Drifting down from the Dreadlands of the North, have come a strange and brutal people.
Members of their kind seem drawn to accursed and desolate places, prowling the charnel
pits, burial mounds, and crypts so often shunned and feared by others.
They emerge from haunted forests and dire swamps, ancient ruins and fallen bastions,
often as saviors to the people who live in the shadows of such places, but never truly
welcomed.
Clad in the hides of great beasts and armed with weapons most men would struggle to lift,
they are scorned, feared, and sometimes honored as little more than “Barbarians”.
But amongst their own kind, they name themselves the Children of Bul-Kathos.
If they are drawn to haunted places, it is only because they possess a greater understanding
of the world than their rugged appearance would suggest.
More than most, they understand that Sanctuary is a world wreathed in darkness, and wherever
that darkness encroaches beyond its normal boundaries, the northmen must appear.
The Barbarians place only occasional value in the recording of their own history, which
remains to this day disjointed and sometimes lost entirely.
Ironically, it is not from their various tribes that the most complete picture of their origins
might be uncovered, but rather from the Druids of Scosglen, who claim an ancient kinship
with the northmen.
Written in their sacred book of Sceal Fada is a tale of two brothers, or perhaps close
confidants; Fiacla-Gear, whom the druids consider to be their great forefather, and Bul-Kathos
whom the Barbarians similarly venerate.
Both the ancient texts of the Druids, and the oral histories of the Barbarians agree
that these legendary figures learned of a great power, but differed on the best way
to protect it.
Fiacla-Gear embraced a relationship with nature, while Bul-Kathos pursued martial perfection.
The philosophy of combat practiced by Bul-Kathos appealed to the tribespeople of the Northern
Steppes.
His belief that they were the chosen protectors of Mount Arreat, the greatest mountain of
Sanctuary, served as a unifying force across the disparate clans.
The walled fortress city of Harrogath was raised at its base, a rallying point and source
of pride for a culture that otherwise remained largely nomadic.
When Bul-Kathos himself passed from the mortal world and into legend, the Northmen would
continue to venerate him as an almost spiritual figure, naming him the “Immortal King”.
Now known as the Children of Bul-Kathos, the barbarians spread across the western lands
of Sanctuary, but in doing so lost the sense of purpose that had bound them together.
After a series of inter-tribal wars, a new king Worusk, succeeded in once again aligning
his people in common purpose.
Though his reign was to be short, the Council of Elders he established would provide a form
of lasting governance across the ensuing centuries.
He was the second figure to ever be named an “Immortal King” an honor that has never
again been repeated.
The Barbarian Empire, or perhaps merely Barbarian tribes, extended as far south as the Torajan
Jungles.
At some point they came into contact with the who desired the Sons of Bul-Kathos as
slaves.
Under the command of Raekor who would become the first female warmaster of her people,
the barbarians would prevail.
The capital of their would be oppressors was sacked, and its peoples freed.
Against the rise of the Zakarum Faith, the Barbarian Tribes were less successful, and
Crusades from the East would eventually drive them back to the northern steppes.
Firmly entrenched in their ancient homelands, the Barbarians grew isolated, permitting only
sporadic trade with the outside world.
They savagely defended their lands from any foreign incursion, and the blend of martial
prowess and sheer physical might they displayed, made them the object of fascination within
the Western Kingdoms.
From Westmarch to Lut Gholein they were equally romanticized and vilified as “barbarians”,
a term that would be somewhat embraced by the Northmen themselves.
The Barbarians were gravely concerned with the god Diablo’s re-emergence within the
town of Tristram and the growing threat of his two brothers, the Prime Evils.
Their greatest warriors left the confines of the Northern Steppes, and began roving
the lands beyond seeking information and allies.
It is said that one among their number accompanied a group of warriors who pursued Diablo far
into the East and through the Burning Hells themselves.
Diablo and his brother Mephisto were supposedly slain, but Baal, the last of the Prime Evils
remained.
Unbeknownst to the wider world, the great power that Bul-Kathos had charged the barbarians
to defend, was nothing less than the Worldstone: an ancient relic that had shaped all of Sanctuary,
and had the power to undo it.
It had been hidden within Mount Arreat, which was merely a protective shell.
This was Baal’s target, and the consequences to the world should he succeed in corrupting
it, had long been feared by the Northmen.
The Prophecies of the Final Day were known in many variations across Sanctuary, but typically
dismissed as superstitions.
To the northmen however, it was nothing less than a sacred warning left behind by Bul-Kathos
himself.
In spite of every preparation, the army gathered by Baal overwhelmed the Barbarian armies.
At the fortress city of Daken-Shar, the defenders were slaughtered almost to a man, and the
great capital of Sescheron followed swiftly after.
Armies of demons and unnatural creatures poured into the north, until the ancient bastion
of Harrogath was all that remained.
Though besieged on all sides, the Worldstone was not without protection.
Harrogath formed a center of resistance manned by the last of their warriors while Mount
Arreat itself was protected by guardians of ancient power.
The Council of Elders likewise sacrificed themselves to create a spell of warding, a
powerful obstacle to any demonic force.
Together, these might have thwarted Baal’s plans, but the Barbarians were betrayed by
one of their own.
Nihlathak, a member of the Council had not taken part in the collective sacrifice of
his peers, and was now the last remaining elder.
He had become convinced of the supremacy of the Prime Evils and provided to the Lord of
Destruction the means to ascend Mount Arreat so that Harrogath might be spared.
Nihlathak and Baal both fell to the same warriors who slew Diablo and Mephisto, but not before
the Worldstone was corrupted by the influence of the Prime Evils.
To spare humanity and Sanctuary itself from damnation, the Archangel Tyrael destroyed
the Worldstone, igniting a cataclysm that would shatter Mount Arreat and the surrounding
landscape.
Toxic ash and drifts of magical energy swept across the north, leaving them so despoiled
that they would be known thereafter as the Dreadlands.
The Children of Bul-Kathos are today an aimless people.
Their homeland is a devastated waste, and the destruction of the Worldstone they swore
to defend has left their confidence and resolve equally shattered.
Any semblance of unity amongst the various clans has evaporated and each has faced the
changed world in a different way.
Some hold fast to the martial discipline of their Immortal King, while others have regressed
into little more than savages, and possibly even cannibals if the darkest tales can be
believed.
Many others have become drifters, walking the roads of Sanctuary in search of evil to
destroy, a bloody quest of penance and redemption
In the enclaves that have stayed true to the teachings of Bul-Kathos, the proud martial
culture of the Northmen can still be seen.
Whatever ills they have suffered, they remain a powerfully built people, their innate strength
heightened by a life spent in some of the most inhospitable places imaginable.
They excel in every aspect of physical combat, and will never shy away from the chance to
test their might against a worthy foe.
They are taught the art of the hunt and the methods of war in early childhood, forced
to undergo trials of battle and survival.
It is said their skin is more akin to leather then human flesh, able to recover from vicious
strikes that might easily slay a lesser mortal.
Barbarians reject most uses of sorcery and technology, considering them poor substitutes
for simple resolve.
Yet they are expert blacksmiths and certain clans have dedicated themselves almost wholly
to the crafting and mastering of specific weapons.
The maces produced by the Bear Tribe, the spears of the Snake tribe, and the polearms
of the Crane Tribe, are considered by many to be nothing less than the finest examples
of such weapons in Sanctuary.
Many however are simply too big and too heavy to be wielded by anyone not sharing their
heightened physical ability.
A spiritual people, the Barbarians revere Bul-Kathos and maintain a shamanistic belief
in animal spirits and associated powers.
This is in some way reflective of the rituals practiced by their distant cousins in Scosglen.
Above all though, the Northern tribes considered the protection of Mount Arreat to be a sacred
duty.
Their failure has left them spiritually adrift.
Since the destruction of the Worldstone, the great strength and fortitude of the Barbarians
have become more widely appreciated across Sanctuary.
Their long and noble history and the sophistication of their culture is increasingly understood,
and has removed from them the stigma that once defined them.
Yet this has only served to underscore the depths to which they have fallen.
The great historian Abd al-Hazir, upon visiting the Dreadlands was said to have remarked “Where
are those majestic warriors of old?”.
As darkness spreads once again across Sanctuary, and the whispers of the Prime Evils find refuge
in mortal minds, perhaps the fading embers of Bul-Kathos might burn brightly once again
and al-Hazir’s question… might
be answered.