“I have slain fifteen foes to my right and another fifteen to my left. I don’t think it too many.”

Des’tro Roth

From the barren wastes of the Sunless South and the hellish jungles of Rajiin come courageous, some might say fearless, fighting men and women. Civilized people call them barbarians or berserkers and suspect them of wanton marauding, heathen beliefs and terrible crimes. These barbarians, though, have proven their worth and honor to those who do not fear them. To those who would challenge them, they have proven their stubborn deadliness, reckless bravery, steadfastness and commitment.

Adventurers: A life of adventure is often the only hope a barbarian might have of settling into civilized society. Their cultural background does not prepare them for a life in mundane employment. Indeed, their own society has nurtured them to a life well-suited wandering the wilderness, ever vigilant for danger. They may adventure to slay hated foes or they might adventure simply to hunt and provide food and safe haven for their people. They also have a stubborn and superstitious distrust of the Heavenborn regardless of which side of the Ever-After War they might fight for.

Background: Barbarians are found all around the world wherever there is uncivilized land or frontier. A barbarian adventurer might have been dragged into civilized society as a captured slave (and perhaps since escaped), he might be a part of a band of mercenaries hired by a rich patron to fight a foreign war, or he might simply have wandered into a civilized nation attracted by the promise of wealth or drawn by curiosity. Other barbarians might scorn civilization, avoiding it altogether or waging a guerrilla war upon it. Barbarians, who call themselves warriors, do not feel any special affinity for one another unless they happen to be from the same tribe or clan.

Other Classes: As people that commonly exist outside of established society, barbarians favor allies who are greenbonds, rangers and totem warriors. Many barbarians respect the abilities of akashics and bards. Barbarians have a superstitious distrust and enmity for most of the ‘modern’ classes associated with the rise of the Shoshannic Church. As such, barbarians harbor no love most clerics, druids or paladins.

NPCs: The fierce bands of walrusmen that hunt the unforgiving tundra of the Northern Wastes. The merciless gnome bandit that plagues the forests of The Midden Marches. The honorable bugbear berserker that wages a guerrilla war against the burgeoning cities of Tyrr. The escaped slave lost in the desert. The foreign gladiator making a bloody living for his owners.

Hit Die: d12

Barbarian Archetypes

First Age: Many sibeccai who still live freely in the Western Lowlands are barbarians. The lamia tribes of the far northern deserts are predominantly barbarians. Many of the troglodytes that live in the Zergoa Mountains are barbarian and even more of the scorpus. Barbarians often live lives of captivity, owned by the ruling classes of the Bahpotramian city-states. These slaves are deemed to wild to be used as guardsmen and so they are used as gladiators in the arenas and fighting pits.