Military
DM Only
Army
Besides the occasional Horrors that escape or are set loose there are two Kjoran forces one might encounter.
Equipment
Lots of biological/magical.
E.g. instead of siege weapons they will have some sort of biological mutated monstrosity that spits exploding fireballs or sprays acid.
It is as common for the priestesses to mutate/warp troops to have tough carapaces and boney spikes as it is to provide them with scalemail and spears.
Demonbound
Equipment, mostly armor, that has had a minor demon bound/melded into it.
Horde Structure
There isn’t any.
Death Knights roam the skies attacking whatever targets the priestesses command or, more often, allowed free reign to spread chaos and death.
Hordes of disposable footmen supported by various Horrors charge to overwhelm the enemy.
Occasionally the priestesses will summon a demonmeld or release mutant leviathan to rampage across the battlefield trampling/eating friend and foe alike.
Priestesses
They don’t use direct offensive magic. Their power is in summoning, boosting the abilities of troops e.g. Death Knights, spreading dread / sickness, and in corrupting, warping, poisoning land, air, water, flora, fauna.
Individual priestesses are fairly powerful but when they work together, which they typically do at least within a cult, their powers are greatly multiplied.
Each priestess has a personal retinue of Death Knights that derive much of their power from and are “bound” to her. A minor priestess will have 2-4, cult-priestess 8-12, high-priestess dozens, the queen-priestess many.
Priestesses typically provide what little direction/command that exists during
Death Knights
Extremely tough, powerful, elite troops. Only males, always large two handed enchanted weapons, never ranged, lots of magic. Powerful defense. Demonbound armor. Defensive enchantments and spells. Ride winged Horrors of some sort.
All Knights are “bound” to a particular priestess.
Absolutely loyal to priestesses of their cult. Defer somewhat to priestesses of other cults. Would attack Death Knights of other cults if not routinely forbidden.
There exists a hierarchy of a sort based on power and ability. They work in groups. They don’t hold command positions. But few would not obey a command from Death Knight.
They might direct friendly troops, they might also slaughter them to clear their way to an enemy.
Horrors
Generic name for various mutated / magically warped monstrocites.
Each Horror is unique. Although there are many common themes e.g. all the death-knight mounts from a particular cult will function alike and look at least somewhat similar.
Some Horrors are used as mounts or siege weapons. Others are semi-intelligent and form “units” of heavy shock troops or sappers. But many are simply released near the enemy to spread chaos and death.
Demonmeld
A huge to titanic Horror created by “melding” a summoned demon with something. The something is already a horrific monstrosity whose size, power, unnaturalness only grows from being melded.
Horde
Goblinoids/mutants/slaves are cannon fodder. Other human leaders modeled after British empire’s usage of colonials.
Navy
Kjore doesn’t really have an organized navy. It uses a large variety of ships captured or produced by enslaved peoples. But it doesn’t patrol or engage in typical maritime combat operations. Believing it is destined to conquer all the land Kjore sees little value naval power. It does breed / mutate / meld with demons, and release aquatic Horrors into the seas. Which works as a great detterent to attack Kjore by sea and is partially responsible for most peoples fear of non-coastal waters.
The exception is when the priestess-queen orders an invasion of lands reachable only by sea. Then Death Barges are constructed and launched.
Death Barges
Huge amagalations of wood, stone, metal, mutated creature parts, Demonbound, and dark magic. Thousands of slaves, mutants, warriors, horrors, and priestesses clamor onboard, set off to destroy and spread chaos.
Each barge is ruled unconditionally by a cult-priestess. There is never more than one barge, even from the same cult, in a given area. But they do not operate alone. Dozens of barges will be launched from many points. All arriving at nearly the same time overwhelming the enemy.
The barges have one purpose. Wreck themselves on the shores of enemy lands, disgorging their troops to lay waste.
