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 freely 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.