disecting barbarion heroism ?

[writeshiek33]

i am trying to look into disceting the babarian hero and the basic common traights that make up such stories and common world that he inhabits so that i can create memorable babarian with more one dimension in characteriatics and unique world i have in mind yes this started as inpiration from conan the barbarian but i think things moving in a unique turn . yes there going to be babarian and wizards and such but things seem to take twist as i coming up anblending and changing orginal timilne and world i need to compare so to insure that what i am doing not only suites the story but makes it despite being fantasy the reader will be able to connect with heros avillians and the world

 

[Saigonnus]

"Barbarians" are simply people that live a different lifestyle than the primary "culture" that calls them that. The Romans would call someone from Germania or North of Hadrian's wall in Britain a barbarian, because in comparison with the Empire, they were "uncivilized" (i.e. lacking the technological advancement present in much of the empire). Often times it is a generalized term used to describe a person from an "inferior" culture or one with exceedingly different cultural mores, though they may have a similar technological level to the primary culture.

Barbarians as you likely have seen them (brutish, uncouth, arrogant, skilled with sword or axe etc.) have been simply popularized by things like Conan or the Icewind Dale trilogy from R.A. Salvatore. I think like any cultures you make, you need to give them a unique flavor. Things like religion, societal structure were the two most important aspects of them, since many tend to follow a war-like god or have communions with their ancestors/spirit guides.

 

[Ireth]

Fun fact: the word "barbarian" was coined by the Greeks, to whom any language outside of their own sounded like gibberish, i.e. "barbarbarbar".

 

[JBryden88]

In my soon to be rewritten manuscript, my culture is one that is considered barbaric. Yet they have a monarch, they have an organized government, knights, and so on. So what makes them "barbarians?" They're a warrior culture that also has chieftains. They don't have barons, they have jarls. They have a certain amount of independence that most feudal cultures don't have, and they worship heathen gods. Yet they are probably more civilized then many civilized societies

IMO, barbarians can be truly savage, or just a foreign culture that does not mesh with the majority norm. It can be a curse, or a badge of pride.