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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 2837334" data-attributes="member: 40177">I just want to hit on this particular point quickly, because there's something a lot of people overlook."barbarians" received their name from the Greeks, who were making a pun on the language of those outside of the "civilized world" - they figured their language just repeated the word "bar" too often, so they called outsiders "bar-bars" or "barbarians" in English.  So, by the Greek standards, the Celts, Germans, Huns, Cimmerians, Turks (whatever they were called at the time...) Hittites... they were ALL barbarians.  So, while the name itself relates to one specific, western culture, the term wasn't applied to any one specific group.  And there are plenty of westernized ideas in 3e besides the barbarians - "wizards", "bards", and "druids" are all based off western words, and "monk" is most culturally tied to eastern societies.By contrast, "Berserkers" received their name from the Vikings, whose warriors went into battle wearing bear-skin armour.  "sark", the word for "shirt" or "armour" in one viking language or another, meant that these warriors were called "Bear-sarks".  Our term for "berserk" (an old english term, which probably relates to the fact that England got hammered heavily by viking raiding parties) comes from the fact that these "bear-sark" warriors went a little wild on their raids.  So, really, by abandoning the term "barbarian" (Which applies to numerous groups throughout Europe), in favour of "Berserker" (which historically only applied to ONE specific group) isn't moving towards a more culturally-neutral tone, but is in fact moving away from that tone.Anyways, great arguments here... this is just one of those little things I have to nitpick on.</blockquote>

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