“The captain of evil discovered himself
in a handgrip harder than anything
he had ever encountered in any man
on the face of the earth. Every bone in his body
quailed and recoiled, but he could not escape.
He was desperate to flee to his den and hide
with the devil’s litter, for in all his days
he had never been clamped or cornered like this.”
-Beowulf
This material is still in the process of being playtested. It is fully usable as written, but may be refined or changed in later versions. As always, this content should only be used with GM permission.
Rumors from northmen occasionally tell of how even further to the north than their homelands, dwell enormous, stocky folk who resemble humanoid bears with brown, black or sometimes even pure white fur. The territory of the ursai is vast and sparsely populated, since it consists largely of tundra, boreal forests, and ice floes, so even those who pass through it would likely not come across any sign of these seasonally nomadic people. Mysteriously, though, the barbarians who encounter them often describe them as having exceptionally crafted weapons and armor, and these barbarians sometimes dub their own mightiest combatants “bear warriors” or “berserkers” in honor of these mighty neighbors.
The ursai live in conditions humans would find extremely inhospitable even for the well prepared. Insulated by dense fat and thick fur, they can not only live in intense cold, but can even swim in half-frozen rivers and seas without discomfort to catch fish and other prey. While favoring protein, they are very flexible omnivores and can live just as well off of berries, roots, and seeds. Their culture and religion strongly emphasize the importance of banding together for survival, as even for folk as well adapted to the region as they, a solitary existence is exceedingly difficult, as strange monsters, giants, and dragons sometimes prowl these areas.
Sheltered from the extreme cold by living in the roots of the mountains or deep underground, the ursai have another neighbor, the dwarves. The far northern dwarven holds have a thriving trade for the resources ursai can gather from the surface, such as massive barrels full of frozen fish or oddities like sky-iron, and in return sell exceptionally crafted equipment to the bear folk. Most ursai who travel to more populated climes do so not by passing south through barbarian lands, but by traveling with a subterranean dwarven caravan to another hold, and then out to the surface from there.
Ursai have a given name (and sometimes a middle name) and one or more parental names, which consist of a parent’s name appended with a suffix such as -son, -arson, -uson, -sson (son of); -dottir, or -sdottir (daughter of); or -barn or -sbarn (child of).
Masculine Names: Adalbert, Bothvar, Draupnir, Einar, Gunnar, Hrimnir, Jon, Karl, Laevateinn, Narfi, Ragnar, Skorfnung, Thorbjorn, Tyrving, Vidar, Ymir
Feminine Names: Aesa, Asleif, Berglind, Eirika, Freydis, Geirrithur, Hella, Judit, Kristborg, Mjoll, Nina, Olga, Reynhildur, Sigurdora, Steinlaug, Triggvina, Valkyrja
Common Personality Traits: Communal, survivalist, fond of dwarves
Common Physical Traits: Tall, fat, fine arms and armor
Type: Large (2×2) biped folk with a Reach of 1. Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution score x 1.5 (rounded down).
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Open Game License v1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. System Rules Document Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
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