Kings of War Lore: Forces of Nature

Greetings, and welcome to an article series, where I will be taking us through the lore of various Kings of War factions. My goals with these overviews are to showcase some of the army artwork, lore, and background while giving some review of what I think about it. I plan to choose future factions based on feedback left on this article, so if you have an army you want me to explore the background of comment and tell me!

To give context to how I am reviewing this Lore, here is what I want out of any game’s background. With wargaming lore, I am looking for something that adds flavor to my games, by helping to create a narrative for my games. One of the most effective ways is to have the armies match their lore and to have the lore help justify why our armies are fighting. This background should be interesting, lending flair and personality to my troops, beyond the colors I painted them.

But most of all, I am defining lore as something that gets me excited to play an army, and even better helps me create a strong theme apparent to opponents without a lengthy explanation. This is of course incredibly subjective, but its how I define good game lore.

You can find other articles on this topic here.

The Start of the Green Lady

To understand the lore of the Forces of Nature, we must understand the lore of the Green Lady, who in many ways IS the Forces of Nature. When the God Wars began, the Celestian Karinna “One of the most withdrawn and secretive of her kind,” was deep within her groves. Surrounded by her place of power, Karinna was sheltered from the tearing effects of the breaking of the Fenulian Mirror.

Unlike every other Celestian, Karinna neither perished nor split into Wicked One and Shining One, rather she stayed whole. This seems a little convenient. None of the other celestians were shrouded by their power at that moment?! But, it creates a rather cool character for the game, so I’m ok with it.

Despite being safe from the immediate effects, Karinna discovered that to remain safe, which I read as a remaining whole, she would need to become even stronger. Soon, a solution presented itself, the Wicked One known as Liliana came to the glades. The Wicked One, weary with the fighting outside the glade and had come to seek shelter. Karinna using the powers of the elements absorbed Liliana into herself, “becoming more than she had once been,” taking the first steps into becoming the Green Lady.

Adding the power of Liliana into her form allowed The Green Lady to leave the safety of her woods. As the Lady ventured forth into the world, she saw the ruin and chaos the fighting had caused. Everywhere there was conflict, ruin, and killing, and the Lady decided on her goal, balance.

First, she would have to find Liliana’s Shining aspect, also known also as Liliana. Honestly, the naming conventions of Wicked Ones and Shining Ones are, well odd, there isn’t much consistency, and no offered reason why some keep the same name, others don’t. Thanks to F Sawyer for pointing this out in a comment on my Abyssal review. These inconsistent, and often repetitive naming conventions create confusion, Liliana, not that one but the other Liliana, but we must soldier on.

During the Lady’s travels, she journeyed through some of the worst battles of the God War. “With each fresh atrocity she witnessed, her Celestian heart took pity upon a new mortal race which had fallen victim to this terrible conflict – even as Liliana’s thirst for vengeance drove her own darker nature to perform terrible acts against those who made them suffer.”

These travels led her to save a wide array of beings, earning their loyalty, which is why the Forces of Nature has such a plethora of creatures to choose from. According to the rulebook, “The Forces of Nature are unique in Pannithor. No other race or faction in the world commands such diversity amongst its ranks.” This is well reflected in the vast selection that Forces of Nature boasts. It also appears that each race saved, and sheltered by the Lady are more “bestial” rather than humanoid, which probably contributed to their suffering during the God War.

The Straits of Madness

Eventually, the Lady found Liliana’s Shining aspect, in “the battle of Madness,” an area that eventually became known as the Straits of Madness (great name, short but evocative). Ba’el the Demon Lord was hunting down the naiads that lurked in the Straits. Liliana’s Shining Aspect, battered and near defeat, but still defiant, was saved by the Lady, who arrived at the head of a vast army, built of all the beings she had gathered as allies, and by the forest spirits of her glades.

A desperate battle began, but at the end, the forces of the Lady stood victorious. In the moment of victory, an exhausted Liliana fell into the Lady’s arms, passing out. Once their forms contacted each other, Liliana’s form flashed into pieces of light, that then absorbed into the Lady’s divine form. From that point on, the Lady contained both the Shining and Wicked One halves of Liliana, as well as her own Celestian components.

This unique combination of Wicked and Shining, and original Celestian creates a power that seeks not dominance, but balance in Pannithor. The best explanation of this stance comes from the Second edition rulebook, which states that the Lady believes, “If good were to prevail, the world would risk eternal stagnation. If evil reigned eternally, violence and destruction would tear Mantica apart.”

This means that the Forces of Nature can arrive to fight on nearly any force’s behalf. In recent times, Evil has been waxing strong, which means nearly all of the Lady’s recent fights have been along the side of good; however, with the recent swing back in the favor of good (defeat of the Abyss in Edge of the Abyss), that may be changing.

Interestingly, the Green Lady actually manages to have every component of the divine scale for Pannithor “a Celestian hear balanced by the darker and nobler aspects of one of her kin – that informs and strengthens her striving for balance in the world above all other things.” Her three aspects, Wicked One, Shining One, and Celestial create a component of the larger being for each branch of Pannithor’s pantheon. This is why she is well suited to struggle for balance, and also why she has managed to avoid achieving dominance herself.

This is also a really interesting way to handle the Neutrality of Nature. Rather then seeking merely to preserve natural environments (though there is some of that), the Forces of Nature take an active role in Pannithor, helping the underdog, and trying to assure that no power completely reigns over the other.

Deeper Thoughts On the Green Lady

The Green Lady is one of the most fleshed-out Living Legends in the game, with almost half of the space for the Forces of Nature background exploring her origins and growth. For some players, who really enjoy a focal point for their factions, this is possibly some of the best army lore Kings of War has to offer. We know who the Green Lady is, we know about her past, we know about her goals, and most importantly her perspective is refreshingly unique. For gamers desiring more agency given to the troops throughout the army, this might not be a great fit, as other then the Druids, most of the rest of the forces fade into the background.

The Lady reminds me a little of the Neutral deities of the Dragonlance world of Krynn, who operated more as mediators between Evil and Good, but still had the overarching goal of balance. However; unlike Krynn, the Green Lady is all three aspects in one. What I particularly like is that the Green Lady is an opportunity to highlight occurrences of Good ascending, rather than Evil, since she is opposed to both. I would love to play a game where Good is not perpetually on the back-foot.

It is not all roses with the Green Lady; however, throughout the background, she is described as possessing both the healing and destructive forces of Nature.

“It is only rarely that the Lady herself will take to battle with her forces. Even the druids themselves give thanks for this, as the fury of the Lady is terrible to behold and nigh impossible to contain, even for her most trusted lieutenants. It is when her darker aspect is roused that the enemies of Nature tremble, knowing that their inevitable doom by her hand is night.”

This sounds awesome, but in literally no way is this reflected in-game. When the Avatar of the Green Lady is used on the table she will have Defense 5+, Melee 5+, 1 Attack, 13/15 Nerve, Fly, Inspiring, Regeneration 5+, Heal 6, and may have Cloak of Death or Radiance of Life each turn.

Honestly, first, this profile is incredibly weak. This is arguably the most powerful being on Pannithor, and yet her profile doesn’t really compare to even the Winged Unicorn. Yes, this is just her Avatar, but she should be more powerful, and more expensive. Taking an Avatar of the Green Lady should have a similar impact to the Idol of Shobik from EoD, or the Manifestation fo Ba’el from Abyssals, however, she pales in comparison.

In addition, the lore is filled with descriptions of the Green Lady’s darker aspects, and yet this is not in the game (no the Balance ability is not nearly enough). We should have two Avatars of the Green Lady, one her Protecting Aspect, the other her Destructive. The Protecting Aspect could be similar to as is, but better. The Destructive Aspect should be a beast, either pumping out offensive magic or given an incredible of a combat profile. Pump both profiles up to at least 300 points worth of abilities and make taking them a defining part of the army. Fielding the Green Lady should mean something, much like when you drop 300 points on Shobik or Ba’el, after all, she is more powerful than either of them!

The Rest of the Army

Ok, well enough about the Green Lady, let’s talk about the rest of Nature. Well, the lore ties the various parts of Nature as each representing the various elements each with their own elemental type. Water is Naiads, Fire is Salamanders, Sky is pegasi and Sylphs, and Earth is Centaurs… huh ok well Centaur doesn’t quite scream “Earth Typing” to me, they are squishy, fast, and not really earthly, but oh well.

This division within the army works really well. It gives separate sub-factions within this larger faction creating really easily identifiable themes. You could go tree spirit heavy, avoiding Naiads, Slamanders Centaur, ect. representing the Lady’s OG servants. Or you could pick one element tied together with the “unaffiliated” choices, such as the Beast of Nature, the trees, ect. Pick a strong color scheme reflecting this element and suddenly you have a really evocative and recognizable army theme. It’s not quite the Balance nature preaches, but I think it can be rationalized, afterall your force is probably just that element’s representative in a larger force, right?

Druids

Tying these diverse groups together, beyond the powers of the Lady, are the Druids. The druids play an exceedingly important part of the army and take up a larger chunk of the rest of the background for the army. I could honestly spend a great deal of time discussing Druids as well, but I am going to attempt to cover their bits in the next two paragraphs.

Recruited almost exclusively from Humans, the beings most able to embrace the Balance of the Forces of Nature, druids serve as wanderers in the wild and roads. Reporting back to the Green Lady, and feeding her information from across the world. When swearing to the Lady, druids forsake all other masters, loyalties, and pledges, swearing themselves to the Lady and to maintaining Balance. They can frequently be spies, discovering secrets throughout Pannithor, all in the interest of maintaining Nature’s balance.

This is extremely cool, giving the army leaders, while also creating a unifying component across the army. According to the lore, druids magical prowess rivals to any elven mage; however, unlike human and elven mages who tend to focus on one or two types of magic, druids never commit to mastering one form of magic, but rather seek to maintain a balance of all types. This is why in-game, they can take many spells, but none of them are exceedingly powerful. This is also why Druid’s Inspire because they are the Lady’s direct servants.

Conclusion

The more I dug into the Forces of Nature lore, the more I am convinced that this is the direction the Kings of War needs to go. It is not perfect, lacking enough exploration of what individual foot soldiers are like, how they operate as a whole army, and what the society in the woods is like. But, there is a great foundation here, held together by a well defined central theme and character(s)- I’m counting druids in this too.

In Forces of Nature there is a defining character to give a focal point to the faction, and this character has extensive (for Kings of War) lore, interesting themes, and unique flavor (though it needs to be reflected better on the tabletop). FoN is a faction with multiple sub-factions, each with differences in look and play style, lending itself to easily created themed forces. And finally, this is a faction that has clearly identified roles and goals in Pannithor, goals that are nuanced and interesting, and that lend themselves to deeper play on the tabletop. I know why Nature is fighting in the wider world and I know roughly how they fight.