Glorantha: The Gods War – Empires
Glorantha: The Gods War – Empires Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
II. Components
Empires Components
Glorantha: The Gods War also includes rules and components for expansion empires, sold separately, that plug into the core game.
Earth Empire — The Titan, Genert (Greater God); The Titan, Pamalt (Greater God); The Behemoth; 4 Axe Maidens; 1 Oblivion Marker; 2 Victory/Power Markers.
Sea Empire — The Churner, Magasta (Greater God); The Kraken; 3 Sea Serpents; 4 Mermaids; 1 Oblivion Marker; 2 Victory/Power Markers.
Moon Empire — The Red Goddess (Greater God); The Crimson Bat; 3 Selenes; 4 Assassins; 1 Oblivion Marker; 3 Victory/Power Markers.
Invisible God Empire — 4 Knights; 4 Wizards; 4 Specters; 1 Oblivion Marker; 2 Victory/Power Markers.
Shared Empires-expansion components — Wedding Rings (one per empire color); 3 Castle building tokens; 3 Ziggurat building tokens; 3 Tower building tokens; 18 Shrine building tokens; 9 Temple building tokens; the Lunar Cycle/Slave Pen/Moonburn Box tile; 7 Earth Queens (one per empire: Chaos, Darkness, Invisible God, Moon, Sea, Sky, Storm) with 7 matching Earth Queen cards; a Submerged token; a Marriage tile.
An Earth Queen card reads: "Give to a new Spouse. Cost: 2. Combat: 1 (or 0 vs. Earth Empire). The Earth Queen is now married to you for the rest of the game; should you be eliminated or her unit be eliminated she returns to your unit pool instead of the same marker's pool. Earth may also re-summon her from your pool when placing a Temple or Ziggurat. When this happens you do not decide the area to which she is summoned; you will instead offer her a spouse from the area she is placed. During the Council Phase, earn 1 Power if this Queen is in play. Be warned that the Earth Queen has an Injunction ability, which may eliminate an Earth Queen during the Council Phase in order to gain a rune. Injunctions count in the same Council Phase before you would gain power for Injunction."
Buildings Components
Building tokens come in each empire's color. Each of the eight empires (Storm, Darkness, Sky, Moon, Chaos, Sea, Earth, and the neutral/expansion colors) has: 6 Shrine tokens and 3 Temple tokens, plus a matching Ziggurat token. Darkness alone has a unique Castle of Lead. The Invisible God Empire has 3 Castles and 3 Towers instead of a Ziggurat. Chaos has 6 double-sided Chaos Nest tokens instead of Shrines/Temples.
III. Setup
A. The Map
The map comes in two pieces, each of which is printed on both sides and contains many labeled areas. The two sides have identically-shaped continents, but the 5-player side of the map contains more land areas than does the 3-player side. For reference, the player counts are printed on the maps.
THREE-PLAYER GAME: Arrange the board with both 3-player sides face-up.
FOUR-PLAYER GAME: Arrange the board with one 3- and one 5-player side face-up. There are two different possible arrangements. It does not matter which you choose – both are fair starts.
FIVE-PLAYER GAME: Arrange the board with both 5-player sides face-up. (The 5-player game is only playable with the Empires expansion).
If you have the Empires expansion, you may also use the 6-8 player map. This works similarly to the core game map, using both 6- or both 8-player sides for those respective player counts and using one of each for a 7-player game. As with a 4-player game, a 7-player game offers two different map arrangements.
Map Notes
Sky Dome Sideboard. The Sky Dome is that part of the universe above the surface world. It is composed of 2 areas in a game with 3-5 players, and 3 areas in a game with 6-8 players. Sky Dome is part of the map, but not part of the surface world. As such, its areas are neither land nor sea.
IV. Game Basics
D. Units and Buildings
Most empires have 9 units available to them over the course of the game. There are four specific types of units: mortal minions, mortal heroes, lesser gods, and greater gods. All empires except for Chaos and Invisible God have at least one unit of each type. All units are unique to their own empires.
V. Action Phase
Unique building types
Chaos, Darkness, and Invisible God have unique building types. Darkness' Castle of Lead cannot be built unless its Ancestor Worship gift is active, and it cannot be built directly; it must be upgraded from any other Darkness building, which is then returned to Darkness' pool. By contrast, Invisible God's Castles and Towers are built like Shrines and do not upgrade at all. Chaos' standard Chaos Nests are also built like Shrines, but with certain distinctions described below.
VIII. Heroquests, Gifts, Abilities, and Runes
2. Empire Unique Weaknesses
Every empire also has a unique weakness, which represents a prominent, negative feature of the cosmos. These weaknesses are always active, and they cannot be avoided. As with each empire's unique ability, these weaknesses are in effect from the beginning of each game. Each empire's unique weakness can be found immediately below the description of its unique ability. Exception: Most weaknesses are passive; they are always 'on.' Moon's unique weakness (which is the same as her unique ability) is active; it is an action that Moon or her enemies can optionally pay to use.
3. Building Abilities
A building ability is one provided to its empire by a non-Shrine building (Shrines do not grant abilities). A building's ability is active only if its respective building is on the map; if all of an empire's buildings of a given type are removed from the map (or put into the Chaos Rift), the ability is lost until that building is replaced on the map. Building abilities can be found on their respective empire sheets. Exceptions: Invisible God's Castles and Towers do not have any building abilities. Earth and Moon have buildings whose abilities happen as soon as they are placed on the map; this effect happens whenever a building of its type is placed on the map (even the first time).
4. Greater God Abilities
Every greater god has a greater god ability that is active as long as that unit is in play. If your greater god is killed and returned to your pool, its ability becomes inactive until it returns to play. Greater god abilities can be found on their respective empire sheets. Exception: Earth's greater gods' ability is actually a weakness.
5. Gifts
Every empire has six gifts, which provide them with particularly powerful effects or actions. None of these are active at the start of the game; they must be earned by achieving Heroquests (see below). Gifts, once earned, will typically remain active for the rest of the game (some will not remain active; these are discussed below). Exception: Invisible God has eight gifts.
Earning Gifts (achieving Heroquests)
Listed on the right side of each empire sheet are six Heroquest boxes (Invisible God has eight). These boxes describe the requirement(s) that must be met in order to achieve those Heroquests. As soon as you meet one of your Heroquest requirements, immediately select one of your gifts and place it in that Heroquest slot. Earned gifts cannot be lost, even if the requirements for earning them are no longer true. Heroquests can be achieved in any order. Any Heroquest currently covered by a gift cannot be achieved again (i.e., meeting its requirement again does not earn another gift). Exception: Sky has two Heroquests that can be gained repeatedly.
XI. Empires
Empires adds 4 new empires and new, 6-8 player maps to The Gods War.
Playing as Earth
Your empire's strategies revolve around your Earth Queens. Each Queen comes in two colors – green (the color of Earth), plus the color of another empire.
When placing an Earth Queen on the board, you may choose any of the 7 Queens available to you. Outside of an 8-player game, some Queens will always belong to empires not represented in the current game. If summoned, those Queens will remain under your control. For example, in a game in which no one plays Darkness, the Darkness Earth Queen will remain under your control.
Building Temples is always important to your plans, since they give you Queens. If you lose a Temple to a foe, it is almost a blessing – it costs only 2 Power to upgrade to a new one, and that cost is repaid by the free Queen.
You may not want to place both of your Titans in the same area – a lucky enemy assault could kill them both in one fell swoop. While you will want to marry one of your Earth Queens off to at least one other player's empire, remember that Queens are effective in battle and cheap to replace. As your Axe Maidens will frequently be off guarding buildings, Queens can be helpful to have around.
Eventually, you will need to engage in battle. You can profit from losing your Behemoth with Extinction.
- Chastity: You're often short on units; this gift lets you defend your Temples cheaply and effectively. With only a single Maiden in play, an attacker will need 4 units to guarantee victory.
- Extinction: Summon your Behemoth to an enemy Ziggurat, attack, take 2 runes, repeat. Otherwise, you can back the Behemoth up with enough troops to ensure kills and fight your army to extinction through the enemy ranks. By the time you're exhausted, you'll have a pocketful of runes and your enemy will be nearly wiped out.
- Injunction: Gains you an extra rune each turn. The flexibility afforded by having so many runes can be a tremendous asset.
- Pacifism: Terrifying to your foes. Watch carefully for your chance, and do not be shy about using it as a threat. Remember that you do not have to be directly involved in a battle to use Pacifism. It is also good as a one-time, "don't kill my Titan" escape clause.
- Quake: This gift is usually defensive, for transporting an expensive building out of harm's way (swapping it with a Shrine), but it has other uses, such as beefing up a critical area with a Ziggurat or Temple to make you more dangerous in battle.
- Ubiquitous: This is actually your main "movement" ability. Simply summon your units into the place you plan to strike.
Thwarting Earth
Though Earth has the most figures available (14, as opposed to most empires' mere 9), Earth actually has a shortage of units in actual play. Her Axe Maidens and Earth Queens are scattered across the map. Her main combat units (the Titans and Behemoth) roll lots of dice, but they are expensive and clumsy. Focus on destroying Earth's Shrines – she loves it when she can place a new Temple, so leave those alone unless it is so near the end of the turn that she can't replace it.
Earth: Epilogue
"Our King was marrying the Earth Woman, and it was supposed to be a time of joy as we sat happily at the wedding feast. When the Earth Woman first appeared she was just a young girl, timid and afraid to face our rough and muscular ruler. But the moment the life vows were spoken, she underwent a transformation. Her figure blossomed. Flowers sprouted in her hair. As she strode confidently across the grass, berries fruited in her track. Our King seemed both besotted and somehow shrunken."
Playing as Invisible God
You may seem weak because you have no greater god to shore up your empire, but your excellent units and proper use of Specters more than make up for this. Your greatest advantage is that you have 8 gifts, which means that you can earn 4 Power and VP per turn. Focus on gathering those gifts! Four of those gifts give you runes, so make those a part of your strategy.
The nature of your units and buildings presents you with three fundamental strategies – go combat-heavy with Knights and Sturdy Peasantry, spread out and absorb magical power with Wizards and Tapping, or seek a balance between the two. If you go for Wizards, Specters become more important for their combat might and your Red Book of Power also becomes stronger.
Your empire depends heavily on timing. Your three Book gifts can each be used twice by means of your Final Ritual, which means you'll want them early in order to take advantage of their full value. You do not have very many buildings and you can't afford to keep replacing them, so take advantage of your Wizard Gate to help protect them.
- King's Blessing: This gift helps make up for the high cost of your buildings. In a game with lots of construction you may need to ensure that rivals' buildings are being destroyed in order to leave spaces open for your freebies.
- Magic Explosion: This helps dissuade enemies from attacking areas with Specters – if you are sure the Specter will die anyway, why not explode it? It also gives you a little extra 'oomph' to help capture an important area.
- Divine Right: Another candidate for first gift. It keeps on giving.
- Brown Book of Commerce: Do not wait until you have all your Towers to fire this off, even if you are not getting its full benefit (remember, you can reuse it when you perform your Final Ritual). Its benefits can be "shopped around," to see who will cooperate with you in taking down a hated enemy.
- Sturdy Peasantry: This is the first gift chosen by many players, not least because it provides VP every single turn and ensures an extra 2 Power per Power Phase if all of your other buildings are Towers. If you focus on Castles instead, it lets you bump your Knights up to Combat 4!
- Tapping: Use this to make Wizards pay for themselves and hurt your enemies. Be careful, as this gift forces you to space your Wizards out and also makes them a target.
- Red Book of Power: A good way to suddenly defend otherwise-vulnerable buildings.
- Blue Book of Sorcery: This is one gift you never need to delay in getting. The moment you get it, use it – the only reason to delay is to use that 0-cost action to draw out the turn.
Thwarting Invisible God
Invisible God's buildings are few and expensive, and losing them is problematic for him. He has a lot of units but if you attack him early, before his Knights and Wizards get pumped up, you can keep him trimmed back. Invisible God is weak at taking out other players' infrastructure, as he can't conquer buildings (Invisible God has no Shrines or Temples with which to replace conquered buildings). And, since he only has 6 buildings (7 with Sturdy Peasantry), you can out-Power and out-VP him with a determined construction program.
Invisible God: Epilogue
The wizard and his warriors stalked forward, their necks craning alertly. "What do ye here, friend?" asked Uncle Celm. The wizard raised his white staff, "We have come to bring you the truth of the Invisible God. Soon, your festivals will be our festivals. Your holy rites will be our holy rites. And the names of your gods will be forgotten." Celm stumbled backwards as a nimbus of blue fire played around the wizard, and the newcomers moved into battle formation."
Playing as Moon
The early game is the best time to focus on your Lunar Cycle Heroquests – other players are generally too short on Power to mess with you, and you do not have enough units on the map to frighten them.
All of your best powers require time to implement properly, and all compete for your attention. If you put off Enslavement, Moonburn, or Madness until near the end of the game, these gifts will have little effect. The most common error a Moon player makes is to try to use all of these gifts. You cannot, at least not in every game, so you must choose between them or seek a balance to build a sensible strategy. If you can get these gifts to all work together, you can execute amazing combinations. Joining the Goddess's Menses with Eclipse, Enslavement, and Madness can churn through the Cycle quickly while also piling up a store of hostages your enemies will need to ransom.
Even with Menses, you may still want to summon your first Selene to start the Madness cycle. Sometimes players won't want to spend Power to advance your cycle and you'll find yourself staying at Full Moon for a while, but that's pretty sweet too.
But...getting to this point takes a delicate balancing act. The Crimson Bat is by far the most potent unit in your pool – use his Mindblast to bring victory out of defeat, or even completely shut down a weak enemy.
- Adoption: Not only a useful escape route, but also good to put a hated enemy in harm's way.
- Eclipse: It may seem like a double-edged sword, but in effect it gives you a free Lunar Cycle bump, since you ought to be attacking anyway. Of course, reserve your Dying Moon attacks for unguarded Shrines. Adoption can put you in position for these attacks.
- Enslavement: Another reason you should want to attack as often as possible. Every person in your Slave Pen is a Power boost waiting to happen.
- Madness: Even if all you do is pay to churn through the Cycles with properly-spaced Selenes, it only costs you 4 Power to earn 3 Power and a rune. Obviously it is best to take this gift when you are at Dying or Waxing Half, so that you can benefit from it ASAP.
- Mindblast: A terrifying prospect for any foe, and this one is just as good on offense as it is on defense.
- Moonburn: Any time you are at Full Moon, watch your enemies scramble and squabble trying to get someone else to pay to knock you off your high horse so that their Temples won't fry. In the meantime, go ahead and fry them.
Thwarting Moon
Moon is centered on her Cycle, but remember that you can move Moon's Cycle, too. Usually she has only one big army, guarding her Red Goddess. You can't defeat that army, but you may not need to: instead, pick off her scattered Selenes, gobble up her Shrines and Temples, and remember to topple Moon when she is at her Full aspect. Remember that Moon can only Moonburn Shrines and Chaos Nests when she is at Half-Moon, so if you have no Temples, pushing her to Full Moon can actually protect your buildings.
Moon: Epilogue
"The sky started to light up as the thing rose up in the sky. On the path below we saw a procession of dancing, twisting folk, dressed in a riot of color. Despite their complex pirouettes, they advanced swiftly. Our chief warrior-woman held up her spear and asked their name and purpose, while I nocked an arrow. The newcomers halted, but spoke no word. The round thing rose higher and became brighter. "The sun has been gone this long age," I whispered to my companion, "what is this thing in the heavens? A replacement? A mockery?" He shook his head. Then we saw them – beings flowing down the shafts of light. First came dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. The dancers began again, faster and faster, while the rest of our soldiers began to scream in psychosis."
Playing as Sea
You have many conflicting tasks to accomplish in order to achieve your Heroquests. You have to destroy a building, you need to train costly units, and you are as obsessed with the Chaos Rift as is Chaos itself! One major decision you'll need to make is whether to use your one-time Submerge on summoning Magasta or your Kraken. Sometimes you may even want just a Sea Serpent, to complete your collection.
You earn runes earlier than other players, so use this to seize an early advantage and then hold on to that edge for dear life. Once you've achieved your Heroquests, runes will trickle in much more slowly. Your units have abilities that annoy and menace your opponents, who will generally (and helpfully) try to avoid you.
Once the Rift is closed, your Aquatic boost plummets unless enemy buildings are also in the sea. After all, your Ziggurat now only costs 1 Power. Magasta has a fabulous ability, but you will need to plan carefully in order to use it to maximum effect. One easy technique is to use it to slingshot an army across the world into an enemy's territory. Another is to join together units from multiple oceans.
- Aquatic: You can use your Submerge ability to plunge a tasty enemy Ziggurat underwater, thus gaining 3 Power every turn from then on.
- Constrict: Combine with Drowning to ensure a kill in every battle.
- Drowning: A key source of VP in the late game; because it doesn't just give you a VP but actually drains one from an enemy, it is better than it might seem at first glance.
- Siren Song: Locks down an enemy in a most gratifying way. Weak foes dare not flee your attacks, which feeds into your Drowning/Constrict engine.
- Tidal Surge: Opens up an area to conquer a building or to simply scatter your enemies. Unlike a rout, you can scatter enemy units into different and inconvenient areas.
- Whirlpool: Most empires try to hang on to their Power for as long as they can. With Whirlpool you are usually happy to be the first to run out, and the groans of your opponents are delightful. If you have a Power-giving rune, you can time it so you drop to 0 Power a second time in that turn to double-dip! Enemies hate that.
Thwarting Sea
Obviously, since Sea is focused on the Chaos Rift, you need not be. You can balance him off against Chaos. His biggest weaknesses are his hunger for Power and his late-game loss of steam. While you probably can't stop him cold, you can force him to pay for his gains. Enough pyrrhic victories and Sea can't surge unreachably far ahead. Then, in the late game, once his runes and advantages have worn off, you can thrash him.
Sea: Epilogue
"It rose up over the beach like a mountain. Everyone ran for the highlands, but as we looked behind we saw that this would be no salvation. Even the rivers were now running uphill, the wrong way. As we peered helplessly into the green, transparent water, we saw huge creatures swimming in it, peering back at us."
XIV. FAQ
Other FAQ items naming Empires factions
Q. Sky has a Heroquest that reads, "Conquer or destroy a Shrine or Chaos Nest in battle." An Imbedded Chaos Nest will flip to a standard nest, but does this count as "destruction" for purposes of the Heroquest? What about for Darkness' second fragment? A. Flipping a Chaos Nest does not fulfill Sky's, Darkness' or Invisible God's "kill a building" requirements.
Empires
Q. Can an enemy player choose his Earth Queen to be destroyed by Chaos' Oblivion? A. Yes, but he will never get it back.
Q. Earth Queens are controlled by their spouses. Can they be used to attack Earth? Do they benefit from any of Earth's gifts? A. Yes, they may be used to attack Earth (although in this case their combat is 0). They do not benefit from Earth's gifts.
Q. Earth summons an enemy's Earth Queen, which is later killed. If Earth builds a Temple, can she bring that Queen back to life (i.e., summon her), perhaps to use Injunction later on? A. Yes. Earth can bring any Queen to life (With exceptions; see the note above regarding Chaos' Oblivion ability).
Q. When Earth uses Injunction, is she still considered "married" to the empire against which it was used? A. Yes. Injunction does not divorce them. Think of it as a temporary separation (until that particular Earth Queen is summoned again).
Q. If Chaos kills a Titan in battle, can Earth choose that Titan as the victim of Oblivion? A. Yes, and no additional ill effects are suffered. In effect, the Titan's Twilight weakness "protects" her other units from Oblivion.
Q. Can Earth build a Temple or Ziggurat if all Earth Queens are already in play? A. Yes, but in this case Earth will receive no additional benefits.
Q. How does Earth's Pacifism interact with Storm's Single Combat? A. Single Combat bypasses Pacifism because it is a Pre-Battle ability, and Pacifism specifies that it happens "After Pre-Battle has been resolved." You resolve Single Combat before Pacifism begins to take effect.
Q. As Invisible God, may I perform my Final Ritual with fewer than three Book gifts flipped face-down? A. You may perform your Final Ritual at any time, even if you have no Book gifts flipped face-down or in play (or even if you have no Book gifts at all on your empire sheet!).
Q. Can I eliminate more than one Specter in a single battle via Magic Explosion? A. Yes. If you had all four Specters attacking a single area and exploded them all, you'd receive 20 battle dice from that alone.
Q. What does it mean for Invisible God to be "targeted" by a gift, as specified in his Heroquest requirement? A. It means that a gift affects Invisible God in any way. For example, if Storm attacks Invisible God and uses his Courage gift to gain a rune, this does NOT count as "targeting" Invisible God, because it doesn't affect him. However, if Storm used Single Combat, or Sky used Arrogance vs. Invisible God, those would count. A gift that affects all players logically affects Invisible God, and thus triggers this requirement. Hence, if Chaos uses I Fought, We Won to extort Power in the Council Phase, this "targets" Invisible God.
Q. If Invisible God has a building in Hell, can he use Wizard Gate to move a unit from the area containing that building to an area outside of Hell that contains one of his buildings? A. Yes, but he still needs permission to do so.
Q. Can a unit in Moon's Enslaved box be cast into the Chaos Rift during the Chaos Rift Struggle? A. No.
Q. How do Pacifism and the Crimson Bat's Mindblast ability interact? A. The Bat's Combat is reduced to 0 by Pacifism, so it can only "reduce" the enemy's combat by 0.
Q. Does the Selene produced by the Red Goddess's Menses ability prevent Moon's building from conquest or destruction in that step of battle? A. Yes.
Q. Moon's Adoption lets you swap places with an enemy army, up to equal numbers. How does this work if you and your chosen enemy's forces are of different sizes? A. First, move all of the units belonging to the smaller force to the chosen area. Then, move an equal number of units (selected by you) from the other faction. For example, if you have one Assassin in an area, you could swap that Assassin into an area full of Storm's units, but only one of Storm's units would trade places (but you could pick Storm King himself!).
Q. How does Moon's Mindblast interact with Storm's Single Combat? A. First, Storm subtracts the Crimson Bat's combat from his total amount of dice. If he has any dice remaining, he can roll up to 2 of them for his Single Combat. Example: It is Half-Moon, and Storm is attacking Moon's Crimson Bat with Storm's Champion, a Stormbrother, and a Barbarian. Storm's combat total is 4. He must subtract 3 due to Mindblast, leaving him with 1. He then gets to do Single Combat with his Champion, but only rolls 1 die. Then, in the main part of the battle, he rolls no more dice.
Q. Are units in Moon's Slave Pen considered to be in play? A. Yes. Any units in the Slave Pen are in play; they are legitimate targets for gifts and abilities. However, units in the Slave Pen may not use any gifts or abilities that would allow them to leave the Slave Pen. For instance, Orlanth and any Stormbrothers could not teleport out, but enslaved Trolls would still count towards Hellmother's combat.
Q. What happens if Moon's Enslavement gift is active and she routs a neutral unit, such as one of Mother of Monsters' Spawn? Does that unit go to the Slave Pen? A. No. The ONLY units that can be Enslaved by Moon are those controlled by an empire. Elder race units allied to an empire may be Enslaved in this manner, but neutral units, including neutral elder race units or the above-mentioned Spawn, may never be Enslaved.
Q. If I have Eclipse and conquer an enemy Temple, what happens? A. When you Declare Battle, you'll bump the Lunar Cycle up a notch, because you were the Attacker. Then, in the conquest and destruction step, you'll place your new Temple and move the Cycle along another step.
Q. How does Moonburn work on an Imbedded Chaos Nest? A. An Imbedded Chaos Nest is still a Chaos Nest, which means that at Half Moon it is "destroyed," flipping it over to the standard Chaos Nest side. A Chaos Nest, Imbedded or not, cannot be targeted at Full Moon. As an Imbedded Chaos Nest is not put into the Moonburn box, Chaos could be targeted by Moonburn again.
Q. The costs of Sea's Temple and Ziggurat drop drastically after the Chaos Rift closes. Is this true for every purpose? A. Yes. For example, the Sea Ziggurat is only worth 1 for the Aquatic bonus. The Change rune can then be used to swap a Shrine with Sea's Ziggurat, since they cost the same (but you couldn't then swap your Ziggurat with a Sea Ziggurat).
Q. If I am Sea, can I choose to lift Siren Song in an area in order to permit an enemy to leave without spending a VP? A. No.
Q. Does Sea need to control a building to gain the Aquatic bonus? A. No.
Q. When Sea's Siren Song is in effect, can a player transport units out of the area using non-move actions such as Storm's Teleport? What if a rune is used or an enemy is moved involuntarily? A. The VP only needs to be spent if a Move Units action is performed. The effects of Whirlwind, Adoption, and Teleport, for example, do not count as performing a Move Units action.
Q. When using Magasta, The Churner's greater god ability, must my actions involve Magasta? A. No. You may perform as many actions in a row as you like, as long as each action originates in a Sea area. Magasta can be anywhere, even on land; he just has to be in play.
Q. How does Sea's Submerge interact with Sky Dome and/or Hell? A. You may only move to Sky Dome or Hell from a land area. Thus, if Vithela were Submerged you could not enter Hell from that area. Similarly, if the Enmal Mountains were to be Submerged, they would no longer be adjacent to Sky Dome. However, if the Gates of Dawn were Submerged, you would still exit out of Hell into that area.