Category:Cimmerian



CIMMERIAN "A gloomier land never was – all of hills, darkly wooded, under skies nearly always gray, with winds moaning drearily down the valleys."– The Phoenix on the Sword Cimmeria is a bleak nation of forested hills and towering mountains. Rank upon rank upon rank of dark hills rise and fall in all directions, forested with strange, dusky trees that give the land a frightening, menacing appearance even by day. Its appearance at night would terrify a civilized man to the brink of sanity. Rain clouds hover perennially over the moody terrain, bringing stinging rain, slick sleet and freezing snow. Its depressing forests are home to a million or so dark-haired, despondent savages. Descended from ancient Atlanteans, the fierce savages of this oppressive realm are grim survivors in a realm that kills softer men.

Description
Tall and powerful are the Cimmerians and their eyes sparkle blue or grey beneath their dark manes. Cimmerians are regarded as among the most fierce and savage peoples in the world and many in the far south regard them as semi-mythical.

Cimmerians are regarded as among the most fierce and savage peoples in the world and many in the far south regard them as semi-mythical. They are primarily hunters and gatherers, but are also raiders and plunderers, striking into neighboring regions. Cimmerians are a practical people of tradition, custom and honor. They are solemn folk and do not boast of victories, which would be considered prideful and rude, and an invitation to be forced to prove themselves.

Unlike the Vanir and Æsir, the Cimmerians do not feast in a loud, boisterous fashion and they do not engage in ‘friendly’ brawls when drunk. If a Cimmerian fights, that Cimmerian kills. The songs of the Cimmerians tend to be somber dirges inspired by their dark moods and the grey lands surrounding them. Cimmerians do not hope that the gods will help them nor do they ask for aid from any source, divine or mortal.

Clothing
Cimmerians shun finery and ostentation. Typically clothing for men and women are simple tunics or shirts of coarse wool and linen worn either with kilts or woolen trousers, dyed with simple, natural dyes. Footwear, when worn (often it is not – many Cimmerians go barefoot), is a pair of simple leather sandals laced around the ankle and calf. Cimmerians generally consider headwear to be a form of disguise as it shadows the eyes or masks the hair. Every Cimmerian is proud to be a Cimmerian; disguises or attempts at them, are for cowards and thieves.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
For all their brutal hardiness every Cimmerian understands honor, integrity and dignity, even if these concepts differ markedly from what the civilized realms of the Hyborian age would understand by the terms. The Cimmerian outlook revolves around five key facets:

Devotion to Clan - The tribe or clan is the most important aspect of life in Cimmeria. Except for the outcasts or those who leave Cimmeria, most Cimmerians owe allegiance to their clan, taking their clan as their highest Allegiance. Belonging to a clan gives a Cimmerian a traditional set of enemies and allies.

Conformity to Tradition - Cimmerians dislike change; therefore they put high value on conformity; non-conformists are a threat. The Cimmerian outlook is founded on things that work and ensuring they continue to work with as little interruption as possible. This means that Cimmerians act and think the way they do because it has always been done that way.

Honor and Prowess - Cimmerians live by a ‘rough code of honor’, as Robert E Howard describes it.

To Cimmerians, honour does not need to be any more complicated and should always be a straightforward business. Most Cimmerians speak and act plainly, clearly and bluntly – but always honorably. Irrespective of the clan one comes from, Cimmerian Honor can be defined in the following terms:
 * Accept hospitality gracefully when it is offered, but always be wary
 * Accept no imprisonment
 * Accept no insult
 * Defend the honor of kith and kin
 * Defend those who need defending; attack those who need attacking
 * Listen to those who seek your aid, but always be wary
 * Never trust a sorcerer
 * Offer foes a clean and swift death, if they are deserving of it
 * Remain true to one’s clan (and by extension the clan’s traditions and customs)
 * Remain true to one’s word
 * Show no fear
 * Sometimes, even theft is necessary
 * Speak only the truth; punish liars and expose falsehoods
 * Take no woman by force
 * Take only what is necessary; taking more than is necessary is theft.

Personal Excellence in a Given Area – is a matter of deep personal honor for all Cimmerians. Generally most Cimmerians place import on their prowess as hunters and warriors although, for some, prowess in other fields is held in higher regard. What is most important is the honesty and honour of understanding where one’s talents lie and achieving excellence in that field, whilst still cultivating the ability to both hunt and fight well.

Blood Vengeance - Cimmerians are passionate and filled with pride for their clan. Slights can be weathered from time to time, but insults and assaults against the family or clan are taken seriously and never allowed to rest. The desire for vengeance runs through every Cimmerian as freely as their blood. Insults and assaults must always be paid for, usually in blood. Injury to an individual becomes the responsibility of the entire family or clan to avenge.

A Clean and Honest Death - Cimmerians do not place any faith in their gods to provide them with a happy afterlife. Death is part of the natural cycle of things, and every Cimmerian knows that death is never far away. Every Cimmerian wants a death that is both clean and honest. That is, a death that would not bring shame on the clan or the individual. Dying whilst behaving with honor in battle, sword in hand, surrounded by the bodies of the enemy, is a good and honest death. Being executed after capture, pleading for one’s life, is exactly the opposite. If a foe fights well and honorably, a fast, cleanly delivered death is an honorable thing to offer. A clean death is delivered without cruelty and without resort to unclean methods such as poisons or venoms, which are the weapons of cowards who lack the prowess to slay their foes cleanly.

Religion

 * Crom and his pantheon

Cimmerians believe in a rather dark pantheon of gods, all of whom are ruled by Crom and are of his race; these gods and their religious practices are discussed in more detail in Faith and Fervor. As an overview, Crom is seen as a dire god, as gloomy and dangerous as the Cimmerians themselves. The Cimmerians do not pray to Crom, nor do they worship him or any of his kind. Crom and his race of gods despise weaklings who call on them for aid and would likely make the situation worse for the petitioner. The Cimmerians value individuality and self-worth; their gods expect them to take care of life themselves. Indeed, Crom only takes pride in a Cimmerian if that Cimmerian never calls upon him for aid in his life.

Cimmerians are supposed to take what they want from life, not ask a god for blessings, wealth, health or anything else.

Government
Cimmerians are self-governed on a clan or tribal level. Their government consists of a chieftain who is placed in power by consensus of the people who will follow him. A Cimmerian chieftain must have (or be perceived as having) courage, honesty, integrity, loyalty and physical prowess.

A loss in any of these areas and the chieftain is likely to be abandoned and a new chieftain followed. The health of the clan is identified with the health of the chieftain, so if he is wounded or sickly, he is expected to stand down. Often there is an aspect of hereditary titles but this is not preordained.

The clan chiefs are not dictators and are required to at least listen to the respected members of the clan before setting the clan on a course of action. Most often, the decisions of a chieftain accurately reflect the will of the people, else he risks being deposed or even outcast. Disputes are handled via kin. If a dispute is brought before a chieftain for judgement, that chieftain usually makes the entire family of the wrong-doer responsible for any fines, compensation or other punishment.

Economy and Common Professions
Cimmeria is a land of subsistence, peopled for the most part by hunters and gatherers. They raid for what they cannot produce themselves and are not given toward international trade. For this reason, no trade caravans from the civilized lands make their way into Cimmeria. Cimmerians do practice internal trade, often for timber, tin, iron and copper. Wealth is measured in cattle. It is the desire of most Cimmerian youths to be considered fine fighters first and foremost, but not all: some are destined to be better craftsmen or herders and, whilst the hunter-warrior creed is expected of all Cimmerians, it is understood at a cultural level that a range of skills and talents are essential for the clan’s survival. What is most important is the honesty and honor of understanding where one’s talents lie and achieving excellence in that field, whilst still cultivating the ability to both hunt and fight well.

A Cimmerian also does not keep slaves or sell his people into slavery. He sees slaves as weak, else they would not be slaves. For this reason Cimmerians do not make good slaves, so slavers avoid Cimmeria. An adult Cimmerian would rather die trying to escape slavery than just meekly submit.

Common Professions:
 * Craftsman
 * Herder
 * Hunter
 * Warrior

Sex Roles and Marriage
Cimmeria is a land where the men are the primary force; however, women are respected and treated with far more freedom than women in Hyborian lands. While women are expected to take care of the home and the children, a strong-willed Cimmerian woman can easily break this pattern and become a respected warrior or even rise to become clan chieftain.

An unknown female warrior or chieftain is likely to be treated with disdain when encountering other Cimmerians but those whose reputation are well known are likely to be regarded with almost superstitious awe and given more respect than males in their position might earn.

Slavery
Cimmerians have a nonchalant attitude towards slavery. Slaves are taken whenever an enemy clan is vanquished in order to prove mastery. By and large slaves are considered to be chattels and receive the most basic level of care but are often abused, depending on the will of the owner.

Slaves are expected to do the drudge-work of the clan, to wait on the chieftain or owner and have no rights within the clan other than to receive food, somewhere to sleep, and a few, exceedingly modest possessions. Slaves might be traded between allied clans and valued as highly as gold or silver. However the Cimmerian clans do not, as a rule, deliberately go in search of slaves and make a practice of trading them to further the clan’s position. Slaves are an occasional necessity and a right of victory.

If a slave proves to be hard-working, accepting of their lot, then, occasionally, a chieftain might grant the opportunity for the slave to become part of the clan. Whilst this confers freedom it does not necessarily confer respect and honor. Those who have risen from slavery to become clan members proper are always remembered as slaves and cannot count on being treated with the respect ‘true’ clan members receive. To have been a slave is to have demonstrated a weakness of spirit and, no matter how well an ex-slave has behaved, the stigma of weakness is always there in the clan memory.

Cimmerian pride makes them poor slaves. To be taken into slavery is considered shameful and no Cimmerian warrior worth his salt accepts slavery as an option in defeat. For this reason, slavers mostly avoid Cimmeria (apart from Hyperborean slavers). It is more common to find the old and those less capable of fighting amongst the slave ranks, and invariably Cimmerian slaves have a subdued, morose attitude because they are abundantly aware that, in being captured and enslaved, they have effectively failed to be good, proud, Cimmerians.

Influences
Architectural influences: Neolithic Scottish, Irish, Celtic.

Tip: Do not build large castles, fortresses, etc. as a Cimmerian. Go with several smaller bothans instead. The bigger ones can even have 2-4 stories so it's no problem to fit what you need in them. The Vanir totem decorations can also be used to make it look similar to the ones below.

More Information
RPGS:
 * Return to the road of Kings (Cimmeria, p 74-82)
 * Faith and Fervour (Crom & his Dark Race, p 44-46)
 * Cimmeria