>First up, I already use Spartans as the backbone of Sun Domer Yelmalion
cultural
>attitudes, while the Mongols are grafted onto Pent. But with the Ottoman Army,
>you have a vast, civilised-cum-barbaric war machine trampling across mediaeval
>Europe.
I agree totally with this analogy. The Muslim Empires even had slave troops: Guhlams in the Caliphite period (pre-ottoman) and Jannissaries in the Ottoman period. Another example might be the Assyrians who were similar in that respect.
The KoW would be pretty much a Jannissary state. In the Ottoman Empire, for those who don't know, the Turks used to take Christian children (often captured in wars) to Constantinople and train them from a very early age to follow the faith and fight like maniacs for the Sultan & Muhammed. They were feared accross Europe and in their day, were some of the best warrriors in those violent days.
The KoW has a small population base from which to supply a war machine which, though ever victorious, would still have a constant attrition of its numbers, especially in seiges or pitched battles. For the short term their huge advantage in tactical, strategic and sheer battle experience would offset such losses, but if they are to maintain a continual attack and conquest strategy, they need a regular source of troops. The Jannissary system is the only answer. It also ties in perfectly with their serf policy.
When KoW conquers an area, they will probably assign a "Child Quota" to the region, warriors will collect all orphans and many of the strongest children from the peasantry and other classes. Then they are taken back to the KoW heartlands. According to their potential, tested for rigorously, they will be assigned to a Cult Regiment and trained. At first the KoW will have to rely on its initial forces but within 5-8 years I can see a large number of fanatical warriors becoming available to carry the conquest to the next stage.
They must keep conquering too. Its not just a question of it being their form of faith, its a question of simple logistics and economics. Their army is very large as a percentage of population and in terms of Gross National Product its consumption is horrendous, much higher than even the Soviets reached. Their peasants are utterly controlled and there is no middle class to speak of. Having nof will and smarts, the peasantry will lack drive, ambition and motivation to produce hard. Time and again throughout history it has been proven that fear does not create the productivity of honest patriotism or entrepreneurial drive.
The result is that to keep their armies fed, to maintain the necessary supply of slave craftsmen, Jannissary children, army prostitutes and peasant farmers, they _have_ to keep marching. They are a rabid machine that eats everything and spits it out the other end in their own image, adding to the monster.
>The Spartans are too civilised, the Mongols too barbaric, IMHO. The turban
fits,
>for me. (And that's all I can ever allege when proposing a cultural 'fit').
The Spartans are too civilised but I don't know about the Mongols being too barbaric. I think KoW will perpetrate atrocities that will stun the Hrestoli. Forests of impaled knights will confront any Loskalmi counterattack army. Pyramids of heads 20ft high will mark the edge of their territory. The Mongols were very organised, even to a decimal level. I think the KoW will be too. They are similar in many ways, if anything though the Mongols were conquered by the cultures they invaded (ie China) but the KoW _converts_ every culture it conquers into itself before any assimilation can occur. That is most frigthening of all.
>> Any war machine requires a vast array of "support personnel", amongst
>> which I would include both crafters and entertainers.
>Yeah, but doing this serves to HUMANISE our inhuman enemies. I don't want to do
>that. OK, if we assume "entertainers" to be luckless serf/'helot' girls
forcibly
>conscripted into the Joy Divisions, and "crafters" to be near-naked
burn-scarred
>serfs pounding the anvils until they drop and get the chop, I can live with
>that. But you were talking about Poets and Sculptors. Pfui!
Eactly right. Joy Regiments, BoneSmith Companies, Supply Slaves, Sribe Slaves will be the logistical support of the KoW. The only hope for such slaves is that their children (they are encouraged to produce them in massive numbers) will be taken into the warrior caste and rise above their parents retched status.
>What, pray, could be "too martial" for the Kingdom of War? This aside shows the
>lunacies into which we are led by trying to write these people up as a viable,
>admirable, healthy culture. They are not. They are the Enemy, and they are
going
>to win, unless your PCs pull their fingers out and get working.
The most terrible thing about the KoW is its amoral nature. It will trample over you not on any grounds of faith or even simple political belief. It will crush you because you are there. Its the purest society in Glorantha, free of decadence, bureacracy and anything other than its singular drive. That could be admirable but at the same time they offer no hope of anything better, no golden future. Even the worst dictators offered that. Yes they are the enemy, the enemy of life, society and peace.
If anything, they are a much more laudable foe to crush than the Lunar Empire (maybe Argrath makes a detour)!
Martin Laurie
Powered by hypermail