Shards

Floating in the astral are various shards of differing sizes and difficulty. As you progress as a demigod, you'll want to invade and conquer nearby shards and bring them under your control -- increasing the revenues you can work with.

Provinces

Each shard is subdivided into provinces. Each province has a little town, a local population, and may contain some resource or another that you desperately need. The people there have needs and will occasionally come to you with their problems -- allowing you to either help, ignore, or rebuke them.

Navigation

Each shard is an open world -- that allows you to reach your enemy's stronghold by whatever means you choose. You can conquer all of the provinces at once, skirt the edges of the shard and then come in from a strategic direction, or plow through in the most direct fashion and slaughter everyone with a grand army.

Shard Conquering and Ownership

Each shard you consume makes you more powerful. The number of provinces you own on a shard is irrelevant; the only thing that matters is who controls the capital. You can win the capital of a shard without owning a single province and you will take control of the rock.

The Astral

So, here's the deal. The object of the game is to unite all of the shards in The Astral under one banner -- yours. So the overarching philosophy you need to take when playing this game is always to be thinking about which shard you're going to go to next after you finish with the one you are on.

Of course, you have to be prepared to defend the provinces of the shards you already lay claim to -- both from without and within.

The Astral is a mysterious place, and you're not really quite sure what it's all about. However, as you go along, the secrets of the Astral begin to be revealed.

In Game

You can pull up the Astral and select a shard by clicking on it and selecting "Attack" when prompted. All of the shards that you already own will have a little icon (looks like a dude on fire) above them.

Before you sign off on the attack, however, you will be informed of the benefits and risks associated with the move. Clearly, some shards are better equipped to repeal your attacks, so it's best to focus on the weak shards first and then work your way up to the bad boys later.

Conquering a shard will grant benefits like new units (think crossbowmen), resources, or straight up cash.