Water

Boat attack and units drowning

Water in populous the beginning is certain death for any unit which falls into it. It is possible to over come this obstacle by by using spells such as Landbridge or Flatten which if casted properly will create a patch of land over the water through which units can safely pass through. Water could also be crossed with the help of Balloons and Boats.

No building can be placed on or very close to water (only the Boat hut, which must be built close to water). Water could also be used to the players advantage by throwing units into it's deadly depths with spells like Blast and Tornado. Also, the lava will create land when in contact with water (eg.: casting a volcano in water will create land around the casting point).

Water is usually blue but in some levels it's dark, orange or red, but it still acts as water and not lava (only the color changes). The spell Tornado also changes in color when touching water. The best spell to sink land is using flatten on water or erode on terrain nearby water. Damaged land (ex.: by lava) is not sinkable until the terrain gets fertile again.

The Circle of Reincarnation will always create land around, even if everything is sunk. However, there is a glitch where, if the Circle of Reincarnation of a tribe is totally under water, and an Armageddon spell is cast, that tribe (with the water CoR) loses the game before entering the arena.

Many effects interact with water, sometimes making visual effects (such as splash) occurring. A very notable effect is the Atlantis Invoke (seen on level 10, From_The_Depths), which will slowly rise land from under the water (and objects, including units, buildings, trees, and stones).