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SHAMBHALA, THE HIDDEN CITY: An MA nation for Dominions 4
Version 3.99D (Jul 27, 2014)
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Original Author: Nounours
Current Revising Author and Maintainer: Globu
Past Revising Author/Contributor: Pyg


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RESOURCES USED
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This mod is MC-complaint.

Please see the MA_Shambhala.dm file for a listing of resources used.


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REVISING AUTHOR'S NOTES
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Nounours, the author of this mod, disappeared from the forums for a long 
while, leaving this mod in an almost-finished state. A bit later, Pyg put up a 
version on the mod's release thread that corrected a few technical errors. 
Seeing that, and finding myself charmed and impressed by his superb work, I 
decided to finish and maintain the mod, polishing it and correcting any 
remaining errors.

I've overhauled it and balanced it to the best of my ability, bringing it into
line with Dom4 standards.

The main areas of revision have been:

1) Textual editing. Nounours is an excellent non-native English speaker, but 
it's tough writing in another language. I helped clean it up a bit, and edited
things down where they were awkward or too long.

2) Added a few new sprites and variants (specifically, the Yak, the missing
Bdud Warrior, the Lama of the Frozen Heights pretender, the Mi Dred High One,
and the Mi Go Guide).

3) Overhauled the existing spritework while trying to remain consistent with
the author's style. Most sprites had minor issues such as awkward shading here
and there, stray pixels, or minor mistakes (such as the Dmag Dpon's helmet
changing color), while others, through no fault of the mod author's, were
simply based on some of KO's more outdated sprites and could stand for a bit
of an overhaul. A few -- the Klu/Naga, all cavalry units, and the Bdud and
Srin Po series -- were replaced entirely.  If I suspected that the sprite was
wholly original artwork by Nounours, as I did with the Lha sprites, I took
special care to adhere to the original artistic vision.

4) Applied extensive fixes, balancing adjustments, technical updating, and 
other polishing. A lot of love has gone into it.

5) Added a small amount of new content: a pretender, several new units, 
   spells, weapons and armor.

If you like this mod, but find it imbalanced in some way (particularly for MP 
play, since I haven't played MP much and don't have a feel for it), please do 
pipe up and let me know how it could be improved.

Nounours, thanks and cheers to you for this incredibly good nation mod.  I 
hope you'll continue with your fine work! (I would love to see Cantabira 
finished!)  And I sincerely hope you like the direction in which I've taken 
this outstanding mod.


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ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S DESCRIPTION
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Shangri-La is an MA Nation based on Tibetan myth and history. The nation is
centered around the hidden city of Shangri-La, ruled by powerful mage-priests
who seek spiritual ascension and enlightenment.

Its military is composed of Bhödpa mountain tribesmen, well-armed Shangrilan
troops, and Mi Gö ape-men similar to the Bandar of Kailasa.

Troops:
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- Bhödpa spearman, archer, mountaineer (light infantry)
- Bhödpa yak rider (light cavalry)
- Shangrilan archer, crossbowman and heavy infantry; Dmag-Dar (banner-
  bearer) & Dmag Hrag (veteran soldier)
- Light Bhödpa Cavalry & heavy Shangrilan Rta Pa Cavalry.
- Mi Gö and Mi Gö hunters (Mi Gö are intelligent ape-like creatures, related
  to yetis. And yes, there are yetis )...

Sacreds:
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- Guardian of the Hidden Valley
- Mi Dred (sacred Mi Gö warriors armed with clubs made of enchanted ice)

Commanders:
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- Bhödpa Scout
- Bhödpa Sde Pa (Clan Chief)
- Shangrilan Dmag Dpon (Officer) and Rje (king)
- Shangrilan Monk (Drapa)
- Mages: Ngagspa (sorcerers who dabble in dark magics), Demon-hunters (Tibetan
  stories and legends seems to be full of demons!) and Ragyapa (priests
  charged with practicing funerals by cutting corpses to small pieces and
  feeding them to vultures and other birds of prey).
- Lamas: Red-Hat lama, Yellow-Hat lama and Black-Hat lama
- Hidden Masters (powerful mages and occult masters of Shangri-La)

Summons:
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- Yetis
- Theurang, Klu & Lha spirits
- Srin Po, Bdud and Btsan demons
- Snow Lions
- Citipatis (undead who haunt cemeteries and dance on corpses)


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CREDITS AND PERMISSIONS (from the perspective of primary revising author)
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First and foremost credit is to the author of this mod, Nounours, for the
superb work he has shared with us.

All edits and further development of this mod are done without the permission 
of the author. I know of no statement of his feelings on permissions. The mod 
concept, design and original work remains his own (though, like all our work 
here, it is based on Illwinter's art and concepts).

Credit to Pyg for correcting some problems and inspiring me to polish other 
aspects of the mod, and to llamabeast for graciously allowing me use of space 
on the llamaserver for hosting these and other files.

Big thanks to Johan Karlsson and Kristoffer O for their excellent work, which
even my *wife* loves, and on which most of this work is based.

Thanks to Calahan, Frozen Lama, His Rotundity, Indract, llamabeast, 
mehrunes_dagon, Ohlmann, rdonj, Sombre, Squirrelloid and Zonk for helpful 
feedback, advice and encouragement. (In particular thanks to Frozen Lama for 
bravely testing the nation in MP and giving lots of feedback.)


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OTHER NOTES
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A Tibetan-English dictionary with Sanskrit synonyms in full text can be found
here:

http://www.archive.org/stream/tibetanenglishdi00dassuoft/tibetanenglishdi00dassuoft_djvu.txt

And another translation dictionary here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36951689/Tibetan-English-Dictionary-Jaschke-1883-Row-7
