Heroes of might & magic kind of game, where each city state has its own unique heroes and troops, and you go about on a map flagging mines and fighting creatures and other city states.
The amount of Magic points and the power of the spells of your mage heroes would be affected not only by their knowledge stat but also by the environment, standing in a forested area, for example, would double their spell points and their spells characteristics (duration, damage etc.), while standing in a barren area would do the opposite, and standing in blacksand would prevent you from using spells completely.
I was thinking something called “Talking Nok” that you interact with, have him repeat what you speak to him. You can also feed him different foods like human, elf, dwarf.