Each player starts with one hero. A player has full control of the actions of a hero and may gain more heroes as time goes by. Each hero may have retainers/followers/henchmen. A player may give general orders to a henchman, but not specific ones. Henchmen have one particular skill and are not capable of learning others. They may, however, become better at their one skill. Henchman are tied to a location or structure. If the structure is destroyed, so is the henchman. Sample Henchman Types per Structure: Ship, captain Castle, seneschel/majordomo Army, captain Caravan, merchant Tower, apprentice Temple, acolyte Sample Retainer Orders: order xxxx seneschel # order xxxx to run castle order xxxx captain # order xxxx to captain a ship order xxxx apprentice # order xxxx to apprentice in magic order xxxx centurion # order xxxx to command a legion Perhaps the the special heroes can be from groups representing certain beliefs. A group of hero for the empress, one for each god, etc... But what exactly makes them leave?... Marcus: "one hero to start...perhaps one a turn until there are four total no more until one dies" What if the players actions gained some sort of prestige atracting a hero to thier cause... the could be a bank of legendary heros that flock to the flag of the more powerful players. Of course these heroes are moody and could defect at almost any time....?