I agree that Broken Spire would be a fine home for the Elemental class. Both Mythics there are Elementals after all, and it’s the second (tied with Stormheim) most populated Kingdom for Elementals. However, it’s also the second most populated for Giants. Granted, the Giants from Broken Spire see almost no play (except maybe Flame Troll and Lava Troll, but those are Elementals too).
The only reason I would give Elemental to Forest of Thorns is because of the already existing troop synergy (King Avelorn and Archdruid). But I do agree that it would make more sense lore wise for Elemental to be from Broken Spire, I will definitely give you that.
The only reason then to change Archer would be…
…so Beast could have a home, since there is only one Beast class, and it should be Wargare. Beasts are the most popular troop in the game, by over 2 percent points (20 more beast troops than elementals). But there is no single Kingdom with a plethora of beasts. Instead they are almost evenly divided. Here’s the top 13 (all kingdoms after that have 4 or less beasts, although there are still 6 kingdoms that have 4 beasts each, so it’s not a small number).
| Class Type | Kingdom | Beast |
|---|---|---|
| Elf | Forest of Thorns | 8 |
| Beast | Maugrim Woods | 8 |
| Fey | Glacial Peaks | 7 |
| Tauros | Wild Plains | 6 |
| Urska | Urskaya | 6 |
| Human | Leonis Empire | 5 |
| Centaur | Divinion Fields | 5 |
| Elf | Zhul’Kari | 5 |
| Goblin | Zaejin | 5 |
| Merfolk | Merlantis | 5 |
| Mystic | Silverglade | 5 |
| Raksha | Pridelands | 5 |
| Undead | Ghulvania | 5 |
I think we can all agree that there are a ton of Kingdoms we can rule out immediately, even ones that have multiple classes, like Glacial Peaks (Fey), and Leonis Empire (Human). Wild Plains likewise needs to stay Tauros, Urskaya needs to stay Urska. That does leave Forest of Thorns and then the other 5 ones.
Is there good lore though for Forest of Thorns to be a beast class though? Lord Belanor, the newest troop, is an Elf / Beast because he’s riding on a beast, same with Owl Rider. There’s only one actual “Beast” though, the Hippogryph. The two mythics from Forest of Thorns are Elementa/Fey and Divine/Fey, so it’s not definitely not fitting of Beast.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that both Broken Spire and Forest of Thorns could be Elemental. This would reduce the number of Giant classes from 2 to 1, Elf from 3 to 2, and Elemental from 0 to 2 (which would be fine – Dwarf, Fey, Human, and Undead all have 2 classes).
Beast is just an awkward class, because there are no great Kingdoms for it. There are only three Mythic beasts in the game and they belong to Broken Spire (Amarok – also Elemental), Silverglade (Queen Aurora – also Divine), and Maugrim Woods (Wulfgarok – also Wargare).
Broken Spire of course we want to change to Elemental (or leave as is). Silverglade has the Archmagus class which is Mystic, so they wouldn’t touch that. And then there’s Maugrim Woods. The problem of course is that I want both Beast and Wargare classes.
Interestingly, I think we are overlooking a very fine contender…
Zhul’kari’s class is the Elf, something that has 3 classes (2 if Archer was changed to Elemental). But there are also 5 beasts from Zhul’kari – it’s the home of spiders. I’m not even sure why Webspinner isn’t a Beast as well (it’s just classified as a Daemon… but look at it).
Zhul’Kari ‘Orbweaver’ Elf → Beast
Broken Spire ‘Warlord’ Giant → Elemental
Maugrim Woods ‘Warden’ Beast → Wargare
Karakoth ‘Sorcerer’ Daemon → Construct
Elves go from 3 to 2 classes.
Giants go from 2 to 1 class.
Daemons go from 3 to 2 classes.
Beasts go unchanged.
Elementals go from 0 to 1 class.
Constructs go from 0 to 1 class.
Wargares go from 0 to 1 class.