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Friday, August 12, 2011

Brogg: Character Profile

While most dwarves are motivated by love of wealth and beautifully crafted objects, there exists a martial caste among the Kabad'zem known as the natar, who care little for these things.


For the Kabad'zem-natar, there is no higher calling in life than military glory. Similar to many other societies with warlike social classes, the focus of existence for any Kabad'zem-natar is honor. However, this sense of honor stems not from the concepts of "chivalry" or "fair play" in a "head-to-head" fight, but rather from battle results alone. Ambushes and surprise attacks, for example, are highly valued tactics. For the Kabad'zem-natar, the greatest honor is victory, pure and simple, by any means. When victory is out of reach, honor is achieved by destroying the largest number possible of the natar's enemies.

Some, though certainly not most, of the Kabad'zem-natar still adhere to the "old ways." For those traditionalists, this includes charging into battle unarmored. It was long held that qualities such as stealth and speed outweighed the benefits of armored protection. Most modern natar have left this philosophy behind, preferring the advantages of breastplates and chainmail.

Brogg belongs to one of the oldest families of natar among the Kabad'zem. He adheres to tradition, going into battle bare-chested, and wielding two weapons. He scoffs at the motivations of the Kabad'zem political leaders who entered the war in the Dran Feldar for monetary gain. His motivation in prosecuting the war is to maintain and increase the family honor.

Legend holds that Brogg's oldest known ancestor, Grundh Bonecrusher, was once taken prisoner during the Dar-Marók Orc Wars at the battle of Baran-Gall. Grundh managed to convince his guardian to give him a wooden spoon to eat his meager prisoner ration. Grundh promptly shoved the wooden spoon through the guard's eye, scrambling his brains and killing him. With the dead guard's axe, Grundh killed several other orcs and escaped. The legend goes on to say that just over a day later he gathered the scattered remnants of the dwarven army, led a violent night attack on the enemy encampment from which he had only just previously escaped, and slaughtered the enemy troops to the last orc.

True or not, this legend sums up Brogg's aspirations. His only goal in the war is to be worthy of the memory of Grundh Bonecrusher. Brogg is, and only wishes to be, a paragon of Kabad'zem-natar honor and glory.

8 comments:

  1. Nice background! Grundh Bonecrusher is a great name.

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  2. Trey, Tim and Paul: Thanks guys, I appreciate your kind words!

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  3. Another excellent character! Maybe he will survive :)

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  4. I don't believe I'd want to mess with that dwarf.

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  5. Dan: Thanks -- only time (and the dice) will tell. :)

    Shelly: Me neither! :)

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  6. Very interesting. I played D&D once, and I played a dwarf.

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  7. Stopped in to say thanks bunches for voting. Much appreciated. I hope those girls win. Sounds like a lot of fun for them both.

    Cheers.

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