When Amalickiah fled to the court of the Lamanite King, he evolved a plot worthy of a demon, which only ceased with life. In ambition, diplomacy, and military skill, he compares favorably with some of the dictators of our own times. On his first opportunity after reaching the Land of Nephi where the Lamanites paid their offerings of homage to the king, he commenced to rekindle the fires of hatred toward his former friends. At first his efforts to do so were unsuccessful; the recollection of their late defeats was too fresh in the memory of the multitude. The king issued a war proclamation, but many of his subjects disregarded it. Much as they feared his imperial power, they dreaded a renewal of war even more. Most of them gathered to resist the royal mandate. The king unused to such objections, raised an army to quell the advocates of peace, and placed it under the command of the now zealous Amalickiah. The king commanded Amalickiah to compel the insurgent Lamanites to bear arms for him.
To be placed in such a position of power was the desire of Amalickiah, for it gave him a platform, as it were, to start on a program of self-aggrandizement.