Dark Lord is just a generalized job description that may be applied to a wide range of malevolent trades, albeit only upon reaching a certain level within said trade. For instance you wouldn't call the kid who controls the lunch money in a seedy high school a Dark Lord, but he's clearly on the right path, we all have to start somewhere...
In this regard Dark Lording is like the entertainment industry; it's incredibly easy to get into, yet extremely hard to be very successful in. Anyone can just run amok and slaughter other people, but only a true Dark Lord slaughters with purpose, slaying for an end game.
There's no purpose in genocide if it doesn't net you some sweet resort land or enrich you in some other way. It's just a ton of bloodshed, logistical nightmares and arson for the sheer fuck of it.
Senseless, yet oddly satisfying sometimes.
As an authentic Dark Lord you must have a higher goal when you put a hamlet to the sword than just to test your new rustproofing compounds. Common thugs could do that by stabbing raccoons in the village midden.
Your swordening of a a small population should be but a mere step on some grand, convoluted and above all EVIL plan to do something shitty to someone, somewhere because it's gonna make you money. Or secure some bitchin raw materials and/or slave labor. Etc etc.
My point is that anyone can be a murderous, treacherous bastard, but only those who are extremely goal oriented, ambitious and far seeing will ever have a chance at earning the title of Dark Lord. Everyone else is just an alleyway knifeist.
That being established, what kind of Dark Lord path should you choose? Sometimes it's not up to you, some are left with a legacy Lordness. But if you're not fortunate enough to have an oppressive despot for a Father who conveniently leaves you an Empire when you kill him, start planning early. Becoming a Warmage or a Necromancer ain't cheap. You'll be paying off student loans for decades unless you kill everyone you own money to. Which takes a lot of training. It's almost a catch-22.
Here are some of the more common Dark Lord archetypes for you to peruse. In making your choice of career path, one must consider your strengths and play to them. If you're a hulking, loincloth bedecked warrior type, then becoming a Necromancer is probably not for you, you're too stupid for that. But a Barbarian King, now that could be right up your alley.
Think about it, dipshit.
Dynastic Scion: You inherited your empire from a deceased relative, you didn't earn it. Now can you hold it? Expand it? Leave it to some offspring like a cherished family chariot?
I got my start in Dark Lording when I murdered Pops in the study with a small bronze gargoyle that's been in the family for centuries. It was how he wanted to go. It was traditional. But then I pissed it all away when rival factions of my army annihilated each other in a highly localized civil war.
I shrugged and walked to the nearest river village and started charging people if they wanted to use the river and beating them up when they refused to pay. It's a suck job but it gets you back in the game and keeps you on your toes. Those villagers can get vicious when they're thirsty...
Elected Official: Sometimes the People themselves choose their own oppressor. Sometimes it's even in a reasonably honest and mostly accurate election. An Elected Official has the trust of a majority of the people, and any one with a shred of common sense with a side order of guile can use that trust to oppress his constituents, while making them think it's in their best interests.
This is the route to go if you don't like getting your hands dirty, so to speak.
Necromancer: You really like dead things. Maybe you were raised in a Gothic household and don't know any better, I don't know. Whatever the case may be, if the thought of raising dead, rotting things from the ground and having them steal shit and kill people in your name appeals to you, then you might wanna consider necromancy for an occupation.
The great part about being and/or employing a necromancer is that the reanimated dead fight for free. They need no rest, food, kindness, sex, booze, loot, sense of purpose, encouragement, transport, recreation or reward. They're dead. They do what you/your necromancer says to do.
The bad part is sometimes you/your hired necromancer fucks up and is consumed by demons and/or the living dead. If it's you that's the necromancer, then don't worry about it. Now you're dead too. But if you're a Dark Lord employing a necromancer, then you'd better have some Neutral clerics around to fend off your deceased necromancer's freed horde.
Horse Lord: The term "horse" is generous and conjures up fantastical images of large armored men astride thundering horses 20 hands high. But the reality is that your brutish little men ride incredibly hearty, shaggy little ponies; the Toyota Corolla of the steppes.
Be that as it may, your mobile horde is the terror of the plains in any region flat enough to support tiny, nomadic people and their hairy-ass wee-bitty horses. Bear in mind that grazing land is as equally important as cities to sack when you go this road. Better to demand tribute from terrified cities rather than attempting to occupy them.
Unless your supply chain management team is top flight of course. Then you'll have adequate fodder when the grazing runs out.
Duh.
War Mage: You're trained in combat sorcery, enough said. Most folk can only carry around the knowledge that they can destroy whole armies for so long before it gets to them. They start thinking thoughts like "I can incinerate a Troll battalion, why am I taking orders?" Or, "I really hate the guy I work for. I should blow up the mountain he lives on cuz I can do that kind of stuff."
It's sorta inevitable. When one realizes they are more lethal than one's employer by several magnitudes, one tends to question why they aren't running the show rather than playing second lyre to some jumped up shitcrust who hates getting his boots wet in his opponents gore.
Bandit King/Pirate Lord: I don't recommend these paths at all. The life of a Bandit King/Pirate Lord may sound romantic and involve lots of whores, drinking and the best goddamn lean-to in the camp/cell in the ship, but ultimately you're nothing more than a Woods Bully/Wave Sissy that has every henchman snapping at your heels waiting for their chance to put a dagger in your guts and assume your mantle. Pest-ridden as it may be.
Cult Leader (Cleric): All religions are Bullshit, but in the context of fantasy roleplaying, these religious dicks can get quite powerful because their fake deities are real here and grant them spells and powers in exchange for buying into their sketchy origin stories.
Some folks unlock their inner power and confidence by believing that their strength comes from a Fairy DadBeard-Sky-Thing or Wispy-Tree-Planet-OmniSpirit. In the proper context they can be forces to be reckoned with. Depending on the world they inhabit they may be right or they may just be delusional egomaniacs who nevertheless manage great and terrible things based on the strength of their beliefs.
Barbarian King: Sure you're handy with a sword and too big to play with the other kids. But is that all you got? Depending on what kind of territory you're in, it might be enough. There are some lands so primitive and unstructured that every bully with a blade who rules more than 50 people calls himself a "King". This does not a Dark Lord make.
It's a start. But if that's the extent of your qualifications, you'll never even make the Minor League, much less the bigs. Every successful Barbarian King I've ever known/defeated has had one or more of the following attributes in addition to the ability to kick everyone's ass with a sword.
-A talent for finding quality underlings whose skill sets complement and enhance their own
-A wholly instinctual competence in military tactics which blooms as their followers grow in number.
-A fun guy to hang out with. Everyone wants to party with him.
-An innovative approach to slaughter. Maybe they're no criminal mastermind, but they have a knack for inventing new weapons or tactics and perfecting them on their enemies.
-An uber-powerful magic fucking sword
Fallen Something: You started out good. I don't know what happened, but somehow, normally through a series of tribulations, you decided to go to the dark side. Like a corrupted Jedi, to mix my similes. This can happen to any class of Hero for any number of reasons. The bottom line is you began on the side of Light but then woke the fuck up and went for the Right. You figured out we have better drugs and pussy.
Congratulations!
Pharaoh: Your forebears somehow convinced a whole nation of people that Pharaohs are part Gods and all Kings. It's a neat trick and obviously pays dividends. Your population of Bronze Age fuckwits actually believe that you make the sun rise each day, when in reality everyone knows that it's a giant dung beetle that pushes the sun across the sky until it is consumed nightly by a celestial Sky-Cow.
But still, the control of a Pharaoh is possibly the most comprehensive of any Ruler Class. Your followers trip all over themselves doing your bidding even when it gets them killed. You promised them there'd be cake, virgins and mead and by golly they bought it hook, line and sinker.
Well done, lad. Now go find a nation to conquer that has land capable of supporting a hearty population, has some sort of natural resources beyond river water, sand and crocodiles and then stop the practice of building pyramids. They don't do what you think they do unless you have the immense foresight to consider the tourist trade several millenia in the future.
So there you go. There's 10 Dark Lord subclasses to give you something to chew on, you little dark pups. Worry those nipples!
-Stark Raving Lord Hurderoth
Word His Be Law
