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What are barbarians?

Posted on December 15, 2024

As described in the Lightbringers book, the Theyalan pantheon spread from its Dawn Age hub in Dragon Pass across the Pelorian hills to Ralios, Maniria, and even southern Fronela. The lowland Pelorians (aka Dara Happa and later the Lunars) call this the “Barbarian Belt” as they envision this as a vast band of people who speak wrong, live wrong, and don’t have real law and civilization. It is standard for a Lunar Heartlander (or a Lunar in a place like Furthest, Mirin’s Cross, etc.) to use the term “barbarian” to collectively describe Sartarites, Esrolians, Tarshites, Vanchites, Holayans, Imtherites, Talastarings, Brolians, and people “further west”.

The Pelorian lowlands and the Theyalans agree that the term barbarian also applies to nomads, whether they are horse people or Praxian. The Theyalans refer to the Praxians as “barbarians” without further distinction and the horse nomads as “horse barbarians”. The Pelorians refer to both as “barbarians”. Once again, it seems barbarian refers to people who speak wrong, live wrong (practice pastoral nomadism instead of settled mixed agriculture and livestock raising). Both people also use barbarian to describe hunter gatherer peoples such as the Balazarings and hsunchen.

The Malkioni have a variation of this, referring to the Theyalans, trolls, AND chaos monsters collectively as “krjalk”. Interestingly, the Hykimi, aldryami, and mostali are not considered krjalk as the Malkioni interactions with them long predate Gbaji.

So the answer is what a barbarian is depends on who you are!

See also

Barbarians

There’s a big element of perceived ignorance and class values in the term barbarian. An Orlanthi scribe perceives the largely illiterate Praxians and Pentans and Balazarings as barbarians because they are ignorant of written knowledge, they do not generally live in permanent settlements, and even their rulers must live among herds of livestock.

A Lunar scribes goes further and perceives the literate and settled Sartarites as barbarians because even their rulers are nothing more than populist strongmen. Their legitimacy is derived solely from personal strength at arms and acclaim of the ignorant tribal masses. The Sartar Dynasty might seem different, but with Sartar just substitute personal strength at arms with clever deceptions and magical tricks. His heirs have all sought to justify their rule through displays of warrior prowess, not by inherent justice or righteousness.

And a Malkioni wizard looks east and considers them all krjalk. All are too ignorant to follow logic and reason, and instead prostrate themselves before spirits and gods, and rely on non-human allies (trolls, nomads, and chaos) for survival.

So what do the Praxians think about outsiders? Praxians view settled people as soft, luxury-loving, and concerned with all kinds of pleasures. Not barbarians, but either decadent (Sartarites, Lunars) or weak (Oasis People).

Jeff Richard

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