Please make Umber unlikable, tough as nail, unfriendly, nasty bastards that will survive where others would falter Thats how they play inside my head. This could be done by:

Having extra cost for recruiting (as it is today)

Need less food per population (we eat of the ground, what others throw away), a small bonus to growth as we attract all the scum that roams

Extra constitution, but slightly lower intelligence on average

Negative diplomatic skills (others think us filthy and disgusting)

Lower tax income. Money pahh.. who needs it

Standard units have the skill that gives attack bonus when health is below 50%

I only ever play a custom faction, therefore I will abstain from voting.

what you already told is enough imo, what i love especially is differente gameplay but if that comes from some race spell/ability or from different armies is irrelevant

also it is cool like already told to have visually different cities (and maybe armies too)

my order of preference

- racial spells/skills/traits

-unique creature/beast/troops

- (few) different buildings for faction

-items, either in shop for champions or to use for your army

-maybe some research but im not sure about this

I thought fallen weren't evil, and kingdoms weren't good?

I also play Umber but have to say they get the worst Sov in the game. His description is that he is a well rounded character but elemental is not a game that rewards well roundedness. You either try for warrior or mage you cant be both well ass every Int/Mage trait is less Str/Warrior traits. Also as Umber is the highest dexterity race could you please make Dexterity a balanced trait and Assasins more than a joke path. Really he shouldn't be a warrior/mage champion but an assasin one, I would bet the reason he isn't is because Assasins as stands arn't playable.

Hate this mechanic for Umber because their Sov is a warlord, this already underpowered specialization gets even worse when you have less champions. This combined with the Umbars Sov's roundedness makes me custom Sov everytime.

Everyone, seriously a hit to income is a big deal need something to balance it.

I agree that Umbar should have a growth rate bonus, because they are the most populous race and have a history of migration, not because they eat garbage.

Yes, all the races need a built in special trait, they should be differentiated by more than just stats. Some examples are: Poison/Fire/Blunt resistance, Fast healing, No Movement Penalties over forests, rivers, swamps, wastelands or hills,  Dmg vs Beasts or twisted, Fire/Water/Lightning dmg bonus on spells.

Awesome.  I can't wait to read the journal that gets into the bits and pieces of differentiation.

I voted for Resoln, so I'll briefly talk about them since the wraiths are near and dear to my black, rotten heart.

I'd really like to see their population / recruitment controlled by mana and spells rather than prestige.  From how I interpret the lore, Ceresa bound all of her subjects to her with a powerful spell.  Why, then, does her population increase via prestige just like all the other suckers in the world?  I'm not sure how this system would work exactly, but maybe some of the Ceresa Spells would be like:

Ritual of Binding.  Strategic spell.  X mana to cast (based on opposing army strength).  Ceresa strips the life from an army on the strategic map, damning them to an eternity as wraiths.  The army is now under her control.  Cannot be used against an army led by a sovereign.

Call from Beyond.  City Enchantment spell.  X mana to cast.  1 upkeep.  Enchanted city is infused with Dark Magic and gains 1 + 1 / Death Shard population each turn.  

Wake the Dead.  Strategic spell.  250 mana to cast.  Target city gains 25 population.

Perhaps buildings would be in order:

Necromancer Cabal.  Ceresa's necromancers work tirelessly to capture and convert the living.  +X population per season in the city in which this is built.  There could be a basic cabal and stronger versions could be city improvements that you get when your city levels up.  

Throne of the Wraith Queen. From her dark throne, Ceresa contemplates eternity.  Could be a "one per faction" building that provides one death energy and some population.

Faction Penalties:

Do Not Suffer the Living.  When the wraiths take over a city, they kill or capture everyone.  Cities that are captured by the wraiths have their population reset to 1.

Land of the Dead.  Ceresa has altered the very lands in her empire to support her semi-living thralls.  While within their borders, wraith units require no upkeep.  However, when wraiths venture beyond the mists surrounding Ceresa's lands, she must constantly feed them mana (1 / stack?  Not sure how the balance would work here). 

I don't think the wraiths are actual undead at all.

Huzzah for alignments! Are all MOBS going to be given an alignment, too? If so, this will greatly increase the number of spells and skills possible!!!

Gilden:

Wow! I'm surprised to see them as lawful good. Sounds good!

In that case, I assume they are no longer the merchants, as that is taken by Tarth with their roads and caravans.

Gilden:

Faction Bonuses/Penalties:

• Bonus to growth/prestige due to their adherence to values of justice and honor; Everyone wants to live in such a safe environment.
• -10% unrest by default, and specialized buildings to reduce unrest. Everyone is more willing to pay taxes!
• Standard units are willing to work for lower wages, because it is their honor to serve their kingdom. Specialized units are more expensive, because they are cocky, arrogant jerks!
• -30% research; Creativity is not as highly valued in a lawful-good kingdom.
• +15% grain and production; Everyone works hard!

Faction Units:

• Knights: Requires plate armor and horses. They ride forth, mounted on horses, and armed with lances. Bonus damage against large/huge creatures; bonus defense against arrows (but not crossbows, if you implement them); Skill: Trample: Unit can move through an enemy unit, inflicting trample damage. This damage increases depending on the number of tiles moved. HIGH maintenance cost.
• Paladins: Requires plate armor, life magic (and appropriate research in magic sphere); Can cast a couple of life spells such as healing, protection from evil, and regeneration; Bonus damage and defense against EVIL units. HIGH maintenance cost.
• Royal guard: Requires at least chain armor. These units have a larger zone of control, and take damage in place of the sovereign or champion if they are positioned adjacent to them in battle. Cannot be mounted. HIGH maintenance cost.

Faction Spells:

• Protection from evil: Target unit gains bonus defense and dodge against EVIL units.
• Conversion: Target unit resists or joins Gilden, becoming lawful good.
• Bless: All units on the battlefield gain a small bonus to hit, dodge, and defense.
• Hands of God: Target champion is healed of one battle wound (high mana cost).
• Holy avenger: Summons an angel to do battle on earth for the Sovereign (high cast and maintenance cost; most powerful summons for Gilden).
• Holy fire: Casts a ray of holy light, damaging target EVIL unit for 5*INT Bonus*LIFE-shard-count points of damage.

Umber: A populous and Migratory people, they served under the most cunning of the titans who controlled the most land. Have highest dexterity.

The urxen should be good at expanding and growing their cities, this combined with their history of betrayal and their savage nature should give them poor diplomacy. They should be aggressive and savage, with more in common with their beasts than their neighbours. They should however respect strength. For all thier savagery the Urxen should have a ruthless and cruel cunning to them and a strong natural philosophy, as seen with their love of poisons and beasts. The Urxen should be an aggressive race that expand early and fast, always watching for a weak neighbouring border. With slow research but great at expansion and producing cheap soldiers that punch above their cost, they aim mostly for a conquest victory (maybe quest).

The Urxen should have not only an Assasin Sov but unlock special items to allow them to create troops that utilize dexterity, numbers, inititiative, curses and poison to bring down more powerful/armored enemies. Late game they should be using drakes,ogres and other beasts in the place of heavy knights and Magi.

Strengths: Light Armors/Spears/Daggers/Poisons/Curses/Population Growth/Monsters

Unique light armors (Naja Scale)(Ophilian Scale)(Drake Scale)

More Posions (Arrow)(Slow: -Initiative)(Toxin: High Dmg)(MindRot:-Intelligence)(Fever Poison: -25% fire resistance)

Special Daggers and Spears(+50% poison dmg)(50% armor penetration)(Dispel)(Dmg Bonus from Dext)

Skath Mounts (No movement penalty in Swamps)

Curse Stone: Special item for Magi Units that attempts to Curse target on hit.

Blood Curse: -Spell Defense -Def -Poison Resistance. Cannot be resisted, Damages caster

Wild Rage: Unit may strike adjacent allies.  +15% Str  +15% Dext   +15% Con   +2% per shard

Testing Ground (Urxen Arena): - 0.5 Growth. All units trained in this city gain + 1 Dex +1 Init and Bloodthirsty

Wild Symbiosis Techs: # of monsters trainable per lair increased 33%. Second lv 66% and rounds up (2ogres/drakes a lair)

Weaknesses: Diplomacy/Late Game Research/Fortifications/Low metal

The main problems with Urxen in .86 are dexterity, poison(glitchy stack) and Assasins(Dext based, no good traits) are underpowered.

D&D alignments don't even work well for their intended purpose, I'm not sure seeing them here is a positive thing. If your factions and characters can fit onto that grid, that should indicate by itself that your factions are uninteresting. Declaring a faction "evil" says "these are the bad guys, you shouldn't like them" while calling a faction "good" implicitly simplifies them into something less interesting. It also imposes an outside morality on these complex societies when realistically they should all consider themselves to be the good guys, and the implication that this morality is official reduces immersion.

One thing that might be slightly more helpful would be the noblebright/grimdark grid which is intended to categorize settings based on the demeanor of the people and the harshness of the world. But that's not a great fit for this situation either. There exists a grid with which you're likely familiar that has civil liberties on one axis and economic liberties on another, and that would be the best fit to describe governments but it doesn't cover a lot of aspects of the society. Really, no tool of that nature is going to be prefect for the situation.

As for my preferred faction, I've said this elsewhere, but saying it again is easier than finding it. I play mostly Yithril, although not exclusively. I see the Trogs as hard working and straightforward. They thrive under hardship, as the text in your image suggests, and expect others to work hard and persevere as well.  I see them as hard working folk who do what they have to but (as Empire) are more willing to accept that things won't always work out for everybody, and will take hardship as it comes. And of course they're vicious and brutal in war.

I like these ideas. Very interesting.

Almost reminds me of the Ceyah of the Kohan series of games. The Ceyah could always support their maximum unit upkeep with "free" zombie units, but the zombies did terrible damage. The major appeal of the faction was that it could field an army very fast, but that you had to tactically maneuver the zombies to engage other units while your squishy damage dealers could flank the opposing army.

It made them fun to play, but balanced. Pros: big defense force. Cons: combined attack and defense of that defense force equaled the strengths of the smaller armies other factions could field.

Perhaps a low upkeep "zombie-like" unit is in order for Resoln? Obviously something that fits with the lore, but has the same features: low base damage, moderate to high hp and extremely cheap to produce and maintain. This unit would form the backbone of the Resoln army, but could be countered by an opposing player's strategy if the Resoln player did not mix his/her units effectively. 

I agree. I don't like this grid. And I don't like explicit evil/good. It's so cliche and ultimately uninteresting.