Barbarian
For some, their rage springs from communion with fierce animal spirits. Others draw from a roiling reservoir of anger at a world full of pain. For every barbarian, rage is a power that fuels not just a battle frenzy but also uncanny reflexes, resilience, and feats of strength.
All stand in awe at the berserker fury you tap at will, enhancing your strength and toughness at the expense of reason. But what do cultured people know of the frozen wastes or hellish jungles that forged your earliest experiences? The cruel vicissitudes of growing up "savage" were normal to you. When your older brother was lost on a bear hunt one day, and your younger sister died of disease in the howling dark late one night, how could you know that in other places, they might not have had to die? These and other experiences marked you, and you stand apart from those born into the comforts of civilisation.
From the frozen wastes of the north and the hellish jungles of the south come brave even reckless warriors. Civilised people call them barbarians or berserkers and suspect them of mayhem, impiety, and atrocities. These "barbarians," however, have proven their mettle and their value to those who would be their allies. To enemies who underestimated them, they have proved their cunning, resourcefulness, persistence, and mercilessness.
Primal Instinct
People of towns and cities take pride in how their civilized ways set them apart from animals, as if denying one's own nature was a mark of superiority. To a barbarian, though, civilisation is no virtue, but a sign of weakness. The strong embrace their animal nature—keen instincts, primal physicality, and ferocious rage. Barbarians are uncomfortable when hedged in by walls and crowds. They thrive in the wilds of their homelands: the tundra, jungle, or grasslands where their tribes live and hunt. Barbarians come alive in the chaos of combat. They can enter a berserk state where rage takes over, giving them superhuman strength and resilience. A barbarian can draw on this reservoir of fury only a few times without resting, but those few rages are usually sufficient to defeat whatever threats arise.A Life of Danger
Not every member of the tribes deemed "barbarians" by scions of civilised society has the barbarian class. A true barbarian among these people is as uncommon as a skilled fighter in a town, and he or she plays a similar role as a protector of the people and a leader in times of war. Life in the wild places of the world is fraught with peril: rival tribes, deadly weather, and terrifying monsters. Barbarians charge headlong into that danger so that their people don't have to. Their courage in the face of danger makes barbarians perfectly suited for adventuring. Wandering is often a way of life for their native tribes, and the rootless life of the adventurer is little hardship for a barbarian. Some barbarians miss the close-knit family structures of the tribe but eventually find them replaced by the bonds formed among the members of their adventuring parties.Clashing Opinions
As people of the wild, barbarians are most comfortable in the company of rangers, druids, and clerics of nature deities, such as Gafsyn or Mellora. Many barbarians admire the talents and spontaneity of bards, and some are enthusiastic lovers of music. Barbarians don't trust that which they don't understand, and that includes wizardry, which they call "book magic." They find sorcerers more understandable than wizards, but maybe that's just because sorcerers tend to be more charismatic. Monks, with their studied, practice, deliberate approach to combat, sometimes have a hard time seeing eye to eye with barbarians, but members of these classes aren't necessarily hostile to each other. Barbarians have no special attitudes toward fighters, paladins, clerics, and rogues.
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