Three nations fight for the continent of Stoneholm, and you belong to one of them. It's a genuine three-way war — your nation-mates are your only natural allies, and the other two are both your enemies.
| Nation | Region | Colours & symbol | Inspiration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ismir | North & west — snow and fjords | Blue & white · the serpent | Danes / Vikings |
| Midland | North & east — grass and swamp | Red & green · the tower and sword | Medieval continental Europe |
| Sangmar | The south — sand and stone | Black, gold & purple · the zenith sun | Rome / Byzantium |
There are no nation stats
Nations have no traits, buffs or racial effects. Gear is visually different per nation, but a given tier is statistically identical — a Sangmar tier-5 chest and an Ismir tier-5 chest protect exactly the same. Choose on aesthetics, lore and where your friends play, not power. For the backstory of each, see Lore.
Picking — and changing — your nation
You choose a nation (and an "origin", which currently has no gameplay effect) at character creation. You can change nations once for free until you reach level 70 on any character on your account — after that, every character on the account is locked to that nation, with only very limited changes afterward. Level 70 can come in just a few days, so the free window is shorter than it sounds. New players also get one free nation change before level 70 regardless.
The underdog system
To keep the three-way war honest, the game flags the disadvantaged nation(s) as underdog — there can be none, one, or up to two at a time. When a nation is underdog, a Mercenary Recruiter NPC appears in the other nations letting players move to it for free (the move takes your whole account).
- Transferring to an underdog nation is easy; transferring out isn't — you wait for another nation to become underdog, or start fresh.
- Underdog nations give fewer Nation Points to enemies who kill them, get more crowns and loot from NPCs, and gain XP bonuses for taking territory from non-underdogs.
- New and existing players on the underdog nation get bonus gold and XP until the status ends.
Servers & alt-account rules
There are three servers — Eaglewood (Europe), Aquilla (NA/SA) and Dukla (Asia). Playing off your main server is heavily penalised: you can't loot or fish, and you take a −50% cut to health, stamina and damage unless your nation is the underdog. Running two accounts on different nations from the same PC triggers escalating login cooldowns (an anti-spying measure) — keep your accounts on one nation.
There's no "outlaw" or nation-less playstyle — the traitor system is a punishment, not a path. You're always part of a nation.