Instead, why not assume that around 20% of the population are warriors, which is nearer my own assumption. This is a very high percentage for permanent non-producers, but the usual economic and cultural disasters that stem from such a huge social burden DO NOT APPLY to the KoW -- sure this would cause the peasants to dwindle rapidly and eventually die from famine. So what? The KoW is a process, not an entity. It must keep moving, getting new peasants, chewing them up, spitting them out. I doubt that the full impact of a KoW occupation can be survived for more than a generation or two, after which the peasantry are wiped out.
I'm not sure that one soldier in 100 is a reasonable number for sorcerers, either. For one thing, in Seshnela the percentage of sorcerers (admittedly not all Adepts) is around 2% of the adult population. The soldiers of the KoW, all drawn from the elite, doubtless have a much higher percentage of sorcerers.
This does not matter, however, since Tapping is carried out not so much to garner MPs as to hamper and suppress the peasants. A perfectly ordinary Kingdom Warrior can learn Tap 1 and cast it all by himself, without using any of the Arcane Arts whatsoever. I would expect the _majority_ of Kingdom Warriors know Tap and use it regularly.
Jim Chapin
> I'm a bit unceratin about why Brooke-Petersen are so adamant that
>the society of the KOW ought not to be discussed.
Because no one outside of the KoW is able to learn anything about it. That said, I have NO objection to PCs sneaking into the Kingdom for missions, breaking into prisons, etc. While doing this, when they get to observe Kingdom customs, the GM should invent them so as to most impress and affright the players.
>If the KOW is really Pol Pot, then it will inflict vast pain, but
by >definition it cannot win. The problem with any "expand or die"
>society, let alone a suicidal one, is that it eventually gets to a
>point where it can't expand.
This all depends on how you define "winning". The KoW leaders are doubtless well-aware that once the entire world is blanketed by their society, all intelligent life will be destroyed, including their own. At least the KoW has the comfort of knowing that everyone else will have lost, too.
Note that the KoW fully expects that it will not be stopped until it _has_ occupied everything. The fact that nobody has accomplished ere now is a tautology -- if anybody had, then the KoW would not be able to exist now, because by definition it would belong to whatever society had conquered the world. The fact that it has not happened yet is no indication that it cannot happen in the future.
Peter Metcalfe
>Lord Death _is_ the puppetmaster. He brooks no Rivals. His
>Puppets/Creatures/Toadies certainly aspire to replace him but none
>of them can command the respect of each other. Thus if LDoaH is
>removed, the KoW will be wracked by wars of succession as his
>Lieutenants duke it out to see who the next King of War is.
Here I disagree with Peter, and agree with Mark. The KoW is nothing if not military. LDoaH is not so much the puppetmaster as he is the commanding officer. He brooks no rivals because a divided command is ineffective. He enforces strict obedience because the military command structure is totalitarian -- a democratically organized army is pretty sad in combat. His subordinates are ambitious, but they do not plot to overthrow him -- what would be the point? Anyone who tried to usurp military power would only find that none of his troops obeyed him.
Picture Montgomery suddenly declaring that he was in charge of all Allied forces, not Eisenhower. The image is ludicrous. Churchill would have him hauled home in chains, and soldiers of even his own army group would not have tried to prevent this.
But when the commanding officer is killed, the army does not break down into civil war, or paralysis. There is a definite chain of command, and it is followed strictly. There is no doubt about who LDoaH's successor will be, though the KoW's rules of war may not be known outside. If LDoaH dies, the moment his heart ceases beating, another Kingdom Warrior will be the commander, obeyed by all. I agree that the new warrior may not be up to LDoaH's standards, but I don't claim that killing LDoaH is useless, just that it is not the equivalent of tossing the One Ring into Mount Doom.
Sandy P.
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