From: Nick Brooke (100270.337@compuserve.com)
Date: Wed 01 Nov 1995 - 01:02:48 EET
Sorry to join in so late: I've been out of touch for a while. The recent
discussion of the Kingdom of War is loads of fun (and far more relevant than
semantically rehashing Plataea and Marathon, IMHO). Mark Smylie hit the nail on
the head, for me, when he said:
> The threat of the KoW to Loskalm and Jonatela becomes twofold -- not simply
> as a territorial threat to their frontiers, but also in the risk of those
> nations _becoming_ the KoW. As they marshal more and more of their human,
> cultural and economic resources towards fighting the KoW, Loskalm and
> Jonatela are, in effect, giving birth to their own War Machines, risking,
> in the end, that they will become nothing more than mirror-images of the
> culture they are fighting ("we have met the enemy...", etc.).
Just what I've always thought (esp. in re: Loskalm).
I like this "pure military" version of the KoW more than either the Krjalki
Horrors or the Troll Stooges versions presented earlier. After all, that's how
they like to think of themselves. I always feel rather Balkan when considering
the goings-on in Syanor, and so my mental image of the KoW on the march owes a
lot to the Ottoman Turks in Europe: a vast, unstoppable professional army
marching against beautiful, civilized cities (Byzantium, Vienna) and being met
by ragtag or disorganised opposition, for the most part. It's also the
quintessential "Evil Army On The March" so beloved of Sword & Sorcery authors
everywhere: Moorcock's Granbretan, those hosts Conan and Elric always seem to
run into, etc. I've probably said as much before.
Jonatela, I imagine, is as yet uncommitted to this struggle. If War wins against
Loskalm, King Congern would dearly love to be on the same side. He probably has
to worry that his more disloyal boyars are doing deals with Lord Death (or some
others) behind his back. (In Sandy's analysis of how KoW forces could
destabilise a kingdom, Gundreken is the "Weak King" and Congern the "Harsh
King"). I doubt Congern is yet marshalling his resources towards fighting the
KoW -- Jonatela's resources are always marshalled for fighting, in any case,
especially with the gradual reconquest of Karstall and Timms, its former
provinces. As for its cultural and economic resources...
I don't think the KoW needs to have a "hidden agenda". OTOH, I think it's likely
that Lord Death will go for the Big Finish against Loskalm, and launch an
"unimaginable" attack through the "impassible" terrain and obstacles to attack
the "impregnable" walls of Northpoint.
As for the tactics/strategy/unit types debate: some of this is interesting, but
The Closedhandist Heresy is hilarious: a piece of perfect Gloranthan
it's not worth the bandwidth and has little to do with Glorantha. I hope it goes
offline soon.
inspiration. The name is the ideal capstone to the thought itself. These guys
exist for sure in my Glorantha...
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Nick
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