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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 8475465" data-attributes="member: 6801845">In the real world barbarians are defined by who wrote the history books.In my game, barbarians are the ones who have cultures that are warlike and tend to value strength over civilization.  They typically reject the strict hierarchy of laws and trappings of the noble social classes, in D&D terms they are normally chaotic societies.  They have leaders and kings, but succession is rarely decided strictly by line of succession, the child of a leader has to prove themselves just like everyone else.This does not mean that they do not have cities, just that they prefer fluid societies over structured ones.  Oftentimes they do live in less populous areas, one of the reasons they tend to be warlike is because of the constant threats from monsters and things that go bump in the dark.  It's better to be trained and ready to pick up a weapon and rush to battle at a moments notice rather than rely on armor that takes minutes to put on when those precious minutes can make the difference between stopping raiders or not.So the cultures tend to elevate deeds over title, have stronger ties to nature and the spiritual.  It does not mean that all members of these cultures are bare-chested Conan clones. Knowledge is valued if it's useful, wise men and women are regarded with great respect, awe, and sometimes fear.  There are different types of barbarian cultures in my world, everything from hordes that raid to sea raiding definitely-not-Vikings that wouldn't be caught dead with horned helmets* to nomads who only have a warlike culture because they are so often threatened themselves.*Not that real world Vikings ever had horned helmets either, it would be a rather dumb thing to add to something designed to minimize impact to the skull.</blockquote>

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