Continuing the series on the armies of Greyhawk, Dragonne magazine turns its attention to the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, the superpower of the East, now sunk in evil and debauchery, threatened both without and within. This will be a two-part article, as the forces of the Overking alone took 4 pages to cover. The follow-up article will cover North and South Provinces, Medegia, the Sea Barons, and Rel Astra.
This one was a blast to write, and brought up a number of different things that might get incorporated in an updated version of the Baklunish article at some point. Look for an announcement here if that happens.
Mordenkainen can only seethe with jealousy at your wizardry, Joe.
My own feeling is that, unlike real-life medieval kings and lords, their Flanaess counterparts would not usually demand that peasants and commoners spend time training with bows or spend a certain amount of time in military service. They’re more likely to be killed when some of their main opponents will be humanoids who spend all their time raiding and fighting, and their losses will cost the lord dearly in income.
It’d be better for those peasants and commoners to spend all their time doing actual productive work that the lord can then use to pay professional soldiers that are actually motivated and trained to fight humanoids and other monsters, instead of making the commoners spend productive time becoming half-trained and more likely to be killed when the attacks inevitably come.