Can read and speak many languages and read some dead and ancient scripts.

Barik the Scholar studied under the famous and erudite Credibilius the Believable, in one of the major centres of learning in the Kingdom of Brydd, or so his testimonial stated when he presented himself to the House of Akulatraxa some twenty years ago. Why he left the civilised southern lands for the wild and turbulent region of Sask, he was never quite able, or perhaps willing, to explain.

His ability to speak and write different languages and his knowledge of the law, and lore, of the regions of Aereth (much of it purely theoretical and speculative, it must be owned) make him a useful secretary, tutor and courier to the family. The current head of the house, the self-styled King (tyrant to others) Offo, entrusted him to find precedents and evidence for his claim to Kingship. Faced with finding them, or having his feet roasted over and open fire, Barik amazingly came across such documents in the archives housed in the fortress of The Great Orm.

He was sometime Tutor to the headstrong Princess Fredegund and accompanied her when she was exchanged as an hostage - being sent into the care of the fearsome warlord Tancred.