(Lore) Barbarians and Aquilonians

How come Aquis can choose to be barbs? I mean...you wouldn't exactly think of either Greece or Rome as of barbaric cultures. And seeing how heavily Aquilonia is influenced by those two things, it made me wonder. A Roman barbarian wtf? A Gladiator maybe? Are there Arenas in Aquilonia? A mercenary? Wouldn't he be a Cimmerian then?

Also should barbs sneak. When you say barb, the last thing you connect it to is sneaking(unless you played AoC ofc :P). They are highly Honourable and courageous people and sneaking is everything anti barbarian. For example-could you imagine Khal Drogo(Game of thrones) sneaking? I can't. And don't say Conan. He rarely, if ever sneaked. What he usually did was that he took back entrances and such. That's not exactly sneaking.

Corollary to that: should they be able to use medium armour? I mean hides are usually barbarian only Armour and hides would be medium armour(pretty sure). Plus as a fill in for the removed ability to sneak.

In short: BIG weapon != sneaking(imho)

There are "barbarians" in Aquilonia, men of woods who can match barbarians at their own game :]

Check this:

http://aochideout.blogspot.com/2012/...eir-roots.html

as for sneaking and being a barbarian:

Check out "Beyond the Black River" http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600741h.html

In this book Conan does nothing but sneak and kill Picts out of stealh :) Cimmerians are excellent climbers and they have spent generations fighting Picts in the forests. REH clearly wrote that you need to be very skilled to even spot a Pict in the forest :X
Conan was sneaking in many book ("The God in the Bowl" and "The Tower of the Elephant" which are both JUST about sneaking as Conan is a common thief at that time).

As for medium armor:

Conan wore many different armors in his adventures. He is not, like in the comic, wearing some skins and rags, but most of the time he has a chain mail on. In some stories he even wears full plate armor.

Medium armor doesn't prevent sneaking. In "Beyond the Black River" Conan was sneaking in chain mail (but he used grease to prevent the armor from making any noise).

As for weapons:

Conan rarely uses anything else than 1 handed sword, sometimes a Dagger ("Rogues in the House"). In his older years Conan was not a berserker but a very skilled swordsman. Kull of Atlantis (other REH's character in same timeline) was a berserker in true sense.

And for the record:

Conan > Khal Drogo, like, don't get me started :]

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Originally Posted by Nehkur

Also should barbs sneak. When you say barb, the last thing you connect it to is sneaking(unless you played AoC ofc :P). They are highly Honourable and courageous people and sneaking is everything anti barbarian. For example-could you imagine Khal Drogo(Game of thrones) sneaking? I can't. And don't say Conan. He rarely, if ever sneaked. What he usually did was that he took back entrances and such. That's not exactly sneaking.

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Well, in addition to the Lore explanation Slith gave (and that I would be unable to give anyway), I thinks that widely depends on your definition of Barbarian.

The term barbarian does not always have this definition of mindless brute forcing his way through hell and back by slashing steel in every possible direction. One of the very common definition is a (sometime) semi-nomad kind of guy, which is able to survive in the wild by himself, hunting is own game of food and tracking his prey like a boss.

And in that way, it make absolutely sense for him to be stealthy. You stalk a prey with stealth and cunning to ambush it, you don't rush through the bush by screaming at the top of your lung, hoping to outspeed the deer you were tracking.

Marauding through the wild like a deadly hunter isn't incompatible with full-rampage-berserker-mode, though. And that's good, because I agree going full frenzyn in a killing spree is awesome for a barb. :D

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Originally Posted by Jaedelyia

I thinks that widely depends on your definition of Barbarian.

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Correct. Lets not forget that REH was very passionate about history, and history teaches us that the term "barbarian" originates from the ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros). Hence the Greek idiom "πᾶς μὴ Ἕλλην βάρβαρος" (pas mē Hellēn barbaros) which literally means "whoever is not Greek is a barbarian". In ancient times, Greeks used it for the people of different cultures but also to deride other Greek tribes and states (via wiki, check out nice post about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian).

So the "barbarian" is not necessary a big brute with 2hander, it also can be used to describe skinny members of poor, starving tribe.
Besides Picts were also very much barbarians and they were short people, not very impressive looking in terms of bulk.

I think the missconceptions are all because we base our idea of barbarian on Conan himself. Conan was UNLIKE the rest of Cimmerians.

"It was a gloomy land that seemed to hold

All winds and clouds and dreams that shun the sun,

With bare boughs rattling in the lonesome winds,

And the dark woodlands brooding over all,

Not even lightened by the rare dim sun

Which made squat shadows out of men; they called it

Cimmeria, land of Darkness and deep Night."

- the Cimmeria, REH

Cimmerians were NOT all about drinking, fighting and making merry. Those were grim people that fought to survive (mostly Picts and Vanir) and spend their days hunting or working in the settlements.

Sorry for going this "Conan-nerd" on you all, I just needed to get that off my chest. In fact this thread made me ready for another "lore-whore" type of post on the blog :] I want to talk about weapons and armors that Conan used.

Why thank you!

Besides Conan is a Conqueror and will therefore use whatever is tactically sound. And I always imagined Conan in either Chainmail or with some Plate hauberk, Leather boots and either 2h Sword or Sword n shield(2nd is more reminiscent of him). Idk about greaves lol. Perhaps some kind of tasset?

And I am basing my thoughts on the "berserker" talent tree-a tree that is clearly not about sneaking. Now idk about Reaver-that sounds like it could actually incorporate sneaking.

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Originally Posted by Nehkur

Why thank you!

Besides Conan is a Conqueror and will therefore use whatever is tactically sound. And I always imagined Conan in either Chainmail or with some Plate hauberk, Leather boots and either 2h Sword or Sword n shield(2nd is more reminiscent of him). Idk about greaves lol. Perhaps some kind of tasset?

And I am basing my thoughts on the "berserker" talent tree-a tree that is clearly not about sneaking. Now idk about Reaver-that sounds like it could actually incorporate sneaking.

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REH first created Kull the barbaric king, but it wasn't very popular (can't imagine why, its awesome!) and Conan comes later on (in same timeline). The first Conan story (Phoenix on the sword) is actually Kull story re-written so Conan is Kull ("By this axe I rule").

I think from the description you would like Kull much better than Conan. Kull is a berserker and philisopher at the same time, fighting with large axe and so on. I like Kull as a king more than Conan as a king. The thing is that Kull wasn't very good barbarian: he drank little, had no interest in womanizing whatsoever (he was only obssesed with statecraft and politics) and that is pretty much it. Oh and he had is troops called Red Slayers which were also hillmen and barbarians.

must.....stop.....lore nerding....

So no whoring and drunken stupors?

I already LOVE that Kull. Lol. Now if only he used either a Greatsword or a Spear...

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Originally Posted by Slith

must.....stop.....lore nerding....

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On the contrary, go on ! Your lore-nerding post are a precious source of information (just as your blog, btw, but which is partly made of lore whoring anyway)