The Berserker: Class Design Notes

Who doesn't love hucking axes around and smashing shit?

The Berserker class is a special one for me. It was the first time I got to share with the DFK community any of the final-ish work we had been up to – and it was a wonderful moment for me to get to geek out and showcase how in-depth the team has gone on class look, feel, and fantasy.

The class design was entirely inspired by real legends and stories that felt innately connected with the DFK universe, accenting a shared love of wild warriors hucking axes around and smashing shit.

A little background for you. The exact origin of the berserker warriors is actually not known, but rather draws on a combination of Nordic myths and sparse historical fact. The word "berserker" comes from the Old Norse words "ber" meaning "bear" and "serkr" meaning "shirt," and it is thought to refer to the practice of some warriors wearing bear skins into battle to intimidate their opponents.

The berserker warriors were said to have been fierce and uncontrollable in battle, and to have fought with superhuman strength and immunity to pain – hence all the crazy stuff in the Skill Codex. They were often depicted as being in a trance-like state during battle, and were said to be inspired by the spirit of the bear – this is where all the berserker modes come from in video games.

I did a lot of studying and really enjoyed learning about a ton of different legends. I then took bits and pieces from a few that really clicked with me and brought them to the design table.

The first story that really hit home for me was the legend of Bödvar Bjarki (above). Bödvar is a legendary figure from Norse mythology and may actually be who Beowulf was based on. He was known as a fearsome warrior and a champion of the people who was said to have immense strength and god-like prowess in battle – and even could turn into a bear mid-combat. He appears in several Old Norse sagas, including the poem "Lay of Bjarki," where he is depicted as a great fighter who is feared by pretty much everybody who wasn’t on his side. He was even said to have been trained for combat by a bear, or trained bears, or turned into a bear, or maybe actually was just a bear all along. As you can see, there are some mixed messages out there, but what can be confirmed is that the man was an absolute badass. In turn, the inclusion of Bödvar in the class design lays the foundation of the badass Bear Path and serves to emphasize the raw, animalistic nature of the Berserker and their ability to unleash wild and devastating attacks.

The second legend that caught my eye was that of Kveldulf Bjalfason. Kveldulf, meaning "Evening Wolf" in Old Norse, is a figure from Nordic mythology that is often associated with the origins of the Berserker, but with a twist. In the lore, Kveldulf is known for his fearsome warrior skills and his ability to transform into a wolf and not a bear, pretty cool. I knew previously that zerkers wore bear and boar skins, but I had not heard of any legends specifically calling out a wolf-pelt wearing warrior, so I was in. Kveldulf inspired the Wolf Path and provided a great base for some creative skills – plus, his stories really nailed the primal and savage aspects of the class.

Then, lastly, there are the edibles. Although technically the whole Berserker mushroom trope isn’t technically historically supported and is teeecchnically more speculation and rumor, it is believed that viking warriors did use psychoactive substances and hallucinogenic plants to get crazy in battle and hack shit up.

So! Whether it’s a spore-coated blade that causes Poison or Bodvar’s own personal mushroom that turns your Hero into a death turret of chaos, it was important to us to perpetuate the mushroom-berserker vibe because it’s simply just too awesome. In turn, Wood Ear and Henbane are the two real plants we tied into the Skill Codex to serve as our zoomy-zerker flavor catalysts.

Wood Ear (above) extract is derived from the dried fruiting bodies (fancy way of saying mushroom) of a type of fungus that grows on trees and looks, well, like a weird jelly ear – and you can actually cook with it. The tie into the Codex for us here comes in the form of anti-heal, a mechanic we may need a lot of. Studies have shown that the polysaccharides found in wood ear extract serve as a natural anticoagulant (blood-thinning) and can prevent blood clotting. In turn, stabbing somebody with a blade covered in that stuff oughta cause some problems.

I know, I know. Blood-thinning is cool and all, but Henbane (above) is actually the plant you’d expect a Berserker to consume. Henbane is not a mushroom, but is a plant from the nightshade family that is super toxic and can cause epic side effects, including delirium, hallucinations, seizures, and even death. Henbane seeds were found in a Viking grave in Denmark in the 1970s, which led people to believe that the intoxication henbane caused is what many believe induced the rage state that they channeled in war. The plant's toxic alkaloids can also be absorbed through the skin, which, in our Skill Codex is how spores get around on the battlefield and make others go berserk.

Okay, thank you for reading my book report. If you guys enjoyed this, let me know and I’ll try to write one up on each class when time allows since, honestly, we went this ham on every single class. 

Until next time, be sure to follow all the stuff on Twitter:

> DefiKingdoms
> Wisdom Labs
> 0xWorkhorse