Terrain

The available Terrain can greatly effect the strategies of empires. Each terrain type provides bonuses to FIDS to a faction when near a city.

Some factions possess traits that effect the FIDS of certain terrain tiles: There are also many Technologies, City Improvements, and Hero Skills that apply bonuses to the FIDS output of different types of terrain.
 * The Wild Walkers faction gain +1  Industry on terrain with forests due to their "Living Towns" faction trait.
 * The Broken Lords faction gain +1  Dust on terrain with  Dust due to their "Dust Efficient" faction trait, and cannot see/gather/use  Food due to their "Appetite for Dust" faction trait.
 * The Necrophages faction lose -1  Food on terrain with  Food due to their "Agriculturally Challenged" faction trait.
 * The Vaulters faction gain +1  Science on terrain with  Science due to their "Knack for Knowledge" faction trait.
 * The Forgotten faction cannot see/gather/use  Science due to their "Science Phobic" faction trait.
 * The Morgawr faction gain +1  Industry and +1  Science on terrain with River, and +2  Industry and +2  Science on terrain with Sea or Lake due to their "Hydrophilic" faction trait.
 * The Kapaku faction can only see/gather/use  Food on Volcanic terrain due to their "Born of Ash" faction trait, while all other factions cannot see/gather/use  Food on Volcanic terrain.

Base Terrain Modifiers
There are a number of Technologies, City Improvements, and Hero Skills that provide bonus FIDSI output to basic terrain tiles.

Hero Skills
Wild Walkers - Woodland Forager: +1 on terrain with forest.

Broken Lords - Dust Diviner: +1/1/1 on terrain with Dust per level.

Forgotten - Arboreal Dust Dowser: +1/2/2 on terrain with forest.

Kapaku - Volcanology: +2 on Volcanic terrain at first level, +1  and +1  on Volcanic terrain at second level.

Anomalies
Anomalies are unique terrain features that appear semi-randomly across the land of Auriga. Many of these strange features are remnants of the many experiments performed by the Endless during their time on Auriga.

The bonuses provided by anomalies is in addition to the base FIDSI output of the tile they are on, making them very valuable for city development, especially during a city's founding. One should ideally place a city on as many anomalies as they can (within reason) when founding a new city to reap the benefits of boosted FIDSI and Approval.

Note however that many anomalies have restrictions on what types of regions and tiles they can appear on. For example, Ice Sculptures only appear in Arctic regions, while the Life Tree only appears on forest tiles.

Anomaly Modifiers
As with basic terrain, there are a handful of City Improvements and Hero Skills provide bonuses to the output of terrain with anomalies.

Hero Skills
Ardent Mages - Scientific Literacy: +2/3/3 on terrain with anomaly.

Roving Clans - Traveling Salesman: +2/3/3 on terrain with anomaly.

Rivers
Rivers provide +1 Food to whatever tile they pass through. Additionally, the Mastermind and Morgawr Heroes have reduced movement cost on river tiles. There are also a number of City Improvements and Hero Skills that can greatly improve the FIDSI output of tiles with rivers.

Hero Skills
Broken Lords - Aquatic Dust: +1/2/2 on terrain with river.

Drakken - Irrigation Expert: +1/2/2 on terrain with river.

Lava Flows
Lava flows provide +1 Industry on the tiles they pass through. They also harm units that pass over them; units that walk over lava flows lose 25% of their max Life, while units that end their turn on a lava flow in battle lose 10% of their max Life. Kapaku units do not experience this due to the Inner Fire capacity, and the Daemon also doesn't due to the Flamewalker capacity. The Flamewalker capacity can be given to other units by equipping them with the Flamewalkers.

Additionally, the Lava Works city improvement further increases the FIDSI output from Lava flow tiles.

Cliffs
Cliffs separate terrain tiles with substantial differences in height and block the movement of armies. However, if all units in the army have the Fly capacity, they can pass over cliffs freely.

Roads
Roads are automatically generated between cities in adjacent regions upon building the Right of Way city improvement unlocked by researching Imperial Highways. Paved roads are generated within the region of a city that has built Right of Way, while unpaved roads are generated in a region with a city that has not built Right of Way, but is adjacent to one that has.

Paved Roads in friendly and allied tiles reduce movement to 0.5, and can be further reduced by researching Endless Mechanisms. In order for Trade Routes to form between cities on land, there must be a continuous path of paved roads between the two cities.

Points of Interest
Points of Interest are various terrain features that can be interacted with in some way beyond what can be done with, say, a river. Points of interest include places that can act as the basis for regional buildings, or as part of a quest.

Foundations
Some ancient architect laid a foundation here that has stood the test of time. Given its location and the quality of the work, it is an ideal place to build a Watchtower.

Foundations are revealed upon reaching Era II, and there are usually 2 to 4 within a region. Watchtowers (Watchtower, Lookout Towers, Remotuscope Factory) and Defensive Towers (Tower of Truth, Tower of Fidelity) can be built on these foundations.

Ruins
Ruins are spread throughout the map. They are ancient structures left by the Endless that, when searched, have a chance to produce a reward that depends on the type of ruin, and a Hero that searches ruins will receive a reward of 8 XP. Additionally, searching a Sunken Ruin will consume the remaining Movement of the army.

Exploring ruins will have one of the following effects:
 * 20%: Quest
 * 60%: Instant reward
 * Temple Ruins Droplist
 * Unspoiled Ruins Droplist
 * Sunken Ruins Droplist


 * 20%: Nothing

The Search Party tech and Indiana Bones hero skill each reduce the chance of getting nothing by 10% and increase the chance to get a Quest or Reward by 5%.

The Drakken gain +2  Science and +3  Influence on terrain with Ruins due to their "Endless Excavation" faction trait.

The Allayi receive a small amount of  Pearls on a successful Ruins search due to their "Pearl Sensitive" faction trait.

The Kapaku gain +2  Science on terrain with Ruins and receive an amount of  Science on a successful Ruins search due to their "Endless Fascination" faction trait. Additionally, the Kapaku receive the Aurigan Archive and Inner Peace technologies for completing the last two chapters of their faction quest, which provide +8 Science and +15  Influence on terrain with Ruins respectively.

Resources
Terrain tiles with Strategic Resources provide +1  Science and terrain tiles with  Luxury Resources provide +1  Dust. Such tiles (and therefore effects) are only revealed upon reaching the appropriate Era for the resource. Additionally, building the Advanced Quarry in a city provides an additional +50 Industry on terrain with Strategic Resource.

Villages
Every region contains 1 to 3 Minor Faction Villages, all of the same type of Minor Faction, with an Empire's starting region always only having 1 village. Villages start out neutral, and will over time produce roaming armies that will attack units and pillage buildings. These villages can be pacified either by attacking and defeating the village, bribing them with a sum of Dust, or completing a quest for them. Note that the last two options require the Language Square technology to do, and completing a pacification quest will pacify all villages in a region, making it more effective for regions with multiple villages. Once a village is pacified, it will no longer produce roaming armies, and if there is a city in that region, then the owner of the city will gain 1 per pacified village (though this doesn't count towards the city's total population), as well as the ability to assimilate the minor faction for a passive bonus and the ability to make that faction's units.