'...except as a source of magic points and cheap labour' is probably the appropriate way to finish that sentence.
We already know that they consider everyone who isn't a warrior to be a slave.
On the subject of the KOW, I think I agree with just about everyone in general, and probably no one in specifics. I agree that the Kingdom of War should be bad guys, a place no one would want to base a campaign in, where life is nasty, brutal, and short.
I also think that this does not make them unrealistic - indeed, victory at any cost seems a reasonable motivation compared to Pol Pots Year Zero, to take only one of dozens of horrific historical examples.
But I also agree that it is necessary to work out some things about the KOW to play a campaign that even uses them as enemies. This includes how the soldiers behave, what abilities they are likely to have, and how to beat them. To do this you really need to work out why they do what they do, which means where they come from/ how they got that way.
Personally, I like the Granbretan examples as well. The KOW does not have the same air of decadence, but I like the idea of a society of competing orders of warriors. I think they had fragmented into a society obsessed with territorial considerations and conquest as the only way to get things (as each group was forced to develop more and more ruthless warriors to defenc against the other groups). These competing groups have united for only two reasons a) LDOAH is mean enough that most of the individual leaders are not willing to defy him and b) the outsiders make so much softer picking than the others.
So, what do we call these subdivisions? Orders? Legions? and how do they identify themselves? Not with animal masks like Granbretanians. Banners? Shields? I want my players to start recognising individual units of the KOW, and start worrying about the particular atrocities that they have seen them commit before hand.
My version of the KOW featured (though my players never met most of them) such groups as human ZZers, Wachaza river pirates, Sorcery using Arkati and simple sorcery using atheist tappers, and corrupted Humakti.
The Humcti of the KOW not only emphasised the death aspects far more than the truth aspects of Humakt, but had also removed the distinction between dishonourable and honourable death - so Mallia was worshipped as a subordinate cult. The only vestige of the Humakti code of honour was a loose code duello - they still believed in one on one duels, though their concept was more like a duel of Thed rather than a Humakti duel. They still despised undead, partly because then they get some useful powers against undead by doing so, which gives them a fighting chance against the ZZ units of the KOW. Parts of the inspiration for these guys is due to Paul Reilly's campaign notes, which features some similar types.
And Sandy's idea of a typical KOW campaign was OK as far as it went, but needed a bit more Gloranthanness. Deliberately summoning Plague spirits. Soul Wasting or Tapping the spirits of the ancestral dead of their foes. Forcing wives to provide the POW for the zombification enchantment of their dead husbands. Or just summoning ghoul spirits en masse into the dead. Or twisted healers, who when they have finished healing injured troops use their magics to keep enemy leaders alive to be tortured perpetually as an example. Capturing enemy soldiers, Tapping them to death, and then reincarnating dead KOW soldiers into their bodies (Thanatar Guardians).
Cheers
David
Computing Officer |" Life is easily understood as bit strings of logical
Arts Faculty UWA |depth greater than their length" - Rebis, Doom Patrol
davidc_at_cs.uwa.edu.au |" Do not think, HIT, it is our way" - Milk & Cheese
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