Quote Originally Posted by Douglas View Post
If sustaining a side requires waging war, then Erfworld must have some particularly weird mechanic that supports that.

In the real world, war is a net destructive process - the winner may end up with more resources, but only via transferring resources from the loser; the total resources of both sides combined is decreased by the war. If Erfworld matched reality in that regard, then every war would decrease the resources available in the world, and something would need to counterbalance that or the world would inevitably slide to total resource starvation. But if such a counterbalancing resource creation mechanism existed, then a side would be able to support itself using that with no need for war.
I don't think comparing the real world to Erf is wise. I mean in Stupid World, people don't pop out of existence fully formed.

The system is set up to mimic the real world, but it's basic mechanics are different.
For example, things are continually popping into existence (birds, bees, warlords), while other mechanics conspire to balance these things. So for every warlord, you get a tiger or an ant that wants to kill him, thereby "balancing" the equation. War might just be Erfworld's way of keeping things in check.

Another such example is getting old. In Erfworld it's impossible to die of old age. However, it's possible to die of irrelevancy. While your life isn't capped per se, the longer you are alive, the less relevant to Fate and the World you become and your Signamancy deteriorates, (and this is conjecture on my part) including your mental state. Sides that don't remove a Signamancy deteriorating King are at risk to end. Probably the same goes for Signamancy deteriorating units. Also, most units die in droves, so it's not hard to always have fresh looking units.