In Ethnos, players will call upon the support of giants, merfolk, halflings, minotaurs, and other fantasy tribes to help them gain control of the land. After three ages of play, whoever has collected the most glory wins the game!

In more detail, the land of Ethnos comes with twelve tribes of fantasy creatures, and in each game you choose six of them (five in a 2/3-player game), then create a deck with only the creatures in those tribes. The cards come in six colors, which correspond to the six regions of Ethnos. Put three glory tokens in each region at random, arranging them from low to high.

Each player begins the game with one card in hand, then 4-12 cards (double the number of players) are placed face up on the table. On a turn, a player will either recruits an ally or plays a band of allies. In the former case, you will take a face-up card (without replacing it from the deck) or the top card of the deck and add it to your hand. In the latter case, you pick a set of cards in your hand that match either in tribe or in color, play them in front of you on the table, then discard all other cards in hand. You then put one token in the region that matches the color of the top card just played, and you use the power of the tribe member on the top card just played.

At the end of the first age, whoever has the most tokens in a region gets the glory shown on the first token. After the second age, the players with the most and second most tokens gets glory equal to the values shown on the first and second tokens respectively. Players will score similarly after the third age, then whoever has the most glory wins. (Games with only two or three players last only two ages.)