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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 9564760" data-attributes="member: 11">BerserkerBerserkers are trained at tapping into that most primal of emotions: rage, practicing a cultural and military tradition that takes many forms throughout both the Inchoate Empires and Makrinos and the east. Berserkers may often be associated with outlander tribes living at the edges of civilization—either a force of chaos to be destroyed or an ennobled spirit of independence and strength—the martial skills of the berserker are not only found in that context. The savvy brawler, the bloodthirsty brigand, the demonic cultist might all foster the controlled rage of this martial tradition.Berserkers rely on deft movement in battle, to move from foe to foe or break through lines to bring death down on the rear ranks and sow chaos in battle. They shake off grievous wounds and throw caution to the wind in their efforts to both have the tactical advantage and prove their might by taking out the most fearsome foes and sending minions fleeing.Different peoples have different traditions of berserkers, the Primal Paths detailed here—raiders, vanguards, and ancestral guardian—are just three generic examples, dwarven battleragers are an example of a tradition tied to a specific people.Berserker AlignmentWhile the profound rage of the berserker is said to have arisen from the corrupting force of Chaos found in mortals, and typically berserkers eschew the confines of law and order, respecting traditions based on strength, they can still be used as a force for Law, and an individual berserker might feel a different relation to the cosmos than the stereotype would suggest.  The reputations of berserkers typically has them committing evil acts while ensconced in their rages, but the ethical outlook of a berserker (and thus of the berserker hero) can lean towards good or a benevolent neutrality. Even in the depths of their rage, a berserker’s nature is not obscured, and ultimately the choices they make are their own. [ATTACH=full]394108[/ATTACH]Berserkers in the Inchoate EmpiresWhile there are still some berserkers among the outlanders beyond the edges of civilization, who fend off the ever expanding empires of those lands with increasing difficulty. For the most part, the berserkers in the Empires are either elite troops, a vanguard meant to strike shock and awe in the enemies at the outset of a battle and end it quickly and bloodily, or among the various raiders, pirates, and skirmishers that make the targets of these brigands more likely to surrender. In the past, entire villages of people who cultivated the berserker tradition have been incorporated (some would say enslaved) into a kingdom or empire, in order to fashion a military order that transforms the tradition into a tool of rapacious civilization.Berserkers in MakrinosThe berserker tradition is not that common in Makrinos, though there is a school of gladiator combat in the city of Caldera that teaches a style incorporating rages and among the dwarves of the Seven Dales, two of the Dales have a tradition of Battleragers. They are most common, however, among the raiders that patrol the shores of Makrinos and the islands east of it. There are also some non-incorporated human settlements deep in the mountainous interior who have a tradition of ancestral guardians and raiders among them. As adventurers, however, a berserker might come from a range of places, having developed their martial rage through non-traditional circumstances or through a teacher of a raging tradition.</blockquote>

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