Barbarian

*Class: Barbarian*

For the tribes of people living on the fringes of The Kingdom of White, life is hard. They have to become even harder if they wish to survive. Called Barbarians by the citizens of the kingdom, they are generally viewed as menacing savages who only wish to storm down from the mountains, destroy homes and farmsteads, steal food and slaves and retreat into their craggy strongholds when the King's men come running. Indeed, barbarian raids are the premier danger for most borderland farms and villages, particularly if they find themselves near an active orc warband. But not every barbarian is a bloodthirsty raider. There are several scattered groups of people in the border mountains and ancient forests of the kingdom who want nothing more than to continue to exist in their ancestral homeland. They face dangers from all sides, in the form of powerful beasts, monsters emerging from the deep wood or the underdark, nearby rival tribes, and the Kingdom's incessant military expansion.

## Martial Tradition

Barbarians fight with instinct, brutality, and the weapons of their homeland. They use wisdom as their practitioner modifier.

**Equipment:** Gain either Tribal Training (If Human), Dwarven Heritage, Elven Heritage or Orc Heritage

**Spheres:** Berserker

**Variable:** Gain 2 of the following spheres: Scout, Barroom, Beastmastery, Gladiator

**Special:** Non-Dwarf Barbarians who take the Barroom Sphere gain the Teetotaler drawback.

## Barbarian Backgrounds

Barbarians are generally outsiders to the Kingdom of White, but they cannot be viewed as a monolith. Many different groups produce warriors that could be called Barbarians by the more civilized folk of the Kingdom.

Humans- Human tribes are generally driven by the human instinct to roam the world and explore, and are thus generally nomadic. Several tribes live in the foothills of the border mountains where they come into conflict with monstrous humanoids and other barbarian tribes, as well as the fringe villages of the kingdom. The Muskeg human tribe also live within the black swamp, raiding the surrounding lands and occasionally pressing into the Ancient Wood, bringing them into conflict with the elves.

Elves- Deep within the old growth forest known as the Ancient Wood, a tribe of elves known as The Silva make their home. Xenophobic and protective of their territory, the warriors of the tribe regularly roam the forest and violently dispatch of any would-be invaders. Some of these warriors have embraced the traditions of barbarian rage and totem worship.

Dwarves- Dwarves live very long lives in highly regimented societies heavily steeped in tradition and ritual. For some, the years of adhering to social mores wear on them like time wears down a mountain. One day they simply decide to don their armor, take up their weapon, walk out the door of their fortress and never return. Dubbed "Deathseekers" by other dwarves, these lone wanderers are typically disgruntled and misanthropic, being gruff and standoffish at best and violent, murderous sociopaths at worst.

Half-Orcs- Born into orcish warbands, nearly any half-orc who survives childhood will be trained as a warrior, learning to harness their rage and suppress their pain. Sometimes this training coupled with fate allows halfbreed warriors a chance to escape their life within a warband and strike out on their own. Other times, orcish warbands become too successful at raiding human farms and villages for the wellbeing of their own progeny, with halfbreed children banding together in youth, surviving in greater proportions than they would otherwise and gradually shifting the dynamic of an orcish warband into a orcish tribe, typically operating similarly to a nomadic human tribe, albeit one that's more prone to engaging in raiding and territorial conflict.

Other races very rarely become Barbarians. The Silva are not known to breed with outsiders, resulting in a dearth of half-elf barbarian warriors and most Halflings within the Kingdom greatly prefer the comforts of civilization to the hard, brutish ways of the wilds.