Overview
Boar Men are the tusked kin of the barren ridges. Their tusks are polished status, their foraging lines are run by the stocky females, and they consider the ridge a debt the earth owes them.
Habitat
Boar-men live on the barren ridges — their home is Tuskridge Barrens, a ridge of bare stone where the tusks are polished and the foraging lines are run. They need three things: a ground that is bare enough to dig, a root that is close enough to reach, and a ridge that is high enough to see. They are settled around the ridge, with foraging-lines in the barrens; a boar-man who has not polished their tusk in a season is called "the one who forgot the debt."
Appearance
A boar-man silhouette is the heavy, low, broad shape with the tusk — thick-limbed, broad-shouldered, with the head that sits a little too low on the body, like a word that is waiting to be spoken, and the tusk that is a separate sentence from the body. Males stand 1.52 m to 1.83 m, 91 kg–127 kg, heavy through the shoulder, with a wall of tusk — two long, curved, polished tusks filed to a point and worn like a crown; females 1.52 m, 82 kg–113 kg, stocky and fierce, with shorter tusks and a longer memory. Skin is a deep, warm umber to a soft, muddy brown, with a faint, almost imperceptible warmth to the cheekbones and a network of fine, pale veins at the temples that show when a boar-man is roused. The hide is the crown: a thick, rough coat in a range from deep grey-brown to a true, quiet black, scarred with the barrens, with the hide-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the boar line's most persistent claim, and the hide is the boar-man's most persistent identifier at any distance. The ears are the tell: a pair of true, pointed ears, set high on the skull, in the same grey-brown as the hide, with a fine, clean white at the inner edge, and the ears are the boar-man's most persistent claim — they turn, always, toward the sound that is not a sound. The eyes are small and a dark, luminous amber, with a slow, deliberate blink and a depth that makes them look like they are looking at something behind the person they are talking to — and in most cases, they are, and what they are looking at is the ridge, and the ridge is the point. The tusks are the crown: a pair of true, long, curved tusks, in a range from deep umber to a true, quiet black, polished to a point and worn like a crown, with the tusk-tips a clean, deliberate bone-white that is the boar line's most persistent claim, and the tusks are always clean, and the cleaning is the point. The head is the tell: the tusk is the boar-man, not the face — a pair of true, long, curved tusks, polished to a point, and the tusk is the boar-man's most persistent identifier. Males carry the boar line in the jaw and the shoulders; females in the neck and the tusks. Elders are marked by a full silver-grey hide and a back that has stopped trying to be straight — an old boar-man moves with a slow, deliberate economy, like a ridge that has decided to stay. Everyday wear: a simple, clean tunic in a muted umber or soft brown, a thin leather belt, and no boots, because a boar-man does not announce their arrival and does not touch the ground more than they have to.
Behavior
Disposition: territorial, aggressive, clannish, honor-bound. In peace, boar-men are blunt, watchful, and absolutely incapable of being rushed — they have the ridge, and they let you know it. In war they charge, and the charging is the point. Strangers are either a meal or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the ridge remembers. The social unit is the hold, 20–60 strong, led by the Tusk-King, rank decided by the tusk — whose is longest, cleanest, and most polished. Two signature quirks: a boar-man who is being lied to will not call it out — they will simply ask a follow-up question that the liar cannot answer, and let the silence do the work. And they keep their tusk for a lifetime, and they remember who chipped it, and the remembering is a form of patience that mortal races find unsettling.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: frontal charge — the boar-man line charges and does not stop, and the charging is the point. Armor: hide and chain, worn with the mail over the leather so the impact is taken twice. Weapons: the two-handed axe, the tusk that is not a weapon but is used like one, and the roar that is not a weapon but is used like one. War markings: the Tusk-Notch, a single, deliberate chip in the left tusk for every charge survived, worn as a record of the long run; the Ridge-Knot, a single knot in the braid worn over the right shoulder for every ridge oath kept, in deep grey-brown; and the Debt-Brand, a small, deliberate mark on the inner wrist — the first word the wearer spoke in the boar tongue, worn as a mark of the beginning. Post-battle: the dead are carried back, their names spoken over the ridge, and their axes laid across the threshold — a boar-man buried without their axe is buried as a stranger.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: wild — boar-man magic is the charge, the patient, precise holding of the ridge across the hold. Secondaries: stone-craft and oath. Named inborns: Tusk-Polish (a boar-man can polish their tusk to a point in a single night, and the polishing is not a choice), Ridge-Sense (a boar-man can feel the ridge's mood the way a sailor feels the wind), Thick-Hide (a boar-man is resistant to the dust, because the dust is the home). Signature power: the Ridge Word — a boar-man can speak a word in the boar tongue and let it land across a lifetime, and the word will keep the ridge's faith. Limitation: boar-man magic is spent on the ridge; a boar-man who has spent their ridge word must stand still for one day, and the day is the worst one of the barrens.
Religion
Boar-men keep Korrath, the Fang as their primary god — the wild, the hunt, the survival that is the ridge's own law. The ridge is Korrath's, and the boar-man is the ridge's debt. Urka, the Stone Mother is honored at the tusk-polishing rites; the stone is Urka's, and the boar-man is the stone's polisher. Priestly class: the Tusk-King, who keeps the ridge-temple and speaks the ridge word at every rite. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a word broken on the ridge, and there is no rite for that one; the ridge simply stops remembering the breaker.
Society
Holds of 20–60, led by the Tusk-King, rank decided by the tusk — whose is longest, cleanest, and most polished. No hold follows a claw, it follows the tusk; the Tusk-King leads not because the charge is the heaviest but because the tusk is the cleanest, and the hold measures rank in polish, not in fury. The foraging lines are run by the stocky females, and the females do not answer to the Tusk-King, because the forage is the debt and the debt is the ridge, and the ridge does not keep a king. Outsiders are either a meal or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the ridge remembers; a stranger who stands on the ridge is not a guest, it is a sound, and the sound is the whole of the warning. Young are raised in the dig-line, the lowest foraging line where the root is shallow and the digging is the first lesson; a young boar-man who has not polished a tusk in the dark is not given a line of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the hold does not hoard the ridge — it pays it, and the paying is the whole of the debt, and a stranger who is counted is a stranger who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the tusk keeps.
Home
They live in Tuskridge Barrens, a ridge of bare stone where the tusks are polished and the foraging lines are run.
Relations
The Orcs of The Fanghold are the kin the hold charges with — the orc keeps the war and the boar-man keeps the ridge, and the two read the charge the same way: the ridge first, the war second, and the tusk the whole time. The Mole Men of The Underbrow are the neighbors below — the mole folk dig the stone and the boar-men polish the tusk, and the two have learned that a clean tusk is a map of the ridge, and the map is the whole of the treaty. The Wild Boar of the barrens is the kin the hold does not hunt — the boar is the ridge's own, and the hold has decided that the boar is the debt and the debt is the keeping, and the keeping is the whole of the law. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten pass the ridge mouth without a sound, and the hold has counted them, and the counting is the whole of the safety.
In the Story
In the current story, the boar-men are the ridge above the camp — the polished tusk Uaellaen writes about when the debt is worth more than the charge. The Forgotten pass the ridge mouth without a sound, and the hold has counted the passage, and the counting has held for two seasons. This season the Tusk-King Bora the Grey came down to the camp with a chipped tusk — a chip the hold did not make, and the not-making is the whole of the warning, because the tusk is the debt and the debt does not lie. The hold is counting the chip, and the counting is the map the camp has not been shown.
You stand on our ridge and you make a sound. Good. Now we know where you are, and you have made our tusk's choice for us. — Tusk-King Bora the Grey