In Six Ages, you play as a clan, not an individual. But your clan is full of individuals, and your most prominent nobles are a big part of the game. They have names, skills, faces, and personalities; they come from specific families in the clan and are dedicated to particular deities in your pantheon. A few are potential heroes, blessed by the gods with special abilities, and have illustrated storylines tied to them.

Your leaders' skills are tested in events and control much of the basic, practical advice they give. Circle members with higher skills will succeed more often in events and give better advice, so you want competent people on the circle.

In situations where you choose a single leader to handle something—exploration, diplomacy, ventures, and rituals—that single leader will be the one whose skills will matter.

Leaders also have biases—each one comes from a family and they may back their kin in events. They also have personalities: one may be obsessed with goats, another chronically indecisive.

As the game progresses your people age, improve their skills, and die; their younger relatives come of age to replace them. A few preset characters with unique storylines also appear, and you can guide them to become heroes.

While a noble's family, skills, age and gender are all visible when you click their portrait, personality is not; you can get clues from nobles' "campaign pitches" in circle selection (the noble who says "Think of the goats!" is definitely going to keep talking about goats), but often you just have to get to know them over time. If the circle member who you put on the ring for her Diplomacy skill insults the Wheels at every opportunity, maybe she's not the best choice to send to a Wheel clan to negotiate an alliance!

(I usually stick to Steam images in my guides, but this one is a composite from iOS, for reasons.)

Your leaders have 7 basic skills:

• Bargaining: Skill at trading and evaluating goods.
  
• Combat: Fighting ability.
  
• Diplomacy: Skill at negotiating and dealing with people.
  
• Food: Knowledge of plants and animals.
  
• Leadership: Ability to inspire others and command loyalty and obedience.
  
• Lore: Knowledge of history and law.
  
• Magic: Ability to work spells, bargain with spirits, and reach the gods.

(Descriptions from the game.)

From best to worst, your nobles can be Heroic, Renowned, Excellent, Very Good, Good, or Fair at a skill. (Anything less than Fair isn't worth mentioning.) In numerical terms, skills can't be less than 0, and 6 or more qualifies as Heroic. Additionally, it's worth noting that skills aren't actually integers—one noble's Excellent might be 4.0 and another's 4.9!

While success is rarely guaranteed, the higher a noble's relevant skill, the better their odds of success. A Heroic diplomat is much likelier to succeed in negotiating an alliance than a Very Good one.

When you sort a list of nobles by skill, the best of them are on the left.

In addition to the basic seven, leaders can also be tested on synthesized skills—averages of two of their listed skills. (In some cases it may be a little more complicated than that, but roughly speaking, averages of two skills.)

The table only includes skill combinations which I figured out before looking at the code. (Since the code section that clarified things for me isn't really possible to get out of the Steam files, I'm not comfortable listing the things I only found out from that.)

An X marks a redundant combination (Bargaining + Bargaining is just Bargaining; Bargaining + Leadership has one space already and doesn't need a second); a question mark one that is unconfirmed or may not exist.

The list afterwards includes all synthesized skills.

• CombatLore: Combat + Lore
  
• CombatMagic: Combat + Magic
  
• Deception: Bargaining + Leadership
  
• Exploring: Bargaining + Combat
  
• Farming: Food + ?
  
• Foraging: Food + Lore
  
• Gifting: Bargaining + ?
  
• Herding: Food + ?
  
• Hunting: Combat + Food
  
• Husbandry: Food + Leadership
  
• Intimidation: Combat + Diplomacy
  
• Mediation: Diplomacy + ?
  
• Mythology: Magic + Lore
  
• Oration: Diplomacy + Lore
  
• Poetry: Leadership + Lore
  
• Prophesy: Leadership + Magic
  
• Singing: Leadership + ?
  
• Strategy: Combat + Leadership
  
• Treasures: Bargaining + Magic
  
• WedCultures: Diplomacy + Magic

Rituals can be used to strengthen non-shamans. Aside from Taming the River, each ritual boosts two skills.

Most rituals can only be performed by leaders of the god's own gender—the exceptions are Elmal Path Guardian (open to Osara worshippers) and Ekarna Four Trader (open to all non-shamans). Additionally, worshippers of a god will have an advantage at their rituals.


Shamans can't do rituals, but their magic skill is boosted when they successfully catch spirits. Since no ritual usually* boosts Magic, this evens things out a little.

* Rituals with skill boost rewards have backup options if one of the "standard" skills the ritual boosts is already Heroic and you succeeded at a specific option in the ritual.

For example, Elmal Path Guardia usually grants Combat and Leadership. If one of these skills is heroic already and you successfully defeat Yonesh with fire magic, strengthening the quester's abilities will boost Magic as well as whichever of Combat and Leadership wasn't heroic already. (If you don't succeed at the specific option that unlocks the special reward, strengthening the quester will instead grant magic the next several times you chose them to lead a mission.) There are a number of such backup skill boosts, but I don't actually know what all of them are and can't fully add them to either this guide or the ritual ones.)

Behold, a debug file!

I include this because the debug file output for the initial clan circle is basically the most information you ever get about some of your leaders.

The data here for each line is, in order: position (literal location) on the circle, portrait set, name, age, seven skills in alphabetical order, two personality traits. (It does not show religion, family, or gender, but those can all be seen much more easily in play.)

For example, Jereno (this clan's starting chief) is Very Good at both Combat and Leadership—but he's just barely Very Good at Combat (3.0), and almost Excellent at Leadership (3.8). You would've figured that out in a year or two, but still. More interestingly, he's got the PureHorse and Spendthrift traits, which means he'll favor the Pure Horse clan and the horse goddess Gamari in events, and that he's going to favor being generous and/or rash with your clan wealth.

Just for comparison, here's Chief Jereno at his first Sacred Time in the valley. You can see his two Very Good skills, but not which is better; on the other hand, you can see his age (38), cult (Elmal) and family (Akot), all information that the debug file wouldn't give you.

Taken together, you get fairly complete information about your starting circle.

Let's look at personality traits. Everyone has two, and a rare few nobles have three.

Some traits are opposed, incompatible pairs: a single noble can't can't be both an optimist and a pessimist, nor both ProRam and AntiRam. Others are limited by gender (only men have the Patriarchal trait and only women have the Matriarchal trait). And many are limited by religion: no Busenari priestess will ever aspire to Pure Horse ways, a shaman will not have the GodSeeker trait, and a worshipper of peaceful Erissa will never be Warlike.

Each personality trait has a name and a number—depending on version, you may see either of these in debug files.

Trait number 51 (☆, and yes that's what the debugs use for it) isn't a personality trait. Rather, it's a marker for your three potential heroes, Ayvtu, Beren, and Yatakan. As far as I can tell, it exists because checking for it is quicker than checking for all three of them in events and rituals.

Reading through, say, the debug file section for a ritual, you'll see a lot of checks on various traits. For example, the ritual Hyalor Tablet Maker takes place partly in mythic Nivorah, so the GoldenCity trait is checked in several choices. A GoldenCity leader, like Jereno, would get bonuses to all of them.

Unfortunately, you only get that open-and-shut confirmation of traits with your starting circle. But you can learn a lot about your nobles from the advice they give, and a lot of what they say in circle selection and on the management screens (including out-of-the-way places like the Sacrifice and Venture dialogs) depends on personality.

After you pick a circle, it might be worthwhile to spend a bit of time checking out the various screens without making choices to advance time, just to get to know them a bit.

Zuchi here is giving commonsense advice (don't launch raids you can't win), colored by her SongQuoter personality.

Below is a table of personality traits with numbers, notes about what they tend to help and hinder, and characteristic advice from the management screens and circle selection dialog.

Everyone in your clan follows the same religion, but many are dedicated to one god or another, and a few are experts in dealing with spirits. Anyone can try to sacrifice to a god or drum to a spirit, but a member of the appropriate cult is going to have a much easier time of it. And if their god has a playable ritual, they'll also have an advantage at that.

Additionally, each religion opens up the possibility of dedicating extra magic to a particular area at Sacred Time. This will help all your efforts in that area for the next year.

There are fifteen possible cults for your nobles to belong to in this game. I'm going to list them all, with the gods in alphabetical order and the two shaman variants at the end.

Most cults are limited to either men or women; only a few are open to both. (An all-male or all-female circle will slightly reduce your clan magic each year.)

Note that not every deity in your pantheon has a place on the circle! For example, you may have clan members devoted to the barley goddess Pela (at least one can be mentioned in events), but these women aren't sufficiently notable to merit a place on the circle.

Rune: Cow
Sacred Time Magic: Pastures
Worshipper Gender: Female

"My position on the clan circle helps bring prosperity to our herds."

Busenari, goddess of cows, is a deity vital to your clan's survival. Most of her worshippers are herder types, strong in the Food skill, though there are exceptions—women talented at leadership or magic instead.

For obvious reasons, Busenari worshippers don't gravitate towards Pure Horse ways.

Busenari worshippers have an advantage at her ritual, which is the most vital of the lot because it allows you to instantly restore overgrazed pastures.

Rune: Beast
Sacred Time Magic: Wilds
Worshipper Gender: Male

"The circle needs my keen senses to keep them alert."

Dostal worshippers are hunters, strong in Food and Combat. They have an advantage at their god's ritual, which makes it possible to boost a Dostal man into an emergency war leader.

And Wilds magic helps keep the clan fed.

Rune: Communication
Sacred Time Magic: Diplomacy
Worshipper Gender: Any

"The clan would be more prosperous with a representative of Ekarna seated on the council."

Ekarna, goddess of trade, is naturally worshipped mainly by your best bargainers—though occasionally you may see a strong magician dedicated to her.

Ekarna is the only one of your gods to have both male and female devotees.

Rune: Fire
Sacred Time Magic: War
Worshipper Gender: Male

"The clan needs a worshiper of Elmal to lead it."

Elmal, god of (your) sun, is the leader of the pantheon. As such, many of your male nobles worship him, including some who specialize as warriors or magicians, but also including some generalists. On the circle, his presence gives a War Magic slot.

Your Elmali nobles may argue that one of their number should lead the clan. While this may be a cultural norm, as far as I can tell it isn't enforced in gameplay. Don't feel obligated to have an Elmali chieftain.

Rune: Harmony
Sacred Time Magic: Health
Worshipper Gender: Female

"The circle needs to reflect healing as well as death."

Gentle Erissa, goddess of healers, is a deity a war-focused clan should honor—the more sick and wounded you have, the more you'll need her help.

Her followers have highly variable skills (strengths can include Magic, Diplomacy, or Lore), though they are generally weak in Combat.

Rune: Horse
Sacred Time Magic: Pastures
Worshipper Gender: Female

"A Rider clan should have a representative of the horse mother guiding it."

Gamari, goddess of horses, is one of your peoples' defining gods. Her worshippers can fall into a few different skill patterns—they can be generic "nobles", magicians, or specialist herders.

Unfortunately, most struggle with their goddess's ritual.

Rune: Mastery
Sacred Time: Diplomacy, Harmony
Worshipper Gender: Male

"We can hardly call ourself a Hyaloring clan with no representative of Hyalor on the clan circle."

Hyalor is your defining god and hero, so many of your men will worship him, including herders, generic nobles, and warriors.

He grants two magic slots rather than just one—the only god of which this is true. In addition, he is the only god who grants a harmony magic slot.

Rune: Wilderness
Sacred Time Magic: Wilds
Worshipper Gender: Female

"Our foragers do better while I sit on the clan circle."

Inilla worshippers have a bonus/advantage at foraging. However, they don't necessarily have a high Foraging skill—Foraging is a composite of Food and Lore, and Inilla worshippers tend to have high Food but not high Lore. (Their skills tend to follow the pattern of Dostal worshippers, actually; I've had couple kickass Inillan warleaders.)

(Inillans are likelier to be good at Foraging in the IOS version of the game, as well as in the sequel.)

Rune: Earth
Sacred Time Magic: Fields
Worshipper Gender: Female

"The earth mother should be sitting on the council. I would be happy to represent her."

Nyalda is one of your most important goddesses, and in some ways is the "default" for Rider women. Her worshippers include generic nobles, magicians, and the odd farmer.

Since she's the only god who grants Fields magic at Sacred Time, she's a good choice to put on the circle if you're having any trouble feeding your people.

Rune: Osara
Sacred Time Magic: War
Worshipper Gender: Female

"The best warrior belongs on the circle. I am the finest fighter this clan has."

In the game, Osara worshippers are your only dedicated female warriors; you can generally assume a female Sword is an Osara worshipper, and that an Osaran noble is relatively good at fighting.

Due to Osara's closeness and similarity to her father, her worshippers are the only women who can perform the ritual Elmal Path Guardian, otherwise restricted to male nobles.

Osara has a unique rune invented for her in the game! It's a Sun variant from the tabletop games with a bow and arrow superimposed on top.

Rune: Truth
Sacred Time Magic: Ritual
Worshipper Gender: Male

"Our stories and customs tell us how to behave. I can make sure the rest of the council remembers them."

The worshippers of Relandar are uniformly skilled at Lore. This skill isn't tested often, but it translates to knowledge of Hyaloring law, myth, and history (insofar as history exists yet). Put a Relandar worshipper on the council if you want to listen to his advice.

Rune: Goat
Sacred Time Magic: Pastures
Worshipper Gender: Female

"On the circle, I could make sure we have healthy kids and fine wool."

Uryarda the goat goddess is not quite as important to your clan as Busenari or Gamari, but she's still important to your survival. Her worshippers give the same Pastures magic as theirs do.

(Since poor Uryarda is the only one of your gods—other than Pela, I suppose—not to be depicted in the game, have some of her mortal children as substitutes.)

Rune: Motion
Sacred Time Magic: Exploring
Worshipper Gender: Male

"I can stay on the circle a while longer, before I roam again."

Zarlen worshippers are rare—even more so than Raven shamans. (Yes, I did the math. A hundred clan starts and a spreadsheet were involved.) They are frequently good explorers, but since they are also the only ones who grant Sacred Time exploring magic slots (extremely useful) you may want to keep them at home, on the circle, instead.

Rune: Spirit
Sacred Time Magic: Ritual
Gender: Any

"The clan needs an experienced shaman on the circle to help deal with spirits."

Shamans are typically strong in Magic. They can't increase their skills for Gods War rituals, but do improve their Magic skill by successfully hunting for spirits. (Dedicate Exploration magic at Sacred Time and build a shrine to Zarlen to make this safer for them.)

They have a significant advantage at bargaining with spirits, so it's good to have one on the council.

Shamans also have unisex portraits, the only nobles of which this is true. (Practically, all this means is that if someone complains that your circle is all men, or all women, and you thought that wasn't the case—check your shamans.)

Rune: Illusion
Sacred Time Magic: None
Follower Gender: Any

"I can’t believe I’m still on the council."

The trickster spirit Raven is a liminal being between spirits and gods. While Riders are very firm that Raven is a spirit and nothing else, she is the only spirit to have dedicated followers, and occupies a position among the circle of the gods despite his unreliable nature.

Raven shamans are the same. They make uniquely terrible chiefs, and are unreliable mission leaders. On the circle, they grant no Sacred Time magic slots at all. But having one on the circle can open up new opportunities. In this position, they help you out as often as they make trouble. (And their advice is always entertaining.)

Raven tricksters are rare. You will never have more than one of them in your clan at a time, and if your trickster dies there's no guarantee that another will appear during that game.

There are a few exploration events that can transform a noble into a Raven trickster, provided you have none in the clan already. However, these seldom occur and aren't tied to recognizable landmarks on the map.

The cults represented on your circle control which rituals you can perform at Sacred Time. This is a major reason to pay attention to them.

"Priority" is how important I, personally, think this magic is—high priority for rituals I do every year, situational for the ones I think are vital depending on what you're doing or what problems you have, and low for the ones I almost never bother with. This is a value judgement on my part and your mileage may vary! (I think most people agree with me about Fields, Pastures, and War, but some players may find e.g. Crafts magic more useful than I do, or ignore Exploring magic because they don't explore.)

• Fields: always, because you always need to eat.
  
• Pastures: always, because your herds keep you alive.
  
• War: every year after the second or so, because fighting is hard and goes better when the gods are on your side.
  
• Wilds: always, because you always need to eat.*
  
• Exploring: if you plan on sending out any exploration missions, because exploration is dangerous.
  
• Health: if you have many sick or injured people, especially if you lack a shrine to Erissa.
  
• Diplomacy: if you're planning on asking another clan for an alliance or trade route, or if you have a lot of magic and want to put the extra into passive relations bonuses.
  
• Ritual: if you have a lot of sacrifices or spirit bargains to make, and your circle is weak in Magic.
  
• Harmony: if your people are in a bad mood, and/or your circle is weak in Leadership; or if you have a ton of magic and want to use the surplus to make your people happy.
  
• Crafts: if you have a ton of magic and would like to turn some of it into extra goods.

* You may not need both Fields and Wilds every year. I tend to allocate both, because I'd rather have a food surplus and trade it off than risk having to scrape up food from alternate sources. And I try to have at least one worshipper of Dostal + Inilla + Nyalda on my circle—but not necessarily all three, or even two of those cults.

I have a bad habit of micromanaging my circle's cult composition. But most of the time, you're not going to be able to fill all the available boxes. Unless you have magic coming out of your ears, you don't need to minmax your circle—just make sure that you have the most important cults for what you want to do.

In practice, I think it's important to have at least one war god and one fields/wilds god worshipper on the circle. If I have the option, I also try to have worshippers of Erissa and Zarlen on the circle because of their Sacred Time contributions—even if I don't need their special rituals every year, it's good to have the option. (I also try to have a shaman, but more because of their edge in bargaining with spirits than anything else.)

Your advisors may make frustratingly vague remarks that it can be better to "concentrate" on a few areas of magic rather than to put a little in every area. What this actually means is that there are situations where two or more points of magic will help and one won't even be checked. In general, one point of magic will have a passive effect (i.e. one point of Fields won't be wasted: it makes food) but it takes two to help when you have to get Nyalda's attention in an emergency sacrifice, or walk her path in the Gods War.

Sacred Time rites can also be important in various Gods War rituals—though it's not as simple as Ritual magic making a god's entire ritual easier. For example, Ritual magic does help in the sacrifice to begin a ritual, but most choices in "Elmal Path Guardian" will be easier with War magic to help your quester imitate Elmal's acts of protective violence.

Your people age, grow more skilled over time, and eventually die.

Leaders first appear in their late teens or early twenties (with exceptions). They use their first portrait up until age 29; the second lasts from ages 30 to 55; and the last one is 56+.

Just before Sacred Time, your people all officially age one year. Their portraits may swap over; their skills increase slightly (this growth can be increased with Relandar's Instruction blessing). After about 50, their Combat may start to decline. And this is also when elderly clan members die of old age.

Since they die before Sacred Time, a circle member dying of old age will give you a "broken" circle right before Sacred Time rituals. This dings your magic and also means you won't be able to conduct the full range of rituals you could when they were alive–if your Erissa worshiper just died, you can't put that extra magic point in Health.

63 is the age where old-age death becomes possible (i.e. when they turn 63; a 62 year old can die of old age next Sacred Time). If you have a viable replacement for an elderly circle member, you might want to reorganize the ring before Sacred Time instead of waiting for someone to die and cause complications.

Alternately, if you really want to keep an elderly leader alive, you can do it by making sure they're never at home at Sacred Time. (Trade and diplomacy missions to distant clans serve the purpose better than exploration, as they're less risky.)

However, you can't keep this up forever. 97 is the hard limit; anyone who ages past that will automatically die as soon as they're available/at home.

Also, if your noble is never at home at Sacred Time, they can't contribute to Sacred Time rituals. So the send-away strategy has major downsides for a circle member.

Here's an example.

At 63, Chief Mirianai could die of old age. I don't want to send her away from the clan at Sacred Time, because she's a ring member and I want that War magic. I certainly don't want to take her off the ring, because at Heroic Combat she's far and away the best fighter I have. And if I'm lucky, she might hang on for a fair few years yet.

But I should probably start boosting Yatakan or Ayvtu with rituals, so that one of them can take over when she dies or loses her edge. After two successful rituals, either one would be as good as she is, and a viable replacement as warleader and perhaps chief as well.

I'm grouping these because both family and gender tend to be treated as factions within the clan. (The former, admittedly, more than the latter.)

There are seven families and seven spots on the circle, so it makes sense that customarily each family gets a place (and all of them expect one as their due).

If a family is left off the circle, they'll complain about it. If you ignore them, the complaint event will repeat. And the other families may be sympathetic to them, especially if your circle doesn't have the Leadership skill to convince them that the Akots are just whining again.

If more than one family is missing, you can check which ones by clicking on "circle". If just one is, the note shown will read "Only 6 families are on the circle (Turent is missing)".

Rarely, you can temporarily run out of nobles from a particular family. This will not last. If you have 0 of a family, you might want to wait a couple turns—someone will pop up soon, and if you happen to have reorganized your circle already, well, the family is now ready to complain! (I tend to picture the offscreen family members furiously tutoring a shy or not especially promising youngster, and pushing them out into public as soon as they pass muster.)

A few circle members are obsessed with their family and bring it up at every opportunity—even to the point of suggesting that you put another [family] member on the circle in addition to themselves! But all nobles will speak up for their own family when they're involved in an event. If the Parnt and Karent families are arguing over who gets to adopt a baby, check with your Parnt and Karent circle members—they'll tell you why their relatives care so much about this.

Gender is a little less prominent. There are still leaders who will push for what the men or women of the clan want, or argue that you have too few women/men on the ring and this will cause disaster.

They're exaggerating about disaster. But if you have no men or women on the circle, you'll have less clan magic each year (though not by much). And if mood is poor, you'll be likelier to see events in which the unrepresented gender comes to the circle to complain.

One last point—shaman portraits are gender-neutral—the portrait set at right can belong to a man in one game and a woman in the next. If you think you have both men and women on the circle and you get dinged for a unisex circle, that's what's going on.

(This does not apply to Raven shamans, for the record, even though their patron spirit is both male and female at different times.)

Among Riders, female names end with -a, -i, -u or -een. Male names end with -e, -o, or consonants (but never -een).

I tend to call these advisors heroes, though that's not entirely accurate—though they tend to have outsize potential, they'll only become true heroes if you give them the chance to do so.

The game is kind enough to ensure that your heroes will not be born into the same families as each other—i.e., you will not be penalized for putting all of them on the circle. (Although if Beren and Yatakan both worship Elmal, you will miss out on the benefits of having seven different cults represented.)

Lyafor is not included in this section because, while unquestionably a hero, he is never a leader of your clan.

And Redalda isn't either because a) the reasons that she might count are extremely spoilery, and b) I've already covered her in a different guide.

Yatakan is the oldest of your fire kids. He's typically strongest in Combat (which can mean starting Excellent or Renowned) and second strongest in Magic (Very Good or Excellent). Usually he worships Elmal; occasionally he worships Zarlen the Wanderer, the only one of Elmal's sons the Riders worship as a god, instead.

Yatakan is a daring warrior and fiercely loyal friend, but struggles with the rage connected to his fire powers.

Ayvtu is the second of the fire children. Like her friend Yatakan, Ayvtu's skills vary within limits: in her case, she's best at Magic, second best at Combat. She always worships Osara, Elmal's warrior daughter.

Ayvtu can leave your clan to marry—which is what she desires, in part because none of your own young men suit her.

Her happiness and the relations bonus this gives with her marital clan (which may or may not come with an alliance; that depends on your negotiations) may or may not be worth losing a mighty hero—decide for yourself!

... arguably including the alternate portraits constitutes a spoiler but not a huge one, I think.

His starting skills are set at:

• Bargaining: unmentioned (i.e. worse than Fair)
  
• Combat: Excellent
  
• Diplomacy: Excellent
  
• Food: Good
  
• Leadership: Very Good
  
• Lore: Good
  
• Magic: Good

HIs personality is also set as Intuitive ProRam, and he always worships Elmal. You know what you're getting with Beren!

Beren's death ends the game and locks you out of winning it.

The endgame is also the resolution of Beren's event chain.

... that said, you can also delay the endgame somewhat by sending him away frequently (make sure you don't have Gamari's Fleethoof blessing active, of course). Exploration always carries an element of risk, but he can be good at it (and there are a lot of exploration events where he gets a little extra text, too!) While diplomacy won't work as long (it doesn't take as long to return from the far end of the Black Eel Valley), sending Beren to give gifts to every Ram clan is a win-win, honestly; between his skills and personality, he's a great choice to make friends with them.

The Former Wheel (my nickname for her; her name is randomized) is a bit of an edge case. She doesn't have a potential heroic destiny, and her skills are rarely exceptional. The one constant (aside from her portrait set) is that she worships Gamari, the horse goddess.

What she does have is a unique history and point of view. Having grown up among Wheels and either married or been adopted into a Rider clan, she understands Samnaling ways as none of your other people do.

Sometimes she can give you an edge in events involving Wheels; occasionally, her presence unlocks new options. I usually put her on the circle if I can, because I like hearing her advice.

(The Wheel Adoption event can repeat, but you'll only get an advisor from it the first time—you won't get a second identical Gamari worshipper ten years down the road.)

She's also unique in that she first appears at age 30, rather than as a youngster, and therefore has no "young" portrait.

There are a lot of factors involved in picking a circle—skills, families, genders, ages, cults, heroes. Often, you won't be able to get a perfect setup.

This advice reflects my priorities, which might be different from yours. But this is what works for me.

I'm also going to focus on the starting circle, because that's the trickiest. Later in the game, you're mostly replacing people as they die, or as new clan members too cool not to use pop up.

When I'm choosing my circle for a new clan, I tend to ignore clan members over about 60 if I can. This isn't always an option, and elders are often very skilled. But elders also die of old age, and reorganizing to replace them is a pain, especially in the early game when every turn counts.

In the first year, heroes won't be a factor—they won't have shown up yet. And I don't tend to worry about gender—I don't think I've ever had an all-male or all-female circle without actively planning it that way.

First, I go through my clan organizing the list of nobles by each skill, noting who's best at each one. Often I choose a warleader at this point—if I have one Renowned/Heroic Combat noble and they're not about to die of old age, they're going on the circle no matter what. I also really want to have a decent magician, so I take a note of who's competent at magic. If only one person is, they get the job.

Second, I sort by deity/cult. Do I have a Zarlen worshipper or a Raven shaman? I'm going to want them on the circle if so. Likewise, I want to have at least one war god worshipper.

Third, I sort by family. If I'm lucky, everyone I had my eye on will be from a different family—but usually I have to decide if having the skills/cults I want is worth annoying a family or two, or if keeping the clan happy is worth giving up on having an advisor competent in Bargaining.

A couple things about chieftains.

First, when you put a new person on the circle, they take the first available position, starting from the left. This means that if the chieftain's spot is empty, the first person you add to the circle automatically becomes the new chief. (If you lack a chief, you can directly promote a circle member to chief without taking them off the circle, though.)

Here's an example. The clan has no chief, and there's one other empty position on the circle. Ayoga is on the circle; Aznom isn't. If I want to make Ayoga chief, I can just click her upper box and she gets the job. If I want to make Aznom chief, clicking either of his boxes will do that. If I want to put Aznom on the circle without making him chief, then I have to make someone else chief first.

More importantly, there's an event in which your clan chief falls ill and may die. It only happens once; until it does, it's generally not a great idea to make a person whose death would really mess things up for you (say, your one Heroic warrior when your next best fighter is only Very Good) your chief.

I don't know how useful this will be—honestly, I mostly included this section to amuse myself by writing it. But here is a detailed rundown of how I choose my circles, with a random new clan by way of illustration.

As usual, my starting circle is not impressive—my chieftain has Renowned leadership but is very old for a Bronze Age woman at 69. She has a competent warleader, trader, and loremaster among her advisors, but the last of these is also getting on in years, and the other three circle members are honestly pretty useless.

(They do have all the families represented, though—that's always true of starting circles, as far as I'm aware.)

Also, one of the useless ones is complaining that we need more men on the circle when we already have four. You're out, Veris.

Let's look at the rest of the noble pool.


The Reorganize dialog sorts by Leadership by default, so let's start there. I have two people at Renowned: my starting chief Lerei (Akot family, age 69, worships Gamari) and Erzina (Karent, 57, Nyalda).

(If you want to see them properly, open the image in a new tab.)

Between the two, I like Erzina better—she has the higher skill, she's got six years to go before she's at risk of keeling over as opposed to Lerei who might die this winter, and she worships a goddess of Not Starving to Death.

Still, Erzina's on the older side too. After the two Renowned ladies, my next-best leaders all have Very Good Leadership—not exactly impressive. There are four of them: Inrana (Turent, 43, Osara; also has Excellent Combat); Targarung (Karent, 62, Relandar; also has Renowned Lore), Enala (Parnt, 56, Nyalda; also has Excellent Magic) and Kandak (Dasano, 29, Hyalor; also has Excellent Food).

Targarung is another elder. The other three, though, are worth considering—if I make Erzina chieftain now, one of them will likely be her successor.

And Kandak is interesting, because he's Very Good in five skills—he's one of those startlingly well-rounded people you get sometimes.

Let's move on to the rest of the skills.

Bargaining: Venalor (Parnt, 33, Ekarna) is the best in the clan at Excellent.

After him we have Kandak the jack-of-all-trades, and no one else is even Very Good. Bargaining is not this clan's strong point.

Since Venalor is our only competent trader, he'll spend a lot of time away from home—but he's still someone I'm tempted to have on our circle.

If Venalor doesn't end up on the circle, Kandak would be better than nothing—but I'm not going to prioritize having him on the circle just for his mediocre trading abilities.

Combat: Again, Excellent is the best I have, but I have actual options: Fenarom (Akot, 60, Hyalor), Yarnis (Erkent, 41, Hyalor) and Inrana (Turent, 43, Osara). They're listed in the order of skill; Fenarom is the best but also old enough that I don't really want to add him to the circle. Either Yarnis or Inrana would be fine, depending on how the rest of the circle goes. One of them is definitely going to be the warleader.

(Kandak, the eternal runner-up of this clan, is the fourth best fighter.)

Diplomacy: This skill is often a weak point for Rider clans, and this clan is no exception. I have four Very Goods, nothing better. Best (relatively) to worst, they are: Lerei, Kandak again, Yarnis again, and Chorayla (Dasano, 69, Busenari).

I'm not mentally promising anyone a seat on the basis of their Diplomacy skill here—no one actually impresses me.

And Lerei and Chorayla are both worryingly old. But the fact that Yarnis is one of the best diplomats in the clan is a point in his favor over his rival Inrana, counterbalancing her higher Leadership score.

Food: I have one person at Renowned—Uraltan (Karent, 47, Dostal). After him, there are two at Very Good—Kandak the all-arounder and Chorayla the elderly.

Food skill isn't a priority for me, but I like Uraltan's cult (Dostal worship is handier for keeping the clan fed than a high Food skill IME), and I like how well-rounded Kandak is. I'll keep both of them in mind.

Lore: I do have one elderly Renowned guy, who we've met before—Targarung. After him there's Eleen (Erkent, 58, Erissa) at Excellent, as well as two Very Goods: Churka (Parnt, 42, Shaman) and Varasina (Erkent, 69, Erissa; also Renowned at Magic).

I'm personally reluctant to put Targarung or Varasina on the circle at their ages. Eleen might be okay. Churka is just not very impressive, even though I do like having a shaman on the circle.

Magic: Varasina, mentioned above, is the best in the clan at Renowned but also at risk of dying this next winter. After her we have four (count 'em!) people with Excellent: Ailara (Erkent, 60, Nyalda, great portrait), Enardivus (Dasano, 60, Elmal), Enala again (first seen under Leadership) and Endarei (Parnt, 27, Uryarda).

(If I'd included one more person—yep, it would have been Kandak. Again.)

My favorite is Endarei, even though, going by the order of the list, she's the least-skilled of the Excellents. She's young enough that, unlike the others, she'll probably reach Renowned before she dies.

Sometimes you'll be overflowing with war cult members, but not this time—I have only one Osaran (Inrana) and two Elmali (elderly Enardivus and a young fellow named Zaksoro, who hasn't come up before now because he's terribly mediocre). I am now leaning very strongly towards Inrana on the circle—War magic helps a lot when you get down to fighting, and Excellent Combat translates to a competent fighter, not an amazing one, so any warleader I pick will need war magic to help them fight.

For food cults, I have one choice for Dostal (Uraltan, the Renowned Food guy) and two decent options for Nyalda (Erzina and Enala). Likewise, I've only got one youngish herd goddess worshipper—Endarei.

(Sorry about the screenshot-for-ants—click it to enlarge if you actually want to remind yourself who these people are.)

Since the Diplomacy skill is a clan-wide weak point, I may have to rely on Diplomacy magic. That means putting worshippers of Ekarna and Hyalor on the circle, and allocating magic to their areas at Sacred Time.

I have exactly one Ekarna worshipper—Venalor, not coincidentally my best bargainer. For Hyalor, I have four options—Fenarom, Yarnis, Veris and Kandak. I'm reluctant to put someone Fenarom's age (60) on the circle, and Veris is deeply mediocre, but Yarnis and Kandak are both solid options.

None of my shamans are very impressive, but two of them are young—Torvisha (Zarent, 23) and Vishala (Parnt, 22). They'll almost certainly improve as they age.

I also have a Raven trickster! Kosdal from the Karent family. He's 20 years old and his best skill is Very Good Magic, same as those two young shamans, but he's a trickster. Having him on the circle would be entertaining.

I have two Erissans. Varasina has reached the age of keeling over, but Eleen might come in handy keeping sickness in check before I build up shrines. The extra magic point an Erissa worshipper lets you allocate can be important when you don't know Curing yet!

I am sad not to have a Zarlen worshipper. If I did, I'd pry put him on the circle, even if he wasn't impressive as a noble—that extra point of Exploring magic makes a huge difference.

(I do have a Relandar worshipper, but I'm not putting him on the circle due to his age and this section is long enough as it is without including his portrait. Sacred Time-wise he's redundant to a shaman anyway.)

Immediately after sorting by family, I see a problem: the Akot family has only two members, and they're both elderly.

Lerei is ancient, and while Fenarom isn't quite old enough to die of it, he's a Hyalor worshipper and I'd rather have either Kandak or Yarnis instead.

So that's awkward.




The Dasano family has two youngish candidates: Kandak, who is decent at everything without being great at anything whatsoever, and Zaksoro, whose only distinguishing trait is worshipping Elmal.

(I'm ignoring the Dasano elders, Chorayla and Enardivus, in favor of their spry young kinsmen.)

The Erkent family includes Eleen (the only Lore specialist I'm really considering; also the only Erissan not to have a foot in the grave) and Yarnis (Hyalor-worshipping warleader and diplomat candidate). Neither one would be a hardship to put on the circle.

The Karents, tragically, include not only my favorite chief candidate Erzina but also my Raven shaman Kosdal and the hunter Uraltan. I'm tempted to put at least two of these people on the circle, even though that will annoy other families. There's just too much competence concentrated in the Karent family!

Another tragedy from the Parnts: they include both my two favorite magicians (Endarei and Enala) and my one remotely competent trader (Venalor).

The Parnts also include two shamans, one of whom might grow up to be worth bothering with... except ...

Finally, I have two people who are the only possible candidates from their families: Inrana from the Turents (she was already shortlisted) and Torvisha from the Zarents (not terrible, but not really a standout).

Inrana is now guaranteed a spot on the circle—at every stage I've found reasons to put her there.

Torvisha is another shaman who might grow into herself—rather like Vishala of the Parnt family, who I mentioned above. But betwen the two, I'd definitely pick Torvisha—she's a hair better, and even if she wasn't, when two circle members are that closely matched (down to one year in age and less than a skill level), I'm definitely picking the one whose family has no other possible circle members.

This isn't going to be a perfect circle; I'm going to have to choose whether to prioritize skills or families.

Either way, though, I'm not going to put anyone over 60 on the circle. And I'm going to try to avoid duplicate cults, and to have useful religions on the circle when I've got a choice.

• Karent: Chief Erzina. She's oldish, but her Renowned Leadership and Nyaldan fields magic will be appreciated as long as she survives. I'm a bit sad to pass over our Raven trickster for her, but she's the more
  practically useful. At least for now.
  
• Akot: Fenarom. His Excellent Combat is redundant (to Inrana, who I have to put on this circle since she's the only member of her family), but having multiple competent fighters isn't a bad thing. He replaces his kinswoman Lerei because I don't trust her not to die this winter.
  
• Dasano: I don't want to have two Hyalor worshippers on the circle, so Zaksoro gets this spot over Kandak. His Elmal worship will help us with War rituals at Sacred Time, and he might eventually take over as our main magician.
  
• Erkent: Again, I'm not doubling up on Hyalor worshippers, so Yarnis is out. Eleen is a solid circle member: although she's on the elderly side, she'll give good Lore advice. And having an Erissa worshipper on the circle helps a lot with controlling sickness, especially in the early game before we build a shrine to her goddess.
  
• Parnt: This was a hard choice, but for now, I'm choosing Endarei the magician over Venalor the trader. This is partly because he'll be away from the clan a lot, but mostly because I'm going to have to sacrifice a lot for blessings in the next few years and I don't know if Zaksoro and Torvisha will be able to handle that. Her cult also gives us the option of more Pastures magic for our herds.
  
• Turent: Inrana is the only Turent, so she's a shoo-in. As an Osara worshipper she'll help us with War magic at Sacred Time, and she's also a competent fighter in her own right; either she or Fenarom will wind up as our default warleader, and the other one can take over if they're injured.
  
• Zarent: Torvisha is the only Zarent. I'm not very impressed with her skills, but like Zaksoro she will improve with age. And shamans can come in handy.

This is a workable circle! Not ideal skills-wise, but decent.

It does have a lot of relatively old members—Fenarom, Eleen and Erzina are all on the elderly side. Once one of them dies—probably Fenarom, who's both the oldest circle member and the youngest Akot noble—it'd be time for another reorganization. Hopefully, the new Akot member (the one who'll pop up after Lerei and Fenarom both die) won't be hopeless. And when Erzina dies, I'll make Inrana the new chief and put Kosdal the Raven shaman in the Karent seat.

Also, once Zaksoro or Torvisha reaches Excellent magic—or even once I'm done with the early-game sacrifice rush—I might swap Endarei for Venalor in order to have a better-balanced circle.

(I did try to avoid doubling up on cults, but if I'd ignored that rule the circle would've come out pretty similarly—the main difference is that, if I'd ignored cults, Kandak would be on the circle instead of Zaksoro. Not really a huge difference. I could also have chosen Yarnis over Eleen, but that'd be a worse skill spread and she's only a year older than Erzina, who I really wanted as chief.)

With this circle setup, I can try boosting Inrana's Combat and Leadership with Elmal Path Guardian. She has good odds of success. But there's a chance she'll die—and the Turent noble who would replace her is a complete unknown. So I'd be pretty cautious about trying it.

I also have the option of sending Torvisha to search for spirits—although there's a chance of wasted turns, success will boost her Magic.

• Leadership: Chief Erzina, again. She's still my favorite choice, and this has nothing to do with my fondness for the yellow portrait set.
  
• Bargaining: Venalor. Easy choice.
  
• Combat: Inrana. Fenarom and Yarnis are both a little better, but she's younger than
  Fenarom, her Very Good Leadership is enough to help her out in battle a little, and she worships a war goddess—which would also make her a better candidate than Yarnis for the combat-boosting ritual Elmal Path Guardian. After Erzina dies, Inrana may be her replacement as chief.
  
• Diplomacy: Kandak, even if he barely counts as a diplomat. He's still the best we've got, and since he's also Very Good in—deep breath—Bargaining, Combat, Leadership, and Magic as well as being Excellent in Food, he'd be a decent emergency stopgap in case a specialist is ill or absent when we need them. Also, having both him and Venalor means we can put three points of magic into Diplomacy in years when we want to try to make allies.
  
• Food: Uraltan is the best by far for the skill. Also, he worships Dostal, so I can put another extra point into Feeding the Clan at Sacred Time.
  
• Lore: Eleen is good enough to give solid Lore advice, and young enough not to keel over immediately (unlike Renowned Targarung.)
  
• Magic: Endarei. (Enala is slightly better, but she's also 29 years older and worships the same goddess as my chief, so Endarei gets the job.)

This gives us someone competent at nearly everything (with the exception of Diplomacy, but this clan is just all-around no good at that). It does, however, leave two families out of the circle—the Akots and Zarents won't be happy.

There are a couple of variations worth considering, and they both involve replacing Kandak. (Sorry, Kandak! But he's a pretty mediocre diplomat even if he's the best we've got, and he's not going to do great as an understudy for anyone but Uraltan.)

The practical option is to replace him with Yarnis, who's about as good a diplomat as he is, worships the same god, and is Excellent at Combat. With both him and Inrana on the circle, if the primary warleader (the game will probably choose her due to Leadership and her goddess, but I could be wrong) gets injured, the other one can take over mid-battle.

The fun option is to replace Kandak with Kosdal, the twenty-year-old Raven shaman. He'll give more interesting advice due to his religion, and you might get fun options in certain events.

(Either of these options adds the Dasano family to the list of the annoyed and disenfranchised. Erzina can probably persuade the rest of the clan not to care, but complaint events may become an annoying mainstay.)

With this circle, it'll be about five years until I have to worry about circle members (Erzina and Eleen) dying of old age. But by the time that happens, the Akots will probably have coughed up a new noble, and some of the youngsters will probably be a level higher at their best skills. So I'll hopefully have a bit more flexibility when replacing them.

And like I mentioned above, I could try sending Inrana through Elmal Path Guardian. Best case, this will get her up to Renowned Combat and Excellent Leadership; worst case, if she dies, I do have Yarnis as a backup warleader.

In this specific case, I think both options are reasonable. Option 1 will keep the clan happier—it's the traditional Hyaloring setup—and will prevent annoying recurring events. Option 2 is going to be significantly better at dealing peacefully with outsiders. It's a tradeoff.

But, say, if you started with your only competent fighter and only competent magician in the same family, that's a very different situation. In that case, you should definitely put both of them on the circle and just deal with having an unhappy family.