[Thonia] CBI -3: Province of Bleakwood Sourcebook - Free PDF

[Havard]

Interesting way of re-framing the "Picts", although I can see your point: the Picts seem to be more "barbaric" in their origins than the Valemen as they are presented in the DA series, but maybe that depiction was very archaic, maybe there were many tribes of Valemen (a bit like the Celts...) with very different ways of living and "grades" of civilisation. The Picts may be entirely something else as well and maybe at the time of Uther they already more or less vanished from Blackmoor.
I guess that the more options we present to the GMs, the better, after all. :wink:

There is certainly room to add Picts as a separate culture if a GM wants to

As you say, I use the Valemen to fit the label of "Wild humans" from a Thonian Perspective. While some Valemen are certainly more civilized today, there is room for a more barbaric lifestyle earlier in history, but I think also in more remote areas in modern day Blackmoor and surrounding provinces. Both the Vales themselves and Bleakwood probably mainly represent a more medieval type culture, but people living in the outskirts of the Blackmoor map could be of a more wild variety. The D20 line introduces the idea of humans of the Wokan, Elderkin and Idolator classes which previously were reserved for monstrous humanoids. These would fit right at home with some Valemen groups, even if Druids and Rangers would be more popular choices.

Another reason why I wanted a Valeman culture in Bleakwood was that Dave Arneson based the original Bleakwood adventure on the Battle of Bannockburn, depicted famously in the movie Braveheart and other tales.


If you compare the map of Bannockburn to the maps of Bleakwood you will see some similarities:



Note the shape of the rivers especially.

We don't have any real Scottish equivalent in the world of Blackmoor, but I figured Valemen could work as a replacement here too.

-Havard