Cimmerian

Starting Languages

When a player selects a culture, they automatically gain ability in the primary language associated with that culture. This language represents the common tongue or dominant language spoken in that cultural region. Each culture provides a pool of additional languages that players can choose from. This pool should include languages associated with neighboring regions, historical influences, or significant trade partners of that culture. The number of additional languages in the pool can vary based on the diversity and historical context of the culture. For example, a culture with extensive trade routes or a history of conquest might have a larger pool. You may select an additional language from this pool for each point of edge you have in Intellect, and another for each additional point you gain as you level up in your adventures.

Starting Arms & Armor

Players are afforded their starting weapons, clothing, & tool proficiencies by the age associated with their homeland. So Stone Age cultures and Dark Age cultures might both grant ability with a mace for example, but only the Dark Age culture would grant ability with guns, for example. Over the course of your adventures you may choose to use your progression to gain proficiency in a different age's tools.

Cimmeria, Home of the Cimmerians

There is little of worth in this land, as it is mostly a place of endless hills and low, rough mountains, of dusky, wooded valleys and dark scrub forests, steep gullies, and stony plains upon which little grows. A few mean rivers and streams run through the countryside, feeding bogs and ponds and isolated lakes. Cloud and fog shroud the land, forcing upon it a lonely and dismal mien, and wind wails through the hills like a banshee, a never-ending lament that shortens tempers and drives men to gloomy, monstrous thoughts.
There are no major cities, no great accomplishments of engineering, and few roads, with the only notable man-made structures being the few forts made by Aquilonian colonists and ruins dating to the time before the Cataclysm. Despite this, the Cimmerians cling to it fiercely, and few stray from their homeland, though the south — with its wantonness, wealth, and indolence — beckons always. To a Cimmerian, their homeland is their rightful place, though at times it can seem more a purgatory than a heaven.

The Cimmerian People

Cimmerians are among the oldest races, descended from the Atlanteans, who arrived from a land which long ago sunk beneath the waves and was lost to history. As a race, they have scarcely changed in appearance, demeanor, or temperament. Like the Atlanteans, they are dark-haired and have eyes of gray, blue, or green. They are tall and rangy, with powerful builds, while their skulls are long. Unlike the Nordheimer, though, Cimmerians are generally darker-skinned, almost as much so as the Picts, a race they deeply despise. Also, like the Picts, Cimmerians are adept climbers, able to find purchase in any rock-face or tree and scale it quickly without fear. In temperament, Cimmerians are a dour and moody lot, practical, yet proud, prone to both brooding and boastfulness, often maddened by the futility of life. Cimmerians only exult in the heat of battle, since the rest of the time their moods are black and occasionally morose.
To a Cimmerian, family and kith are the strongest bonds, since their clans spread across settlements and throughout the land, so they might find kin-folk far and wide. It's rare for a Cimmerian to become curious about the world beyond their village, much less showing an interest in anything outside their grim and bleak country. Their language, called Cimmerian by others and Gaeilge by the Cimmerians themselves, is their own, and is not spoken outside their lands. It has little in common with the speech of other folk, and has more to do with the Atlantean strain than any of the Hyborian tongues spoken by their neighbors in the south, or the language of the Nordheimer.
Cimmerians, as a people, are independent and clannish. They consider themselves as stubborn foes, holding fast in their hills, their valleys, and their bogs, resisting even the ancient Acheronians, who could gain no purchase against them, leaving the fierce hillmen to their own rocky abode. Many have tried to unite them, usually with no avail. Generally, the greatest of their leaders is little more than a glorified clan chief claiming to be king or queen, but such boasts are empty and meaningless when one’s own neighbors show little interest in respecting any claim of rule.

Names

Cimmerian names are based on old Irish or Scottish Celtic names, such as Conan. Here are some examples of names Howard intended to use for Cimmerians in stories he never completed. These names are presumably male: Eithriall, Eanbotha, Rotheachta, Giallchadh, Cruaidh, Eamhua, Cumal. Suggestions: (male) Amergin, Agh, Aodh, Brian, Cael, Cailt, Cathal, Conor, Cuchullin, Cul, Comala, Daol, Dima, Doon, Duncan, Fingal, Finn, Fionn, Hydallan, Moghcorb, Morne, Murdoch, Oscur, Ossian, Rayne, Sláine, and Usnach. The following names are female: Credhe, Deirdre, Dersagrena, Maev, Melilcoma, and Ros-Crana.

Religion

Crom, ‘Lord of the Mound,’ is the chief god of the gloomy Cimmerians. Others include Lir, the god of knowledge, Mannanan, the god of poetry and travel, Morrigan, the goddess of war, Badb, the goddess of fire and fury, Macha and Nemain ‘The Venomous.’ The Cimmerians do not truly worship these gods, believing that the gods despise weaklings who call on them for help. Creating the Cimmerian race was gift enough. As a result, Cimmerians are often skeptical of more demonstrative forms of worship.

Playing a Cimmerian Adventurer

Starting Arms & Armor: Dark Ages
Automatic Languages: Cimmerian, Trade Tongue
Favoured Tropes: Barbarian
Bonus Languages: Nordheimer, Pictish, Hyborian, Hyperborean