Why this word is great
WARLORD — [Noun] A military commander or bandit leader who exercises civilian power in a region where the government is weak or absent. From war ("armed conflict") + lord ("ruler, master"). Unlike a "general" (a high-ranking officer within a formal state structure) or a "governor" (an appointed administrator with legal authority), a warlord is a law unto himself, ruling through the barrel of a gun rather than the parchment of a decree. He is the man in mirrored sunglasses holding court in a looted hotel, the smuggler who taxes the roads he does not pave, the feudal strongman whose court is held in the ruins of a government building—proof that violence, when unchecked, becomes its own sovereignty.