Proud Warrior Race Guy

Today is a good day to die.

"You ask a krogan if he'd rather find a cure for the genophage, or fight for credits, and he'll choose fighting — every time. It's just who we are, Shepard. I can't change that. No one can."

—Urdnot Wrex, Mass Effect

A specific subtrope of Blood Knight, the Proud Warrior Race Guy seeks battle and bloodshed because his culture teaches that doing so is the greatest source of personal honor and Glory Seeker. This Proud Warrior Race will often be based on one of several real world cultures who are perceived to have acted this way, such as the Samurai, Spartans, Vikings, and Mongols. They are often a Martyrdom Culture. The Proud Warrior Race Guy is almost always a hero. If evil, he will probably be the Worthy Opponent.

"Proud", in this case, meaning "Psychotically Violent". Critiques of this position will be met with: "You do not understand". May occasionally overlap with the Exclusively Evil race, though the two are usually differentiated by the Proud Warrior having a strict Code-of-Honor, while the Chaotic Evil race has no real rules and does cowardly or underhanded things. If the Code-of-Honor is too alien for humans to understand, or too xenophobic to allow cooperation, then the heroes will treat the two groups as the same. The better sort of Code of Honor will enforce Would Not Shoot a Civilian, although often because civilians are dismissed as too weak and cowardly to be good fighters, and so they get passed over in the search for worthy enemies.

While most commonly seen in science fiction programs in the guise of Rubber Forehead Aliens, the Proud Warrior Race Guy is not limited to that genre. Consider Hawk in Spenser For Hire, B.A. in The A-Team, and Tonto in The Lone Ranger or Kato in The Green Hornet. This trope currently tends to be limited to SF because applying it to human races really skirts the bounds of current racial sensitivities. You don't see a lot of the Noble Savage anymore either, except as alien races, for the same reason.

Species that are essentially aliens based on predatory animals, such as the Catfolk often found in many Science Fiction works, are also apt to be of this type.

Interestingly enough, the best-known characters of this type in recent TV history not completely covered in makeup and prosthetics (Worf, Tyr, and Teal'c) are all black; Ronon Dex is played by a half-Hawaiian actor wearing his hair in dreadlocks. Whether (and if so, why) this is a key component of the Proud Warrior Race Guy is an open question (see also Scary Black Man). It may be because of the Unfortunate Implications of having a warlike race of white people who believe themselves to be superior to other races.

A variation on this that has come into existence very recently is the Proud Soldier Race-a more low-key version more like the modern military rather than a warrior culture, with more focus on drilling and discipline than just strength at arms. These guys have a tendency to be more technologically advanced and more focused on expansion than conquest-they don't see the harm in dishonorable tactics but they're pragmatic, not ruthless; The Proud Soldier Race Guy isn't likely to cause any more harm than absolutely necessary to get what he wants.

See also Blood Knight and Barbarian Tribe. See Warrior Poet for what happens when the Proud Warrior Race Guy becomes more developed. Often is fond of being In Harm's Way, and is a Glory Seeker wanting to be Famed in Story. They often are of the mistaken belief that this means they have a Badass Army, but often are proven wrong. May be from a Martyrdom Culture. Frequently crossed with or has strong elements of the Noble Savage. Being a culture singularly focused on the warrior way, anyone performing non-warrior roles frequently suffer from Klingon Scientists Get No Respect.

Compare and contrast with Humans Are Warriors. Also compare Proud Scholar Race Guy and Proud Merchant Race for different kinds of hats a species can wear.

No real life examples, please; this is a trope about how characters are depicted in media, and Real Life people are far more nuanced than even the best-developed character.

Examples of Proud Warrior Race Guy include:

Anime and Manga

• The Saiyans (Vegeta, Goku, Gohan, Trunks, Goten and several others) from Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT and associated movies, though only Vegeta and the others raised in his culture really have the personality. The other Saiyans still tend to enjoy fighting and getting stronger, usually just for fun.
  • Averted by Gohan, who is half-Saiyan (and very powerful) but doesn't really enjoy fighting as much as other Saiyans. He doesn't much bother with training unless he anticipates having to fight a villain.
• The Mykene from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. Although not all of them were warriors, these that were showed they were proud of their warlike skills and eager for using them. Also, the Warrior Beasts were made by grafting into the mechanical body of a Humongous Mecha the brain of a Mykene soldier indoctrinated to fight and exterminate all non-Mykene civilizations.
  • The Vegans from UFO Robo Grendizer were also one race whose society revolved around fighting and war. Many commanders of the army belonged to the Honor Before Reason school of thought and would rather dying taking their enemy with them before admitting defeat.
• Done very well on the anime Wolf's Rain, where the four main characters were all Proud Warrior Race Guys, but some of them had huge doubts about the whole thing—and while some of them become Warrior Poets, they were very unusual ones.
• The Zentraedi race (divided into "Zentran" and "Meltran", or male and female, sides) from Super Dimension Fortress Macross are examples of this trope.
  • Klein Klan of Macross Frontier is a Worf of sorts for the Zentraedi; while she isn't a raging berserker most of the time (although after a certain event in the plot she gets rather terrifying), she is extremely proud of her heritage and generally doesn't miss a chance to remind people of Zentraedi superiority in combat and warfare whenever possible. Hilariously, she also suffers from some Worf Effect given how often she gets a hole blown in her power armor... and of course, to her profound and continued annoyance, when she's "micronized" down to human size, she's only about four and a half feet tall.
• Technically, the Pillar Men in Part Two of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are a proud warrior race of vampires, but in practice only Wham counts. (Santana is mindlessly destructive, ACDC is a Jerkass showoff, and Cars is power-mad.)
• The Ctarl-Ctarl, the race of cat-people from Outlaw Star, seem to qualify, but really only Aisha Clan-clan seems to care about conquest and honor, many other members of her race are just normal workin' folks.
• The Jovians from Martian Successor Nadesico are actually just a bunch of normal humans who became Proud Warrior Colony Guys, basing their society off a martial interpretation of a Super Robot show. Their named mecha pilots particularly exemplify this.
• In One Piece, the giants that come from the island of Elbaf are proud warriors in the tradition of the Vikings. The first two giants the crew meet, in fact, take this to the extreme by fighting for a century (a third their lifespan) over a quarrel they've both long forgotten purely because their honor is at stake. Also: Wiper and the other Shandian Warriors.
• Pai Thunder from Dangaioh initially refuses to team with Naive Everygirl Mia Alice because she is not warrior-like. As it turns out, Pai is genetically predisposed to violence, because she is really Barius, the daughter of pirate warlord The Banker. Once her father tries to force her kill one of her classmates and Mia bails her out, she accepts Mia's leadership
• Interestingly inverted in Princess Mononoke; although Ashitaka does come from a tribe of historical proud warrior race guys, by now they just want to be left alone, and he only fights when he has to, or when his curse makes him. It's actually San, who was Raised by Wolves, who's the berserker type.
• The vampires from Rosario + Vampire are very much a proud warrior race, to the point that Moka's father once ordered her two older sisters to fight to the death simply to measure Akuha's strength .

Comic Books

• Starfire from Teen Titans is a Proud Warrior Race Girl, in the original comic version anyway. In her "first meeting" with the Titans recalled in a later episode of the TV series, she was this way too, making her "later" Genki Girl personality seem rather puzzling.
• Prince Acroyear of the Acroyears, from Marvel's toy-licensed comic, Micronauts. Worth noting because he's one of the earliest mass-market appearances of the Proud Warrior Race Guy as a stock crew member on a Space Opera Cool Ship. It's also worth noting that he's portrayed as dark-skinned, despite otherwise-alien features—i.e., "played by an African-American". That's not just incidental, either: a major plot point has his albino brother driven to madness/evil/betrayal by his perceived inferiority.
• Wildstorm's Zealot is a pretty standard (female) example of this trope. Her entire race, the Kherubim, is equal parts Proud Warrior Race and Nineties Anti-Hero.
• Wonder Woman is a Themysciarian warrior.
• The concept of a proud warrior race was Deconstructed with the Wolrog Empire, who appeared in a long Strontium Dog story when Starlord merged with Two Thousand AD. The Wolrogs are psychotic, vicious, cruel, sadistic, genocidal maniacs who live only for battle and death, and are feared and hated by the other races in the galaxy. They tend to kidnap innocent people to serve as captive soldiers or slaves to fuel the war effort. In the same comic, Wulf may be an example of the more noble variety.
• The Mighty Thor and the rest of the Asgardians. Loki and Amora the Enchantress are considered cowards and deviants for using magic, dirty tricks, and deception, as they dislike fighting and only fight as a last resort.
• In Marvel's early Transformers Generation 1 comics, Megatron considered himself to be one of these, as seen by his distaste for killing an easy foe like Ratchet, and in a later issue his joy at getting to kill Ratchet after the latter had learned some of the way of the warrior. Much later, in the UK story "The Fall and Rise of the Decepticon Empire", he actually refers to the Decepticons as a 'proud warrior race'.
  • IDW has turned Thundercracker into a Proud Warrior Race Guy, one who isn't very satisfied with the current state of Decepticon affairs and ends up joining the Autobots.
• Maxima enjoys battle so much that she considers her fight against Doomsday to be a fun time.
• X Factor's/XForce's Shatterstar is another Marvel example.
• Nolan and the other Viltrumites from Invincible are this. The whole Viltrumite race is basically what would happen if Spartans had Superman-like superpowers.
• The Castaka clan in The Metabarons are dedicated to a bushido-like code and will kill or be killed for honor. They also favor primitive weapons like swords and double-barreled pistols, especially for ritual combat.

Film

• Fezzik from The Princess Bride. In the film, he insists on fighting the Hero "as God intended; skill against skill alone. Sportsmanlike!" Westley replies, "You mean... I put down my sword, and you put down your rock, and we try to kill each other like civilized people?"
• Chewbacca and the other Wookiees in Star Wars. They have customs like the life-debt and a strict taboo against using their tree-climbing claws in a fight.
  • And there's also the Mandalorians. When you think of it, the clone army is a proud warrior race by itself. Especially the ones that been trained by Jango himself.
  • According to Expanded Universe material, pretty much every Gungan who isn't Jar-Jar. They are mainly limited by their reliance on primitive weapons.
  • The Khaleesh, the race General Grievous belonged to.
• The title creatures in the Predator movies. Well, they're more like Proud Hunter Race Guys. But so damn proud of hunting that they even stalk Aliens as big game. As they become more skilled, they hunt more dangerous game. They view the Aliens as little more then deer, and use them as a Rite of Passage, to see what young Predators are strong enough to survive. In the expanded universe of the books and comics, older Predators may attain enough honor to essentially retire from hunting. A clan leader would be exceptionally stronger and a much better fighter than any of the Predators commonly encountered in either the movies or comics. The females typically don't hunt, because they're massive—on a similar scale to the Queen Aliens vs the warrior/drone Aliens—and would be unlikely to encounter a species worthy of an honorable hunt.
• The Furyans from The Chronicles of Riddick are described by director David Twohy as a "warrior race," though we never really meet any in true Proud Warrior Race mode. The two we do meet are a traitor hiding his heritage and a convicted murderer who doesn't fight honorably. And in the extended cut, the spirit of one who only provides exposition to the aforementioned murderer about their people's history and his destiny in it.
• The Spartans from the movie ~300~. As in Real Life, the Spartans live for battle and dying honorably.
• The Afghan Mujahideen, and Afghans generally, from Rambo III. They are perfectly willing to die in battle against the Soviets, even fighting Soviet tanks and helicopters on horseback.

Literature

• In Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, trolls appear to be a Proud Warrior Race, but are actually just durable enough that hitting each other with clubs isn't particularly harmful. When they become aware they can't do this to humans, they're usually Gentle Giants.
  • The same could be said of their arch-enemies the dwarves, for whom a chain-mail shirt and battle-axe count as politely dressed rather than heavily armed.
  • A subversion in a different angle is also explored first in the book The Wee Free Men: the title refers to the Nac Mac Feegle, six-inch high kilt-wearing blue tattooed thieves, whose swords glow blue in the presence of lawyers. They have their own sort of honor and are powerful allies, if you can understand a word they say, and are properly fairies (they guard those really nasty thistle flowers, because they need fairies too!)
    • Pictsies!
    • Also they actually use their Poetry and Music for WAR!
    • A good Gonagle (Feegle musician; named after William McGonagall, reportedly the single worst poet in all of human history) can make your ears explode after three bars of the mousepipes.
  • Werwolves as well, most lack the self-control to really function in society (even Angua struggles sometimes).
  • Terry Pratchett's non-Discworld novel, Strata, gives us the paranoid but violent kung, an alien race accurately described as "frightened of everything except immediate physical danger." Our representative of the race, Marco, can decapitate dragons mid-air, but otherwise lives in terror that Someone is out to get him. As another character put it, "These Northmen have a word, 'Berserker.' It was made for Marco."
• Very common in heroic fantasies, especially those derived from Tolkien and/or Dungeons & Dragons, where non-human races tend to experience extreme Flanderization.
  • Tolkien provides several examples, including his Dwarves, but the Land Vikings Horse Saxons Rohirrim are probably the most distinctive.
    • The Uruk-hai are a variation; they're a breed of super-orc literally born for warfare, and they have the arrogance and violent tempers to match, but they just love fighting and killing without any regard for things like "honor" or "fair play" the way the standard Proud Warrior Race does. Possibly better-described by The Horde trope.
    • As an amusing side note Tooks and Brandybucks are the closest thing hobbits have to this. Of course neither are really a Proud Warrior Race but they have that reputation among other hobbits but both have a slightly greater tolerance for adventurous eccentrics. The chief of the Tooks is head of the Shire Muster, and Bandobras the Bullroarer (who repelled an orc-raid) was a Took. Brandybucks live near the border closer to danger. And it was a Brandybuck that helped slay the Witch-King.
    • Brandybucks might after all come pretty close to qualifying. They live near the Old Forest and have a tradition of Staring Down Cthulhu. As Merry tells it at one time a number of evil magical trees tried to invade Buckland and the Brandybucks chopped them down. And when the Nazgul tried to raid Fatty Bolger's house the first thing they did on hearing of it was to sound an alarm and try to assemble an army of hobbits to fight off the Nazgul! They are More Than Meets the Eye.
• In Larry Niven's Known Space, the Kzinti are a race of giant warcats. But while the Kzinti are a warrior culture devoted to conquest, they find out the hard way that humanity is much, much better at it. (The Kzinti mainly conquer much more primitive races, and rarely fight each other, so "war" isn't really something they've had much practice at.)
  • In the novel Destiny's Forge, a much larger amount of cultural background is presented, including the datum that 75% of Kzinti males die in duels before reaching adulthood; the plot of the novel revolves around skalazaal, which is an extremely formalized war between two Prides or Great Prides -- no weapons may be used that are not muscle-powered, for example, preventing the use of lasers, guided missiles, or explosives -- by Staatz Pride against Rrit Pride;. In a private conversation between the Patriarch and a human emissary, the Patriarch, explaining why he cannot simply order the cessation of hostility hostility against humanity, states that conquest is necessary to the Patriarchy as an outlet for Heroes to get themselves killed and focus their hostilities outward, rather than turning inward against other Prides or the Patriarchy itself.
  • In stories which occur during the wars with humans, the Kzinti are more like Blood Knights. They are far more brutal and have no problem with killing off people for any reason, while a Proud Warrior Race Guy tends to be more noble and spares non combatants.
    • Of course, by the time of Beowulf Schaeffer and Louis Wu, Kzinti culture has been forced to mellow, after their most ruthless and aggressive members have been killed off by generations of war with humanity -- which is why the aptly-named Puppeteers nudged the two races into war in the first place.
  • They're also the inspiration for the Kilrathi.
  • The Kdatlyno in the same setting are also strong candidates, with an element of Warrior Poets as well.
• In the sci-fi trilogy The Damned by Alan Dean Foster, humanity is the proud warrior race. By virtue of being the only species in the galaxy that has evolved to be able to stomach fighting and killing other sentient beings, without fainting out of horror or revulsion, humanity is freakishly strong (capable of breaking other species' bones just by swatting their hands away), enormously resilient and completely batshit crazy. So much so, in fact, that the galactic community refuses to grant humanity citizenship for centuries after co-opting them to fight in a war against the Scary Dogmatic Aliens.
  • Foster used this much earlier in his novelization of The Last Starfighter: one of the reasons that the Star League has to go to such lengths as hiring an interstellar Con Man to recruit from planets so primitive they aren't even on the map is that the "civilized" races have put war behind them ages ago. Those few with a talent for violence - the Starfighters - are considered dangerously psychotic by most of their own people.
• The Dothraki from A Song of Ice and Fire are based on the "violent raider" image of Mongols while the ironborn are a Viking-ish culture, but resemble more pirates than the historical Vikings. The wildlings have aspects of the trope, but are more anarchic in nature.
• Mandalorians from Star Wars, particularly in the expanded universe. Species that first show up as enemies usually turn into Proud Warrior Races as time goes on and they're not at war with the New Republic.
  • Mandalorians subvert the trope by not always being a Race or Species. Instead they're a Warrior Culture. They were first made up of aliens called the Taung but were replaced by Rodians, Twi'leks, Zeltrons, Humans and others as Taung numbers were worn down during the Mandalorian Crusades. Humans dominated their culture by the Empire era, but members of other species are still allowed to join Mandalorian society. Ironically, Humans and the Taung fought for control of Coruscant as far back as 25,000 years before the rise of the Empire. The Taung retreat from Coruscant led to the founding of Mandalorian society.
  • The whole idea of the Proud Warrior Race is deconstructed by the X-Wing novel Starfighters of Adumar. Because they are big on ritual duels to the death, the resulting high attrition means they never live long enough to develop much competence. It's also Played for Laughs (as when one such duel interrupts a Will They or Won't They? moment). The Adumari are humans, but humans can have hats too. Throughout the book Wedge finds the Adumari way of life repellent—the only way anyone can work their way out of poverty is by putting their lives on the line, royalty can't be parents to their children, and everyone's killing each other. Now and again he says something about it -- "Are you fighting so that your family will be proud over your grave, or so they can be proud when you come home?"—and he really gets wound up over the issue. Turns out that it's really only one nation that's so obsessed with honor in combat.

Wedge: "Circular thinking. I'm honorable because I kill the enemy, and I kill the enemy for the honor. There's nothing there, Cheriss. Here's the truth: I kill the enemy so someone, somewhere -- probably someone I've never met and never will meet - will be happy. [...] I told you how I lost my parents. Nothing I ever do can make up for that loss. But if I put myself in the way of people just as bad as the ones who killed my family, if I burn them down, then someone else they would have hurt gets to stay happy. That's the only honorable thing about my profession. It's not the killing. It's making the galaxy a little better."

• • The Chiss are an interesting example: they manage to combine this with militant neutrality. The upshot is that every other power in the galaxy makes a pretty wide berth around Chiss space, turning it into Switzerland In Space!
    • To be specific, the Chiss consider it the height of dishonor to ever strike first, but are undisputed masters of striking second.
  • The Yuuzhan Vong, main villains of the New Jedi Order, are psychotic warrior race guys (especially the actual warrior caste). In fact, to die gloriously in battle is the fondest hope of most Vong warriors, because they believe that death is more important than life, and that is how their gods will judge them. Somewhat unusually, they are willing to lie and cheat to get what they want, though that is more to do with their code of honor not applying to 'infidels' (and members of the non-warrior castes are bound by much more lenient codes to begin with). Vong characters run the whole gamut from Worthy Opponents to Complete Monsters, though things are admittedly skewed towards the latter, especially early on.
    • Note that there are non-warrior-caste Vong, and while they share some central tenets (strength through sacrifice, the transitory and painful nature of life, the abhorrence of machinery) the other castes tend to be just as fanatically honor-bound to pursue some other objective, such as the shapers (hat: Mad Science) and the intendants (hat: bureaucracy. Fanatical bureaucracy).
  • The Echani from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic are similar to the Mandalorians except that they don't go around conquering bits of the Galaxy (naturally, both hold the other in contempt). They aren't bloodthirsty or imperial, but as Brianna/Handmaiden will tell you, how fighting and honor permeate every aspect of their culture down to courtship rituals. In fact, they think that it's impossible to truly know a person until you've fought them, and that a life without conflict is a life of weakness—many become mercenaries or professional duelists to seek out such conflict. Politics is seen as a battlefield of words. Their methods of fighting eventually end up being used by the Emperor's elite guard.
• The armored bears in His Dark Materials. Ahem, let me rephrase that: Polar Bears that build their armor from meteorite iron. As their king put it, "War is the sea I swim in and the air I breathe." This same trope is subverted in the third book of the trilogy, when we meet the Gallivespians, who are a fierce and vicious assassin-race who are born with poison spurs in their heels and ride about on dragonflies, because they're all about six inches tall.
  • The Witches also show signs of this. If a Witch has the hots for you, just go with it—you'll live longer.
• The Idirans in Iain Banks' The Culture novels. They were an aggressive warrior species which considered it their holy duty to bring order to the universe and its lesser races. They're best known for their 48 year war against The Culture, which they lost.
• The Aiel from the Wheel of Time, characterized as something between an Expy of Dune's Fremen and a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of various Native American groups, have constantly warred against each other for centuries. The warriors live by ji'e'toh, which in the Old Tongue means "honor and duty"; as an example of this code, if a warrior holding a weapon is touched without being harmed, he owes a debt of honor and must be made an indentured servant for a year and a day. The only thing that can stop an Aiel? Learning that 3,000 years ago their entire culture was pacifist. Discovering this caused their race to suffer a Heroic BSOD en masse as they were forced to confront the shame of forgoing their original vows of nonviolence.
  • The Borderlanders from the same series also qualify, though they're not as extreme about it as the Aiel. Living on the edge of the Great Blight while engaged in perpetual warfare against Trollocs and their Myrddraal masters will do that to a culture.
• Little Bear in The Indian in the Cupboard...although, to be fair, he is an Iroquois warrior.
• Several characters in War and Peace, mostly because joining the army and fighting for the fatherland is seen as one of the best ways to achieve fame and glory.
• In the novel Agent Of The Terran Empire the protagonist Imperial secret agent Dominic Flandry is kidnapped by a race of Proud Warrior Race Guy. They sneer at him for being part of the "decadent" Empire. It takes him quite a bit of work but he winds up corrupting them all into fighting a civil war over power. He points out that their whole system of honor wasn't really too embedded into the culture, otherwise he could have never convinced so many to abandon their principles when power was offered to them.
• The Drizzt novels were originally supposed to be about a Proud Warrior Race Guy, Wulfgar son of Beornegar of the Tribe of Elk (one of the barely-Viking-ish warrior tribes of the northern region of Faerun), captured in battle and made an indentured servant by a dwarf king. He eventually went out the way all Proud Warrior Race Guys want to—defending friends and family from a great menace, and succeeding. Of course, he didn't stay dead for more than three books—but that was over six years of world time.
  • Drizzt himself is basically a Proud Warrior Race Guy, having grown up for around 30 years in an underground city full of vicious assassins who are trained from birth in the most efficient, vicious ways of killing living things. His homeland is, in essence, a gigantic, sadistic special forces unit (his race possess remarkable prowess in the areas of stealth and unit tactics, while at the same time possessing a huge superiority complex over all other living creatures including each other and having a vicious sadistic streak, making them more Arrogant Warrior Race Guys). It sounds like he's even more noble and sacrifice-loving than any Proud Warrior Race Guy ever, but he possesses a remarkable survival instinct and is portrayed as too Badass to actually die, even when he tries self-sacrifice. He does die once, in a duel to the death against his archenemy, but only for one page, not counting the year between the end of the book he dies in and the very first page of the next.
    • More like Arrogant Assassin Race Guys, which is quite different. The drow are an example of why Exclusively Evil doesn't make for good proud warrior races - they have no concept of honour, often even no interest in a good fight, just getting ahead at everyone else's expense at minimum cost. The way Drizzt demonstrates he's (to a small extent) learnt to think like a drow during his training is when he challenges his last remaining opponent in a free-for-all between students to an open, honourable single combat, which he knows he can win - only to have the other step in a trap he has set up, by which Drizzt proves he wouldn't do anything so stupid as to issue an honourable challenge anymore.
• To some extent, the centaurs, and to an even greater extent, the giants in Harry Potter.
  • The giants, at least, are a deconstruction of the trope, since any in Britain were hunted down and killed for being so vicious, and the few who remain are quickly dying out because they keep killing each other, too.
• Okonkwo, from Things Fall Apart, is a proud warrior race guy. Anything that doesn't involve beating someone up is womanly. This also makes this trope one of the oldest ones in the book.
  • Deconstructed in that he lives out his life in fear being weak and fearful, and his fear of seeming week leads him to quickly give in to society's demand that he kill his adopted son, and eventually to kill himself rather than live with the Europeans.
• The Haruchai in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant fit this trope to a T, what with the practice of sending their 500 best warriors to aid the Lords of the Land, replacing any who fall in battle as soon as his body is returned to his family. They also dislike the use of any weapons or magic—in the later books, they decide to prevent anyone else from using Earthpower, as such power in the hands of mortals leads only to destruction in their eyes.
  • And take a headlong plunge into Lawful Stupid.
• The Batu of Zadaa from The Pendragon Adventure. They live on a hot planet with scarce water, and hostile creatures all about. Becoming a warrior is a necessity.
• The Scylvendi from the Second Apocalypse take this trope to a scary extreme. They call themselves "the People of War" or sometimes just "the People." To them, war is both the method and object of worship. Cnaiur, the main Scylvendi character, scoffs at the concept of a Holy War. To him, all war is holy.
• The Icecarls of The Seventh Tower. Brought up under a warrior tradition, all their great epics and stories seem to be about people dying heroic deaths on the Ice. Tal, the protagonist, at one point thinks to himself, upon finding a skeleton in a cave, that it couldn't be an Icecarl skeleton, because it is unarmed.
• Minotaurs in the Dragonlance books.
• The Canim (wolf-people) and the Marat (barbarians) of Codex Alera fit quite well.
  • The Alerans themselves have a very strong martial tradition, as do the Icemen, though both of those cultures are more complex than just proud warriors. Really the only race in these books that doesn't count in any way is the Vord, on account of being, well, alien locusts.
  • No, the Vord count too...They're learning it from the Alerans!
• The Clans of Warrior Cats all act like this: to fight in battle to protect one's Clan is the highest honor one can achieve. They look down on housecats (whom they refer to derisively as "kittypets") because (most) housecats are cowardly and unable to fight well. They do, however, pride themselves on honor, codified in their "Warrior Code", which forbids killing (even in battle, unless their enemy is willing to kill them), and tells them to help another Clan if it is in danger.
• The Holnists from After the End novel,The Postman, by David Brin are a sort of deconstruction. Descended from the followers of a Crazy Survivalist who fancied himself an Ubermensch, the Holnists are excellent fighters and seem to have some sort of code of honor. However, the book primarily focuses on their innocent victims whose lives have been made living hells. The Holnists conquer huge swathes of territory, rape the local women and then induct them into their harems, castrate all the men who are too peaceable to have the kind of "warrior spirit" the Holnists value, and kill the men who do have a "warrior spirit" if they refuse to be inducted into Holnist society. Brin seems to be arguing that a real Proud Warrior Race Guy wouldn't be a Warrior Poet, he'd be a Complete Monster Jerk Jock.
  • also note that the Holnists are pushing into new territory because they're losing their old territory. To Californians.
• The urgals of the Inheritance Cycle could possibly count. Their entire society and social standings are based on feats of combat, and they're certainly quite proud. They're frequently in conflict with the other races due to their violent tendencies.
• The Tsurani and Valheru of The Riftwar Cycle count.
  • The Tsurani appear to be this, and it's understandable that you get this impression after reading the Riftwar novels because you really only see the outward appearance of the race. The Empire Trilogy takes you into the society itself, and it doesn't take long to learn that the "honorable warrior" culture is almost entirely subverted by the rulers and nobles of the Empire, who consider the Tsurani concept of "honor" a weapon, to be used alongside assassination, manipulation, espionage, bargaining, and all sorts of other tools in The Plan toolbox, in order to gain an advantage.
  • The Valheru really aren't this at all, either, as they make no pretense of operating under a code of honor, and openly admit to serving only their own desires.
  • The Dasati from later in the same series are this trope take to Exclusively Evil extremes. Even the Demons have elements of this, being both proud and warriors, though these traits in them stem less from honor and belief and more from their extremely animalistic natures.
• Edgar Rice Burroughs has several. The Green Martians of John Carter of Mars are perhaps particularly notable.

There are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution of population, but nothing contributes so greatly to this end as the fact that no male or female Martian is ever voluntarily without a weapon of destruction.'

• • The Red, Yellow and Black Martians are the same way, as are the Orovar White Martians. The Therns and Lotharians (other White Martian races) are notable aversions, however. Not coincidentally, neither race is particularly respectable (the Therns in particular are close to Exclusively Evil).
• In the Tormenta setting, this trope is take to the natural conclusion. There is only one person left in this race, coming from others planes, the Master Arsenal. He is also the number 1 guy in the church of the god of war. And he is badass.
• There are several cultures in various series by David Eddings that fit this trope, such as the Arends in The Belgariad and The Malloreon (follow this trope to the extent that they go their whole lives without having an original thought), Atans in The Tamuli, and the Arums in The Redemption of Althalus.
  • The Belgariad has several, actually- the aforementioned Arends have the Knight in Shining Armor with Honor Before Reason as their cultural ideal (and as such, are great people to have by you in a fight, but generally shouldn't be trusted with anything requiring intelligence or subtlety); the Chereks are seagoing Boisterous Bruisers with a strong Viking influence; the Algars are a nomadic horse-based people justly famous for their cavalry; and the Murgos, who were descended from the warrior / aristocratic caste of the original Angaraks, are an arrogant and warlike people who consider themselves to be the Master Race.
• The Kaitrikas, from Hell’s Children.
• Alan Breck Stewart in Kidnapped.
• The Acts of Caine. Orbek Black Knife.
• Mark Twain deconstructed this in The War Prayer.
• All of the deghans and deghasses in the Farsala Trilogy, even Soraya.
• The Bolo are an artificially-created Proud Warrior Race... of AI tanks. Really.
• Dragaera features two varieties in Dragaeran culture: the Dragons are militaristic and lust for conquest. The Dzur are self-styled heroes who lust for glory.
• Wolpertings in the books of Walter Moers are basically intelligent, bipedal dogs with the antlers of a deer, with enormous strength and speed, plus a fierce killer instinct. They're renowned fighters and treated with terrified respect by most of their contemporaries—though in a curious twist, they begin life as the cutest, cuddliest, most adorable creatures in the world and are sometimes adopted as pets and lap puppies... until they grow older and (often to their owners' surprise) begin walking on their hind legs, talking and displaying huge tempers.
• The Alethi, especially the lighteyes in Brandon Sanderson's The Stormlight Archive although by the beginning of the series most of the lighteyes have fallen away from the Code that used to rule them.
• The Belisarius Series is stuffed to the brim with these what with Persians, Rajputs, and Axumites. In rather a subversion the most Badass Army of them all is the Roman Army which really is not this as they are Combat Pragmatists who put reason equal to honor in priority. The Malwa are not particularly badass though some of their vassals are. Malwa also do not put Honor Before Reason; however, that is because in their case, unlike everyone else, they have almost no honor at all.
  • They each have a different sort of flavor to them. Rajputs are aristocratic and chivalrous and always put Honor Before Reason. Kushans are grim and stoic. Marathas are hardy frontier folk that have to be sharp and are informal about hierarchy, though reasonably respectful. Axumites have a sort of "anti-ostentation" that resembles Sparta; not only are they modest they make a point of displaying their spartan-ness until it is an affectation in itself. And they demand vigorously that their kings be soldiers like themselves. Persians have a combination of central asian wildness and Imperialistic splendour. Ye-Tai who serve as Malwan military police, are always savages and not particularly noble savages either but no one questions their bravery.
• Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series has four variations on this theme. There are the Mantids and Dragonflies who are pure examples of this, the Weaponmasters of the Mantids doubling as Martial Monks, The Ant and Wasp-kinden are more Proud Soldier Guys.
• The Vorkosigan Saga has the Vor Lords of Barrayar, and the Ghem Lords of Cetaganda. So when the Cetagandans invaded Barrayar, it was a bloody mess for all involved.
• The first two books of the Star Trek: Klingon Empire series show what happens when the Klingons meet another Proud Warrior Race, the Children of San-Tarah. The two get on swimmingly, with many bloody battles between them.
  • Interestingly enough, the Klingons' more notable rivals, the Romulans, show themselves to be this in the Star Trek Novel Verse. It's a bit of an Alternate Character Interpretation; while the TV series (Star Trek: The Next Generation onward, at least) focused on their sneaky, politically manipulative Chessmaster tendencies, the novels portray the hot-blooded warrior aspect of Romulan culture far more prominantly. They certainly don't lose their Chessmaster traits, though.
• The Andalites of Animorphs have a lot of these characteristics, but it seems to have evolved as their society evolved. Warriors are expected to be not only soldiers, but also cultured poets and scholars.
• The Zoku from The Quantum Thief are a peculiar example. They are a Transhuman upload collective completely focused on bettering themselves in all their abilities, often acting as mercenaries to this end. They utterly denounce all ideologies or codes beyond victory and increase of skill for their own sake, and call those who are guided by ideals "meme-zombies", and treat them like plague-bearers. The reason for all this is the fact that they descend directly from 21st century MMORPG raid guilds!
• In S.L. Viehl's Stardoc series, the Jorenians are a Proud Cultured Warrior Race.
• In The Edge Chronicles: hammerhead goblins, tottering between this and Exclusively Evil. They are not cowards and do have some sort of code of honor (though to them, a bloodbath of unarmed innocents is just as satisfying as a worthy challenge).
• In Michael Flynn's The January Dancer, the Cynthians. Which is portrayed almost exclusively through their victims' eyes.
• Labyrinths of Echo has Ukkumbi. Little is known about this nation (though prequel and sequel series added some). It's the only remnant of an ancient and rather nasty empire wiped out of reality except the part of its fleet that was not too close to the shore at the moment. Who retained some traditions. Their life is all about "sea hunt", i.e. piracy. Which is reinforced by certain rituals, as brother of Melifaro found out the hard way - they thought this captured lad has potential, so they got him into initiation ceremony - now his Calling is to loot at sea, though there's much leeway in details. The "dignitaries" of Ukkumbi are, of course, captains. But theoretically any sailor can challenge the captain and win the ship in a Duel to the Death. Even a few foreigners managed to win freedom and a shikka this way - and You Kill It, You Bought It is the only known way to do so, because a shikka is more than a ship - each is at least somewhat sentient and bound to the captain with Blood Magic. Their laws are simple and not adapted to peaceful dealing with the outsiders - e.g. everyone on a ship is officially either captain, a crew member or captive.
  • This doesn't mean they are unreasonable, however. The Ukkumbian bomborokki is one of the most popular strong drinks in the world, and the locals are proud of it. Unfortunately, the rules of pirate honour prohibit them from trading. But they aren't prohibited from being robbed by a superior force... thus it's common for major brewers to regularly "happen to" go into sea on a heavily loaded small ship, which coincidentally "happens to" be intercepted by a foreign merchant, who while taking the cargo "happen to" accidentally lose a big full purse. Which he will always do, due to desire to have a deal the next time and also sight a few fast shikkas sailing nearby, loaded with friends and relatives of the poor brewer. They in turn won't rob the merchant because then other merchants may be afraid to come the next time and be so "absent-minded" with their money. Trade? What trade? This doesn't happen with other goods, but many well-respected captains participate in some sort of a maritime escort service (which they presumably present as protection racket or ransom).

Live Action TV

• Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, as well as just about every Klingon ever to appear on the series (exception made for Worf's son Alexander).
  • Worf himself is actually himself a kind of subversion. While most Klingon warriors are even more obsessed about battles and glory, Worf is widely considered to be the most uptight, traditional, and humorless Klingon alive. Most other Klingons are much more easygoing and rarely feel bound to follow traditions, and while they still tend to be rough and proud, they can actually quite fun and welcoming people to be around.
  • Some of this may be because Worf was actually raised by human foster parents. Though they tried their best to accommodate and encourage him, it could be that his books on Klingon culture had some things wrong, or he's just trying way too hard to be "a true Klingon."
  • The importance of honor in Klingon culture changed over time. Klingons in Star Trek: The Original Series and in the associated movies, who are mostly filling the role of designated Federation antagonist, aren't hesitant about winning through guile or outright deceit (the Organian peace caused direct warfare to be less of an option, in any case).
    • Duras and Chancellor Gowron go to great lengths to prove that the Klingons are as dishonorable and sneaky as ever. The concept of an honorable warrior is a cultural ideal, not a universal cultural truth. Our main source of information on Klingon society, Worf - an orphan, raised in a radically different culture from his own, and an officer in a generally Lawful Good military - idealizes and glorifies his original culture. Time and again, we see that Worf is a paragon of Klingon virtue. Nearly every other powerful Klingon fails to live up to that standard of honor, with the notable exceptions of Martok and Worf's brother Kurn. Kurn's time as a powerful Klingon is short-lived, after Gowron expels him from the High Council and essentially blacklists him. However, even afterwards, he continues to attempt to live honorably, refusing to commit suicide because of its accompanying dishonor.
  • The Andorians are another Proud Warrior Race, and the Romulans have some shades of this (though they often balance "honor" with being sneaky, devious Magnificent Bastards). And as Quark observes (and Kirk once acknowledged), even humans (who insist they've outgrown all that) can get downright savage at times. Put it this way, Trek has a lot of Proud Warrior Races.
• By extension, the Worf equivalent in Star Wreck, Dwarf, and his race, the Plingons.
• The Jem'Hadar from DS9 also fit the bill. They exist solely to fight for the Dominion and appear to follow a code of honour; although it was never as clearly laid out for the audience as the Klingons' was, it was implied to be similar as a Jem'Hadar First who fought Worf seemed to understand him. The Jem'Hadar know their masters can be cruel, unjust and unreasonable, but - like Klingons - once they've given their allegiance (and they're bred from birth to give allegiance to the Founders), they will honour it.

Third: "Until we re-establish communications, we will hold this world for the Dominion."
Fifth: "And if we cannot re-establish communications?"
Third: "Then we will hold this world for the Dominion... until we die."

• Subverted in Star Trek: Voyager with Klingon-human hybrid B'Elanna Torres, who thinks Klingon culture is over-rated and blames it for everything that went wrong in her life. She does however become more accepting of her heritage over the course of the series.
• Star Trek: Enterprise actually deconstructed and reconstructed this one all in the same episode. "Judgement" had Captain Archer being tried for crimes against the Klingon Empire in an homage/copy of Star Trek VI. What set the episode apart is a lengthy discussion Archer had with his counsellor about the nature of honor and glory among Klingons. His counsellor explained that the society originally encouraged other honorable professions such as doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc. But that the culture eventually shifted towards a glory-obsessed warrior base. "Kill something, whether it be strong or weak, it didn't matter, then we go to the bar and gloat about our conquest." Not only did Archer get a life sentence, the counsellor was given a short prison term for speaking out. Archer was rescued, but the counsellor stayed to serve his sentence so he could peacefully try to change the culture. It isn't that being a warrior is bad; it's when being a warrior becomes everything that trouble occurs.
• Tyr Anasazi from Andromeda; many other Nietzschean prides cross over into Exclusively Evil territory, but it's not universal—some even count as Warrior Poets.
• Teal'c from Stargate SG-1. It should be noted that, apart from being a Warrior Poet, Teal'c is actually extremely kind, loyal and friendly. His tough side really only comes out when he's with enemies.
  • He even becomes ironically aware of this role as the series progresses, such as a tenth-season episode that ends with SG-1 enjoying a poker game:

A true warrior... knows when to fold 'em.

• Ronon and Teyla from Stargate Atlantis
  • Though they fit the attitudes of the trope, they're not exactly members of warrior races. Teyla's people are agrarian nomads, Teyla fights because she's their leader and protector. Ronon is shown to have come from a world that appeared to be roughly equivalent to middle-to-late 20th Century Earth. He was a soldier, true, but not from a Planet of Hats.
• Hawk from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He is also something of a Warrior Poet.
• D'Argo from Farscape (who also parodies this trope in a Season four episode by remarking, "You know, I've never put this into words... but I love shooting stuff. And I'm very good at it.")
  • The powers behind Farscape encouraged Anthony Simcoe (D'Argo) to subvert this archetype at every opportunity, even excluding the various whacky/gay D'Argos from the various mind-screw episodes. D'Argo was basically an inexperienced teenage father when he was imprisoned. He consciously struggles with his own violent impulses, only ever really wanted to just earn his honor in battle and then settle down, become a farmer and grow wine. He had a sense of humor and grew to appreciate human culture, while becoming cynical of certain aspects of his own culture. He also was elected Captain of his ship by the last season, which acknowledged how he had outgrown his immaturity.
  • Further subverts the archetype in one of the episodes in which the crew lands on earth. A police officer discovers them on Halloween however Noranti saves the day by drugging him with a powder which causes him to imagine D'Argo taking of his 'mask' to reveal the obligatory large African American (or Australian in this case).
  • Furthermore, Luxans as a whole subvert one fairly standard cliche of this trope: they do not have an obsession with dying honorably in battle. They accept it as a possibility, but it seems fairly clear that, all other things being equal, they'd rather die of old age.
    • Aeryn Sun, when not denying her Peacekeeper past, is one of these. In addition, Rygel has occasionally claimed to be a warrior king, and even Crichton will comment on human's combat prowess.
      • Of course, Rygel's concept of being a warrior king was to order fleets into battle and remain comfortably at home while some other planet was beaten to a pulp.
    • Humans are superior!
• The Sontarans and Ice Warriors in Doctor Who. And the Draconians. And the Sycorax, sort of. Man, there are a lot of these.
  • When your hero is a Technical Pacifist, who else would his enemies be?
  • Also an allied Proud Warrior Race Girl in Leela, who combined this trope nicely with Hot Amazon.
  • Most of these examples are also notable for being the LEAST powerful enemies the doctor faces. They are almost always outmatched by ordinary human soldiers when it comes down to a straight-up fight, especially in the renewed series.
  • Given the general distaste for violence and warfare, Doctor Who tends to be much less nuanced and tolerant in its approach to these than most current shows. PWRs in Who, almost without exception, are arrogant, brutal thugs whose "warrior codes of honour" say nothing about not unprovokedly attacking the peaceful and outclassed. (The Ice Warriors are occasionally decent.)
  • The Sontarans view everything as part of the war effect and thus take everything with military seriousness:

I can produce magnificent quantities of lactic fluids!

• • King Yrcanos (played by Brian Blessed!) in the story "Mindwarp" is a more positive example of a Proud Warrior Race Guy than the ones listed above; he is slightly ludicrous in his constant blustering but mostly on the side of right.
    • That was only because the story in question had a major case of Crapsack World and Evil Versus Evil: in many more optimistic Doctor Who stories Yrcanos would have been a bloodthirsty villain by comparison to nicer characters.
• The Uvodni in The Sarah Jane Adventures are a subversion. It turns out that they only fought to ensure peace on their world, and the Ship's Computer lead them to beleive that the war was still going, even though it had ended ten years ago.
• In Angel Lorne's entire race is like this - except him, regarded as a disgrace for his nonviolent tendencies, lack of suicidal bravery, and ability to see the other guy's point of view. Also because he can sing, which to the rest is akin to a terrible debilitating sonic attack.
• The Warrior Caste of the Minbari on Babylon 5 had this attitude, to some degree, especially the more fanatical ones who refused to accept the seemingly nonsensical surrender to an almost-wiped-out Earth. Of course, the war itself was somewhat nonsensical, but that was the Religious Caste's fault.
  • The Religious caste started the war, but when they had second thoughts, the Warrior Caste enthusiastically kept it going.
    • The Grey Council had just had their leader, as well as who knows how many others, killed in a particularly brutal example of Culture Shock. It's pretty clear that nobody was thinking clearly at the moment. It makes sense that the hidebound Grey Council would fall back on what they normally do to solve dilemmas.
    • Living in the same universe with Centauri, Narn, and now Humans (who have a rather interesting history to say the least) let alone the Shadows is not a thing that tends to make for amiable personality traits. If your mother had told you that the Evil Dark Crab Monsters would get you if you weren't good, what would you be like?
  • The Minbari Warrior Caste seemed to act in a rather wussy manner during the Shadow War and let the Religious Caste do their fighting for them.
    • Though not considered canon, many B5 fans think the Warrior Caste, like the Clarke Administration and Emperor Cartagia's government, had been infiltrated and influenced by the Shadows. Even if this wasn't the case, long-standing tensions between the two castes, exacerbated by the Grey Council's controversial decision to end the war with Earth without telling the warrior caste why they were ordered to surrender at the eve of victory, go a long way toward explaining the Warrior Caste's behavior during the Shadow crisis: they felt betrayed and manipulated by the Religious Caste, and weren't about to let the same thing happen again. Instead, they focused on trying to wrestle political power away from the Religious Caste, and started a Minbari civil war in the process.
• Ziva David in NCIS would probably count though she is probably somewhat hyperbolic: Real Life Badass Israeli s, even Mossad assassins are probably not that flamboyant or as vain about their skills.

Music

• The Barbarian in Ayreon's Into the Electric Castle fits this trope perfectly. He constantly brags about the battles he's fought and dies when his pride drives him to go through the Sparkly Door of Death.

Mythology And Religion

• Valhala, basically warrior heaven. Guess the occupants.

Newspaper Comics

• Flash Gordon: Pretty nearly every race on Mongo would qualify. Lion Men, Hawkmen, Arborians, etc. In the Filmation TV series, Flash is quick to point out that the only reason Ming can get away with tyrannizing the planet is that all the races are at each others' throats instead of uniting against him. Flash works very hard to help fix that.

Tabletop Games

• The Vorox, a race of large, primitive, aggressive, six-limbed furry aliens from the Fading Suns roleplaying game. To make them appear extra-special cool with cream on top, the authors even gave them their own special alien martial arts style.
• Another roleplaying game example: The Falar and the Tulgar from the Spacemaster Privateers universe. Both races are anthropomorphic animals: The Falar are large Catfolk (with subraces looking like tigers, lions and other large cats); they are aggressive, competitive, psychotically arrogant "proud warriors" who look down on anyone they consider weak (or pacifist). The Tulgar are humanoid lupines that look like upright walking wolves, somewhat taller than humans; their culture revolves around the concept of honor and loyalty to the family; their knights fear dishonor above all and follow a chivalric code. And yes, they dress vaguely Asian. Can you say "samurai"?
• Minotaurs in Magic: The Gathering, especially the character Tahngarth.
• The Clans of BattleTech are extremely socialist and honor-driven societies divided cleanly into five castes - with the warriors taking the top rank.
  • They fight to see who gets to fight (trial by combat).
• Given the nature of the Warhammer 40,000 setting, the description sort of applies to most races that are still around to be described, but it applies best to the Orks, whose entire culture, biology, nature and philosophy is built for "Waaaagh" fare.
  • There's also the Space Marines and the Sisters of Battle, who are both raised-from-childhood fanatical warriors, as well as many Imperial Guard regiments. The Catachan Deathworld Veterans, for example, come from a planet where simply living to adulthood is an accomplishment, and the Cadian Shock Troops begin live fire exercises before being taught to read and write.
    • Cadian Shock Troops are noted to be among the greatest soldiers mankind has ever produced; they are among the only human troops universally respected by even the Space Marines. Over 70% of the planet's population is under arms, there are billions of soldiers and population is maintained through special breeding programs.
  • There's also the Eldar of Biel-Tan, whose Craftworld is mainly run not by farseers, but by exarchs and autarchs. Anyone who thinks the Eldar hat is being clairvoyant, manipulative bastards has never met the Swordwind.
  • While they may lack in honor, Dark Eldar are certainly extremely proud and definitely a warrior species. Every single one of them is a fighter - they have slave labor to take care of all non-combat activities; except torture, which they do personally.
  • The Tau Fire Caste might qualify, being an entire group raised from birth for combat and having strong martial discipline, but in contrast to the other races they are somewhat of a subversion of the archetype. For example, they attribute no dishonor to a sensible strategic retreat, and consider a "glorious last stand" to be the last resort of an inept commander. They do have pride and honor, just of a form unusual in the setting.
  • This trope also fits Chaos to a degree. Just about every cultist, daemon, traitor guardsman or marine see going to war in the name of Chaos as one of the highest forms of worship. Although it's arguable to what extent exactly each Chaos warband fits this trope, such as there only being shades of it with the servants of scheming Tzeentch, hedonistic Slaanesh, and pestulant Nurgle. Chaos Undivided seems to fit the trope more than those three, but the followers of Khorne are the kings of this trope as far as Chaos goes. And are also the kings of this trope for the whole setting, really. Their God, whom they strive to emulate, has the title of the Brass Lord of Battle for God's sake. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
• For that matter, darn near everything in Warhammer Fantasy Battle, from the fairly standard-issue Dwarves (except with GUNS), Brettonian Knights, hilariously feral Orcs, the men of the Hordes of Chaos, the single-minded Saurus warriors of the Lizardmen...
  • And let's not forget the various types of elves, from the High Elves and their single-minded Swordmasters, White Lions and Pheonix Guard (not to mention the fact ALL elves forms part of a really quite deadly citizen levy) to the Wood Elves and their bloodthirsty wild hunt. Of course those are the two nice elven factions. Dark Elves happily mix this with Axe Crazy and a single-minded worship of their god of war.
• In Dungeons & Dragons, most dwarven cultures are portrayed as strongly militaristic and belligerent, but still honorable and friendly to their allies. Hobgoblins, on the other hand, run closer to the "psychotically violent" end of the scale as a culture of grim, rigidly regimented raiders; other "savage humanoids" like orcs, gnolls, and bugbears also have cultures based around violence (they are there for players to slaughter en masse, after all), but lack the hobgoblins' formal militarism. 4th Edition has the dragonborn, a new race of mercenaries and warriors who value honor and loyalty.
  • The Tuigan tribal nation in D&D's Forgotten Realms setting were a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to the real-world medieval Mongols, and as such had a militant society revolving around mounted combat. This changed when their emperor, Yamun Khahan, died; the survivors of the horde either integrated into the local agrarian populace or went back to the steppes, where Yamun's son started encouraging them to settle down in towns and sponsored peaceful contact with their neighbors.
  • The elves of the Valaes Tairn in Eberron are essentially what happens when Klingons, Mongols, and the Vietcong are given a scimitar and let rip. The literal worst insult in their culture is accusing someone of disgracing the blood of his ancestors - and if you say this to one, he will gleefully cut you in half.
  • There are also the Ysgardian natives, who love fighting and tend to challenge everyone to a duel to the death... forgetting that non-natives don't get back up at the end of the day. Oops.
• Werewolves in World of Darkness. Both Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Werewolf: The Forsaken present Glory and Honor as forms of renown and rank in werewolf society, and the Garou of Werewolf: the Apocalypse are explicitly defined as "the warriors of Gaia." The Get of Fenris (from Apocalypse) and the Blood Talons (from Forsaken) are probably the purest embodiment of this trope, though.
• Another Old World of Darkness example: the trolls of Changeling: The Dreaming. One book says that the various kiths of changelings are born from dreams of mankind; trolls are born from dreams of honor. They're some of the greatest warriors in changeling society, and their very nature holds oaths as vitally important.
• In Traveller the Aslan and the Sword Worlders are this. The Aslan are creatures that look like lions to humans, and have a stern code of honor. All male Aslan are theoretically warriors and most useful occupations are done by women. If someone does a designated female occupation they are considered female in Aslan language. More easily understood by the fact that only 1/3 of Aslan are male. Sword Worlders are humans that admire Germanic warriors of yore and think in a manner remarkably similar to Aslan, though men are allowed to actually work. This could cause embarrassment if an Aslan is surprised that the engineer of a passing Sworld Worlder ship is male. And among both of them embarrassments can have awkward results.
  • There are a number of other Proud Warrior Races in Traveller. A number are human sub-cultures, which figures, of course. Notable are the Azhanti whose religion demands that they seek glory.
• Talislanta has quite a few. Thralls and Ahazu come to mind. (The former are basically magically-created clone troopers covered with symbolic tattoos. The latter are a race of four-armed barbarian Blood Knights with a habit of going "shan-ya" in battle.)
• In Exalted, we have the Dragon Kings, humanoid dinosaur-men with Elemental Powers who believe that the best way to venerate the gods is through combat to the death.
  • A lot of other cultures, including many icewalkers and the entire population of Harborhead, would also qualify.

Theater

• Cyrano De Bergerac presents Truth in Television: for centuries, the Gascons have had this reputation among the French, and at the The Cavalier Years they were Impoverished Patricians that sought battle and bloodshed because his culture teaches that dying in battle is the greatest source of personal honor and Glory Seeker. In the play, all the cadets are Gascons, all of them are poor (except De Guiche) because they don't plan for the future (they are going to die young), and very "proud" in the usual sense ("psychotically violent"). This trope is deconstructed because the very traits that make the Gascons great warriors make them poor soldiers: they don't approve of the use of spies or subterfuges in war, and they don’t want to learn such things like how to use a cannon because they prefer the sword. In literature, authors like Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers) and Cervantes (Don Quixote) have recognized Gascuña as home of great warriors… or if you wish, Heroic Sociopaths. This article in English (A cadet of Gascony). and this other in Spanish (Los mosqueteros como herederos de Esparta)
  • Cyrano himself, however, is a literal Warrior Poet.

Toys

• The Vorox in Bionicle were this (the term was used almost word-for-word in the story) before their regression into savage, bestial creatures. The Bota Magna Vorox are still this trope.

Video Games

• Orcs in the Warcraft Universe, starting from Warcraft III.
  • Tauren, from the same setting, are a race of Proud, Wise Hunter Gatherer Guys.
  • The Vrykul, being essentially nine foot tall vikings, are also an example. They are more on the "Psychotic Klingons" side of the spectrum, altho they are extremely honor-bound.
  • Trolls are a much more ruthless and usually xenophobic flavor of Proud Warrior Race Guy. Only the Darkspear and Zandalar treat other races with anything besides general contempt.
• Betrayal at Krondor has a subversion of this in Gorath, a moredhel whose distinguishing feature is his weariness of the self-destructive battle-crazed ways of his people.
• Orcs from Final Fantasy XI are also like this, although more of the "Psychotically Violent" variety.
  • The Elvaan, also from Final Fantasy XI fit this trope, being all about chivalry and such.
• The Orcs from the Elder Scrolls setting.
  • Dremora as well, judging from some of the lines they have.

"It will bring me honor to defeat you."

• • Nords have a lot in common with Orcs, though they had Imperial acceptance long before, they were both the most common raiding tribes. Redguards are an example in a more advanced stage of civilization.
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2's Bangaa fit this. They're more of a regular kind of citizen in Final Fantasy XII though.
  • The bird-like Garif of Final Fantasy XII's Ivalice do fit the bill. Their entire society (apart from the "worshipping the mysterious crystals" thing) wholly revolves around battle, and great honor is given to brave war-chiefs. This doesn't keep them from being wise, patient, and generally benevolent to honorable visitors.
• Kimahri and the other Ronso in Final Fantasy X and are even more so in Final Fantasy X-2.
• The Laguz especially of the Beast Tribe in Fire Emblem Tellius. The beorc are allegedly a Proud Scholar Race in contrast, but they tend just be warriors with more technical weapons, some as strong or stronger than their Laguz counterparts.
• Arceans in Galactic Civilizations
• Alkari and Mrrshans in Master of Orion.
• Bringing us to the Kilrathi, from Origin/Electronic Arts's Wing Commander series of video games.
• Kratos from God of War, who loves doing things "For the glory of Sparta!" His wife denies this, stating: "Sparta? You did this for yourself."
  • In fact, most depictions of Sparta (such as 300) tend to have them (at least their ruling class, the Spartiates) as a city-state of proud warrior guys. Ancient Sparta itself may have been a real-life version of the trope, along with many other warrior cultures of history.
• One of the few things established about Samus Aran from Metroid is that she's a Proud Warrior Race Girl - raised by the Chozo, her constant pursuit of battle is in memory of their warrior tradition... it's a pity most of the actual Chozo abandoned this for scientific and philosophical pursuits, or the Chozo might still be around.
• The Protoss in StarCraft, especially Fenix. Only the Dark Templar seem more down-to-earth.
  • This might be because most of the Protoss characters encountered and played in the game are members of the Protoss' warrior-caste (The Templar), StarCraft being a war game. Members of the civilian/artisan/scientist/laborer caste (the Khalai) and the clergy/government caste (the Judicators) justifiably don't make much of an appearance.
• Mass Effect has the disciplined Turians and the thuggish Krogans, the latter of which are brilliantly Deconstructed Trope: the krogan are so violent and vicious that when afflicted with a Depopulation Bomb that is killing off their entire species by making them unable to breed, they can't even organize themselves to develop a cure; instead, the majority of them simply hire themselves out as mercenaries and spread out across the galaxy. In the sequel, conditions may have improved provided that Wrex survived the first game. If so, you find that he fought and browbeat his way to the top of Krogan society between games, and is now running a truce zone between the various clans.
  • Curiously, in Mass Effect 3 this can develop into practically a full-blown schism between those who, like Wrex and Eve, emphasize the proud (and the race, if necessary), and those who, like Wreav, emphasize the warrior. This leads to one of the more bizarre sights in the game: a Patrick Stewart Speech delivered by a krogan. And, armed with the ultimate bargaining chip (the genophage cure), it works.
  • On the other hand, the turians, with their focus on discipline and authority, are Proud Soldier Race Guys. They have a regimented meritocratic society that requires a term of military service to advance beyond the first tier of citizenship. They tend to be bad at entrepreneurship, though, so they had to take the volus as a client race. They have a more pragmatic approach to combat as well; preferring long range superiority; less focus on hand to hand and more on squad firing tactics, and the most dreadnoughts (long range monsters of warships) than any other member of the Citadel. And they're not above leveling a city block from orbit to get one enemy squad if they have orbital superiority.
  • Some of the other races see the humans as this, since their debut on the galactic society scene was to figuratively bloody the Turians' noses in the "First Contact War".
  • And, coming as a bit of a shock to Liara, the Protheans were what happens when you give a krogan the ability to think in the long term and removed Blood Knight tendencies, according to Javik. Also something of a Reconstructed Trope-their more patient and pragmatic attitude combined with power in battle allowed them to survive Reapers for centuries, and gave the current cycle of sapients the ability to actually win against the next invasion.
    • It's implied, however, that the Protheans in general and Javik in particular are the way they are specifically because he was born about two hundred years into a three-hundred-year-long Hopeless War and that in better times they were, if not necessarily nice people (they still had a galactic empire, recall), at least less fanatical. Getting your entire view of a species from their avatar of Vengeance is bound to color your view a bit.
• Star Control 2 gives us a total of three species of Proud Warrior Race Guy: the thuggish Thraddash, the vaguely Scottish Yehat and the vaguely Japanese Shofixti. The Thraddash regularly lose centuries of achievement in determining what the strongest Culture is.
• The Trophies from Super Smash Bros. are an entire species of Proud Warrior Race Guy since all they do is fight, or watch people fighting. The trophies consider not being able to fight like being dead.
• The Sangheili/Elites from Halo play up the "Proud" aspects of this trope. The book The Cole Protocol plays this up to extremes. Think of imperial Japan on crack. Mind you, the viewpoint character is the equivalent of a shogun, so the ruling classes may just be Always Chaotic Jerkass.
  • Also the Jiralhanae/Brutes, for the "psycho klingon" side of this trope. Think the Turian/Krogan side presented in the Mass Effect entry.
  • How proud are the Elites you say? Many of them die because they ran out of ammo and refused to use a human weapon, even if it was better than what they had...so instead, they just rushed the human front.
  • In Halo: Glasslands, this trope is Deconstructed. Now that the Covenant has fallen and the Elites don't have the Prophets to rule them and the Engineers to build/fix stuff for them, their society is having to do some serious reorganization as they try to remember how to self-govern and have a self-sufficient military. It's implied that something similar is happening to the Brutes, who are not dealing with it nearly as well.
    • As said by the main Sangheili character, Jul, "It's easier to vaporize a planet from orbit than to build a society from scratch". Another commented that "You can't expect warriors to stop fighting", in regards to a rebellion they're organizing. Jul also struggles with the whole underhandedness of the rebellion, as it involves lying and treachery when he'd rather run screaming at something with his sword.
  • The Sangheili sense of honor is a little skewed, by human standards. While most warrior cultures view battle scars as badges of honor, the Sangheili view them as symbols of shame. Being wounded by an enemy is considered to be dishonorable. A true warrior is able to walk out of a battle without any wounds whatsoever.
• The four-armed Shokan race of Mortal Kombat, particularly Sheeva from MK3.
  • Their rivals, the Centaurs, as well; their blood feud was what sparked Sheeva's chest-beating in MK3, and when the Centaurs were cursed with a minotaur/satyr body in Armageddon, their vanity over the loss of their back legs was what caused them to accuse the Shokan of the deed, restarting their war.
• The Minmatar from EVE Online, particularly the Brutor Tribe.
• In Huxley, the "Alteraver".
• The Tarka in Sword of the Stars are both a stellar example and a shining subversion of this trope: They are warlike and view war as a method for gaining status and glory, but they are also a race of pragmatics with a very practical outlook who consider fighting 'honorably' and 'fair', and the concept of the Heroic Sacrifice, to be very odd at best. In one of the universe's backstories, a human gains a Tarka's respect after he challenges her to a fist-fight and wins by leading her into an ambush by all his friends, who pelt her with sling stones—by thinking outside the box, he proved himself a warrior in her eyes.
  • However, they do have a highly developed sense of honour in soceity - a better way of putting this would be a Proud Warrior Race in theory, but smart enough to fight dirty to survive.
  • In the novel Deacon's Tale, the Tarka lie in ambush using cloaked ships. Definitely not the mark of a Proud Warrior Race, although the battlegroup commander laments that the enemy only has a single cruiser against his four. Then two more show up.
• The Spartan Federation in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, as its name implies. Ostensibly, its ideological emphasis on military power is just being Crazy Prepared, but what is shown of its culture in the novelizations and in-game quotations also qualifies this faction as a Proud Warrior Race.
  • They take their Spartan "heritage" seriously in the novelization. Any child that is found to be too weak is taken outside and has his or her throat cut. The exception is Colonel Santiago's own son, who, while weak as a child, ends up leading the Spartans against the mindworms when he grows up.
• In Lusternia, all of the Second Circle Gods are this, and are organized into cadres based on total loyalty and common kinship. Those Seconds that aren't in a cadre, and prefer to hunt alone - like Shikari, the Predator—are regarded as disreputable, or even freakish. Those mortal races descended from Second Circle Gods also count.
• Tai Kaliso, and other South Islanders from the Gears of War series.
• The Helghast from the Killzone series seem to have evolved into this by the second main game. Their capital city of Pyrrhus is largely a run-down dump, except for the military academies and the Imperial Palace; the characters even comment on this. Also, there's one instance of Enemy Chatter where it's made plainly clear that the soldiers of the Helghast hold their civilians in a high degree of contempt.
• The Minotaur Firewalkers from Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords. Though all Minotaurs seem to be born fighters, only the Firewalkers (basically Warrior Priests) care about the other stuff like honor.
• Okku the bear "god" in Neverwinter Nights 2 Mask of The Betrayer. One conversation reveals he is following you due to a debt owned to a previous Spirit Eater. Another conversation with carrion eating spirits (and his combat taunt "eater of carrion") shows he finds such behavoir disgraceful.
• Albion has the Kenget Kamulos, an underground-living people that are one branch of the descendants of Celtic humans who mysteriously migrated to another planet long ago. Bordering on Always Lawful Evil, they live in a society entirely dedicated to their god of war, Kamulos, and go on about how warriors are superior to everyone else (especially to women and nonhumans) and, in an interesting twist, how those warriors who need weapons are inferior to those who don't (wizards).
• The Agorians in Ratchet and Clank Future A Crack In Time are an overexaggeration of this trope.
• Canderous Ordo in Knights of the Old Republic and Mandalore himself though they are the same person in Knights of the Old Republic 2 are posterchildren for this trope.
  • The Handmaidens and the Echani in general also qualify, though in a less extreme manner
    • A sequence of duels between two members of the opposite sex in Echani culture constitutes a courtship, of sorts.
  • The whole concept is torn down brilliantly by Carth Onasi:

Carth: I'm not a warrior, I'm a soldier. There's a difference. Warriors attack and conquer, they prey on the weak. Soldiers defend and protect the innocent - mostly from warriors.

• • He also brings up a painfully valid point in the same conversation: what happens to the Proud Warrior Race Guy when he loses?
• Dag'Rek from the PlayStation 2 game Run Like Hell is a perfect example of this trope.
• Most of the Qunari in Dragon Age come across as this to some extent or another; however, it's eventually revealed that most of the examples encountered are from the "Body of the Qun"- in other words, a warrior caste among many different castes. Much like other traditional Proud Warrior Race types, this caste believes deeply in honourable conduct and martial prowess, to the point that they value their swords as natural extensions of their souls. However, even the warriors aren't totally defined by this; instead, like all Qunari, they believe that everything has its absolute, unchanging place in the cosmic way of things, and theirs is to fight until the entire world embraces the philosophy of the Qun.
  • Except for the mages. Kill those damn Saarebas!
• Jora in Guild Wars; arguably the Norn as a whole, whose culture seems to be a blend of Viking and Native American, and who really, REALLY love brawling. Possibly also Pyre Fierceshot; he and his warband seem to be an exception to the Exclusively Evil mentality of the Charr in general.
• In the promotional videos for Guild Wars 2, the Norn seem to have gained more of the Native American ideals, but the Charr have become an amazingly good example of this trope. Check out the Races video on youtube to see just cool this is.
  • Also subverted, in that the Charr are organized like an actual army-ie, concerned with things like "practicality", "research" and "general well-being of it's members". Like the turians, they're really more like Proud Soldier Race Guys.
• Orcs again in Heroes of Might and Magic V. Somewhat justified in that they were specifically created for that purpose by infusing human criminals with demon blood.
• The Dekans and the Giants from Rohan Online.
• The Deatheaters, the main Fury warrior race, from Shaiya.
• Mathosians and bahmi (the latter also being a Proud Artisan Race) are the most obvious examples in Rift, although dwarves also have hints of it.
• Any Warrior or Zealot race in Spore (unless you play one against type).
  • Though, due to an increase in fight difficulty, many players of the warrior archetype will find themselves somewhat less violent after entering the space stage.
• The Split in the X-Universe are basically clones of the Klingons.
• The Aurorans in Escape Velocity: Nova are good examples. Their bloodthirstiness varies by House, however.
  • Ironically, the Proud Warrior-est house among them, the Heraani, are also the ones most likely to recognize that noncombat occupations have merit. Which is why they get innovative ships like the Argosy and Thunderforge: they actually pay for scientific research.
  • Over in Polaris space, the Nil'kemorya, the Polaran military caste, are Proud Soldier Race Guys.
• Soldiers are portrayed as a Proud Warrior Race in Metal Gear. Much of the conflict in the series comes from soldiers deciding that modern politics have neutered warfare and to raise soldiers to a ruling class once again.

Web Comics

• The Antreyki from Triquetra Cats, anthropomorphic Proud Warrior Race which demands all members at a certain age enlist in the military.
• The Jägermonsters from Girl Genius, who are an army of humans mutated into supersoldiers by the Heterodyne family, and loyal first and foremost to the Heterodyne family. In addition to their long lives, prodigious strength, and accent-inducing fangs, they appear to have built a religion... around hats.
• The Basitins from Twokinds. Their military prowess is rather nullified by their paranoia, xenophobia and extreme prudishness, all of which keep their population small, isolated, and begging to be wiped out.
• Felucca from Earthsong.
• The Galapagos from Terinu, being deliberately genetically engineered to be even more aggressive than humans by their creator. The lead Galapados, General Gisko, subverts this trope slightly, being shown to be a loving and gentle husband at home who frets over his wife's pregnancy.
• Subverted in Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger! Groonch proudly embraces his supposed warrior race heritage, but he was raised with very little knowledge of his species. The protagonist (of a different species) informs him that only a handful of extinct tribes fit the bill.
• Erogenians in The Challenges of Zona.
• The Angels in Slightly Damned seem to be alarmingly militarised, so much so that even their artisans are forced into combat.
• Supposedly the Trolls from Homestuck - although the only ones important to the story haven't been fielded yet, there isn't really any other word to describe a society in which everyone above a certain age leaves their birth planet and joins the military. Oddly, each and every one of the trolls we see instory is actually a social or societial reject for one reason or another, and the majority of them would probably be culled long before they were ever recruited.
• K'seliss in Goblins, and presumably the whole Lizardfolk race by extention.
• The Scots of Chimneyspeak. Notable as being the ones who successfully captured Chelsea Grinn.
• Schlock Mercenary doesn't have much use for hats, but there are inclinations.
  • Ob'enn are a theocracy of xenophobic warlords, who care about losing one's face, but value military prowess over theatrics.
  • There's little known about Uniocs, but they seem to like styling themselves clannish noble warriors, though practically their trends are being somewhat aggressive (this very much includes business), rather tough or obstinate and having foresight, rather than obsession with honour. Here an old professor doesn't take Schlock too seriously despite knowing what he faces. When goings get tough, you see a patrol frigate attack something at least 5 times more massive than the largest giant planet in their system, "because they started it".
  • Fobott'r, as the species dragged into galactic society and got a dubious reputation for a while (their planet was taken over by corporations for beads and mirrors, and then they took it back by force), so outside of their homeworld they adopted the life of nomadic mercenary clans, as such they value fairness and take the whole camaraderie thing very seriously.

Web Original

• The Global Guardians PBEM Universe features the Xorn, who invaded Earth in 1985, slaughtered nearly a billion people worldwide, introduced alien animals and plants to earth's ecology, and left behind tens of thousands of slaves from other races, all of whom were stuck with no way home when the invasion was defeated.

Western Animation

• Dinobot, in Transformers: Beast Wars, despite the fact that he's the only member of his race who acts that way. Nobody ever mentioned this on the show, though... Presumably, they knew better than to say so within earshot of Dinobot.
  • Some of the other Predacons do have shades of this as well, but in a more Blood Knight sort of way. Also, some incarnations of the original Dinobots, when they're not portrayed as either knuckle-dragging bufoons or completely animalistic.
  • Don't forget that most of the Predacons we are part of Megatron's crew, and only Dinobot (soldier) and Megatron (general) are true Pred military types. Other than that, we only see Ravage and the Tripredacus council.
  • In Transformers Cybertron, the denizes of Jungle Planet are like this. Their leader, Scourge, even owes a little of his design to Dinobot.
• Hawkgirl from Justice League. As we see in the Christmas Episode, her idea of celebration involves starting a Bar Brawl. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are borderline cases.
  • Basically, Wonder Woman and Aquaman are royalty from Proud Warrior Races, while Hawkgirl is a warrior from a Proud Warrior Race.
• Teen Titans has Starfire and her fellow Tamaraneans, though as mentioned above, the TV version of Starfire herself is a Genki Girl. Of course, bad guys who have underestimated her have found out that she hasn't forgotten where she came from. When she gets to fully cut loose, it's a thing of beauty.
• The appropriately named Warmonga and Warhok of the Lorwardians (Get it?) in Kim Possible.
• The New Mandalorians in Star Wars: The Clone Wars repeatedly emphasize that they used to be this, but have renounced such ways. Death Watch leader Pre Vizsla and his men, on the other hand, are determined to live up to their ancestors' legacy.
• The Triceratons on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003.
• The Krang on Bravestarr.
• In the My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic episode "Hearth's Warming Eve", the ancestors of the pegasi (a mish-mash of ancient Greek, Spartan, Roman, and conquistador imagery) are depicted as such a culture, exemplified by their domineering, militaristic leader Commander Hurricane, who even describes his/her people as "a mighty tribe of warriors". (And does Rainbow Dash ever play it up.)