Skorne Fluff Post (actually a shameless re-post)

One of the things that got me into Skorne was their fluff, which I think is great.  Although we really only get to see the Skorne military in action in the Hordes expansion books, their culture has a lot of potential for depth.  So this is the first in a series of fluff posts I'll be making to document my observations about the Skorne as a society.

As the title says, it's actually a re-post of something I wrote on the Privateer Press Skorne Community a while back.

The thread author wanted to know whether the Nihilators are part of the warrior caste or the paingiver caste.  Here's what I said:

There's potentially a lot of overlap between the warrior caste and the paingiver caste, since they're driven by similar philosophies. The two examples we're familiar with are the Bloodrunners and the Nihilators. Nihilators combine the stoic side of the Hoksune code with the paingiver ideal of enlightenment through pain.

Hoksune already incorporates a great deal about growth through hardship and privation. To embody the ideals of the code a warrior must suffer. She must pit her will against her own limitations, and break them down in order to emerge triumphant. The ability to endure pain, as a personal limitation (and not coincidentally very useful in battle), is therefore an indicator of a warrior's spiritual advancement, and thus evidence of his worthiness of the ultimate reward of exaltation.

Paingiver philosophy regards agony as the crucible in which truth is distilled. A character in Hordes: Metamorphosis (Saxon?), mentioned that no Skorne would take offense at being tortured to determine her loyalty. I think even he was missing the point a bit. The Paingivers don't simply torture their victims to determine whether they are loyal. Their philosophy demands a higher standard. When they torture a victim, they seek to reveal the truth of his character - to unlock new depths of loyalty, or by the same token, to uncover a capacity for disloyalty.

This Hoksune stoicism and paingiver asceticism were what Xaavaax melded together when he founded the Nihilator's discipline, a tradition based on unlocking the true potential of a warrior's soul through the most extreme assault on her personal limits: self-inflicted torture. Master Ascetic Naaresh is (according to his fluff) very close to the embodiment of this ideal, and has only a few barriers left to break.

Socially speaking, Nihilators are an interesting sect. At its core, the Nihilator tradition is a martial one, and Nihilators can and do partake of the glory and privilege of the warrior caste (being considered for exaltation,etc.). They aren't connected to the Skorne aristocracy through any House, however. They exist "at the harsh perimeter of Skorne society," and may thereby represent a way for the truly fanatical and tough among the Skorne to transcend a low-caste birth. The sect was founded by a paingiver after all, and its members are joined by their philosophy and their agony, not House loyalty. It represents a crossroads where dedication may be more important than caste - but only by sacrificing everything to follow the most extreme warrior ideal.