Trouble? What sort of trouble? That sounds ominous.I think this veers into the realm of looking for trouble.
Trouble? What sort of trouble? That sounds ominous.I think this veers into the realm of looking for trouble.
Sure. OK.It is a freaking game term. Just leave as is.
The name "Barbarian" tells you that this is the class you pick if you want to play a character like "Conan the barbarian".
Barbarian should be a background, not a class. Conan was a fighter/rogue.
My feeling is it is a trope, and in terms of being derogatory....does it really apply to any living group anymore? I mean it refers mostly to cultures that no longer would be described as uncivilized. And it kind of swings both ways (Conan the Barbarian is almost a commentary against civilized or urban living). It was also a way many cultures in the past did think of people outside their own more settled or more culturally advanced societies. It is a bit hard to understand Rome for example without at least entertaining the concept of barbarians. I am not sure we need to wring our hands over concepts that really apply to peoples from hundreds and thousands of years ago. Sure the term may occasionally get evoked today but it isn't usually meant literally. It pretty specifically refers to less civilized people in the distant past.
Right. Civilization was the ‘villain’ here and Conan’s pure authentic self was ‘pure’ In its violence. Civilization layered a lot of pretense on their violence and it was deceptive. You know what you get with Conan.
The other point is that no one is saying barbarian is necessarily ‘bad’ unless we are referring to pearl clutching nobles who don’t fight for themselves After starting a fight.
additionally, barbarian is relative term. They are not from the so called civilized world. Conan knows that the civilized world isn’t always civil. Don’t we?
The traveler more in touch with nature via a vis the craftsman in the city with his nice shop is baked in: barbarians have survival skills and pray to gods that city dweller might not. They might even whip him into a frenzy with a berserk rage. Barbarian is quite descriptive of one from outside the dominant established Culture. It’s a point of view thing.
we would not say the goths or the angles or the Norse men were stupid or ineffectual.
I say leave barbarian not in spite of its baggage but BECAUSE of it. There is no shame in by Odin!
My feeling is it is a trope, and in terms of being derogatory....does it really apply to any living group anymore? I mean it refers mostly to cultures that no longer would be described as uncivilized