| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
jordanz
Senior Scribe
553 Posts |
 Posted - 11 Mar 2014 : 21:59:47
|
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/gallery/files/3/7/8/3/boagrius.jpg
It seems like the realms are currently lacking in this aspect. Wulgar is perhaps the most recent example but I dont really see him as an epic level Barbarian.
The last canonized truly badass Barbarian I can recall was Sunbright from "Mortal Consequences" Netheril Trilogy, Book 3.
Are there any other truly bad ass Barbarian examples in the history of the realms besides Unther?
|
|
|
Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7968 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2014 : 22:30:51
|
The post-2E Realms suffer from civilizational tendencies. And from an overabundance of magic users, both in quantity and quality.
This is most evident in the 4E Realms, where kingdoms stride away from yummy brutish feudal medievalism towards the ailments of icky early renaissance. There is a respectable middle class, they are given the option of living in any number of egalitarian societies filled with banks, steam-engines, gunpowder, and scholars. Everybody in the land, even many monstrous folk, possessess at least basic literacy and education. There‘s a couple wizards and ten priests on every corner. The current crop of tyrants and overlords is generally weak, timid, and unenthusiastic (and who wouldn‘t be, faced against legions of Chosen policemen?). Even the seediest taverns can offer top-class bardish entertainments. One can purchase magic items of any sort desired, indeed, only the most amateur of adventuring bands isn‘t equipped with all the magical firepower they can carry.
Barbarians - along with their uncivilized, strong, proud, superstitious, anti-magical ways - simply no longer fit in. There are few places “off the edge of the map“ where they can prosper. They are, at best, a thematic oddity ... interesting to adventure with, for a time, but not really able to find any other function in today‘s pre-industrial Realms setting.
Sad times, sad times. Barbarians are simply obsolete throwbacks to a simpler, fiercer, vastly more macho world. I imagine today‘s cosmopolitan citizen of the Realms now rolls their eyes in the presence of brazen barbarian displays, reacting much as one from our culture would when confronted by a tobacco-spittin‘ beltbuckle-twiddling cowboy. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 11 Mar 2014 22:42:18 |
 |
|
|
BEAST
Master of Realmslore
USA
1714 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 04:14:10
|
Berkthgar the Bold, from Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn, and his great sword Bankenfuere. He tried to fulfill Wulfgar's vision of civilized barbarians living in the shadow of the dwarves' mount Fourthpeak; he really did. But he just couldn't do it. He needed breathing room! He needed to taste caribou hearts! So he led an exodus back to Icewind Dale...only to have a contingent of the dwarves follow him right back there! Dude never could catch a break.
He also demanded that King Bruenor hand over the warhammer Aegis-fang to the barbarian tribes when it appeared that Wulfgar was no more. Bruenor, of course, refused, but it was still pretty bold, indeed, of Berkthgar just to ask the question.
I still haven't read the series, yet, but wasn't Liriel's companion Fyodor also a noteworthy barbarian? |
"'You don't know my history,' he said dryly."
--Drizzt Do'Urden (The Pirate King, Part 1: Chapter 2)
<"Comprehensive Chronology of R.A. Salvatore Forgotten Realms Works"> |
|
|
|
jordanz
Senior Scribe
553 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 04:24:42
|
quote:
Originally posted by BEAST
Berkthgar the Bold, from Siege of Darkness and Passage to Dawn, and his great sword Bankenfuere. He tried to fulfill Wulfgar's vision of civilized barbarians living in the shadow of the dwarves' mount Fourthpeak; he really did. But he just couldn't do it. He needed breathing room! He needed to taste caribou hearts! So he led an exodus back to Icewind Dale...only to have a contingent of the dwarves follow him right back there! Dude never could catch a break.
He also demanded that King Bruenor hand over the warhammer Aegis-fang to the barbarian tribes when it appeared that Wulfgar was no more. Bruenor, of course, refused, but it was still pretty bold, indeed, of Berkthgar just to ask the question.
I still haven't read the series, yet, but wasn't Liriel's companion Fyodor also a noteworthy barbarian?
Berserker I believe but plenty bad ass none the less... Any word on what ever happened to Sunbright's Barbarian clan? |
|
|
|
Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 04:50:30
|
Sunbright Steelshanks, from Clayton Emery's The Arcane Age trilogy, though I disliked him. 
Fyodor, as noted above.
The Iron Lord, from Richard's Brotherhood of the Griffon series. (And that other berserker who helped Aoth and company and whose name escapes me at the moment.) |
Every beginning has an end. |
|
|
|
Barastir
Master of Realmslore
Brazil
1600 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 10:51:58
|
How about Thunderstorm? He is a 15th warrior - a nomadic raider - and is bold enough to use only a non-magical leather armor (he's only AC 6 at this high level, mostly because of his dexterity). 
EDIT: format and clarifications |
"Goodness is not a natural state, but must be
fought for to be attained and maintained.
Lead by example.
Let your deeds speak your intentions.
Goodness radiated from the heart."
The Paladin's Virtues, excerpt from the "Quentin's Monograph"
(by Ed Greenwood) |
Edited by - Barastir on 12 Mar 2014 10:58:04 |
|
|
|
YoDrow
Acolyte
4 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 12:13:49
|
| I don't understand why you say Wulfgar is not epic enough. He killed a dragon and went toe to toe with all kind of giants. The guy was still kicking butts at the age of a hundred years old... |
|
|
|
Thauranil
Master of Realmslore
India
1591 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 13:27:07
|
quote:
Originally posted by YoDrow
I don't understand why you say Wulfgar is not epic enough. He killed a dragon and went toe to toe with all kind of giants. The guy was still kicking butts at the age of a hundred years old...
Agreed, if that is not epic enough for you what is.
Plus he went toe to toe with demons and survived. |
|
|
|
jordanz
Senior Scribe
553 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 19:23:39
|
quote:
Originally posted by Thauranil
quote:
Originally posted by YoDrow
I don't understand why you say Wulfgar is not epic enough. He killed a dragon and went toe to toe with all kind of giants. The guy was still kicking butts at the age of a hundred years old...
Agreed, if that is not epic enough for you what is.
Plus he went toe to toe with demons and survived.
Wulgar is not an Epic character. Sorry he is not. He's high level and formidable but he beat the Dragon with Drizzit's help and a plot device. Formidable feat but not epic IMO.
Sunbright battles his way through Pitfiends and arch devils SOLO and battled his way through and out of Hell with a glorified crowbar! That in my opinion is Epic.
Unther ditto.
Wulgar not quite, I don't see him as the pinnacle of what Barbarians can be in the realms , he's up there but not at the top yet ...but I love him either way.
|
|
|
|
sfdragon
Great Reader
2285 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 19:40:32
|
watta ya mean wulfag isnt a baddass??
he was born under the star of baddassery |
why is being a wizard like being a drow? both are likely to find a dagger in the back from a rival or one looking to further his own goals, fame and power
My FR fan fiction
Magister's GAmbit
http://steelfiredragon.deviantart.com/gallery/33539234 |
|
|
|
Mapolq
Senior Scribe
Brazil
466 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 21:11:26
|
quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
The post-2E Realms suffer from civilizational tendencies. And from an overabundance of magic users, both in quantity and quality.
This is most evident in the 4E Realms, where kingdoms stride away from yummy brutish feudal medievalism towards the ailments of icky early renaissance. There is a respectable middle class, they are given the option of living in any number of egalitarian societies filled with banks, steam-engines, gunpowder, and scholars. Everybody in the land, even many monstrous folk, possessess at least basic literacy and education. There‘s a couple wizards and ten priests on every corner. The current crop of tyrants and overlords is generally weak, timid, and unenthusiastic (and who wouldn‘t be, faced against legions of Chosen policemen?). Even the seediest taverns can offer top-class bardish entertainments. One can purchase magic items of any sort desired, indeed, only the most amateur of adventuring bands isn‘t equipped with all the magical firepower they can carry.
Barbarians - along with their uncivilized, strong, proud, superstitious, anti-magical ways - simply no longer fit in. There are few places “off the edge of the map“ where they can prosper. They are, at best, a thematic oddity ... interesting to adventure with, for a time, but not really able to find any other function in today‘s pre-industrial Realms setting.
Sad times, sad times. Barbarians are simply obsolete throwbacks to a simpler, fiercer, vastly more macho world. I imagine today‘s cosmopolitan citizen of the Realms now rolls their eyes in the presence of brazen barbarian displays, reacting much as one from our culture would when confronted by a tobacco-spittin‘ beltbuckle-twiddling cowboy.
I can sense the joking or half-joking tone of this, but I still want to point out that the Realms was never based on brutish feudal medievalism since the OGB at least. I feel 3e brought about the greatest movements into globalisation (not modern, information era, globalisation, but exploration era globalisation), but it really started with 2e, such as when they added the other continents to Toril and started factoring things like portals and Spelljamming. And other concepts like widespread literacy and generally "advanced" civil rights and social norms were around since the beginning.
In a very important sense, anyhow, the Realms doesn't really translate well into any time period on Earth. It's just very different. |
Never sleep under the jackfruit tree.
Tales of Moonsea - A Neverwinter Nights 2 Persistent World. Check out our website at http://www.talesofmoonsea.com and our video trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am304WqOAAo&feature=youtu.be, as well as our thread here at Candlekeep: http://www.forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12955
My campaign thread: http://www.forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16447 |
Edited by - Mapolq on 12 Mar 2014 21:14:15 |
|
|
|
Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7968 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2014 : 22:10:54
|
I agree, the disgusting trend of progress towards civilization, invention, humanism, and moral wisdom did begin somewhere in the middle of the 2E era. WotC worked inoffensive unpolitical nondenominational moral goody-goody blandness pure and straight (in ways which TV censors must admire!) ... so you can‘t have stagnant medieval settings populated by ignorant Luddites, right? It was all so unavoidable once the world got bigger than juat Faerûn, and high cultures from places like Amn, Tethyr, Zakhara, Halruaa, Shou (and even Realmspace, kinda) were appended to the Realms. All those lovely regional supplements! Golden days ... but alas each step away from brutish and barbaric meant Barbarians had to come from farther and farther away. I place some blame squarely on the sadly unworthy Complete Barbarians‘ Handbook. And a little on the supercategorized Angardt/Uthgardt tribes, they shoulda been left less specific, more open to giving Barbarian PCs some not-uncool options. And egads, I shan‘t bother to ask how savagely backwards humans can live in a land populated by goblinoids, elves, Harpers, Chosen, necromancers, and other horrors.
But yeah, I did deliberately exaggerate the pathos a bit. There‘s plenty of room for Barbarians in the Realms ... you just gotta be a little creative about character backstory. |
[/Ayrik] |
Edited by - Ayrik on 12 Mar 2014 22:19:16 |
|
|
|
coach
Senior Scribe
USA
479 Posts |
Posted - 17 Apr 2014 : 22:19:24
|
Thamalan Harthgroth
FRCS p108
B5/F11
Heara
female
UE p122
B11/R2
Ghur-Tha The Cleaver
UE p142
B4/C9
Hedwick
FR9 p49,60
B14 |
Bloodstone Lands Sage |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
Bad ass Barbarians of the realms?
