Blood hunting

The Blood Hunt order that gathers blood slaves: three checks, how many slaves a hunt finds, the unrest it causes, and how dominion and scales matter.

verified 6.37updated 2026-10-02 · Jake4 min read

Blood magic runs on blood slaves, and the only way to get them is the blood hunt order. A hunter goes out into a province, and the hunt is resolved at step 18 of the turn. This page sets out the manual’s formula for a hunt, what a hunt does to the province, and what it leaves unsaid. For what the slaves are spent on, see Magic gems.

The three checks

To find any slaves, the hunter must pass three checks one after another. The manual gives them as follows:

1. Level. The chance of success is 10 plus 30 times the hunter’s blood level. The manual says “blood level” without defining it; we read it as the hunter’s Blood magic skill, but the manual does not say so in words.
2. Population. The chance of success is the province’s population divided by 75, as a percentage. A province of 3,000 people gives 40%.
3. Unrest. The chance of failure is the province’s unrest divided by 4, as a percentage. At 20 unrest that is a 5% chance to fail.

Take a Blood 2 hunter in a province of 3,000 people with 20 unrest. The first check passes 70% of the time, the second 40%, and the third fails 5% of the time. These figures follow directly from the formulas; the manual gives no worked example of its own, and we have not tested them.

What a successful hunt gives

If all three checks succeed, the hunter finds a d6 plus his blood level in slaves. The province’s unrest then rises by a roll of d(slaves x 3 + 4). The manual glosses that as a random number from 1 up to three times the slaves found, plus 4, which can be read two ways; the formula is the clearer of the two.

If any check fails, no slaves are found and unrest still rises, by d6 minus 1.

The magic site frequency setting also matters. When it is not 50%, every 5 points above or below changes the average yield by half a slave, up or down.

Refusals and fights

Locals may refuse to hand over their daughters. The manual says that can end in a brawl between the angry villagers and the hunter plus whichever bodyguards are close. A strong dominion makes villagers regard the sacrifice as an honour; the manual says that at strength 10 hardly anyone refuses. See Dominion. The manual does not say how large the mob is or how a lost fight affects the hunter.

What it does to the province

Unrest is the main cost. The manual lists blood hunting among the things that raise unrest, along with random events, enemy spies, magic sites, targeted spells and global enchantments, and says a hunt will definitely cause some. Unrest cuts a province’s income and resources. At 100 you cannot recruit units or commanders there, and 500 is the maximum. Unrest also lowers the chance of finding slaves (the third check), so repeated hunting in one province gets harder as unrest builds up. See Province attributes.

Dominion and scales

The manual states one scale effect, and only in a nation’s description: the Lanka entry says blood hunts give more slaves in turmoil and fewer in order. We have no manual statement of how large that is, nor of a similar effect for any other nation. It does not otherwise tie the Order and Turmoil scales to the three checks, so it is not clear whether the effect works through unrest or on its own.

Who can hunt

The manual speaks of “a blood hunter” and a blood level, and its gems chapter notes that blood hunters often carry slaves they want to move into the national pool in a laboratory province. It gives no list of who may take the order. It does say of Marverni that with no blood mages it will have a hard time finding slaves, that the Zotz and the Rakshasas of Lanka have an affinity for blood hunting and Blood magic, and that the Warlocks of the Smouldercone search conquered lands for suitable slaves.

What the manual leaves out

• It does not define blood level, nor whether bodyguards or other units add to the checks.
• It does not say whether a province can be exhausted of slaves beyond the population and unrest checks.
• It does not give the size of Lanka’s turmoil and order effects.
• It does not say whether slaves count toward the 40-gem carry limit, which is given for gems only.