Okay, comments and commitments.
I am quite busy right now, although that may (may) change fairly soon. I will be able to work on this project as a writer, but I don't know how rapidly you want this to go, so you need to say just how rapidly you intend to progress before I will commit to anything.Now, a few more comments on the ongoing philosophical discussion:
1. There is a discrepancy between communism in theory and communism in practice as it has happened on Earth. Essentially, humans need motivation in order to work hard, and we are selfish enough that most of us will not work as hard "for the good of society" as we will for our own personal gain (or the gain of our families). This tendency can be chalked up to Humans having a neutral alignment in AoW terms. Moreover, the elimination of the previous governmental system creates a staggering power vacuum, and a state controlling the means of production is very easily poised to fill it. This allows monsters like Stalin, Mao, etc. into power and use it, if for their ideologies, and be absolutely brutal about it.
Other races aren't going to have these tendencies. The AoW Elves, for instance, are only partially described, but they feel very Tolkienian, so I am going to go back to Tolkien for their behavior. Tolkien's Elves are a race of artists, who do their work, such as the making of masterful crafts, the cultivation of nutritous crops, mastering the arts of war, etc. because they enjoy doing it. It's Art. In addition, their leaders, while they have them, they don't really do anything (apart from being Artists themselves), except when something needs to be done (fighting a war, etc). In times of peace, the state has all but vanished. Now, if you read Marx' books, this is communism, more or less as he intended it to be (not quite, since the Elves are religious, but they are not "opiated" with their religion). Communism can - and does - work with Elves, even if it does not with Humans.
2. While facism may not have been that great a player in Adam Smith's day, it had existed, because the Romans were facist (it's where the word comes from). Even facism is not necessarily evil; most of the conquered Roman Empire were much better off after being conquered than they were beforehand, since the Romans brought so many of the trappings of civilization with them, such as irrigation, education, law and order with respect to city thieves/bandits/pirates, as well as the infamous "bread and circuses". In some areas (e.g. Scotland, Judea), many of these things were quite unpopular, and the Romans could get pretty harsh to real-problem peoples (again, the Jews leap to mind). The Romans also fought lots of wars with the Persians, also arguably facist but bearing notable similarities in their overall political system and effects on their conquered populace.
3.
Quoted from Black Hound:
If you're going to have Highmen, it seems like you ought to have the Undead as well, and vice versa. Wasn't the whole point of the Highmen showing up in the original campaign that Meandor unleashed the Undead upon the world through his resurrection of Inioch? It seems like they aren't willing to interfere with the world unless its destruction at the hands of the Undead becomes a possibility.
In part, yes. The High Men seem to have two purposes, one being to ward off the Undead and the other to bring the acendancy of humanity. Note, for instance, that the only player you can be in the original campaign that winds up with you allied to the Humans at the end is the High Men. Even as Julia, you have to defeat the High Men. Also note that the High Men have polite relations with Humans, despite tha they are two alignment steps different.
I agree that the High Men are unlikely to be very active unless humanity is there is real evil to be defeated, but I don't think that has to be the Undead if the survival of the Humans is at stake.
It would be nice to see you in this, btw, BH! 4. Regarding the capitalistic position of the neutral races, I would suggest having two neutral beginning campaigns. The Lizardmen would not be business-oriented as much as they would be raiders, and either Lizardman or Azrac starting leaders would work fine, I think. The business-oriented capitalistic player I would suggest should start off playing Humans or Azracs; however, the Leader of that campaign could be anything that isn't either Pure Evil or Pure Good. The reason why I say this is because in capitalism, it is not what you are, but what you are capable of, that matters for anything. An ambitious Halfling merchant or an Orcish mobster seem just as reasonable to me as an Azrac businessman, and it will be his or her business knack and ability to stave off idealists of other systems that will make or break his or her corperate society.