Wiki

Glossary

Core terms used across the game and this wiki, defined in one place.

The terms Sovereign Empires leans on most, defined as the game uses them. Each links to a fuller page where there is one.

TermMeaning
WorldThe single huge map every empire shares. Made of tiles. See The World.
TileOne cell of the world map. Has terrain, elevation, sometimes a resource node, and an owner.
RegionA block of tiles the engine streams in and out. Mostly an organizational unit.
Terrain / BiomeWhat a tile is made of (water, grassland, rock, and so on). See Terrain.
EmpireA player’s domain, human or AI. Owns cities, land, resources, and armies.
CityA settlement that projects a claim over nearby tiles. See Cities.
Claim / TerritoryThe tiles a city controls, set by its influence radius. See Cities.
DistrictA claimed tile you build out on an interior grid. See Districts.
BuildingA structure placed in a district that produces, houses, or earns. See Buildings.
RoadInterior infrastructure. A building must touch a road to work.
Stock-and-flowThe economy model: a stored stock of each resource plus a per-second flow. See Economy.
Resource nodeA finite deposit on the map (forest, rock, ore) that depletes as you harvest it. See Resources.
PopulationThe residents of a city. They eat, grow, and are spent to field units. See Population.
UpkeepThe ongoing cost of keeping something, such as the food an army eats while in the field.
UnitA single military type (Infantry, Tank, Jet, and so on). See Units.
DomainWhere a unit operates: land, air, or sea. Decides what can hit what.
Combined armsUsing land, air, and naval forces together. See Warfare.

This article reflects the game in active development and will change as systems evolve.