Of Petty Princes and Bandit Kings (A Warhammer Fantasy Dynasty Quest)
- Thread starter God and the Snake
- Start date
God and the Snake
A Swamp of a Human Being
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Uh, how do you expect to expand in the Borderlands with either option if not that? With very few exceptions, authority flows from ones' fist in this place.
Voikirium
SV's Estalia Guy
- Location
- Ruritania Illinois
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Presumably, basic social services- road maintenance, food storage, etc. added to security.
(Not to try and put arguments in anybody's mouth or anything, but if you were going to try and expand with a minimum of violence, "I'll keep you healthy and wealthy and secure" seems like it might get you far.)
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
The Border Princes are by and large made up out of strongman tyrants whose day job is being bandits(though there are exceptioms). They are likely to try loot you before bending the knee if you seem like a source of wealth, and are unlikely to want to give up their power besides.
That's leaving aside that Border Princes settlements tend to be tiny, with many of them being so small that a brawl can occassionally double as a civil war. Where are you going to get the population to generate that wealth to begin with if not through engaging in conquest first?
That's not to say that we can't supply those things settlements that we rule, but we aren't going to go far with expansion without at least an implicit threat that if someone doesn't join we can/will break them, AKA "offering protection". If anything it's the more peaceful option, because if you're intimidating enough it need not even be violent.
The Border Princes aren't the northern lands where there's an elaborate system of succession designed to decide who's the true ruler of a land (with few exceptions) with an army to back him up because he's "the true lord", it's a place so small and undeveloped with no central authority at all that rule is decided ultimately by who can force the issue, even more so then in the north. The place is basically anarchic.
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Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
[x] The Local
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I just meant that it seems as if there would be, at best, a completely one-sided relationship. At worst (though knowing SV we'd go out of our way to avoid it), this sort of situation is one that historically has been, like, FUNDAMENTAL in creating a race-based caste system in which warriors of one 'race' rule over helots of another (Border people, weak and pathetic and not nearly as strong as Norscans).
It's not going to happen, because SV is way too nice, honestly. But just thinking about it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and we'd have to go out of our way to avoid that.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Disagree! SV is not very nice in quests.
I'd be fine with seeing how the caste-based system turn out, actually, and our raids. And having a Norsca quest in general.
- Location
- New York
The system will crash and burn. I just don't see SV ruthless enough to implement that system and in consequence our imminent death by either rebellion from our own forces due to our weak nature, or the nearby border Princes declaring a minor crusade against us. I just don't see the Norsca Warlord working out well for anyone involved.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
The Norsca warlord can likely overwhelm all local opposition barring some pretty serious outliers. Consider that with "hundreds" of warriors, we'll likely have as much Norscan, equipped warriors as most villages will have people, if not more. The difficulty would be intaking control of enough places to actually keep all those warriora fed, particularly given how sparsely populated the Borderlands are.
The Border Princes declaring a crusade on us is more likely to just mean a lot of dead Border Princes, if starvation doesn't get us first.
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God and the Snake
A Swamp of a Human Being
The Norscans would be the largest mass of human soldiers in the Border Princes, baring a few exeptions. Of course, humans tend to be the lowest thing on the totem pole in the Borderlands...
- Location
- Germany
Remember that we have trader-contacts. As long as we fight successfully we have a realistic chance to get food for plunder.
That's propably not enough in the long term, but should keep us alive until we can implement a more permanent solution.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Honestly I think I would have gone Warlord if it wasn't for the Revenge thing. As is I'm just not interested in going back to Norsca.
- Location
- Germany
Stay optimistic, maybe we don't have to go back.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
A caste based system would be a waste even if one didn't object to it on moral grounds. While hundreds of warriors is a lot compared to anyone Border Prince, it's not that much compared to almost all non Borderlands forces, and certainly not enough to hold a truly sizeable domain. And besides, the whole point of having fled Norsca is that we could come with an even larger army later, which would be a lot more difficult to manage if we restricted our forces to just the Norscans and whatever offspring they'd have that would still take over a decade to mature into new warriors even if they started making them right now. At most, we'd have a situation in which our Norscan warriors eventually become a new aristocracy like there are in the rest of the Old World, but not even the Bretonnians ban their peasantry from military service.
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God and the Snake
A Swamp of a Human Being
Well, it's been eight hours and change, so I'm calling it.
Voting Closed.
Can anyone give me the final tally?
Voting Closed.
Can anyone give me the final tally?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It's going to be pretty close, isn't it. *hand tally while waiting for someone to post the full tally.*
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Pretty sure The Local was ahead last time I checked, and had only gotten more ahead since then, but best to make sure.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...I think Warlord won by, like, one vote.
Thanks to vote splitting between Agent and Local.
But, yeah, please do check.
Thanks to vote splitting between Agent and Local.
But, yeah, please do check.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Having checked, I believe you're right, and that I misremembered.
That's hardly a fair description. How do you know most Agent voters wouldn't have prefered to vote for rather then against Warlord?