Ah well; it appears as though Nick Brooke and I have parted ways, to a certain extent, on the idea of the KoW as a "pure military" culture. Nick writes:
>As for the culture of the KoW, I'm not sure we should detail one (beyond
what
>can be gathered from observation of their forces on the march). They are
>intended to be a Big, Bad Evil, not a realistic and sympathetically-detailed
>culture. You don't send ambassadors to the Kingdom of War; you don't trade
>with it; you don't travel there on relief missions, or wander through it on
your
>way somewhere else. We should probably see as much of its culture as we do
of
>Sauron's Mordor.
[and later:]
>But puh-lease, no KoW coffee ceremonies or "What My Father Told Me" pieces.
>This is NOT player character country. This is the Land of War, Death on a
Horse,
>the Black Forest at the corrupted heart of Fronela. Nobody here gets out
alive.
Hmm. For me, the most "inhuman" enemies in Glorantha are quite clearly the various devotees of chaos and their ilk, and we have already been treated to a number of inside looks at chaos communities, including at least one "What My Father (?) Told Me" piece; whether or not you allow broo worshippers of Thanatar in your campaigns is purely a personal matter 8-), but even if you don't, the material is provided to help gms and players comprehend mindsets even more alien and disturbing than the, IMO, all-too-human nature of the KoW. Some sort of discussion of the KoW's culture seems necessary to avoid turning it into a stack of cardboard counters (hmm; what's the name of that evil kingdom ruled by an evil demigod in D&D's Greyhawk? Iuz or something? Now _that's_ a bad flashback).
With the KoW hiring mercenaries and acquiring volunteers from virtually every neighboring area, there would appear to be ample opportunity for players to participate in KoW campaigns "from the other side," whether as willing recruits, the simply curious, or as spies for the goodly. You certaintly _can_ send ambassadors to the KoW, though their chances of returning in one piece are probably slim unless you're offering your unconditional surrender, and I personally have no particular problem with the idea of merchants representing the KoW travelling the length of Genertela in search of supplies, weapons, recruits and raw materials -- though these merchants need not be actually from the KoW, merely its greedy representatives. Indeed, the tribute paid to the KoW from some of its weaker neighbors could be considered a form of trade in and of itself.
Depending on which way you wanted to look at it, I think it could even be argued that the KoW would actually _encourage_ a certain amount of discourse with its neighbors -- a way of showing off, in a sense. It might be possible - -- and I haven't quite thought this through yet -- to describe the KoW's culture as being a more sophisticated version of the ethos of the Predator species in the films of the same name (they only hunt things which are armed and dangerous). It could be that the only way to avoid the KoW's attention is to bury your arms and refuse to resist (all hail the White Moon!), at which point they would lose interest in you (hence, perhaps, the confidence of the city of Zoria, though I suppose also that the ecstasies of love and war are just two sides of the same coin) -- thus explaining the thugs from the KoW who travel up and down the Janube causing unrest and stirring up trouble. The more you fear the KoW, the more likely you are to fight them, which might be exactly what they want; hence, "inviting" neighboring lords to observe their campaigns and witness their horrible efficiency and cruelty could be part of the KoW's strategy. Either you wind up joining them, or you scurry back to your castle and summon your milites; either way, they get what they want. In addition, a certain curiosity on the part of the KoW when it comes to military matters could, in theory, result in KoW Warlords travelling about to learn the fighting techniques of anyone who was stupid enough to let them join in (paralleling the "war tours" of the late medieval period).
On Sparta, the Mongols, and the Ottoman Empire -- actually, I agree that Sparta is probably too "civilized" to be an appropriate RW example (though I would be willing to argue that ancient Greece was nowhere near as civilized as we like to think of it), and I was aware of the overall Mongol-Pent connection. Given that the Yelmalions are quite clearly farmer-hoplites, the Sparta connection there seems a bit weak in that their soldiers were, as far as I know, full-time warriors, so personally I think of the Yelmalions as a sort of "generic" Greek parallel with Hanson as required reading.
I suppose my hesitancy about the Ottoman parallel is mostly cultural (that word again -- I guess I mean it in the broadest possible sense here). The Jannisary palace schools and training methods might have a parallel in the various KoW sects (perhaps with each sect having, in effect, fortified monastaries for their headquarters), but I don't see the KoW as either paying their soldiers, as appears to have been the case with some Ottoman units, or having a land-based system like the timar fiefs, which strikes me as being a bit too feudal. On the other hand, J.V.Fine noted that one possible explanation for Ottoman fervor against the West might have resulted from the fact that the soldiers were free to loot freely when on campaign against Christians, while restrictions applied when fighting fellow Muslims (which also parallels Christian barbarism against the Infidel in the Crusades), so perhaps the KoW places similar restrictions on internal fights to encourage aggression against "outsiders."
The Ottoman use of gunpowder during later centuries, frex at the siege of Vienna, has interesting possibilities, in that the idea of the KoW possessing fire- and smoke-belching cannon has a certain infernal quality that fits them nicely; how they got the technology would need to be explained, though (perhaps the Great Secret of the KoW is not that they're troll stooges, but _dwarf_ stooges: a raiding band of Iron Dwarves, cut off from Nidan by the Ban, receives a vision from Mostal to rebuild the War Machine [Kargan Tor of Mostal's Spike?]...nah).
Just some thoughts.
Mark
P.S. to Michael Raaterova: great stuff on the Far Point earth cults -- though I'm a little confused about the relationship between the traditional Voria cult and the subcult you described. More, please, esp. about the various earth spirits.
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