Slayers
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FitFitNitMin
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:49 am
Have a player considering being a slayer. Woupd anyone be anle to provide some source info on the slayer oath etc?
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FasterThanJesus
- Posts: 343
- Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2019 4:30 pm
- Location: UK
Are you after anything specific?
In general (can't remember off the top of my head how much detail the WFRP v4 source book goes into) the oath taken as a form of (never ending, except in death) redemption for a serious breech of honour that would bring shame upon a clan or hold. After this is taken, the slayer must seek out an honourable death and avoid such circumstances that contradict it.
In general (can't remember off the top of my head how much detail the WFRP v4 source book goes into) the oath taken as a form of (never ending, except in death) redemption for a serious breech of honour that would bring shame upon a clan or hold. After this is taken, the slayer must seek out an honourable death and avoid such circumstances that contradict it.
It's well discussed in william king's "Trollslayer" (or really, in most of the slayer books, but they let gotrek lecture about in in the first one) and in the old but still gold standard "Dwarfs - Stone and Steel" if you can find a copy to read.
The general gist of it is this: dwarfs do not forget. anything. and sometimes, a dwarf's shame (not always a crime, just an action they feel ashamed and dishonored to have taken) weighs down on their conscious so heavily they can't bear it. Instead of being unproductive and inevitably driving themselves insane over it, they take the slayer oath. A slayer is considered dead by all of dwarf society, including said slayer, and the slayer has to fight against terrible threats to the dwarf peoples to redeem their shame to avoid being denied rest in the halls of the ancestors. Simply waiting for the threats to come is not good enough, they have to go out and find the most terrible beasts and take them down.
Becoming a slayer (aside from becoming shamed and humiliated) is simple enough. They shave their head, sing their death-song, and make for the crags to find a troll. There's some possible formalities that can occur like visiting the shrine of grimnir, distributing your possessions in life to pay for partial atonement or give to the clan and getting tattooed, but aren't required. The vast majority of slayers die fighting the first troll they see. The less lucky ones kill a troll and have to find something bigger and more deadly to fight. This goes on until they die. A slayer is at least mildly deranged by severing the ties of community that drive dwarf life and the continuing memories that drove them to take up the oath, and most of them indulge in various intoxicants and avoid spending time among other dwarfs and the vast majority of them are violently unstable.
The general gist of it is this: dwarfs do not forget. anything. and sometimes, a dwarf's shame (not always a crime, just an action they feel ashamed and dishonored to have taken) weighs down on their conscious so heavily they can't bear it. Instead of being unproductive and inevitably driving themselves insane over it, they take the slayer oath. A slayer is considered dead by all of dwarf society, including said slayer, and the slayer has to fight against terrible threats to the dwarf peoples to redeem their shame to avoid being denied rest in the halls of the ancestors. Simply waiting for the threats to come is not good enough, they have to go out and find the most terrible beasts and take them down.
Becoming a slayer (aside from becoming shamed and humiliated) is simple enough. They shave their head, sing their death-song, and make for the crags to find a troll. There's some possible formalities that can occur like visiting the shrine of grimnir, distributing your possessions in life to pay for partial atonement or give to the clan and getting tattooed, but aren't required. The vast majority of slayers die fighting the first troll they see. The less lucky ones kill a troll and have to find something bigger and more deadly to fight. This goes on until they die. A slayer is at least mildly deranged by severing the ties of community that drive dwarf life and the continuing memories that drove them to take up the oath, and most of them indulge in various intoxicants and avoid spending time among other dwarfs and the vast majority of them are violently unstable.
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FitFitNitMin
- Posts: 33
- Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:49 am
Thanks guys, will dig out my old copy of Trollslayer and gibe it to the player to read
He can keep me right!
He can keep me right!