Whats the relevance of realm of origin?

[MightyMetro]

The cos battletome says that armies of the cities must come from specific realms.  For example, Anvilgard and Aqshy. That makes sense lorewise, but does realm of origin affect army rules?  

Where can i find the rules?  Im at a loss

thx

[Ninelives]

40 minutes ago, MightyMetro said:

The cos battletome says that armies of the cities must come from specific realms.  For example, Anvilgard and Aqshy. That makes sense lorewise, but does realm of origin affect army rules?  

Where can i find the rules?  Im at a loss

thx

Not sure if it's still applicable, but the artefacts and spells of malign sorcery were dependent on Realm of Origin. So a city from Aqshy couldn't have a Ghur artefact on one of their hero (haven't played in a while so happy to be corrected if I'm wrong about this) . 

[OkayestDM]

This rule has lost the significance it once had, but still has some relevance. In the General's Handbook 2020, there is a list of "Realm Rules" which can be used when fighting in a specific realm. Among these is a single artifact that your army can take when you fight in that realm. Alternatively, if your army comes from that realm, you can take the artifact whether you fight in that realm or not.

 

The CoS realm restriction rule was much more important before the General's Handbook 2020, because the realm rules available before then were more expansive.There were six artifacts per realm, and some of them were incredibly powerful, especially when combined with certain heroes or factions. Being locked in to a specific realm limited the pool from which players could draw artifacts. It should be noted that this rule decision was purely narrative, and was not an attempt at balancing the game.

Edited November 23, 2020 by OkayestDM

[NinthMusketeer]

As others have mentioned, the realm of origin allows an army to use artifacts from that realm. The realm you are fighting IN determines what spells are available. But not vice versa: you cannot take an artifact from the realm a given battle is in if your army is from a different realm, and you cannot cast spells from your realm of origin unless the battle is taking place in that realm.

For example, a Living City army is fighting a battle in Chamon. The Living City army could have a Ghyran artifact, but could NOT cast Ghyran spells, they could cast the Chamon ones, because that's where the battle is taking place.

I think of it as artifacts being physical equipment--you carry it around with you even if you leave a place. But spells are drawing on the magic that is around them at the moment they are being cast, so it's the place you currently are that matters.