Warlord Wednesday: When the Gods Make War

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"When the Gods Make War"

Warlord Annual #6 (1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: It turns out the aliens Morgan tangled with in issue #121 were mining a previously unknown element that can increase the killing power of Apokolips’s forces. Desaad has named it “Darkseidium” to suck up to his master. Darkseid has gathered the forces of Apokolips for a a full scale invasion of Skartaris to acquire the element.

The New God Lightray has been held captive by Desaad. A couple of careless guards allow him the opportunity to escape after accidentally filling him in on the invasion plans. Lightray flies back to New Genesis and shares what he has learned with the other New Gods. Highfather, their leader,dispatches Lonar to Skartaris to join forces with the Warlord. When Lonar swoops do on his space horse, Morgan is wary at first but the New God convinces him they’re on the same side.

In Kiro, Tara has located Y’Smalla, the woman who's been masquerading as her, but before she can get revenge Desaad shows up. He tells Y’Smalla about the impending invasion and gives her orders to assassinate Machiste.

In Shamballah, Morgan and Lonar are marshaling the troops for the assault. They don’t have to wait long.

All across Skartaris, the gods wage war against humanity!

To be continued...

Things to Notice:

• This is the last Warlord Annual of this series and the last one period, to date.
• This issue features pinups by Gil Kane and Dan Jurgens. 

Where it Comes From:
The guest stars and villians in this annual spring from the mind of Jack Kirby, a cosmology that is often referred to as the "Fourth World." The concept made it's debut in Jimmy Olsen in 1970 and blossomed into four interrelating titles. Essentially, it told the story of the conflict between the new gods from New Genesis and their foes on the world of Apokolips. Kirby's titles only lasted until 1973. In 1977, an attempt was made to revive the series, but it died almost as soon as it was begun due to the "DC Implosion." By the time of this annual, however, the characters and their conflict had been integrated into the wider DC Universe--as had Warlord with the events of recent issues.

Of Space Ages & Sorcery

The gestalt mind of Hereticwerks, aided and abetted by the equally outré intellects of Needles and Porky, have unleashed upon the unsuspecting blogosphere Space-Age Sorcery. It's 27 pages of enough weird science fantasy spells (and a few evocative tables) to fill a campaign, easy. It's so dense with cool not even light escapes its surface. I'm probably exaggerating a bit, there--but this is a unabashed plug not an unbiased review.

Anyway, check it out for yourself here and see if I'm wrong.

Oh, and for those of you that have been following my Strange Stars posts, here's a doc with some of the more esoteric terminology I've been using.

The Pleasure Domes of Erato

During the time of the Archaic Oikumene, the most famous of the so-called “pleasure worlds” was Erato. Called the “New Venus” (the original Venus having been a much less hospitable planet around Old Sol), it was home to a collection of resorts and parks catering to every imaginable sensual pleasure. The domes were themed by passion or interest and provided a variety of different environments from lush gardens to freefall. The bioroid staff, in a myriad of forms, catered to every taste.

Then came the Great Collapse. For a few generations, the last visitors to Erato and the humanoid administrators lived an end-of-the-world party in high decadence: then the bioroids took over. They developed a society of their own, closed off their world to the rest of space.

Sometime near the end of the Radiant Polity era, Erato was re-contacted, and reemerged as a purveyor of pleasure. As before, it offer a variety of experiences in a discrete setting--but this this time under the control of the bioroids themselves. They’re an eclectic bunch: androids, gynoids, and a number of combinations thereof, with a myriad of modifications to primary and secondary sexual characteristics, sexual performance, and biochemistry. The facilities are less expansive than in days past (as many are given over to expanded living areas, storage, and manufacturing for the bioroids), but current visitors don’t seem disappointed.

Ever seeking to expand their market share, the Eratoans have began to generate members of their race with new uses. Bioroids with idiopathic poison biochemistry or weaponized genitalia command a high price on the black market as assassins.

Engineers

No. Appearing:1-4

AC: 4

Hit Dice: 1

Saving Throw: Warrior 1

Attack Bonus: +0

Damage: by weapon, or 1d4

Movement: 20’

Skill Bonus: +4

Morale: 7

The Engineers [mnadnzat; mnaat sing.] are a cybernetic species and citizens of the Vokun Empire, responsible for much of the Empire’s technology. Though they are essential to the Empire’s function, the vokun keep them under close control due to their fear of artificial intelligence.

Appearance and Biology: Engineers vaguely resemble isopods of ancient Earth, but with more human faces. The average 1.2 m tall and have eight limbs, but typically ambulate bipedally. Either of their upper pairs of limbs may be used as manipulators, though the first pair is shorter and more dexterous. Though they have an internal skeleton, they also possess thick plates of carapace that extend the length of their bodies. This carapace has an iridescent sheen as it has a coating of metalofullerene. The integument of Engineers comes in several different colors that may denoted their caste.

Engineers as a species have integrated with their technology. All adult Engineers have metaganglia providing conscious control of many aspects of their bodies' functioning and linking them to their spimes and noosphere. If an Engineer’s body is badly damaged, they can download their minds into another from a remote backup.

Other than having a sense of their species as a whole, Engineers do not recognize kinship, nor do they form pair bonds. Mating is a casual affair with no real associated emotion. Young are born in communal nurseries and are pre-sapient. They crawl around Engineer ships, directed by signals from adults, just another tool. Those that survive the second instar are “uplifted” to full sophont status by infection with the appropriate nanites.

Psychology: Engineers are somewhat literal-minded and pedantic, though they're fairly gregarious when their is a topic of conversation that interests them. They are adverse physical confrontation and danger, often to the point of cowardice from the perspective of other species. When they feel endangered they attempt to roll themselves up as much as possible. They make poor fighters, but their aptitude for technology makes them excellent technicians and (of course) engineers.

Strange Stars

After over ten posts, I've finally decided (maybe) on a unifying title for the science fiction setting posts I've been doing: Strange Stars. Why that? I don't know. It sounded better than anything else I came up with. There is a real thing called a strange star--though I don't know that that has anything to do with the setting.

So anyway, now those posts will be found under that label.

More to come.

Ibglibdishpan

Appearance and Biology: Ibglibdishpan are spindly humanoids with yellow skins. Their skulls are large, hairless, and somewhat ovoid, but this appearance is accentuated by a shield-shaped “mask” of osteoderm covering their face above the jaw. They do not have external ears or noses. Ibglibdishpan exhibit very little sexual dimorphism [in fact, discussion of gender is considered rude by them.]

History: The ibglibdishpan are citizens of the Vokun Empire. Their natural cognitive traits have been enhanced by a vokun eugenics program and genetic modification to make them “humanoid computers” capable of computational tasks beyond most unenhanced humanoid brains.

Psychology: Ibglibdishpan tend to be restrained in their emotional responses compared to other humanoids. They also tend to lack empathy, and are sometimes at a loss as to my other humanoids don’t take the obvious, logical action. They are often considered pedantic and overly precise. They tend to avoid violence and make poor warriors. Due to their neuronal structure they are prone to the development of obsessions and compulsions, or perseverations of certain behaviors.

Stats: Intelligence of at least 14. Charisma and Strength no higher than 10.

Mental Breakdown: There is a 25% chance with any intelligence related skill check or other intelligence related task, that the peculiar mental structure of the ibglibdishpan may lead to some sort of failure. A save vs. Mental Effects must be made. On a failed roll, consult the following table:

1 catatonic state, repeating the last statement made for d100 minutes

2 screams for d100 seconds, then returns to previous activity as if nothing happened.

3 develop a phobia which lasts for 2d12 weeks.

4 Develop a reaction akin to Stendhal Syndrome for d4/2 hours.

5 seizure for 1d4 min. -1 to all rolls until a period of rest.

6 Lose 1-2 points of intelligence for 1d20 days. At that the end of that period, a second Mental Effects save must be made. Failure means the loss is permanent.

Warlord Wednesday: Clouds of War

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Clouds of War"

Warlord #121 (September 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Pencils by Art Thibert, Inks by Pablo Marcos

Synopsis: Two armies face each other across the Ebondar River. On one side is a contingent from Kaambuka led by General G’Barr, and on the other is a Shamballan force led by Travis Morgan, the Warlord. The armies engage and Morgan moves to avoid bloodshed. He goes straight for the general and defeats him in one on one combat.

Morgan demands to know why the Kaambukans have invaded Shamballan territory. The general accuses them of launching catapult attacks on their capital for 3 days--something Morgan knows they didn’t do. The Kaambukans retreat, leaving Morgan to puzzle over what the hell is going on.

Meanwhile, Kara and Jennifer can’t find the demon. They utilize the history tapes of the Atlanteans to try to find ways to locate the demon and combat him. Turns out:

Azmyrkon had a tripartite rod--”a weapon of unimaginable power.” He wrecked a lot of havoc until Arion showed up to throw a beat down on him and lock him in a prison. He split the demon’s rod into three pieces and hid them.

An earthquake interrupts the ladies’ history lesson and it appears to be an ominous sign.

Morgan is roaming around the desert looking for Tara. He comes across some guys in futuristic gold outfits doing some futuristic stuff with rocks and a launcher. They shoot at Morgan, and he returns fire, knocking one out before he gets knocked out by a rockslide himself.

That gives us a chance to check in on Morgan's CIA nemesis Redmond, who has now undergone full yeti transformation. He’s not about to wait around until the Atlantean snowmen have made enough depilatory for everybody. He stills the antidote and escapes after shooting two of the hairy folk that saved his ungrateful life.

In Kiro, Machiste is being pushed to war on Shamballah by continued reports of raids. He doesn’t buy it, but his ministers are instant. “Tara” is being no help--because she’s really chaos-sowing Y’Smalla disguised by Akolipsian tech.

The real Tara is being kept chained in a dungeon, about to be whipped by a sadistic thug, until:

She eaves him chained to the wall and escapes.

Kara and Jennifer find Azmyrkon causing the Mountain of Dragons volcano to erupt so he can get the first peice of his weapon. Our heroines take him on, but after a battle they’re only able to escape with their lives. Azmyrkon carries the day.

Morgan finally wakes up from his umpteenth concussion since the start of this series. The guys in the weird outfits are gone--except the one he had grazed. Morgan manages to wake the guy up. Before Morgan even thinks about harsh interrogation techniques, the guy begins to panic and warns Morgan to stay away

Elsewhere, a cackling Desaad watches the scene on a console. He presses a button and the man disintegrates before Morgan’s eyes.

Things to Notice:

• Unlike Morgan and Machiste, Ashir, King of Kaambuka, doesn't lead his armies from the front.
• Redmond (yet again) takes his quest for revenge too far. 
• Y'Smalla didn't have very good security on Tara.

Where it Comes From:
Here we have the first appearance in story in Warlord of Arion, Lord of Atlantis.

Jerry Bingham's cover for this issue recalls Frank Miller's cover for Daredevil #189 from 1982: