If you want to be a super nerd about things, you can go back to historical sources. I base a lot of how I play my character and what kind of clothes I wear and gear I carry out of history, as the sources and images you can dig up are always going to be more evocative than our own imagination. I play a Celt, and tried to center myself around a 1640 Highlander Scot.
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Most of what our idea of barbarian culture is like comes from the Roman descriptions of the Germanic tribal peoples on their borders, and a little bit from the Saxons that Charlemagne warred against. The Cymbri peoples are described as whole nation of straight-up Conan stereotypes; seven feet tall, with long white hair and blue eyes, wielding massive axes and swords while charging naked at their enemies. There is a particularly fantastic account from Marius’s campaigns against them where the younger warriors try taunting a Roman garrison by riding down the snow covered mountain face in front of the fort naked, sitting on their shields like sleds. Evidently the Cymbri women were pretty tough too; they stood behind the warriors during the battle against Marius, urging them onwards, tearing open their dresses (bare bosoms feature often in ancient history) and describing the horrors of being taken into slavery if their men should lose the battle. When the Cymbri were routed, the women tried to rally them, and killed those that kept fleeing and took their weapons, or charged the Romans with knives and clubs or even unarmed and tried to kill as many as possible rather than be captured into slavery.
Less ‘mythical’ depictions can come from the Visigoths or Alaric’s armies around 400-476 CE. They wore patterned trousers, giant mustaches, and carried big, ornately painted shields. The mustache was a big thing – any ‘real’ German barbarian of the time wouldn’t be caught dead without their bad-ass mustache. The Romans describe them as immensely muscular, freedom loving, inured to cold and hunger, and pretty much unwilling to do what authority figures told them to do if they didn’t feel like it. They discussed all political and business decisions twice - once while roaring drunk, and once sober "so that they can deliberate without pretense, but reserve judgement to when they could ill afford to make a mistake." (Tacitus) They had strong traditions of gift exchanging when meeting, and thought of women as holding a direct line to the gods and capable of speaking prophecy (the descriptions are very much of a 'I told you so' kind of prophecy)
The Britons were pretty ‘barbarous’ too, carrying severed heads from their saddles, going bare-chested into combat, bleaching and spiking their hair into this scary hedgehog kind of look. Also, mustaches. Always mustaches.
If you want to get real squirrely, be unique and model yourself after the Cossacks or any other Asian steppe peoples. They’ve got the standard tropes of fur ornamented clothes and such, but have a mid-East feel you can represent with lamellar or scale armors, or clothes stolen/based off of medieval Chinese and Turkic or Kwarismian styles. Additionally, mustaches. It’s a theme that’s fun to follow through tribal peoples – if you’re clean shaven or have a full beard, then you’re probably ‘civilized’. If not, you have a mustache, and the type of mustache you have denotes where you’re from. In this case, central Asian steppe peoples have been documented as wearing anything from Fu Manchus to bushy droopy things. One tomb was unearthed from being frozen solid, preserving the body of the warrior buried there. He was heavily tattooed, and had a waxed handlebar mustache.
Tattoos were big, particular ones on the arms or full sleeves. Ink and needle quality weren’t great, so the extant ones we have are usually a bluish hue with geometric designs or other symbols instead of portraits or modern ‘flash’ style art. For the Germans and Saxons, dying your hair red and wearing it long was popular. The Burgundians greased their hair back with rancid butter, but you could probably just use hair gel. Dozens of hairstyles were used, with maybe only the Mohawk going unrepresented.
Look up Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcasts. He uses amazingly evocative language and sources to give you the feel of his subjects. You can get great ideas from the way he describes tribal peoples. In particular, listen to Thor’s Angels (talking about Germanic barbarians), The Death Throes of the Roman Republic (more Germans!), and his series on the Mongols (about the Mongols, obviously, as well as other central Asian steppe peoples).
TL;DR Dress like a punk rock biker. Kick ass, party hard, for tomorrow you die.
Cyric McKraegar
