Gaia

God Power Gaia's Forest: Select a location to cause a forest to spring into being. Resource Gathering from it is faster and more lucrative than from normal forests. Civilization Bonus Lush greenery surrounds all buildings, healing them and preventing enemy buildings from being built nearby.

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In Atlantean mythology, Gaia precedes all the other gods and creates the ancient world, beginning by creating Oranos, the sky, and mating with him. Their progeny are the 12 Titans. Together they create the oceans, mountains, farmlands, and creatures, including humans.

Since Gaia was such a creator and nurturer of life, it is natural that she is an economy-oriented major god. Each of the Atlantean major gods have one important and unique attribute, and for Gaia this is "lush" terrain. When players worshipping Gaia create buildings, new vegetation called "lush" begins to spread from the buildings. Enemy players cannot construct buildings on lush, so it provides a defensive barrier against forward building tactics (such as sneaking in citizens to build defensive structures near enemy territory). When Gaia buildings are destroyed, lush gradually recedes. Smaller buildings, such as barracks, will generate less lush than larger ones, such as a town center. Lush does have one other benefit: Buildings on it slowly regenerate if damaged. It's thus a little more difficult to wipe out a Gaia player, as her buildings will recover if you don't finish the job, and you can't leave towers behind in her city to finish her off.

Gaia has several other bonuses, as well. All Gaia buildings regenerate. If they take damage but are not destroyed, they will eventually repair themselves to full strength. Economic improvements for increasing the gathering rates of food, wood, and gold are less expensive for Gaia. Gaia fishing ships and caravans are cheaper to build and take more hits to destroy than those of other gods.

Gaia's god power naturally fits in well with her position as the earth goddess, but it also has defensive applications in addition to its obvious economic boost. Gaia's god power is Gaia's forest. When this is called down upon an open area, a forest of trees shoots upward from the ground. These trees have two main uses. First, they can act as a barrier or wall because units cannot pass through them. Second, the trees are a source of wood that can be harvested. Villagers can gather more wood and gather faster from Gaia's forest. This is especially useful on maps where wood is scarce or in games with lots of water where wood will be a critical resource. But Gaia players should be careful, since other players' villagers can also gather wood from Gaia's more bountiful forest. Still, place one at your starting town center at the beginning of the game and you'll start raking in the wood much faster than any other player. And don't think this is a waste of your god power. You can use Gaia's forest again for defense or more wood if you need it later; you can use Gaia's god power more than once. It's another one of the Atlanteans' many unique abilities that set them apart from the original three cultures.

Gaia's mythological improvement is also based on quasi-historical accounts of commerce in Atlantis. Gaia's mythological improvement is the channels ability, which allows villagers to move faster. In Plato's account of Atlantis, he mentions extensive canals on the island that sped the movement of resources.