Encyclopaedia Excerpt: Barbaricus

Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae (speculative)
Species: Barbaricus

What's known in this world as Barbarian is a gigantic hominid that's naturally bigger then almost any known homo. Grown specimen are - with rare exceptions - at least two meters tall, and up to three meters tall. They are incredibly muscular and strong. My speculation is that they were crossing into our world in the past and were known under many names depending on the culture: Giants, Ogres, Oni, Giwakwaa.

Their thought patterns seem primitive, and they do not seem to be able to formulate advanced plans, often prone to instinctive actions, easy to provoke into . This seem to be one of their few weaknesses. Practically only way other races ever win in the battle against Barbarians is by luring them into the trap or a foolish head-on charge where they can be eliminated one by one by a squad of opponents.

Magic: Contrary to popular belief Barbarians can use practically any kind of magic, and their magical power - although on average lower - is comparable to other races. They are especially proficient in Earth, Druidic & Shamanism variants. Their weakness shows in application - their lack of imagination limits their effectiveness.

Diet: They seem to be omnivorous, but strongly prefer meat based diet, and can eat raw meat without any negative effects (although they do prefer to cook it first). This include eating humans (who they consider inferior), they would do that only if no better source of food is present though

Sexuality: As far as I can tell they are sequential hermaphrodites. They are all born female, and the final sex is decided when they reach adulthood, and then depending on the position in the tribe (and I'm assuming hormone levels), they become either males (80% of the population) or females (remaining 20%), almost always the smallest specimens become female. Females are bred by all the males in the tribe, although often female-led harems are established, and rarely couples are formed (usually by separating from the tribe)

Inter-species breeding: I've been informed that barbarians can indeed breed almost every homo in this world. However as with every inter-species breeding chances of actual conceptions are incredibly slim (estimated to be 1 in 100 even if all other factors align). Unfortunately overwhelming majority of the mothers do not survive the childbirth (along with the large percentage of children). I speculate that the cesarian could be used for the safe delivery.