Hearthguard Berzerkers

Hearthguard Berzerkers are the proven elite of the lodges, warriors of so many runes and so many campaigns that they are entrusted with the things a lodge cannot replace: its priests, its princes, and its hoard. In the magmahold they ward the temple-forges and the deep vaults; on campaign they form an unbreakable ring of muscle and gold around the Runefather himself.

Their weapons are built for execution rather than duelling: berzerker broadaxes that fell a foe with every swing, and flamestrike poleaxes whose heads are kept white-hot by the runes of the bearer. While their charge lives, Hearthguard do not yield ground, do not count enemies, and do not fall. It is a matter of record in more than one lodge that Hearthguard have kept fighting around a wounded Runefather until the last of them died standing, and won.