What this guild is about
Carry the tribe with you.
The Wilders’ way of life survived Aegic’s frozen wastes. They are fierce axe fighters, but hunting, travelling camps and binding a creature’s vital essence into totems matter to the guild just as much. Their violence is about keeping the tribe alive.
Wilders keep a people alive without any settled power to give them a place. Fighting, gathering and ritual are one job: a slain creature is food, a hard-won victory and essence for a totem, and a shrine is something the tribe keeps up together. Their reputation for brutal attacks comes from that. A professional army defends marble halls; the Wilders protect a moving group of people, their knowledge and their gear, so that all of it survives another journey.
You might feel at home here if…
- You want fierce physical combat with a strong survival theme.
- You enjoy a loop of hunting, corpses, totems and preparation.
- You prefer a travelling tribe to a permanent guildhall.
Lore & origins
The people who came in from the ice
The Wilders descend from people left in the wastes when Aegic froze. For generations they lived off icecrawlers, which in turn fed on frozen herds. It could not last: as the food ran out, both the tribes and the crawlers began to die. A few lucky tribes followed icecrawlers that wandered into Icesus and found a valley warmer and richer than anything they had known. They came for food, not conquest.
The valley’s kingdoms would not share their land, so the tribes stayed nomads. No permanent guildhall defines membership. Wilders train one another wherever they are, and the knowledge travels with the people when a camp is packed up and left.
Their gear is practical and personal. Coloth’s fur-and-leather clothing shows hard hunts, and strips of meat dry on a rack behind her. The axe is the Wilder fighter’s weapon and part of a life lived close to animal strength. Through binding and veneration, part of a creature’s vital energy is kept in totems and renewed at shrines. The fury outsiders see in battle comes from that same life of moving, making do and enduring together.
A place in the world
The travelling tribes
Wilders have no fixed guildhall in the valley. Their teachers are nomads, and their camps show the work of survival: useful gear, hunting clothes and food being preserved for the road. Shrines give them places for veneration and charging totems.
Read about the worldTheir role in a fight
Axe first.
A Wilder’s main contribution is aggressive axe fighting. Storm puts everything into the opening blow, and Axe Frenzy keeps up a series of heavy attacks afterwards. The ritual side adds a longer cycle around the fighting: bind essence, keep up your totems and think about what you take into the next expedition.
With a party
In a party, a Wilder brings immediate pressure and a strong opening. Agree with the group on the target and wait until the front line is ready. Between fights, other people can help charge your totems by worshipping at a shrine, so the whole group can share in the preparation.
On your own
Alone, the hunt and what follows it run together. You choose a target, commit to the fight, then examine the fresh corpse for essence to bind into a totem. Travel and camp skills carry you between fights, and keeping up shrines is part of recovering and preparing.
Trade-offs
Aggression doesn’t excuse you from preparing or judging a fight. Storm leaves you vulnerable while you deliver the opening strike, less so with training. Totems need suitable fresh corpses and ritual work, and a shrine needs a balance of spiritual and valuable offerings. The guild suits you best if you enjoy the whole cycle, including the work between axe blows.
Abilities
Signature abilities
Storm
Opening assault
Strike first and make it count. Training makes the blow stronger and reduces how exposed you are while delivering it. Use it when your companions are ready to follow you in.
Axe Frenzy
Relentless physical pressure
A rapid string of axe blows that overwhelms a foe’s defences by sheer repeated force. It keeps a Wilder fighting hard after the opening.
Bind Essence
The hunt becomes a totem
Examine a freshly slain body for the parts that held the most vital energy, then bind pieces of them into a totem that lets you draw on that energy. A successful hunt pays twice, and the power depends on knowing the creature it came from.
Veneration
Shared ritual preparation
Build shrines and worship at them, placing totems there to charge. Other people can help charge them by worshipping at the shrine too. How well the shrine is built, how much veneration it has gathered and the balance of valuable and spiritual offerings all matter, so a shrine needs looking after.
Progression
Learn from the travelling tribes.
Wilders pass their training from person to person. You learn to fight and you learn the tribe’s rites, and the two feed each other: the axe makes the hunt possible, and binding and veneration turn the hunt into future strength. Learn the opening and sustained attacks you can support, and give the totems and shrines just as much attention, including the balance of offerings.
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Bow & blade · Wilderness
Rangers
Hunters and wardens of the wild who fight with bow, blades and nature magic.
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Animal forms · Melee
Gaesati
Followers of Walmor who learn to become animals and trees, and to fight in those forms.
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Weapon combat · Defence
Army
Train to hold the line for the people behind you. Choose agile weapon work or armoured endurance.
Play Icesus
Make a character
and try a guild.
Pick a race and a first profession, then meet your guild’s teachers in the game.