What this covers: five worked Age of Wonders 4 tome trees — Order, Chaos, Nature, Astral and Shadow — with the roster each one wants, the transformations worth casting first and the tier-5 payoff. Why it matters: a tome pick is not a tech node. It sets your units, your enchantments and the permanent race-wide transformation you carry into future games. Patch state: everything below describes Sprite 1.2.1, game version V1.015.005.123867 (16 July 2026). Tome contents move between patches, and the Sprite update in June rewrote a large block of tome enchantments.
Age of Wonders 4 has no technology tree. It has tomes: research books that hand over spells, units, province improvements and a passive, in five tiers across six affinities — Astral, Chaos, Materium, Nature, Order and Shadow. Materium is left out below because its path is a production story rather than a magic one. For the factionfaction. An in-game group or nation players can align with or fight against, with its own goals and reputation system.-builder view of all six, see our forms, cultures and tomes reference.
What a tome path actually costs
The gates are what make these five builds mutually exclusive.
- Tier I tomes are always available. Tier II needs two tomes, Tier III needs four tomes and three points in its affinity, Tier IV needs six tomes and six points, and Tier V needs eight tomes and eight points in its affinity.
- Only one tier-V tome can be unlocked per game.
- Every tome grants +5 Casting Points on pick-up.
- A single-affinity tome grants two points in that affinity; a dual-affinity tome grants one point in each of its two.
- Researching any tier-III tome unlocks Bind Gold Ancient Wonder as a research option; researching your tier-V tome unlocks the Age of [affinity] spell.
Both are fixed-price: Bind Gold Ancient Wonder always costs 4,000 Knowledge, and the Age of [affinity] spell always costs 12,000.
Spell research is priced by how many tomes you already hold, not by spell tier — 250 Knowledge for the first tome, then 400, 600, 800, 1,100, 1,500, 1,900, 2,400, 3,000, 3,600, 4,300 and 5,000 for the twelfth, rising by 1,000 per tome after that. Adept skills cost 20% less and Expert skills 20% more.
The Sprite update also moved the Age of Spells onto a universal research track tied to your tier-V tomes, and rebuilt the Empire Development Tree with new mutually exclusive skills at almost every node and Rites that now repeat.
The five trees at a glance
| Affinity | Lean-in culture | Signature units | Signature enchantment | Tier-V tome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order | High (2 Order) | Chaplain, Lightbringer, Exemplar, Shrine of Smiting | Legion of Zeal, Supreme Magic | The God Emperor |
| Chaos | Barbarian (Chaos + Nature) | Pyromancer, Houndmaster, Warbreed, Chaos Eater | Searing Blades, Flameburst Weapons | The Chaos Lord |
| Nature | Primal (Nature) | Wildspeaker, Glade Runner, Nymph, Horned God | Blight Blades, Aspect of the Root | The Goddess of Nature |
| Astral | Mystic (Astral) | Evoker, Watcher, Astral Serpent, Phase Beast | Lightning Blades, Amplifying Imbuement | The Arch Mage |
| Shadow | Dark (Shadow) | Necromancer, Banshee, Bone Dragon, Reaper | Frost Blades, Shadow Weapons | The Eternal Lord |
Order — the faithful core
Order is the “High” fantasy, and the culture literally named High carries two Order affinity. Its tome list rewards a slow, durable, morale-driven army.
Roster. The Tome of Zeal hands over the Zealot and the Condemn debuff. The Tome of Faith adds the Chaplain — a Tier 2 Support unit whose Healing Prayer restores 45 temporary HP on a one-turn cooldown — and the Tome of the Inquisition’s Lightbringer, whose Convert ability turns an enemy unit for a short time. The Tome of Sanctuary adds Keeper’s Mark, which makes melee units immune to damage for one turn the first time they would be reduced to zero HP in a battle. The Tome of Exaltation brings the Shrine of Smiting, whose primary attack scales with the number of Faithful units in the army.
Enchantments. Legion of Zeal grants the Zeal trait, and Supreme Magic from the Tome of Supremacy adds Zeal to Support and Battle Mage units and makes their kills explode. Both lean on Condemned, so a reliable Condemn source is the load-bearing pick. Sprite 1.2 added +2 Status Resistance bypass to Supreme Magic.
Transformations. Anointed People is the inexpensive Order transformation — 450 Mana and 450 Casting Points for +3 Status Resistance and +3 Spirit Resistance across the whole race. Order’s major is Angelic Transformation, from the Tome of Exaltation: the Celestial unit type, Flying, and the Faithful trait that cuts unit upkeep by 10%, paid for with a reduced figure count.
Tier 5. The Tome of the God Emperor gives Exalted Champion, Divine Protection, Wrath of the Emperor and Mass Revive, and unlocks the Heart of Order province improvement — the final stage of the Magic Victory chain that starts with the Seed of Order at tier III and the Root of Order at tier IV.
Chaos — fire, hordes and fiends
Chaos is the most Evil-aligned affinity, and the deepest transformation ladder of the five.
Roster. The Tome of the Horde builds around cheap Tier 1 bodies: Fury of the Horde, Summon Irregulars and the Houndmaster’s free summon. Pyromancy adds the Pyromancer and a reliable Burning applier. Devastation brings the Warbreed, a siegesiege. A timed, large-scale attack on a settlement — attackers try to destroy it, defenders try to hold it. specialist, and Pandemonium adds the Chaos Eater — a close-range Battle Mage that converts enemy negative status effects into damage and healing.
Transformations. Spawnkin (Tome of the Horde, 150 Mana and 150 Casting Points) increases the number of figures in each unit and adds +20% damage, and is mutually exclusive with Nature’s Supergrowth. Reveler’s Heart (+50% Morale) sits at 250/250 and Vessels of Chaos (+10% damage per negative status effect on the target, to three stacks) at 350/350. Scion of Flame (450/450) grants +4 Fire Resistance, Vengeful Flames against melee attackers, Fiery Wake and Burning immunity. The single major is Demonkin: the Infernal Fiend unit type, Flying, Frenzy, and cities that ignore the City Stability penalty from Chasm and Lava.
Tier 5. The Chaos Lord’s abilities — Call Forth Avatar of Chaos, Demonic Onslaught, Incite Rebellion and Demonic Siphon — are built to end fights, and the tome unlocks Heart of Chaos. The tier-V roster is not static, though: the wiki now lists Summon Balor under the Tome of the Demon Gate, which is exactly the drift this page’s patch note exists to flag.
Nature — forests, beasts and growth
Nature is the widest tree of the five: it plays as an animal swarm, a plant fortress or a pure economy, and one tome list supports all three.
Roster. Beasts gives the Wildspeaker and the evolving Goretusk line; Glades adds the Glade Runner; Fertility adds the Nymph, whose Seduce now inflicts Dominated 90% of the time after Sprite 1.2; Nature’s Wrath caps the list with the Horned God. Roots is the attrition-and-economy opener, and its Blight Blades and Poison Arrows carry a Nature army through the mid-game.
Transformations. Animal Kinship (150/150) grants +10% damage and +10% Critical Hit chance when adjacent to a friendly Animal unit. Leafskin (250/250) turns the race into forest specialists — after Sprite 1.2 it grants 10% Accuracy, Evasion and Critical Hit chance in Forest provinces, having lost the +1 Resistance it used to give. Supergrowth (350/350) trades figure count for +10 Hit Points and +1 Retaliation Attack, and cannot coexist with Spawnkin. The major is Gaia’s Chosen from the Tome of Paradise: the Plant unit type, +3 Status Resistance and +20 Hit Points.
Tier 5. The Goddess of Nature grants Forest Awareness, Force of Nature and Mass Rejuvenation. Force of Nature now also applies to Spiders as of Sprite 1.2.
Astral — the spellcasting engine
Astral is the Magic Origin affinity. Almost every strong Astral card either summons a unit or multiplies the spells you already have.
Roster. Evocation offers the cheap Lesser Storm Spirit and the Evoker. Summoning adds the Astral Serpent and the Astral Keeper, and its Summoning Well halves combat summon costs in the domain. Teleportation adds the Phase Beast, a Tier 4 Shock unit built around repositioning. The Astral Mirror caps the list with the Mirror Mimic, which takes the form of any non-Hero enemy unit on the field.
Enchantments. Lightning Blades is the cheap line-wide damage enchantment. Amplifying Imbuement, renamed from Amplifying Arrows in the Sprite update, now reaches Battle Mages, Magic Fighters and Support units as well as Ranged — which is what makes an Astral army’s support core worth enchanting at all.
Transformations. Magical Wards (150/150) is the cheapest defensive transformation in the game: +2 Lightning, Fire and Frost Resistance. Astral Blood (250/250) adds Attunement: Fortune, raising Critical Hit chance whenever you cast. The major, Astral Attunement, links the race to the Astral Sea — the Ethereal unit type with Pass Through, plus Attunement: Astral Omen, granting a random positive status effect whenever a friendly spell is cast in combat.
Tier 5. The Arch Mage gives Time Stop, Disruption Wave, Astral Travel and Cosmic Overdrive, and unlocks Heart of Astral. Time Stop freezes every enemy unit in a 1-hex radius for a turn; Disruption Wave strips positive effects from enemies and negative effects from allies; Astral Travel teleports the ruler to any hex, the Underground included; and Cosmic Overdrive buffs every Magic Origin unit’s damage and movement.
Shadow — frost, souls and undeath
Shadow splits into two halves that share one affinity: a frost-and-morale school and a necromancy school. Half the Shadow tomes unlock Soul Harvest, which converts kills in victorious battles into Souls and lets you animate City Ruins, Skeleton units and Heroes in the Crypt.
Roster. Necromancy gives Skeleton Reanimation and the Necromancer; Souls adds Bone Horror Reanimation and the Banshee; the Cold Dark adds the Snow Spirit; Oblivion adds the Living Fog; the Reaper caps the line with the Reaper itself. Cryomancy runs the alternate route with the White Witch and Blizzard.
Transformations. Joy Siphoners (250/250) makes racial attacks steal 3 Morale per hit. Frostling Transformation (350/350) grants 3 Frost Resistance, immunity to Frozen, +10 Morale on cold terrain and Arctic Walk. Shadow’s major is Wightborn from the Tome of the Great Transformation — the Undead unit type with Life Steal, priced at 300 Mana, 100 Souls and 300 Casting Points rather than the flat 600/600 the other majors cost.
Tier 5. The Eternal Lord gives Raise Undead Army, True Death Magic, Withering Mist and Battlefield Reanimation.
A transformation order that works for all five
Only one major transformation can be active on a race at a time, and minor transformations stack with a handful of exceptions — Supergrowth and Spawnkin are mutually exclusive, as are Pure Soul and Umbral Flesh.
Minor transformation costs run from 150 Mana and 150 Casting Points for the early ones up to 450 for the late ones, and the five major transformations all sit at 600 Mana and 600 Casting Points — bar Wightborn, at 300 Mana, 100 Souls and 300 Casting Points.
The working rule: cast the 150-cost minor the moment its tome lands, because it is the cheapest per-point upgrade you will ever buy; hold the 350-plus minors until the race is large enough that a percentage matters; and pick the single major by deciding on your tier-IV tome two tiers early, not when the tier-V tome opens.
What Sprite changed in tome enchantments
The June 2026 Sprite update rewrote a large block of tome enchantments, and the change is uniform enough to plan around. The cheap elemental weapon enchantments now apply to all attacks instead of base attacks, lost their physical-damage penalty, had their elemental bonus roughly halved, and stopped applying to Skirmishers.
| Enchantment | Tome | What Sprite changed |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning Blades | Evocation (I) | All attacks; no Physical penalty; Lightning +2; not Skirmishers |
| Searing Blades | Pyromancy (I) | All attacks; no Physical penalty; Fire +2; not Skirmishers |
| Frost Blades | Cryomancy (I) | All attacks; no Physical penalty; Frost +2; not Skirmishers |
| Blight Blades | Roots (I) | All attacks; no Physical penalty; Blight +2; not Skirmishers |
| Poison Arrows | Roots (I) | All attacks; no Physical penalty; Blight +1 |
| Obsidian Weapons | Rock (I) | All attacks; now also applies to Magic Fighters |
| Sundering Blades | Enchantment (I) | All attacks; no longer applies to Skirmishers |
| Amplifying Imbuement | Amplification (III) | Renamed from Amplifying Arrows; no Physical penalty; also Battle Mages, Magic Fighters and Support |
The practical reading: a wide elemental enchantment is now a whole-army purchase rather than a Battle Mage purchase, and Skirmishers are the one role left out. Shadow Weapons went the other way — flanking attacks deal +3 Frost damage, and it now reaches Ranged, Skirmisher and Magic Fighter units too.
Tier-5 payoffs: one tome, one game
Only one tier-V tome per game, at eight tomes and eight affinity points. Two options bend that. Unbound Tomes is a realm trait that ignores the affinity requirements entirely, and the Empire of the Cosmos society trait does the same when its conditions are met. The Tome of the Cosmos is the other documented exception: it needs either two points in each of the six affinities or six points in three of them.
What the tier-V tome buys is not the spells alone. It is the Age of [affinity] spell at a flat 12,000 Knowledge, and the third and final province improvement in the Seed–Root–Heart chain that begins when you research your first tier-III tome.
After that, the horizon is public. Triumph announced Expansion Pass 4 on 1 October 2026, with The Silver Seas arriving 3 November 2026 and adding four new tomes covering Hydromancy, more Cryomancy, Piracy and “hidden knowledge of the Damned”. Two further expansions, Court of the Archfey and Forge of the Firstborn, sit behind them in the pass. Tome lists move; this page describes Sprite 1.2.1 and nothing after it.
Next read
- Age of Wonders 4: Forms, Cultures, Tomes and Affinities — the faction-builder reference this guide assumes you have read.
- Age of Wonders Classic Era: Races, Classes, Alignment — how the series built factions before tomes replaced fixed rosters.
- Age of Wonders Planetfall — Factions & Secret Techs — the sci-fi sibling whose secret-tech grid is the closest structural cousin to the tome path.