Uthgardt

The Uthgardt was a vast group of human barbarians of the North, united in their common worship of the chieftain-hero-turned-deity, Uthgar. The eleven tribes each venerated their own distinct totem animal. Each of these beasts had been conquered by Uthgar, but went on to represent an aspect of his nature, and served as a mediator between him and his barbaric tribesmen.

Description
The Uthgardt often had black hair and blue eyes, were predominantly larger than most other humans, and sought to hone their bodies to physical perfection. While the tribes were almost exclusively made up of these ethnically Uthgardt humans, half-elves and even half-orcs could be found among some tribes, and it was possible for members of other races to be adopted into a tribe as well. The tribesmembers dressed rustically.

Culture
Collectively, the Uthgardt people possessed a truly fierce and bloodthirsty disposition, and outsiders saw them as uncultured, crude, and prone to needless violence. They held their thousand year-old traditions in high regard, and their religious and philosophical pursuits reflected their war-like nature. They preferred to live as raiders and pillagers, rather than cooperate with nearby settlements, however they did not generally endorse killing purely for the sake of enjoyment or material gain. Tribesmembers might kill each other in contests of honor, but murder was not permitted. Those who violated a tribe's traditions might be sentenced to exile or death.

The Uthgardt respected not only their own physical strength, but the natural world as well. The tribes were nomadic, and travelled along seasonal migration routes to follow the animals which they hunted. They embraced their connection to the wilderness and honored those who showed great depth of knowledge about the world. Uthgardt society abhorred violations of the natural order and sought to punish those who would engage in such acts. Their lifestyles trained them to hone their senses in order to become skilled hunters.

Some youths would leave their tribes to prove themselves in the wider world as a rite of passage. They sought to battle the enemies of their people and return with spoils and stories from their exploits.

Religion
The Uthgardt were highly superstitious and feared or mistrusted arcane magic. However, they were more open to primal or divine magic, and in particular they respected the powers of each tribe's shamans. No Uthgardt would cut down a living tree or build a fire without a shaman's blessing. They believed that shamans' otherworldly abilities originated from their deceased ancestors.

The Uthgardt held their dead brethren in high regard, believing that their spirits lingered among the living to offer advice and assistance. They paid homage to their ancestors with their deeds and by interring them in cairns scattered across the North, most notably at the ancestral mounds that each tribe maintained.

Each tribe revered their own totemic spirit beast, all of whom had their power taken by their god-creator, Uthgar, and some warriors were said to be able to channel the powers of their totem to aid them in battle. Uthgar was held in the highest regard, above all other deities or totemic spirits. Some of the tribes venerated other gods, albeit to a lesser extent. Among these were the Gods of Fury; Auril, Malar, Talos, and Umberlee; Chauntea, mother-in-law to the totem beasts; and Tempus, the "father" of Uthgar. More often than not, tribesmembers who worshiped nontraditional gods would keep this a secret from their fellow Uthgardt.

All tribes were typically known to celebrate with a day and night feast for the spring equinox, summer solstice, and winter solstice. These celebrations were known as the "Birthing", "Fullness", and "Darking", respectively. Around this time a tribe's shaman would also seek out guidance regarding the coming months from their respective totem. The autumnal equinox, on Eleint 21, was considered the holiest of days. This was when all the tribes would gather together at Beorunna's Well for a celebration they called Runemeet. On this day the tribes would set policies, venerate their gods, perform marriages, mourn deaths, initiate tribesmen as shamans, and perform a rite of passage known as the Runehunt, in which youths would hunt down their totem's sworn enemies or opposed beasts to prove themselves worthy of full membership in the tribe.

Language
The Uthgardt barbarians spoke a dialect of Illuskan, known as Bothii. It was only an oral language and utilized no known alphabet.

Organization
The Uthgardt ranged from the Glimmerwood in the north to the Grayvale in the south, and from Neverwinter Wood in the west through the lands of Luruar in the east. Each tribe claimed a swath of the Savage Frontier as its own hunting grounds, regardless of any intersection with lands claimed by other sentient species, including those from other tribes. While these overlaps in tribal territory were usually cordial, they did occasionally lead to squabbling. As they were nomadic, there were few permeant Uthgardt settlements, however they were sometimes known to erect structures in places to which they returned frequently. These encampments generally consisted of no more than animal hide tents and lean-tos, but occasionally included larger log structures that served as feast halls or gathering spaces.

A tribe was comprised of several different clans, each of which was led by its own chieftain. A Great Chief was selected from among these leaders, to serve as the ruler of the Uthgardt people.

Relationships
As a whole, the Uthgardt did not trust the "civilized" folks of the North. They were considered a fount of resources to be pillaged at their will.

While they loathed giants and their kind, the Uthgardt's hatred of the orcs was above all else. This brought them into constant conflict with the orcs of Many-Arrows during the 15 century DR, and meant that they unwittingly served as a defense against orc raiders for the people of Luruar.

History
The Uthgardt originally consisted of Northmen raiders from Ruathym, Netherese Runlathan refugees, and various others who swore fealty to the mortal chieftain, Uthgar Gardolfsson. The came together in the.

They became known the Uthgardt after Uthgar Gardolfsson's death from wounds suffered in battle with Gurt, Lord of the Pale Giants, in the. It was said that after his death, Uthgar was elevated by Tempus to be his exarch and battle companion. Individual followers took up worship of the thirteen beast spirits that Uthgar had claimed to have tamed, and formed into tribes along this religious divide.

The Red Pony and Golden Eagle Uthgardt tribes vanished into the Underdark in the and were not heard from since. Before their disappearance, both tribes shared the One Stone ancestral mound with the Sky Pony tribe and had attended the most recent Runemeet. Some residents of the Underdark discovered the descendants of these tribesmen as grimlocks living in and around the Cavern of Cloven Heads.

In the, the mages of the Covenant used their magic to create an alliance between the disparate tribes of Uthgardt in order for them to stand united against coming orc and goblinoid hordes. The mages tasked them first with hunting down and killing orc chieftains to prevent hordes forming behind them. Their first major engagement was during the Goblin Wars of the. Then, while fighting an army of ogres, orcs, and goblins in the Evermoors, the Elk tribe was almost wiped out defending Flint Rock and the survivors descended into banditry. The alliance dissolved in the when it could no longer sustain the losses that it was taking.

Some time before the, a long-forgotten druid circle infected Uthgardt tribes of the north with a virulent pox in order to cull the population and exert control. Not surprisingly, the sickness went out of control and threatened complete Uthgardt extinction. To heroically resolve the problem the druids themselves created, the conclave crafted numerous ceremonial Uthgardt belts and distributed them among barbarian leaders. Thanks to the belts, Uthgardt tribes survived; however, this only made their distrust of outsiders more extreme.

The events of the Spellplague of the, terrified the superstitious Uthgardt, and they regarded the newly arrived peoples of Abeir as invaders. These anxieties reached a fever pitch when the Gray Wolf tribe razed the town of Conyberry, wiping out both refugees from Abeir and the townsfolk sheltering them.

Tribes

 * Black Lion:
 * This tribe held territory in the northern Silver Marches and Druarwood forest.


 * Black Raven:
 * Having claimed the Ice Lakes and western reaches of the Frozenfar, this tribe counted the Griffon tribe as among their list of foes.


 * Blue Bear:
 * Previously thought to have been eliminated, this tribe took careful considerations when leaving their spirit mound of Stone Stand.


 * Elk:
 * Originating from Flint Rock, this tribe hunted throughout the Evermoors and a stretch of land north of the River Dessarin.


 * Gray Wolf:
 * These Uthgardt tribesmen were all cursed with lycanthropy, and transformed into werewolves at every full moon.


 * Great Whale
 * Great Worm:
 * The spirit mound of this tribe was called the Great Worm Cavern and was located within the Spine of the World mountains.


 * Griffon:
 * For decades, the Great Chiefs of this tribe sought to raze every settlement located throughout the North.


 * Red Tiger:
 * This particularly ferocious tribe regularly raided the settlements of the Silver Marches.


 * Sky Pony:
 * These barbarians revered Tempus, along with their spirit totem and the chief deity Uthgar.


 * Thunderbeast:
 * Considered among the most civilized of barbarians, this tribe formed its own settlement of Grunwald for some years, but eventually abandoned their hunting grounds and disappeared into the Lurkwood.


 * Tree Ghost:
 * Despite their conflicts with the local elves of the High Forest, these humans dedicated themselves as guardians of the Grandfather Tree.

Appearances

 * Adventures:
 * Storm King's Thunder
 * Novels
 * Honor Among Thieves: The Road to Neverwinter
 * Video Games
 * Neverwinter
 * Baldur's Gate &bull; Neverwinter Nights &bull; Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford
 * Baldur's Gate &bull; Neverwinter Nights &bull; Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford