Undying Word (Skald Archetype)
From the coldest tundra to the hottest deserts to even magic-blasted wastelands, mortals have a surprising knack for surviving in the harshest conditions. Clever use of equipment and know-how, as well as sheer determination, can allow entire civilizations to survive where the unprepared would not.
To particularly religious or spiritual cultures, they might see the harshness of their surroundings as a challenge from divine forces, a test of mettle and endurance. Even those that do not find honor in perseverance in all things.
The ones called Undying Words seek to inspire their allies to even greater feats of endurance, outlasting the harshest weather and most violent foes through sheer furious vigor.
Normally associated with the Mana Wastes in the Golarion setting, this archetype can be found anywhere where survivalist cultures and individuals persist.
As they grow in mastery, these skalds train themselves in various methods of improving their endurance and fortitude.
Unlike most skalds, rather than inspire their allies into a battle-rage, their fervor instead focuses on the endurance of pain and the focusing of will, though they still benefit from the rage powers known to the skald.
When about to make a trek into dangerous elements, they often perform a travel song that expends a good chunk of their performance potential to help their allies resist the environment around them.
With grim determination, they also have a song for fighting past pain and weakness, ignoring debilitating injury and enchantment to keep fighting.
They also gain an additional selection of rage powers in addition to those they gain normally. However, these bonus powers are drawn from a short list of those that improve the vitality and endurance of them and their allies.
While less about combat buffs than your average skald, undying words can focus on those defensive buffs and travel-based utility and whatnot. Feel free to build as you like beyond that.
Given their focus on endurance, these sorts might be particularly stubborn, unwilling to make concessions for others less focused on toughness than they, or choosing to believe that differing information is a test of faith and resolve, rather than something to take into account. Of course, if you wish to subvert this, you are more than welcome to.
The World Below is a place of sparse resources, but life persists. Nomadic dwarf clans often wander far and wide with their herds of subterranean beasts called dallos, keeping them safe and singing songs of endurance against the cold dark.
Mechauthon Desert is not a place for the faint of heart, not even for monstrous inhabitants like the drider tribes. Exiled to the surface by their drow cousins long ago, their clans either wander the desert by night and sleep under tarps, or construct labyrinthine terracotta structures that they let be covered by the dunes save for hidden entrances, and have grown to value the desert’s intensity.
While others prepare for winter in the north with grim faces, the White Wolf clan looks forward to it with relish, seeing it as a way to prove their mettle when the tundra is at it’s deadliest. They also become very dangerous during this time in their own right, for a poor hunting may lead to raids on surrounding villages.