the moment, and that's without considering the possible boosts or items on offer. If you already have a lead on the competition, it may be worth giving up a round's soul for the sake of seeing what Slaneesh is willing to bribe you with this time, especially since you CAN go back even after beating the Realm. However, that Mark they give you will never go away, and it can only get worse... though after one or two visits, you should have the whole world conquered before it can really matter.
If you ARE looking to get the Courtesan's soul, however, the Dark Prince's Realm is very much first-come-first-served. Because of how the gates drain mobility when passing through them, anyone who gets even a single level's lead in the realm is almost impossible to catch up to. It IS possible to engage enemies after moving through a gate, but only if you both took the same gate that same turn (and aren't Marching, of course). Attempting to pursue an opponent with a lead down the realm is basically rolling the dice on whether or not they'll take one of the lower gate options or barrel all the way through; the AI DOES take the former option at times, but very, very rarely, and players are never to be trusted in the first place (though they can also LOSE the Palace battle, which is always very funny). Inversely, if the AI shows up and sees you already on your way down, there's a decent chance they'll just take a reward early and bow out. If you ARE hell-bent on the Courtesan's soul (such as if it's the last one you need) and are chasing someone with a lead, try and chase them as far down as you can; if they actually reach the bottom, that is the time to take a prize and duck out rather than chancing them losing the Palace battle. Even if it turns out you didn't need to duck out, going as far down as possible will still net you a larger compensation prize for your time.
Battle maps[]
Battle maps set in the Realm of Slaanesh:
- The Palace of Slaanesh - survival
- Path of Provocation - ambush
- Blind Desire River - choke
- Lake of Luxury - choke
- Ecstasy Expanse
- Fascination Fields
- Greed Grove
- Ravenous Range
- The Flats of Frenzy
- The Land of Lust
- The Tickling Tundra