Disclaimer: This post is entirely fluff. Reading it will not help you be a more competitive player, or provide insight into good warbands. It might help you enjoy the game more, and that’s why I’m posting it.

Background: Every now and then, someone will post an idea for running ‘themed warband’ tourneys. There seem to be wildly differing ideas as to what a ‘theme’ is, from ‘all creatures have the same Type’ to ‘all creatures are wearing something green’. My idea of a theme is somewhere between the two: Aspect of Lolth and Large Deep Dragon, while not having the ‘Drow’, ‘Elf’, or even ‘Humanoid’ Types, are still perfect fits in a ‘Drow themed’ warband. I’d also put in Quaggoth Slaves and Spiders of Lolth. But what about the Drider Sorcerer? Driders are outcasts from Drow society, but the critter still makes more sense in a Drow army than in an Orc or Gnoll army. Mad Slashers? Ettercaps? Spidery aberrations make sense as Drow creatures.

Looking at the full lists of creatures for each faction, there are certain ‘themes’ that naturally suggest themselves, and some of these themes seem closely related to other themes. One could tie these related themes together into ‘subfactions’, similar to the old Chainmail factions. For example, Ravilla was the Elven faction, but it also included certain Dragons and woodland beasts.

Here are my outlines for some of the different themes I see in DDM, grouped loosely together into subfactions:

LG:

Subfaction: Thalos

Deities: Pelor, Heironeous, etc. (need Aspects)

Themes: Clergy (Cleric of x); Crusaders (humans in armor); Faerun (these guys also fit into other themes); Eberron (except the Warforged); Heavenly Host (angels, archons, aasimon); Extraplanar (exemplars of Good or enforcers of Law); Monks; Mages; Militia (humans like the Commoner); Nature’s Law (animals and animorphs).

Subfaction: Mordengard

Deity: Moradin

Themes: Dwarves; Warforged; Constructs; Elementals (including Outsiders like Stonechildren and Azers); Little Folk (halflings and gnomes); Beasts.

Subfaction: Heroes of Paladine

Deity: Bahamut

Themes: Dragons (all Good true dragons); Dragonkind (dragon-related guys like the Golden Protector); Heroes (Regdar and the Iconics).

CG:

Subfaction: Ravilla

Deity: Corellon (needs an Apsect)

Themes: Elves; Drow (Eilistraee’s folk); Halflings; Woodland Beasts; Plants.

Subfaction: Freedom Fighters

Deity: Kord

Themes: Barbarians; Heroes (Regdar and Iconics); Faerun (Drizzt, Elminster etc.); Mages; Rogues; Dragons; Gnomes; Psions; Celestials; Free Men.

LE:

Subfaction: Red Hand of Doom

Deity: Tiamat

Themes: Dragons (all Evil true dragons); Spawn; Hobgoblins; Goblins; Kobolds; Scalyfolk (lizardmen and troglodytes under the Trog Captain, aberrations under the Dark Naga).

Subfaction: Ahmut’s Legion

Deity: Nerull

Themes: Lesser Undead; Greater Undead; Necropolitans (Grim Necro, Cadaver Collector, Flesh Golem etc.).

Subfaction: Lords of Strife

Deity: Hextor

Themes: Evil Men; Giants; Extraplanar (from Acheron or thereabouts); Warbeasts.

Subfaction: Lords of Tyranny

Deity: Bane

Themes: Faerun (Thay, Zhent etc); Underdark (illithids, beholders and such); Extraplanar; Eberron.

Subfaction: The Nine Hells

Deity: Asmodeus (needs Aspect)

Themes: Devils (really, too small to be its own subfaction, but I couldn’t decide where else to put it – probably with Hextor)

CE:

Subfaction: Drazen’s Horde

Deity: Gruumsh (needs Aspect)

Themes: Orcs; Goblins (via Orc Sarge); Giants; Frozen Wastes (frost giants, white dragons and cold critters); Warbeasts.

Subfaction: The Shambling Horde

Deity: Orcus

Themes: Lesser Undead; Greater Undead; Beasts (Dire Bat, Swarm of Spiders, Wolf, Werewolf etc.); Necrophiles.

Subfaction: Kilsek

Deity: Lolth

Themes: Drow; Slaves and Allies; Underdark; Beasts.

Subfaction: Naresh

Deity: Demogorgon

Themes: Gnolls; Demons; Fiendtouched (tieflings, fiendish creatures etc.); Limbo (slaadi, gith, red dragons).

Subfaction: Serpent Kingdoms

Deity: Merrshaulk/Sseth (needs Aspect)

Themes: Yuan-Ti; Reptilians; Black Dragons (another small but growing subfaction).

This gives me 15 subfactions, and pretty much every critter released in DDM so far fits into one or more of them.