Fun ways to do a "warlike" people [+]
- Thread starter BookTenTiger
- Start date
The truly excellent Commonweal series by Graydon Saunders has the species of graul, created out of other things around and bound up by sorcery (the Power) to be a sort of super soldier - but ones with a) incredibly strong bonds between each other and a natural dominance sorting and b) to naturally defer to the strongest talent of sorcery around. The Wizard Laurel was tired of other wizards around their area disturbing them, so created this species of duty-driven natural followers to essentially run over all the other talents/empires in the area so they could have some peace and quiet.
After Laurel went away (records are unclear on what happened or where they went exactly), the remaining graul have aligned themselves with a successor state that kept to the "no dominion by sorcerer" token as part of the standing military, while awaiting Laurel's return. The first book is entirely about the POV character being a graul who has moved beyond fealty to the wizard that designed them, and to the continuance of the polity of the Commonweal (and why the other graul hate them for this as a heretic). Great stuff.
Coville did something similar with the orcs-analogues in his world, they're similarly the creation of strong magic to essentially manifest people who's whole worth is bound up in armed struggle - and who derive all their innate meaning from that. Hell, the Warforged from Eberron are also similar - beings created to wage war that ended.
If you want them to just be villains, undead are enough.
If you want complexity, starting with deliberate design and then working out is far more interesting then tropey cultural stuff; unless you just want to mirror "large empires out to conquer" a la Roman / Mongol / some of the North American confederacies / South American kingdoms etc as a very large scale antagonist.
After Laurel went away (records are unclear on what happened or where they went exactly), the remaining graul have aligned themselves with a successor state that kept to the "no dominion by sorcerer" token as part of the standing military, while awaiting Laurel's return. The first book is entirely about the POV character being a graul who has moved beyond fealty to the wizard that designed them, and to the continuance of the polity of the Commonweal (and why the other graul hate them for this as a heretic). Great stuff.
Coville did something similar with the orcs-analogues in his world, they're similarly the creation of strong magic to essentially manifest people who's whole worth is bound up in armed struggle - and who derive all their innate meaning from that. Hell, the Warforged from Eberron are also similar - beings created to wage war that ended.
If you want them to just be villains, undead are enough.
If you want complexity, starting with deliberate design and then working out is far more interesting then tropey cultural stuff; unless you just want to mirror "large empires out to conquer" a la Roman / Mongol / some of the North American confederacies / South American kingdoms etc as a very large scale antagonist.
Some further thoughts:
- Do you want a warlike people as in: culture/polity, or innate characteristic?
The latter, you pretty much want to do external influence as my examples above (or also the excellent Eberron Gnolls - who explore what it means to act against your nature in detail). Otherwise you're just doing silly racist essentialism arguments.
If the former, ask why they're "warlike." Is it semi-formalized raiding between tribal groups for livestock and captives? Limited wealth nearby and the ability to hire out to wealthier polities nearby as mercenary sorts? Is it expansionist hegemony? All inform a very different cultural referent - but allow for lots of exceptions without getting reductive about "innate qualities."
- Do you want a warlike people as in: culture/polity, or innate characteristic?
The latter, you pretty much want to do external influence as my examples above (or also the excellent Eberron Gnolls - who explore what it means to act against your nature in detail). Otherwise you're just doing silly racist essentialism arguments.
If the former, ask why they're "warlike." Is it semi-formalized raiding between tribal groups for livestock and captives? Limited wealth nearby and the ability to hire out to wealthier polities nearby as mercenary sorts? Is it expansionist hegemony? All inform a very different cultural referent - but allow for lots of exceptions without getting reductive about "innate qualities."
Bagpuss
Legend
You could have a race like periodical cicadas, that come into existence only infrequently, and rather than every 13 or 17 year, centuries between so they become myths (otherwise they might be tackled in their dormant state). Then when they a born they need to desperately gather resources before becoming dormant again.
Or perhaps they raid from another plane of existence, while they have to raid other planes for resources they can't survive indefinitely away from their own resource poor plane.
Or perhaps they raid from another plane of existence, while they have to raid other planes for resources they can't survive indefinitely away from their own resource poor plane.
Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
I also recommend taking some inspiration from the Roman Republic/Empire. They declared aggressive expansionist wars in the name of self defense, the highest ranks of political office (Consul) were only achievable through military service, successful military campaigns were rewarded with personal wealth and political power, and new Consuls were elected every year so the system incentivized aggressive military campaigns. Also the Roman religion was highly syncretic, often adopting foreign practices into the worship of the Roman pantheon as a means of assimilating conquered peoples into Roman culture. Not to mention the old Roman tradition of unending civil wars.
Something I don’t really like in a lot of D&D settings is that there are a ton of mono-racial empires. In the Forgotten Realms the Dwarves had an empire, as did the Elves, as did the Dragons, as did the Humans, as did the Giants, and so on. The Roman Empire was started by a single city, but grew into one of the largest and longest-lasting empires in history. It became multicultural and multi-ethnic over the centuries. There were Emperors from all over the empire (Italy, Hispania, Africa, Syria, Greece, etc). A D&D equivalent could have started as a single city mostly of one species (Human, Elven, Orcish, Dragon, or whatever) but eventually have leaders of any kind race. Maybe Humans started the empire and it’s government was filled mostly with humans in the early days, but after conquering new land and assimilating the locals they had Elven, Dwarven, Halfling, and Orcish members of the government (Senators, Generals, Consuls, Emperors, etc).
Or maybe the Empire is a bit more xenophobic and discriminatory, but there are ways for people of other species to gain power. For example maybe there’s an Empire that was started by Dragons and they do assimilate those they conquer into their culture/religion, but have laws preventing those without Draconic heritage from becoming members of the government. So Kobolds, Dragonborn, Half-Dragons, and Draconic Sorcerers have social mobility, but other races don’t. This could incentivize people to try and become more Draconic so they or their descendants can gain more political power. So maybe a rich human will pay a dragon for their blood and then feed that to their children in hope that they’ll become a Draconic Sorcerer, or they’ll pray to Bahamut asking to be transformed into a Dragonborn, or will even pay a dragon to have a child with them to allow for their descendants to have better lives in the empire. This could create an interesting story for Draconic player characters in this setting, as they would have ties to this empire and thus a complicated relationship with their heritage. They are simultaneously the heirs of an aggressive expansionist empire and its victims, affecting how others treat/perceive them.
Something I don’t really like in a lot of D&D settings is that there are a ton of mono-racial empires. In the Forgotten Realms the Dwarves had an empire, as did the Elves, as did the Dragons, as did the Humans, as did the Giants, and so on. The Roman Empire was started by a single city, but grew into one of the largest and longest-lasting empires in history. It became multicultural and multi-ethnic over the centuries. There were Emperors from all over the empire (Italy, Hispania, Africa, Syria, Greece, etc). A D&D equivalent could have started as a single city mostly of one species (Human, Elven, Orcish, Dragon, or whatever) but eventually have leaders of any kind race. Maybe Humans started the empire and it’s government was filled mostly with humans in the early days, but after conquering new land and assimilating the locals they had Elven, Dwarven, Halfling, and Orcish members of the government (Senators, Generals, Consuls, Emperors, etc).
Or maybe the Empire is a bit more xenophobic and discriminatory, but there are ways for people of other species to gain power. For example maybe there’s an Empire that was started by Dragons and they do assimilate those they conquer into their culture/religion, but have laws preventing those without Draconic heritage from becoming members of the government. So Kobolds, Dragonborn, Half-Dragons, and Draconic Sorcerers have social mobility, but other races don’t. This could incentivize people to try and become more Draconic so they or their descendants can gain more political power. So maybe a rich human will pay a dragon for their blood and then feed that to their children in hope that they’ll become a Draconic Sorcerer, or they’ll pray to Bahamut asking to be transformed into a Dragonborn, or will even pay a dragon to have a child with them to allow for their descendants to have better lives in the empire. This could create an interesting story for Draconic player characters in this setting, as they would have ties to this empire and thus a complicated relationship with their heritage. They are simultaneously the heirs of an aggressive expansionist empire and its victims, affecting how others treat/perceive them.
kigmatzomat
Legend
Use John Dalmas' "The Regiment" as inspiration
These people believe everyone reincarnates and that they get to try different roles with each life. Therefore their society is based on no one "working", all of them find roles where life is "play". They all are happy & content with whatever career they land on.
The warriors enjoy lethal combat as if it was a sport because "you'll get another game in a little while." They will do full contact martial arts for fun and all go for beers afterwards. Because they are almost never motivated by anything other than "this is a fun challenge!", they are usually superior tacticians as they don't get emotionally involved the way other forces do and they have no fear of death. They want to keep their "game" going as long as possible so they aren't suicidal and it's considered "poor sportsmanship" to ask someone to end their game early, so any kind of "almost certain death" missions are volunteer only.
These people believe everyone reincarnates and that they get to try different roles with each life. Therefore their society is based on no one "working", all of them find roles where life is "play". They all are happy & content with whatever career they land on.
The warriors enjoy lethal combat as if it was a sport because "you'll get another game in a little while." They will do full contact martial arts for fun and all go for beers afterwards. Because they are almost never motivated by anything other than "this is a fun challenge!", they are usually superior tacticians as they don't get emotionally involved the way other forces do and they have no fear of death. They want to keep their "game" going as long as possible so they aren't suicidal and it's considered "poor sportsmanship" to ask someone to end their game early, so any kind of "almost certain death" missions are volunteer only.
Mustrum_Ridcully
Legend
In Farscape, the Peacekeepers are a "war-like race". They are off-shoot humans, transplanted from Earth even apparently by another alien species that needed warriors to help the peace they brokered. When that species kinda disappeared, the Peacekeepers remained behind, and without a real civilian culture, they remained mostly a "soldier" species.
A variation of this could be a multi-racial group - an empire (or republic) where the different species ensured that their military force had members of all species, so no species would dominate and use its military might to conquer the rest. To avoid that they form some sort of warrior dynasties, they might even be sterilized for the duration of their service.
That worked great for a while, but it still created its own culture of people, and at some point, they tried to either take over or emancipate from the rulers and non-military citizens. But maybe they failed to gain the level of control they needed, and in the end you have culture that has powerful starships and weaponry, genetically or cybernetically optimized for warfare, but without the planets to support them. So they started conquests and raids, and the people they raid get the chance to join their ranks, especially since a lot of them are still sterilized, with insufficient access to the medical facilities and goods to undo the effect.
A variation of this could be a multi-racial group - an empire (or republic) where the different species ensured that their military force had members of all species, so no species would dominate and use its military might to conquer the rest. To avoid that they form some sort of warrior dynasties, they might even be sterilized for the duration of their service.
That worked great for a while, but it still created its own culture of people, and at some point, they tried to either take over or emancipate from the rulers and non-military citizens. But maybe they failed to gain the level of control they needed, and in the end you have culture that has powerful starships and weaponry, genetically or cybernetically optimized for warfare, but without the planets to support them. So they started conquests and raids, and the people they raid get the chance to join their ranks, especially since a lot of them are still sterilized, with insufficient access to the medical facilities and goods to undo the effect.
Like the energy being from the Star Trek episode "Day of the Dove"
And possibly they habitually abuse the land so that this becomes a pattern
EDIT: As was implied of the titular civilization from Spaceballs
EDIT: Although I suppose that technically the Spaceballs abused the air.
It is not that a race is warlike but have remained "gathers". Their whole economy is based on them going forth and getting the items they require; they do not put down roots, they do not build, and they take everything. Wealth is based on how much stuff you have taken.
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