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Cards in kingdoms cannot be played in battle like cards from hand.  I don’t want everyone to think they have to put a kingdom in their deck so that they can have a 12-card-hand to compete with their opponent’s 13-card-hand. 

Cards enter and exit kingdoms during prep phase only.  You can exchange any number of cards from hand with any number of cards in your kingdom, or you can simply place cards from hand in kingdom or vice versa.  Just remember that cards in kingdoms cannot be accessed during battle, unless an ability says so.  I foresee cards targeting cards in kingdoms and adding them to battles in the future…

By game rule, you will only be able to have one kingdom in play or set-aside at a time.  They will all be considered the same, in the same way that The Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple, and Herod’s Temple are considered the same card.  So if you have a good kingdom in play and you want to play another good kingdom, you can; you will discard the one already in play, transferring its contents to the new kingdom.  If the new kingdom’s size is smaller, any cards not able to be transferred will go to your hand, unless you hit the 16-card hand limit; then they are discarded.

The identifiers and abilities of kingdoms would be almost limitless.  Not only would they provide a way to hold more cards in hand, they could easily be unique protect forts (protecting certain contents, or even protecting cards in territory).  They could provide counters to preblock ignore or splash offenses.  They can help defensive decks by allowing more cards in hand.  The interactions with kingdoms (via new special abilities targeting kingdoms or cards in kingdoms) could add a whole new layer of strategy to battles.  Can you imagine David’s Reign holding an activated David’s Staff artifact (not yet printed) or King Manasseh’s Reign holding an activated Manasseh’s Altar artifact (also not yet printed)?

One more thing I was thinking about letting kingdoms do was move characters in your territory into your kingdom, and therefore back into hand.  I wasn’t sure if this would be broken somehow, but it sure would be cool.  Definitely would add some strategy as well (Job decks anyone?).  This was the primary reason I didn’t want kingdoms to work in Discard phases; I don’t want people to attack with a hero, only to move the hero right back into a kingdom after battle. 

...In fact, maybe the scripture reference for Kingdoms could be the part of the Bible when the kingdom existed.  Then you could say that any characters with references in that scripture range can move to and from the Kingdom, and therefore back into hand if you want... 

I need your input!  Whether you love it or hate it, leave some feedback.  I really want to come up with ideas for new card types that enrich the game – hence, spiritual sites and kingdoms.  But cards like this need a lot of input from a lot of minds to get up and going in the right direction.

This thread has ideas for neutreal charcters in it that are pretty interesting and sknce new card type ideas are out there i thought i might give this thread a push back into the conversation.
http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/new-card-ideas/neutral-character-class/

As for kingdoms cards, I really like this idea.  For instance you do something

Egyptian Empire (Holds 3 cards from hand unless Moses or Aaron are in play)
SA protect Egyptian drawing abilities from being restricted and/or negated.
Search deck for Pharoahs Throne Room and put it in play.

Babylonian Empire (Holds 3 cards from hand, 2 if opponent has 3 Green prophets in play)
SA Search abilities can not be restricted, If a Babylonian is discarded you may capture one of your OT hero to opponents LoB. Search deck for Head Quarters of Riblah(sp?)

Very interesting concept, would like to see some examples of abilities.  You'll want to avoid making them unbalanced, of course, and handle whether cards that target Forts can target Kingdoms.  Also, I'm not entirely clear what happens with Mayhem, can you clarify?

On a side note, an evil 'earthly' kingdom with a high value might go to someone like Herod the Great.  His temple was even more magnificent than Solomon's, and he built a big old fortresses for himself out in the middle of nowhere just cause.  Otherwise, a 5 should definitely go to either (or both?) Rome or New Babylon (the center of the world in Revelation).

Ok, it's 7 months later, but here is my first (brief) installment of kingdoms.  Just in making these, I've become aware of the near-limitless potential of Kingdoms.  Hopefully you feel the same.

Quick note:  I've introduced the term "garrisoned" in the abilities below.  "Garrisoned" refers to any characters held in a kingdom; they are considered "garrisoned".  The number after the name is the hand modifier, and therefore how many cards the kingdom can hold.

Kingdoms of the World (5)
Kingdom (evil)
(plays to set-aside)
Matthew 4:8
“Evil brigades of your garrisoned evil characters cannot be ignored.  Protect evil characters in play and hands from choose the blocker abilities.”

Reign of Herods (3)
Kingdom (evil)
Matthew 2:22
“Each time an ability withdraws any number of opponents’ heroes, you may draw 1 or discard the top card of opponent’s draw pile.  If your Herod is in battle, you may do that action two more times.”

Darius’ Reign (4)
Kingdom (evil)
Daniel 6:1-2
“Once per upkeep, if an opponent has a hero in set-aside and your Persian is garrisoned, you may draw 2 or discard an opponent's character in set-aside area.”