Actually, it is my belief that the KoW is in a state of flux. During the Ban, from whatever start, it evolved into the warlike dynamism that now is the political equivalent of a forest fire -- destroying everything around it, and leaving behind only waste and ashes. This evolution was slow and gradual, and culminated in the classic KoW _just_ as the Ban ended. If the Ban had not ended when it did, the KoW _would_ have had to consume itself.
BUT, you must understand that, in my opinion, it _was_ the KoW that destroyed the Ban, just as they claim. The Ban left them the instant it was just exactly the very best time for them to be unleashed. The Ban is not a natural process that has a random half-life -- it is released from a local area at the exact moment that Communication (i.e., the God of the Silver Feet) is MOST critical in that area, whether because it would be the ideal moment for the release OR because it would be the worst possible moment for the release (the Ban's ending is not necessarily benign -- just critical). Hence, Loskalm's army may well be the very least effective it has been since the Ban started.
Anyway, to sum up. 1) The KoW's evolution caused the Syndic's Ban to end, suchthat the KoW was released at the right moment for them to make the maximum impact.
2) The KoW is not a static state, but a process. Think of the Aztecs. Their culture, in the last few years before being destroyed by the Spanish, had entered a self-destructive madness in which every year more and more sacrifices were made, and their Flower Wars had gotten more and more furious. If the Spanish had never come, the Aztecs would probably have destroyed their society within another decade or two. (This does not exonerate the Spanish, incidentally. The Aztecs would have been forced to lose their old ways, suffered intensely for a while in civil strife and foreign wars, and then begun new ways. Under the Spanish, they were forced to lose their old ways, and suffered for centuries under an imposed slavery.)
I believe that the KoW is burning itself from the inside out. Not that it is certain to collapse under its own might, as did the Soviet Union, but that it is spreading, like a cancer or a forest fire. At the center, the peasants are dead or moribund, the land wasted and ruined. As the warriors spread out, a ring of destruction forms, in which the enslaved tapped peasants become new supports to the warriors for a generation or two, and then become extinct. But by that time the war has spread yet further, so the condition keeps supporting itself. Eventually, of course, the KoW will spread over the entire world (unless stopped). If it is unable to change at that point, then it will turn in on itself until all intelligent life in Gloranthan is expunged.
NOTE: this does not mean that the KoW itself will necessary cover the world -- only its progressive, efficient lifestyle. When the Red Moon becomes the Monster Empire, when Argrath turns the ancient Orlanthi social system into the tools of combat, when the Arbennan Confederation springs to arms and trains the savannah hunters to march in regimental step, when the Order of the Swallow begins forcible conversion of pagan farmers to support their struggle for survival, then the KoW will no longer be limited to a single corner of the cosmos, but it will have spread throughout.
The basic problem is that the Ban did not end until the magic moment. If the KoW was a mere six hundred warriors, it could be destroyed by Loskalm without any need to transform their culture in order to do this. But with the huge force they have now, no kingdom in Fronela (and soon the world) may be able to defeat them without undergoing this social transformation. Metamorphosis or enslavement become the choices.
Unless there is some other way to stop the destruction. Zoria seems to have found a way. Perhaps the PCs can, too. Perhaps there is a way to resolve the oxymoron of fighting a righteous war. Good luck.
Anyway, that's my two bits, and that's why I both like the idea of a one-dimensional KoW and why I think such a nation _adds_ complexity to Glorantha, rather than detracting from it.
Sandy p.
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