Category:Pict



PICT ''Those eyes often glared through the bushes at the fort across the river. Once dark-skinned men had built their huts where that fort stood, yes, and their huts had risen where now stood the fields and log cabins of fair-haired settlers, back beyond Velitrium, that raw, turbulent frontier town on the banks of Thunder River, to the shores of that other river that bounds the Bossonian Marches. Traders had come, and priests of Mitra who walked with bare feet and empty hands, and died horribly, most of them; but soldiers had followed, and men with axes in their hands and women and children in ox-drawn wains. Back to Thunder River, the aborigines had been pushed, with slaughter and massacre, but the dark-skinned people did not forget that once Conajohara had been theirs.– Beyond the Black River'' The Picts are a warlike race of barbarians, strong and shadowy, the fiercest of all the savage races of the Hyborian Age, and, ultimately, its greatest foe. The conflicts with western hyborian set the stage for the horrible conflagrations of the future, foreshadowing the downfall of this legendary age.

From the earliest age, the Picts have haunted the world, rising and falling with its fortunes, but ever enduring, waiting for their time, their moment of glory, a moment that is not far off.

Description
The Picts existed long before the Cataclysm that wiped out the Atlanteans and Lemurians. During that far off age, the Picts dwelled among a chain of islands far out into the Western Ocean. The Picts of that era allied themselves with the civilized people of the age and began to acquire the trappings of a civilised culture themselves.

When the Cataclysm struck, the Pictish Isles were thrust upward in a destructive convulsion which formed the mountains of a new continent, and the Picts were utterly annihilated… save for that one small colony.

Picts were blasted back into the stone age, becoming savage brutes living in caves and making weapons of flint and bone.

The Pict’s first dealings with outsiders were with the Acheronians, who enslaved a few of their kind, but otherwise had little contact with them. Then came the Hyborians; from the north they pushed the Picts back from the Shirki River and across the Bossonian Marches, until they came to rest in what would become known as the Pictish Wilderness.

The Picts of the Hyborian Age are a remarkable people, with a dark and gruesome culture, barbaric tribal markings, an unrivalled ability to live off the land, their own types of food, unique patterns of trade, a terrifying style of warfare, an ability to travel quickly and a powerful religion based around the darkest of gods, demons and spirits.

Clothing
Picts wear buckskin, which is usually dyed black. Men wear a breechcloth and leggings, donning a long-sleeved shirt in cooler weather. Seamless moccasins serve as shoes. Pictish women wear buckskin dresses, skirts or loin-clouts, as well as soft moccasins. Some women wear nothing more than a buckskin apron and body paint.

Many tribes use furs and hides, favoring them in colder weather, or simply because of even deeper primitivism.

They often decorate their outfit with animal masks, depending on their totem animals, and also antlers and horns.

The Picts use different styles of body paint, depending on what they are up to. Hunting paint is common. If a Pict who is not in war paint is killed, that action is subject to retribution by the slain member’s tribe.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
The tribes are named after their totem animals. These totems are vitally important to the clans.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of tribes living in the Pictish Wilderness. Different clans emphasize different skills, although all Picts tend to master most of the useful hunting skills as best they can.
 * Those of the Turtle clan emphasize endurance, crafts, traps and listening.
 * The Alligators emphasize hiding skills for their ambush tactics.
 * The Hawks and Eagles tend to be fantastic at Spot skills. It is hard to hide from them.
 * The Wildcats are strongest at moving silently and sneaking up on their prey.
 * The Wolf clan specialize in tracking skills.
 * Ravens concentrate on the survival skill and pluck out the eyes of their captives to ensure against escape.

The Picts believe in the power of dreams and visions, both of which are considered portentous signs of things to come or things that have been hidden. Serious and fatal maladies are often the result of thwarted wishes and desires.

The Picts have developed a method of communicating over long distances using drums. Called talking drums, these instruments echo for miles, raising fear in the hearts of the Hyborians who hear them.

The sense of vengeance among the Picts is intense. Blood Feuds are also common and result in generation-spanning wars between enemy tribes.

The Picts have several weapons of choice and these vary little among the various tribes. Some Pict tribes have specialists to produce various tribal weapons but most Pict warriors take pride in creating their own. These weapons include the bow and arrow, the club and the primitive hatchet.

The Picts have secret societies devoted to war. This is what being a Pictish soldier is all about. He is part of a military society devoted to combat-at-arms.

Religion

 * Jhebbal Sag
 * Jhil
 * Gullah
 * Shamanism

Thousands of years of prowling darkly fantastic forests and reeking black swamps create a rather sinister outlook on the gods and the spirit world.

Shamanism is the primary Pictish religion, although it is hard to speak of Pictish ‘religion,’ as being similar to the Western religions that exist alongside secular, daily life. The Picts’ ideas of spirituality, superstition and rites are inextricably intertwined with their day-to-day lives in such a manner that separation is impossible. Religious life and secular life are one and the same; both are utterly dominated by the menacing environment in which the Pict thrive.

In addition to the spirits that infuse everything, the Picts also have their own sinister nature gods that oversee the cosmos. The Picts worship the old gods who sleep in the outer abysses but are not dead. With the help of sacrifices and magic, these old gods sometimes awaken…

Jhebbal Sag, a pre-Cataclysmic god of darkness and primordial fear, is an ancient nature god that was once worshipped by all living things, man and animal alike. Both animals and man have largely forgotten him but a few still remember. Those who do remember are considered to be family, for they are brothers.

Gullah is a gorilla-god, a son of Jhebbal Sag who lives on the Moon. Bull apes are sacred to him. He is also known as Jullah to folk called the Gallahs, the ordinary people of Kush.

Jhil the Raven is a bloodthirsty trickster deity. His children are the ravens, crows and certain fiendish spirits, and he is likely the patron of the Raven clan of Picts. He commands dark spirits and is associated with mortality. Jhil taught the Picts how to survive in the wilderness and how to honour Jhebbal Sag according to his myth cycle. Jhil has an insatiable craving for food, blood and sex. He is also a messenger for Jhebbal Sag and the spirit world. His worship is a gory ceremony, for he demands that prisoners be flayed alive on his altar.

Government
The tribes are led by the chiefs, speakers and councils. A Pictish chief is not a dictator. There are many kinds of chiefs among the Picts and each village likely has several chiefs. There are civil chiefs, achievement chiefs, hereditary chiefs and speakers. The civil chiefs, chosen for their age and wisdom, govern the villages by administering justice, organizing celebrations, receiving guests, allocating hunting and fishing lands and serving diplomatic functions. These chiefs could not afford to be tyrannical or incompetent, for they would lose their followers to other villages. In addition to the chosen civil chiefs, there are ranks of achieved chiefs.

Almost all Picts are born as commoners in low-ranking families but by performing great deeds some Picts attain the status of chief. Great warriors of renown may become war chiefs. Speakers of incredible oratory skills may be granted chief status. Hunters who have distinguished themselves may be named hunting chiefs.

Speakers are chosen for their intelligence and diplomatic gifts to announce decisions for councils and chiefs. Speakers have impressive memories and are walking archives of decisions and history. The women of a village, as a collective, have a speaker as do the warriors.

Extremely powerful chiefs, such as the upper Wolf chiefs, who band multiple tribes into a semblance of coherent unity rule over the other chiefs as sort of elected emperors, although they must still satisfy the people with their savage rule. Each of these more powerful, more influential paramount chiefs has equally powerful and influential councils and speakers to advise him and keep the people satisfied.

Economy and Common Professions
The Picts do not view trade as the Hyborians or other civilized peoples do, instead they consider it a test of friendship and alliance. To the Picts, trade is a way of honoring other people. Essentially the Picts view trade as an exchange of gifts, not as some sort of barter. This attitude does allow Zingaran and Hyborian traders to take advantage of Picts who do not understand civilized value systems for goods.

Picts do not sell themselves or each other into slavery. They are too individualistic and proud to do anything of the sort, however, they will trade captives. Pirates prey upon Pictish shores to steal Pictish women and children for slaves to sell in other parts of the world. Picts also raid into Zingara to steal tin from their mountains and grain from their fields.

The Picts also trade among themselves, not so they can attain goods they do not have, but to secure alliances and learn news. Trading is, therefore, a diplomatic affair of mutual gift giving and skins, tobacco, dried meat, captives and other goods are traded. If the gifts are accepted, then there is a shaky alliance and a temporary peace. If not, then the tribes become enemies and go to war.

Common Professions:
 * hunter
 * warrior
 * tracker

Sex Roles and Marriage
The Picts have strongly defined roles for both sexes.

Men are expected to be hunters, warriors, builders, governors and diplomats. The forest is their domain. The men strive to become renowned huntsmen and becoming a skilled hunter is a prestigious role among the Picts, already a race of accomplished woodsmen. Going into the woods to hunt is dangerous and the Picts respect bravery. From age eight onward, a boy is free to wander off into the woods to live off the land for days at a time, often in groups of friends. When a boy kills his first deer without assistance, he is allowed to hunt with the men.

Women are expected to do the drudge work, growing crops and raising children. Save for governing, the village and the surrounding fields are the domain of the women. Anything a Pict woman produces is hers to dispose of and, if a couple separates, these assets go with the woman. Virtually all property, save a man’s weapons and clothes, belong to the woman. The oldest woman in a Pictish hut is the head of that hut and men who marry move to their new wife’s hut.

If a woman’s husband or kinsman is killed, she can demand an enemy captive in compensation, even if that starts yet another war.

Premarital and extramarital sex is not taboo among most tribes. During idle hours, men and women play with each other in openly erotic ways, often darting from one grisly, skull-encrusted hut to another after dark to take whatever pleasures they see fit to take. So long as both are eligible for marriage no one is bothered. If a girl became pregnant, she becomes the wife of the father. If she doesn't know who the father was, she simply chooses the lover she likes best. If the pregnant girl is already married, then her husband is the father, regardless of the biological truth.

Powerful warriors and chiefs might watch over their wives jealousy, but lower-ranking men tend to be less possessive, allowing their wives to consort with other men, even treating such shameless behavior as a courtesy to guests and friends. Most of these decadent liaisons take place with the husband’s consent, as then he can also do the same. However, this depraved behavior does make proving paternity difficult, as such hereditary titles or a particular tribal privilege, are passed from the mother to her children.

Slavery
Picts do not make slaves of people, foreigners or rival tribesmen.

They use their women to perform their drudgery and chores, thus to their minds they have no need of slaves.

Women and children who are taken prisoner by the Picts are usually adopted by a clan to replace lost relatives. They are dipped into a river as a shaman performs a ritual that takes the Hyborian spirit from the child and instils in the child a Pictish spirit. Captive women and children are often put to hard labor, carrying wood, tilling gardens and the like, all the while learning brutal lessons intended to turn the child or woman into a Pict.

Interestingly, the Picts virtually never rape women, as savage as they are, they never violate the chastity of a woman against her will, although Aquilonian tales tell a different story. Although not forced, many of the captive women later become the wives of Pict warriors, raising Pict children.

Picts cruelly persecute their prisoners, torturing and testing each and every male for certainty, dooming the women and children captives to horrible enslavement until their will breaks and they become virtual Picts themselves.

Although most captives must endure these privations and torments with certainty, if fate is on a prisoner’s side, he may hope to find himself the object of trade.

Aquilonian women often accept their new role in a tribe and recede to barbarism

Picts are particularly cruel to captives they choose not to adopt, especially male captives. The Picts are also enormously adept at torture, instigating torture ceremonies that last for days. Picts consider it an evil omen if captives do not weep and beg for mercy, so the torture of captives is exceedingly grisly and unbearably unrelenting.

Some Pictish tribes burn their captives alive. Others put the knife to them. Still others feed them to animals or carnivorous plants.

Most common is execution at dawn: The Picts blind the captive with a burning brand, scalp him if that has not already been done, then force the victim to eat some of his own flesh. Then they either cut off his head or break it open with a club. Once the victim is dead, they open his body and distribute his internal organs to the children of the tribe. The children hang the entrails on sticks and parade them through the village.

Despite the cruel manner of treatment typically wrought upon the unfortunate captives, other Picts expect it. Captive Picts know what is in store for them and almost welcome the torture, considering it the greatest test of a warrior’s resolve, endurance and bravery. Throwing a Pict into a prison without torturing him is considered a grave insult, for it insinuates that he is not brave or worthy enough to be tortured. Some Pict captives sing on the way to the torture blocks, determined to show their dogged determination.

Influences
Architectural influences: The indigenous people of the Americas and Celts.

They live in caves and tree shelters, as well as villages of mud-and-wattle huts. The villages are surrounded by a stockade. Their homes are decorated with the grisly skulls of enemies.

''Tip: If you like to build big and a lot, Pict is not the ideal choice for you. However making a Pictish settlement can, just like with other primitive races, involve a lot of creative decorations that look really great without the need to use that many building pieces''

More Information
RPGS:
 * Return to the Road of Kings (Pictish wilderness, p 163 - 169)
 * Faith and Fervor (Dark Rites in Pictland, p 63-67)
 * Across the Thunder River