TRIBAL OUTCAST
Life in the Thulean wilderness is hard. A savage or barbarian faces dangerous beasts, harsh weather, and vicious enemies in the form of rival tribes. In this deadly world, the only allies a tribal hero has are his people, the warriors and kin with whom he has grown up ... but some tribal heroes don’t even have that. Tribal justice can be harsh, and the penalties for breaking taboos, disobedience, failure, or turning against your tribe are stark: Death or exile. You are no longer welcome among your people, and you must now find your own way in the world.
As an outcast, you are alone and friendless. Behind you lies some dark tragedy or mortal enemy; ahead, an uncertain future. You have learned that the only person you can rely on is yourself. You may turn your back completely on your people and plunge into experiencing civilization in every way you can, or you might choose to honor your people’s ways even though you are no longer one of them. Either way, you can’t go home again.
Almost any character could begin an adventuring career as a tribal outcast. Many tribal heroes are barbarians or rangers, of course, but a character exiled for practicing magic or stealing might instead be a druid, sorcerer, or a rogue. Every outcast’s situation is unique.
Key Identity: Human (Dhari, Kalay, Nimothan).
TRIBAL OUTCAST BENEFITS
You possess the superb woodcraft and finely honed instincts that anyone who grew up among your tribe must cultivate in order to survive in Thule’s deadly wilderness. In battle, you expect to fight alone—you excel at dueling enemies one on one, and leaving any other foes to whatever companions you happen to have at the moment. Over time, you establish a name for yourself, much like any other free blade or mercenary. In time the day will come when you do go home again, and set right the mistake or crime that led to your exile in the first place.
TRIBAL OUTCASTS IN THE WORLD
To civilized folk, one barbarian is much like another. They don’t care if a warrior is wandering to seek his fortune, or wandering because he was driven out of his homeland. As a result, a tribal outcast has ample opportunity to carve out a place for himself in Thule’s city-states and borderlands. Nobles and merchants always need skilled warriors, so it isn’t hard to find someone willing to pay an outcast to fight for them. Other outcasts who happen to fall in with unsavory types do well as thieves or bandits, since their wilderness-honed instincts prove valuable in all sorts of criminal enterprises.
Anyone who regards your tribe as their enemy likely regards you as an enemy, too. If you’re a Dhari warrior, any beastman you meet could care less about troubles you’ve had at home—he assumes that you are his ancestral foe and tries to kill you. Depending on the nature of your crime, your own tribe might be out to kill you, too.
PERSONALIZING THE TRIBAL OUTCAST
No two tribal outcasts are alike, since each individual forced to leave his or her people represents a unique combination of native tribe, family disapproval, or broken taboos.
Drangir Slave: When you were only a child, your village was attacked by slavers. Your family was killed, and you were carried off into captivity. For years you endured brutality and toil, until one day you managed to escape and make your way back to your homeland. There, you discovered that you to choose death rather than the humiliation of thralldom. The Drangir in you is ashamed that you lived ... but a dead man cannot avenge his murdered kin.
Jomurjan Warlock: The Kalay barbarians of Jomur fear and loathe wizardry in any form. To your people, arcane magic is unclean, an abomination in the eyes of the Forest Gods. Yet you chose to defy this taboo and bargain with evil powers for the use of their magic. Was your hunger for power so great that you chose to ignore the primitive superstitions of your people? Or did some terrible need drive you to seek out forbidden lore, understanding that it would cost you everything?
Narthan Murderer: You grew up among the Dhari tribes of the Nar Highlands. As a young warrior, you fell in love with the daughter of the chief—but you had a rival. When the chief’s daughter made her choice, you and your rival quarreled. Tragically, she threw herself between you and your foe at the wrong moment. You lived, but your love and your enemy died, and your tribe blamed you for their deaths. Did your enemy strike down your love and provoke you to kill him in turn? Or did she choose him instead of you, and try to protect him from your rage?
TRIBAL OUTCAST
You are an exile, banished from your tribe for reasons you may or may not know. Now you wander Thule to make a name for yourself. Your name. Because you cannot use their name anymore.
Skill Bonuses (1st level): Wandering the wilderness has honed your skills. You gain a background of Tribal Outcast at +2 and can use it in a variety of checks and ability checks related to your tribe member upbringing and your survival instincts, such as:
Checks to endure extreme weather
Checks to forage for food in the wild
Checks to notice sign of nearby predators
Checks related to the Forest Gods
Checks concerning the traditions of your former tribe
A New Identity (4th level): You pick up the practices of a new life, and while you’ll always have your heritage, you have new experiences that mold you. Choose a second narrative as an additional background, with a +2 bonus, without having to spend your background points on it.
Triumphant Return (8th level): Your former tribe is ready for reconciliation. Whether you do is up to you, but as a token of sincerity, you have been given a tribal heirloom. Work with your GM to choose an appropriate magic item, which is yours until you return it to your tribe.
Adventurer Feat, Isolated Target: Once per day when you make an attack against only one target, and no allies are engaged with that target, you can roll the first attack roll twice and use the higher of the two results.