The Aksumites are a culture available in the Classical Era, with the Merchant culture focus.
"A culture enjoying great natural wealth -- living, mineral, and elemental -- with territory from rainy, fertile plateaus to dry, hot seaports, the Aksumites are a trading powerhouse."
Culture orientation[]
![]() |
Merchant Cultures favour a gameplay orientation focused on Money and trade. These cultures gain extra Fame from Merchant Era Stars for earning Money. |
Affinity Action: Power Investor[]
Can use Influence to marshal venture capital towards a Resource Deposit, either creating an Extractor or generating Money.
- If no Extractor exists, then one will be created instantly on the deposit.
- Otherwise, you will share a sum of Money with the owner. You'll both earn more Money the more Empires are buying the resource; and if the owner is an Independent People, their cut will count as a Bribe, improving relations.
Affinity Bonus: Mediation[]
Any resource you buy via trade can be re-purchased by other Empires, only if these Empires are not already buying the resource from the same third-party you are buying it to.
Transcendence Bonus: All that Glitters[]
Trait: Horn of plenty[]
Emblematic quarter: Great Obelisk[]
“Used as graves for kings, the Great Obelisks were among some of the tallest and heaviest monoliths humanity had ever erected.”
![]() |
|
Emblematic unit: Shotelai[]
“The shotelai use curved swords, or shotel, in battle to help them reach behind enemy shields and other types of protection.”
![]() |
|
City names[]
The names listed are default names, players can change their cities' names if they choose.
Aksum, Adulis, Däqqi Mäḥari, Ḥawǝlti, Käskäsé, Mäṭära, Qoḥayto, Toḵonda, Wakarida, Yǝḥa
- The first new city found by this culture will use the first name on the city list.
Trivia[]
- The in-game appearance of the Aksumite City Center is based on a reconstruction of Ta'akha Maryam Palace, a now-ruined palace built by the Kingdom of Axum in the early 6th century.