HYPERBOREA / Berserkers and Race

**Posted by Brock Savage** 8/02/2017 11:14 pm

There seems to be two varieties of berserker in Hyperborea described in the books: Viking berserkers and chaotic evil lunatics hopped up on lotus. With a little inference, I can imagine Keltic berserkers fighting while painted blue (the guy pictured on page 31 of the Player's Manual looks like a Kelt to me). One can argue Picts produce berserkers but I imagine the Picts of Hyperborea to be more akin to the ones described in Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard. My question is, are there races in Hyperborea with a berserker culture besides Vikings, Kelts, and possibly Picts? I'm not talking about those who become a berserker through through methods that are theoretically available to anyone (sorcery, drugs, possession, insanity, etc.). Thanks.

**Posted by ThornPlutonius** 8/03/2017 6:30 am

There are if that is what you want. Make it so!

**Posted by Brock Savage** 8/03/2017 9:33 am

ThornPlutonius wrote:
There are if that is what you want. Make it so!

I'm not looking for a official ruling or permission to add something to Hyperborea. In this case, I'm simply mining the forums for ideas about berserkers because my own imagination isn't giving me anything. That all said, I think I answered my own question because upon closer examination, Hyperborean PC berserkers seem to be a case of controlled lycanthropy arising in barbaric cultures. That's something I can port into Kimmerian and Esquimaux culture without too much difficulty.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 8/03/2017 10:28 am

Brock Savage wrote:
One can argue Picts produce berserkers but I imagine the Picts of Hyperborea to be more akin to the ones described in Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard. My question is, are there races in Hyperborea with a berserker culture besides Vikings, Kelts, and possibly Picts?

The "half-blood Picts" would appear to be inspired by the Hyborian Picts. The standard Picts would appear to be closer to the historical Picts, with maybe a nod toward Howard's Bran Mak Morn stories. Personally I find the usage "half-blood Picts" a little clumsy (sorry, Jeff!) so I use the terms "Black Picts" and "Red Picts" (referring to hair color) in my own game.

To speak to your larger question, my take is that only a few cultures (mainly the Vikings) produce berserkers in large numbers. But a few individuals of any race may become berserkers, and certainly any PC can. Just my way of handling it!

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 8/03/2017 11:06 am

We've had several Amazon berserkers for some reason. I like to think of female ones as a martial equivalent of "holy fools" (cf. Dostoevsky) -- a holy sacrifice to Chaos for the good of the plurality. Male Amazon berserkers are a lot easier to conceive of -- degraded, enslaved, used as tools, and then generally cast aside or abandoned in the wilds of mainland Hyperborea.

I don't see any Hyperborean culture as all that hard to conceive of as having berserkers, though. It's a world awash in chaos. Some people figure out how to accept that chaos for the martial benefits it can confer. As at all parties, though, at some point you have to pay the piper.