The nature of the Drakkarim

[Sword Rune]

First off, I apologize if this question has been answered in supplemental materials.

I've had a question nagging at me for awhile now, and wondered what you all think:  Are the Drakkarim human?

I first discovered the LW series with Shadow on the Sand, and I still remember one line from it, regarding the Drakkar whom LW evades at the start of Part 2:  "They are men, but they are evil men, as evil as the Darklords they serve."  Later books in the series refer to them as "evil human warriors" as well... But later in the GM series, the New Order series, and the JDLW game make them out to be larger, more heavily built near-humans.

I can only guess one of the following is true:

1. (retconned history) They were always non-humans, and an inexperienced Lone Wolf simply assumed otherwise before later learning better.

2. (transhuman) They are human, though long-term experimentation and alchemy (possibly with the Cener Druids' aid) have altered themselves in pursuit of power, and now consider themselves more than human.

3. (sold their souls) During the saga, they gave themselves over even more fully to Darkness, and as above have become stronger and more cruel, in exchange for losing any hope of redemption.  Somewhat like the ghoulish soldiers of Bhanar empowered by Sejanoz, or the Shadakine warriors whom the Wytches imbued with extra strength, ferocity and the ability to see in the dark.

[Honza]

Not sure if it has been officially stated, but IMHO they are just humans, who left their god Zantaz and joined themselves with Naar.

I still hope for redemption for at least some of them. See Dreams of Darkness (https://fightingfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Fighting_Fantazine_Issue_14).

[Black Cat]

Oct 30, 2023 9:31:29 GMT Honza said:

Not sure if it has been officially stated, but IMHO they are just humans, who left their god Zantaz and joined themselves with Naar.

They are not human as they come from another planet/plane.

From the "Magnamund Menagerie", a supplement for the LW RPG by Cubicle 7:

The Drakkarim were created by Dark God Naar in mockery of the humans spawned by Ishir and Kai, for the purpose of having a tough human-like warrior race with which to colonize and conquer various worlds of Aon. They first appeared on Magnamund in the year MS 2591, and were introduced by the Dark God who opened a vast Shadow Gate, called the Ekarnan, in western Zaldir expressly for this purpose. The Drakkarim established themselves in territories formerly controlled by the Vaderish people, notably Northern Lencia which they seized in a series of wars that ravaged the Western Tentarias for several hundred years. In MS 3150, the Drakkarim nations allied themselves to the Darklords of Helgedad and became their willing servants, abjuring the Warrior-god Zantaz, Armourer of the Fell Legions, who they had worshipped. Most of them also adopted the Giak language after their arrival upon Magnamund and, in return for their valuable military assistance, the Drakkarim were allowed to keep autonomous control of their homelands of Nyras and partial control of their territories of Zaldir, Nyvoz, Ghatan, Skaror.

[Sword Rune]

Thanks for the answer, Black Cat. If they come from offworld, that's pretty much that. It calls to mind how Lone Wolf recognized an un-armored Manoyd as looking similar to a Drakkar.

I do remember a vague reference in the Magnamund Companion during the timeline section, referring to the Drakkarim "appearing" and spreading out, warring with the peoples around them. That must have been MS 2591, as you said. The source didn't provide any more details than that though.

In a way, I'm a little disappointed to learn this--stories where Evil needs no other face than our own have always appealed to me. But in Magnamund, the last battle for Aon where the gods of Light and Darkness are making their biggest plays, I guess it's understandable.

[askhati]

Interesting to read that they gave up the worship of Zantaz, when he in fact appears in LW20 (?) as one of the champions you fight along the way to defeat Naar. Section 254, with the Sommerswerd or Skarn-ska.

[Black Cat]

I'm not sure that they have entirely gave up whorshipping Zantaz. I think that he is now considered a minor deity for them. One example is that service dedicated to Xuzargha, the Cenerese God of pestilence, that some Drakkarim take part in book 13. Also, the text that I've quoted is not exactly clear: did they started worshipping the "immortal" Darklords instead of Zantaz as their god-like figure? What happened after book 12, did they return to worship Zantaz? I don't think they suddenly started worshipping Naar, the god that created them, only after they allied themselves with the Darklords. I think that could be a good question to ask for the podcast, maybe for the episode on book 15.

[askhati]

The official definition of abjuring below:
"solemnly renounce (a belief, cause, or claim)."

As per the Magnamund Menagerie text, the use of the term would then suggest that they renounced their worship of Zantaz - at least at that point in time. Who became their main deity after that, is another question I suppose.

Of course, the Magnamund Menagerie could also be a retcon attempt that does not necessarily mesh 100% with the gamebooks - which can easily happen in a lore setting this large and detailed.

[Black Cat]

Well, well, well... The latest episode of the podcast (about 'The Dungeons of Torgar') explains the origins of the Drakkarim and the little retconning Joe had to do regarding their "humanity". Listen to the last 10 minutes of the episode.

[askhati]

Care to share a brief summary for those of us that are not consuming the podcasts?

[Black Cat]

Instead of rewording (because there many more info than just the origins), I've just copied/pasted the transcript provided by Spotify, so the words are not exactly spelled correctly and it doesn't say who said what, but I think you can easily understand what is being said.

Section 348 speaks of of them as being human, but we now know that that is not the case.Joe made a decision that Dracarim were were humanoid, not human.And I wanted to know, was that original or did Joe make this change to the world?

It is technically a change.Joe always considered them in some way to be a little more than or a little less than human.They they were changed.

They were evil.But it wasn't until he was working with John Grant on the Legends of Lone Wolf novels that they were first stated to be humanoids originally.
And after that he started changing the descriptions in the books and and do we know why?Was it just a uninteresting he started to think about where they would have come from?Or was there another reason behind this?Well, and I was speaking with Vincent about this and and we believe that Joe wanted to clarify the origins of the tracker mostly because he realized that even as far back as the the the mid 80s when you still had a lot of fantasy tropes.

He realized that them all being evil wasn't really very inclusive and and there was already sort of this push in gaming to have your outliers, your your good heroes from an evil race thing and he wanted to, he wanted to sort of quantify that they really were based and steeped in evil and that's hard to do with humans.

So them being humanoid made that easier.So that explains too why the art starts to change and they become pretty grotesque.Oh, absolutely.That is that is entirely correct.I I actually want to share a a a quote directly from Vincent on this one.

The origins of the Dracarim are completely different from humans morphologically.They may be human with very little visual or physical difference, but their origins are completely different.Humans on Magnum and.Were born from the love of Ishir and Kai Dracarim were not.

They were born from the dominating will of Gnar on a completely different world.Mimicking the humans of his rival gods, he shaped the Dracarim to look roughly like humans with similar capacities.So that pretty much outright states what they are and where they're from, which is a great clarification.
Now are there women?Oh, yes.Yeah, they.The the most of the of Dracarim Most of the women of the Dracarim live in their homelands.They are a little different in a cultural aspect and even in a biological aspect.

The females amongst the Dracarim they're actually only fertile for one month of the year.It's also one of the reasons why most of the females don't live near the front lines or aren't encountered unless you're deep within their homeland, because since they only have the one month of the one month of fertility.

They're they're more protected and guarded.Interestingly enough, a Dracarim's gestation period is 10 months long and and do and and are the women, do they see gender as a as a sort of it.Does it become a political topic amongst the dracarim or are they you know, are there women leaders?

Are there women, you said there's women fighters, but like are are there, you know, women who have risen to position of power or are they sort of are they sort of, you know, held back in dracarem society?That is not particularly well defined, but I did have conversations with Joe on that one and his direct answer to me was dracarem are more concerned about evil than they are about gender.

What?What I take that to mean is that they don't actually see all that much of A gender difference because their interests and their culture.Lie completely elsewhere.Got it?So outside of the the purely biological need to reproduce at certain times of fertility that the the there's not a lot of difference in how they treat each other.

Right, right.I mean it.It is it is probable that there is something of a patriarchal nature to their society simply because they worship the classically male God Gnar.But beyond that, not much.

[askhati]

"Drakkarim are more concerned about evil than they are about gender."

Man, I wish more people had well-defined, clear-cut priorities like this in life... XD

[kolinovic]

An appropriate avatar pic if ever I saw one!

[askhati]

Nov 14, 2023 13:35:12 GMT kolinovic said:

An appropriate avatar pic if ever I saw one!

Old but gold. Can't beat a classic