The Barghast

 

Race:  Barghast

Also known as:

Warren:

Appearance:

Famous Members:  Trotts, Humbrall Taur

Members we have met:   Hetan, Netok, Cafal

Further info:  Descendants of the Imass mixed with Tartheno Toblakai

 

 

A warrior society native to Genabackis.  Barghast (non-human): pastoral nomadic warrior society - GOTM Glossary

 

---

General Racial Characteristics

 

Favoured Weapons:

Lance

Short Axe

 

Clothing

 

First Appearance of Hetan, Cafal and Netok:

 

'The three Barghast were clearly siblings, with the woman the eldest. White paint had been smeared on their faces, giving them a skull-like appearance. Braids stained with red ochre hung down to their shoulders, knotted with bone fetishes. All three wore hauberks of holed coins – the currency ranging from copper to silver...ancient and unfamiliar... Coin-backed gauntlets covered their hands. A guardblock’s worth of weapons accompanied the trio – bundled lances, throwing axes and copper-sheathed long-hafted fighting axes, hookbladed swords and assorted knives and daggers.' (MoI, UK Trade, p.183)

 

Given the alarmingly thick and rancid greases with which the Barghast covered their bodies, Gruntle suspected those insects were suffering from frustration – drawn close by a warm body but unwilling or unable to alight.

---

 

Barghast Origins

 

‘You were T’lan Imass! Hood’s breath! Then . . . you and your kin must have defied the Ritual—’

‘Defied? No. We simply failed to arrive in time – our pursuit of the Jaghut had forced us to venture onto the seas, to dwell among iceflows and on treeless islands. And in our isolation from kin, among the elder peoples – the Tartheno – we changed . . . when our distant kin did not.' - Talamandas & Quick Ben - (MoI UK Trade, p.276)

 

---

 

 

On the sorcery employed by Barghast shamans:

 

 

 

---

Rituals, Beliefs and Sticksnares

 

Hetan: 'Mortal souls are savage things...Many must be held down to keep them from ill-wandering. Thus, the oaks are brought down from the north. The shouldermen carve magic into their trunks. The one to be buried is pinned beneath the tree. Spirits are drawn as well, as guardians, and other traps are

placed along the edges of the dark circle. Even so, sometimes the souls escape – imprisoned by one of the traps, yet able to travel the land. Those who return to the clans where they once lived are quickly destroyed, so they have learned to stay away – here, in these lowlands. Sometimes, such a sticksnare retains a loyalty to its mortal kin, and will send dreams to our shouldermen, to tell us of danger.’(MoI, UK Trade, p.186)

 

Hetan: 'We stood long in the bone circle, Captain, whilst every shaman of the gathered clans danced the weft of power. Long in the bone circle.’(MoI, UK Trade, p.191)

 

'Blood-iron – that’s iron quenched in snow-chilled blood . . . a Barghast practice when shamans invest weapons. Thus, the wielder and the weapon are linked. Merged . . .'(MoI, UK Trade, p.185)

 

Pre-Battle Ritual

The three Barghast had gathered now, Cafal jabbing a row of lances into the stony earth whilst Hetan busied herself tying a thick cord to join the three of them. Fetishes of feather and bone hung from knots in the cord...the span between each warrior would be five or six arm-lengths. When the other two were done, Netok handed them double-bladed axes. All three set the weapons down at their feet and collected a lance each. Hetan leading, they began a soft, rumbling chant...The Barghast chant ended abruptly. Gruntle glanced in their

direction. The three warriors faced east, lances ready. Coils of fog rose around their legs, thickening. In moments Hetan and her brothers would be completely enveloped.'- (MoI, UK Trade, p.196-7)

 

---

 

The Barghast on Genabackis

 

Barghast Clans

 

Ilgres Clan

'...Ilgres Clan. Before the Crimson Guard had enlisted them, their home territory had been...among the mountains just south of the Porule...The Ilgres numbered among the strongest of those who had joined the Crimson Guard at Blackdog Forest'(GotM, UK Trade, p. 198)

 

White Face Clan (nation)

 (including: Senan, Gilk, Ahkrata, Barahn, Nith’rithal - MoI, Glossary)

Hetan: 'The clans have never united to wage war, but if they did, the warriors of the White Face would number seventy thousand.' (MoI, UK Trade, p.309)

 

Ahkrata Clan

'Distinguished by their characteristic nose-plugs, lone braids and multi-toned armour fashioned from Moranth victims – including Green, Black, Red and, here and there, Gold Clans – they were the smallest contingent, having travelled farthest, yet reputedly the meanest. Avowed enemies of the Ilgres Clan...' (MoI, UK Trade, p.336)

 

Skincuts - female warrior society of the Ahkrata

 

Barahn Clan

'Humbrall Taur’s closest rival was the warchief Maral Eb, whose own Barahn Clan had arrived in strength – over ten thousand weaponbearers, painted in red ochre and wearing bronze brigandine armour, their hair spiked and bristling with porcupine quills.' (MoI, UK Trade, p. 336)

 

Sub-Clan/Warrior Society: Skullsplitters

 

Gilk Clan

'Their hair was cut in stiff, narrow wedges and they wore armour assembled from the plates of some kind of tortoise. Distinctively short and stout for Barghast, they looked to the captain to be a match for any heavy infantry they might face.' (MoI, UK Trade, p. 336)

A plains clan whetted on interminable wars against mounted enemies

 

Senan Clan

Humbrall Taur's own clan

 

Gadra Clan

- paint their bodies with red and yellow ochre

 

Sub-Clan: Snakehunter

 

The birth of Barghast gods rang like a hammer on the

anvil of the pantheon. Primordial in their aspect, these

ascended spirits emerged from the Hold of the Beast, that

most ancient of realms from the long-lost Elder Deck.

Possessors of secrets and mysteries born in the bestial

shadow of humanity, theirs was a power wreathed in

antiquity.

Indeed, the other gods must have felt the tremor of

their rising, rearing their heads in alarm and consternation.

One of their own, after all, had just been abandoned in

the mortal realm, whilst a First Hero assumed the

warrior mantle in his place. More, the Fallen One had

returned to the game in dire malice, corrupting the

warrens to announce his deadly desire for vengeance

and, it must be said in clear-eyed retrospect, domination.

Burn’s sleep was fevered. Human civilization

floundered in countless lands, drowning in the mire

of spilled blood. These were dark times, and it was

a darkness that seemed made for the dawn of the

Barghast gods . . .

 

In the Wake of Dreams

Imrygyn Tallobant the Younger - (MoI, UK Trade p.534)