Vos tips

[Caelcormac]

@Rey

Instead of having a few strong warriors to watch after his legacy, he is willing to risk it all by leaving only one to rule. This ruler does not seem too intelligent to me. Consider the implications, the son may survive but be mortally wounded, he may drown in a river the next time he goes on a raid or some courtiers just stab him in a back and a whole 17-son-lot has been wasted in a blink. Bloodtheft is great, but does not grant immortality.

What would he care about his legacy? He is an evil and completely ruthless warlord. Leaving behind sons to scheme against each other causes internal strife. By the measure of his own success, he managed to forge a kingdom all on his own…if his son (whichever emerges victorious) can continue that feat of achievement, then he is deserving of his legacy. If his sons are too weak to continue what he started ALONE, then they are too weak for Barak. You have to understand that this man NEVER cared about is people, he only cared about his own power.

@Rey

Instead, have sons compete, have a quest. Each that returns is potential new ruler. The one who brings greater loot, kills more enemies, slays some beasts, he should be the one to inherit the throne.

By your own judgment perhaps; but not by Barak’s. It is his view that the last son alive will be further empowered by the slaughter of weaker warriors, just as a Vos hunter is strengthened by the slaughter of a deer for dinner. He isn’t interested in who can complete a quest, he is interested in who can kill the enemy the best. Each and every son might come back…and then they could all claim that they STILL have a right to the throne. War ensues as each has a following, and the Kingdom Barak forges is left shattered from within.

@Rey

Vos are quick to ally for an offense, more land and riches, but not so quick to help defend. They weigh out the possibilities and see the best they can get. Might makes right, but it doesn’t mean charging blindly at every single possibility to bash a skull. Not even Vos are that dumb.

Who said anything about charging blindly? Barak is a cunning man who is speaking plainly about understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both your own lands and those of your enemies and allies. Specifically (as you say) he doesn’t believe in defense…but predatory opportunism.

@Rey

Caelcormac, those last things you’ve said are all good and reasonable. Although I’m trying to imagine a voiceless Vos ruler and it doesn’t sit right, still.

Are you saying that someone that can’t speak is unable to enforce his will on his people? Are his generals less fearful of him? I don’t think so. He is still quite likely the man they fear most…and respect most because of his prowess on the field of battle.

@Sorontar

While the priests of Beleinik may like bloodline transfer through bloodtheft, priests of Kriesha would be happy with transfer through ceremony. Not every challenge need end in bloodshed. It just needs to end in clear superiority.

The setting of 17 warriors entering what amounts to a mass melee is not simple bloodtheft. It IS a Ceremony wherein the victor would be endowed with the domain of the father. This pleases Belenik AND Kriesha because it is both a mass melee and an ordered transfer of power; that quite possibly results in a new Monarch being even more powerful than his predecessor. This is the same scheme the Gorgon uses in harvesting bloodlines that have been strengthened through careful manipulation.

Instead, however, the father has as many sons as he can and has them enter into combat on his death. This plan is not based upon concepts we, as normal humans, might consider…but upon the cold hard fact that when a Blooded Scion kills another Scion in the proper manner, the killer gains in power…and not simply political power; but divine power.

This would also manifest as a generational surge of warfare from the particular kingdom that practiced this method. A particular King might be of a certain bloodline strength; but perhaps each successor might have slightly stronger Bloodline Power and thus crave more lands to rule.

@Sorontar

You need not always need marry off your children to win favours. You could just volunteer their bloodline.You will remain strong by taking advantage of those who are weak. Of course, you do still want to be looked after in your old age (i.e. when you reach 40).

I like this idea, and it makes me think more about the daughters of a man such as Barak. Instead of simply giving his daughter in marriage, he is actually offering the man a bloodline! A ceremony of divestiture and gifting of the bloodline to the new husband might occur, thus giving the King powerful generals.

It also made me think more strongly concerning “what actually happens to Barak’s daughters?”

Even if all the sons were eliminated but one; what about the blood still coursing through the veins of all the daughters!

It becomes a very thick issue then because even if the daughters gave their blood to their husbands (who might be unblooded) it would still leave behind people who still carried the previous kings bloodline.

It might be too much to think that each new king slaughters every single individual who carries a trace of the king…that would be a huge undertaking in of itself!

Something more to ponder certainly.

[Sorontar]

Okay Caelcormac. I suspect that we are going to have a difference of opinion of what is Vos culture in general and what is Barak. Barak seems to be the extremes of a savage community. To me he would be a CE fighter who is much less concerned about his community than his own backside and political advantage. This is not what I see as typical Vos behaviour. Orog perhaps but a bit too extreme for the Vos.

That said, Barak isn’t an impossible character, just not what I would see as a good example of what is Vos. To me, he sounds like a dictatorial chieftain who only wants those with strength beneath him, but would kill them the minute they did anything wrong or suspect. That is not the way to lead IMHO.

BTW if you want to think of historical effects of multiple “heirs” look at Genghis Khan and Charlemagne. I believe both of them had multiple sons who divided up the realm on their father’s death. But I do not know whether the fathers had any say in what the sons did. After all, he was dead.

[Caelcormac]

I don’t see Barak as typical of the Vos either quite honestly.

I was only offering the perspective of a tyrant…just as I said he was.

I would see him as Neutral Evil however; having some sense of structure and law, but strictly only toward the acquisition of more power. Barak would be the sort of man (as I said) that doesn’t care at all about his people…he only wants more and more power.

Chaotic Evil wouldn’t be a good role for him though…he doesn’t act on whim, but on cold and ruthless calculations.

Again, I’m not putting forth this monster as the typical norm of Vos society. It was only intended as the perspective of ONE ruler.

[Sorontar]

@Caelcormac

I don’t see Barak as typical of the Vos either quite honestly.
I was only offering the perspective of a tyrant…just as I said he was.
[snip]
Again, I’m not putting forth this monster as the typical norm of Vos society. It was only intended as the perspective of ONE ruler.

Fair enough.

While I only ever see alignment as a sort of guidance on how a charcter (PC or NPC) would act, I was getting the impression that he was more whim oriented than it appears you intended (and hence is more chaotic than neutral). It sounded like he remakes the rules whenever he wants. But he’s your neighbourhood warlord, so he is whatever you make of him.

[Rey]

Not exactly a type for Vos tips, but a nice tyrant story.

[AndrewTall]

Thinking about it, some sort of regenerative blood power would prevent his sons duels crippling the victor - and depending on how one defines sons, I can see a weaker son surrendering his bloodline as symbolic ‘death’ thus meaning that the 17 won’t necessarily all die and the survivor is likely to last a while - not that living without a bloodline is much better.

There is, incidentally, being unable to speak, and being completely voiceless. I can see the cursed goblin/sidhe/etc arrow damaging his voice so he can merely whisper harshly, he can still make his will known albeit likely with some strain, but cannot roar orders and so is ‘voiceless’ in battle. Since most regeneration does nothing for disease mayhap such was the only thing that could kill him?

I not in favour of bloodline farms generally, but can see some possibilities, generally I’d make slaughtering your kin fairly pointless bloodline wise, and make Barak’s ‘there can be only one’ approach to succession extremely rare - although it is of course, a traditional Ariyan approach, trust a Vos to come back from the lands of Silk and Spices with a ‘kiss my axe’ approach to solving the divided inheritance problem!