This article is about the non-playable team. For the goddess in Age of Mythology, see Gaia (goddess). For the unit in Age of Mythology campaigns, see Gaia (unit). |
Gaia is a non-playable, neutral team in the Age of Empires series, to which all the natural environment units found around the map belong. The Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III equivalent to Gaia is Mother Nature. It's actually possible to play as animal units in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II by entering the code "gaia" or "natural wonders", respectively.
In Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, Age of Empires III, Age of Mythology, and Age of Empires IV, the team colors for Gaia are sky blue, white, brown, yellow and white respectively.
Mechanics[]
In Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, if a human unit, Sheep, Turkey, or Horse is placed under Gaia's control in the Scenario Editor, it will become the possession of a player's team should one of their units come across it. This is a common method used in campaigns, and can sometimes be used to place secret units on a map, obtainable through exploration.
In Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III, only units with the AutoConvert
action in the prototype files exist, such as herdable animals, Osiris Piece Carts, and Plenty Vaults. Gaia-aligned units, if unable to be converted, will attack other units of any other team if the former unit is capable of combat.
All predator, huntable, and herdable animals can wander in a specific area, whilst in Age of Empires and Age of Empires II, non-herdable prey animals will run away from non-Gaia units. This was meant to feature in Age of Mythology but was cut before release. In Age of Empires III, huntable creatures will only run when attacked by Settler-type units.
In Age of Empires III, all natives are part of the Gaia/Mother Nature, similar to the Settlement in Age of Mythology and can be claimed by building a Trading Post there. The treasure guardians and Trade Routes also are part of the Gaia/Mother Nature.
Trivia[]
- Using the cheat code
natural wonders
in Age of Empires II and checking the tech tree will crash the game due to Gaia not being an actual civilization and thus having no data there. This also happened in Age of Empires: Definitive Edition with the cheat codegaia
, but has since been patched. - Using the cheat code
SET ASCENDANT
in Age of Mythology will allow the player to control every animal on the map, except for those owned by their enemies. - In Age of Mythology, Mother Nature has a unique Greek UI, although this is only seen when a scenario is playtested via the Scenario Editor. According to early screenshots, this was the original Greek UI before it was changed.
- In Age of Empires II, Gaia female Villagers have the same voice clips as the Japanese. Since The Conquerors, Gaia Monks will occasionally use Korean voice clips. The males (both Villagers and military units) use voice clips that sound like they're either speaking Greek or Latin (more likely the former than the latter) and it is always that way even, if players go in and choose a civilization for Gaia units.
- When watching a recorded game in Age of Empires II, the player can select the player to observe by pressing Ctrl, Shift, and the F key that corresponds to the player number. As Gaia is the ninth player (even if less than 8 actual players are in the game), pressing Ctrl+Shift+F9 will allow the player to watch the game from Gaia's point of view.
- In Age of Empires III, buildings controlled by Mother Nature use the same flag used by Lizzie's Pirates in the Pirates! and A Pirate's Help scenarios of Act I: Blood, showing a skull on two crossed bones.
- Settlers controlled by Mother Nature in Age of Empires III have the British and Dutch appearance and can be seen in Treasures (trapped by wild animals or tied up by bandits).