Wildlings

“The children of the beast lord, squealing, braying and screaming their desire to ravage and destroy to the skies. They can be heard on full-moon nights, practising their vile rites. Stay away from the forests on such nights.”

— "Beasts of Haven", Volume II

Beast-men, ferals, demonic half-breeds. Wildlings are barbaric and savage humanoids that occur when demonic influences are allowed to spread on the material realms. They are a threat to civilizations everywhere, unnatural animalistic fury unleashed.

Description

Wildlings are humanoid creatures with an assortment of animalistic features and random mutations. They are aggressive and strong with brute force and demonic magic, but lacking in wit.

Wildlings are servile to the demon-lord Baphomet, though worship of other demon lords is also present among wildling warbands. They are often advised by demonic shamans and warlocks, while the warband itself is lead by the strongest creature in the band, strong enough to make all others there follow it.

Dumb and Cruel.
Wildlings are strong, but cruel and savage. Due to their demonic nature, they become less capable of compassion and co-operation. If a beastman becomes sick, its fellows will not help it. They have no more compassion for their fellows than for their victims, and thus they eat those in the warband that become too weak. They are also not particularly good at preparing for Haven's winters, which is why wildlings raids are the worst during winter when starvation drives them to the storehouses of humans.

Equipment
Wildlings warbands are usually equipped with crudely fashioned weapons or scavenged equipment. Only when supplied better equipment by demonic cults do wildlings use anything better than looted weapons and armor.

Warbands

Wildlings roam the forests of Haven in large warbands, comprised of not only wildlings but also werewolves, vampires, ogres, cambions, savage giants, mutants and more.
They also sometimes make use of profane rites to summon demons to join them in battle.

While some of these warbands live in isolation in the deep forested regions, many of them actively prey on small villages and remote towns, attacking them under cover of night before disappearing again before day breaks. They also work together with cults of baphomet and occasionally with druidic circles and dryads.

Life cycle

Wildlings are created when mortals like Humans are bestowed the gifts of the demon lord Baphomet, be they willing or not. This causes them to be possessed by the spirit of a demonic beast that then takes control of their body and mutates them with animalistic features and strength.
The ritual to turn a human into a wildling is most often performed by Demonic cults as a ritualistic veneration of their master, on both devoted members or captives.
Another way to create wildlings is if similar rituals are used to 'uplift' ordinary beasts into a humanoid shape.
Wildlings can be cleansed of this demonic curse by priests, returning them to their previous form. However, wildlings can procreate with one-another naturally, and natural-born beast-men cannot be cleansed of the affliction.

History

Wildlings are an ancient expression of demonic influence on the mortal realms, more ancient than most others. They come into existence on any world as soon as mortals become civilized enough to draw the beast-lord's ire, when he starts making overtures to draw them back to their bestial side.

Haven
On the world of Haven, wildlings populations reached an enormous number during the age of Old Sun. They were bred deliberately in mass numbers by The Nightmare King's forces to be a blight upon the land.
In the following centuries, their numbers were culled once again, but enough of them remain that they are not just small groups of cultists of Baphomet as on other worlds, but fully independant warbands.

Hunting strategy

Wildlings are mindlessly aggressive, often to their own detriment, but exhibit an animal cunning. They will attack undefended prey such as lone farmsteads and small villages and not go for "hard targets" such as cities or fortresses.
They will rush towards the enemy to tear them apart with tooth and claw, they mosty shun ranged weapons and only use crude weapons and armor.

Wildlings are aggressive to the extent that they react to most stiuli with reflexive violence, so ambushing them is useful in order to engage them in combat but will confer no greater advantage than charging towards them openly.
Wildlings will refuse to attack if they are clearly inferior, but once in the middle of battle-frenzy they will never retreat or flee, even if gravely wounded.
They can be fought most effectively with poisoned silvered weapons.

Various kinds of Wildlings

Appearance

Wildlings look like humanoid shapes with animal features. Animal heads are very common, but they are also often furred or scaled or with features such as tails, cloven hooves and other nonhuman features.