Proud Warrior Race Guy / Video Games

• Age of Wonders 3: Given the game's military focus, arguably everyone qualifies, but there are a few stand-out examples:
  • Orcs, nautrally. They're not inherently evil, but flavor text suggests they usually are. Evil or good, they are excellent destroying things and quite enjoy it. Their cavalry even uses meat-eating nightmares.
  • Frostlings from the Eternal Lords are basically fantasy vikings, and also mammoth-riding ice-people. Like orcs, they aren't necessarily evil, but they fight well and quite enjoy raiding.
  • The Warlord leader class can turn anyone, even halflings, into this. No matter what kind of people they have to work with, the Warlord can train them into berserkers, mounted cavalry, manticore riders, monster hunters, or a number of other elite martial units. At the cost of magical ability.
• 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).
• Battleborn: The Jennerit have a strong appreciation for warfare and martial combat. As a society, they venerate warriors of all stripes and participate widely as a culture in observing the events held within the numerous Jennerit Fighting Pits found on almost any settled Jennerit world, both within the lower settlements and the floating cities of their throneworld of Tempest.
• 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.
• Broken Age: The saccharine, baking-obsessed town of Sugar Bunting seems quite harmless — and indeed, it sacrifices maidens to Mog Chathra in order to remain in peace. But, as Grandpa Beastender claims and Alex confirms, it used to be home to one of these, feared by man and beast alike.
• Dragon Age:
  • Most of the Qunari 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.
  • And despite their dislike of magic in general, even Saarebas have their place in the Qun. Granted, their place comes with heavy restraints and shackles, their mouths sewn shut and being permanently under the gaze of their Arvaraad handlers, but why quibble with semantics?
  • Warrior caste Dwarves can also fall into this, although it's deconstructed with Oghren — when the Warden first meets him, he's an ornery drunk who killed someone due to his ingrained combat responses, and since that led to him being forbidden to carry weapons or fight, he's basically moved to the nearest tavern on a permanent basis. By the time of Awakening he leaves his second wife and their child to join the Grey Wardens, because he's not suited to live in society; all he's good at is killing.
• The Elder Scrolls: With Nirn^note the planet where the series takes place, with all games to date having taken place on the continent of Tamriel being such a World of Badass, every race has at least some "warrior" traits which have helped them to survive and for which they are proud of. However, a few races have this trope invoked in-universe:
  • The Nords. A race of Men, they exemplify the idea that Humans Are Warriors. It took a mere 500 of their best warriors to annihilate the entire Falmer (Snow Elves) civilization. Being a great warrior is even at the heart of their religion, where only those who die a glorious death in combat get into their ideal afterlife, Sovngarde (modeled after the real life Valhalla). While most Nords follow the main religion of most of Tamriel (the Nine Divines), many hold Talos, the ascended god form of Emperor Tiber Septim and God of War, as the chief deity of the pantheon. When worship of Talos is banned in the 4th Era, it launches them into a bloody civil war, as seen in Skyrim. This has also led to them having a disdain for magic (that and magic's association with the Falmer) though Healing is held in high regard (no surprise) and despite them looking down on it, they're still happy to buy potions and magically-enhanced weapons. A character reveals this is a recent phenomenon, as the Nords considered magic (called the Clever Craft) as part of their warrior traditions.
  • The Redguards, a dark-skinned race of Men with a cultural mix of Moors, Arabs, and Samurai, make for some of the greatest warriors in Tamriel, and are perhaps the most skilled individual warriors. Swords and swordsmanship hold a high value in Redguard culture, to the point where the most Sacred Scripture of their race is a treatise on sword techniques. Their greatest ancient warriors, known as the Ansei or "Sword Saints", could summon swords made from their very souls, known as Shehai, and the greatest of those could use a Fantastic Nuke known as the "Pankratosword", in which they would use their swords to "cut the atomos." In the late 2nd Era, it was believed that a Redguard uprising was the greatest threat to Tiber Septim's Rising Empire. Come the 4th Era, they are once again considered one of the only groups who could stand up to a full-blown Aldmeri Dominion assault, something they have already repelled once after the Vestigial Empire ceded much of Hammerfell to the Dominion and the Redguards refused to accept it.
  • In keeping with the Humans Are Warriors theme, there are the Imperials, another race of Men native to Cyrodiil. They come down on the "Soldier" side of the Soldier Versus Warrior debate in contrast to the "Warrior" Nords and Redguards. Their focus is on collective martial prowess, ala the legions of the Roman Empire, and it has allowed them to conquer most or all of Tamriel no fewer than four times. They are also a proud "Diplomat" and "Merchant" race, in that once they've conquered a region with their Legions, they like to build up the region to make it more supportive of the Empire while dominating the economy through trade.
  • The Orcs. Also known as Orsimer (Pariah Folk), their culture believes that Asskicking Leads to Leadership, leading to plenty of Klingon Promotions and many Orcs being Blood Knights. Their racial ability leads to them being fantastic Berserkers, capable of flying into an Unstoppable Rage. The Septim Empire was the first to recruit them into the Imperial Legions, benefiting greatly as the Orcs made for fantastic heavy "shock" infantry. They are also a race of incredibly skilled Blacksmiths, making some of the sturdiest weapons and armor in Tamriel.
  • The Dunmer (Dark Elves) of Morrowind, being one of the series' best examples of a Jack of All Stats race, offer many examples through their "Great Houses". Great House Redoran is the "Warrior House" of the Dunmer, following a strict code of honor and highly valuing martial prowess in its members. They are the Dunmer's first line of defense and even the Imperial Legions recognize the Redorans as a Badass Army. In the backstory, when Tiber Septim was threatening to invade Morrowind, House Redoran was preparing to defend Morrowind on their own while the other Great Houses chose to remain neutral or to accommodate the empire before the armistice was signed. Following the Red Year and subsequent Argonian invasion early in the 4th era, it was the Redorans who stepped up to lead the defense of Morrowind and rebuild the Dunmer way of life after Great House Hlaalu, formerly the strongest Great House, crumbled.
  • The Dremora, a race of lesser Daedra, are very much one of these. They are constantly obsessed with honor through combat, and the strongest of their race rise into leadership positions. They are frequently found in service to the Daedric Prince of Destruction, Mehrunes Dagon, whom they serve as Legions of Hell, and are Blood Knights who seek out the toughest foes. While they generally look down on mortals, they will consider any who can best them in combat to be a Worthy Opponent.
  • Similarly, the Aureals (aka Golden Saints) and Mazken (aka Dark Seducers), two forms of lesser Daedra in service to Sheogorath, are these as well. Each has a heavily militaristic society, thriving on conflict and warfare. They are known to engage in conflicts with each other for both the favor of Sheogorath and simply as an outlet for their aggression.
  • Skyrim reveals that the Dragons (Dov or Dovah) have this type of culture. Due to the urge for conquest and domination being an inherent trait within their species, whenever two Dragons meet, one will naturally try to dominate the other. This is part of the reason (aside from outright fear) why most Dragons have a tendency to attack the Dragonborn on sight. The belief that the strongest should lead them is why so many follow Alduin and why so many of his underlings begin to question his right to rule when he flees during battle with the Dragonborn, since a true Dovah would keep fighting until their death, rather than admit defeat.
• Elohim Eternal: The Babel Code:
  • The Idinites were created for the sole purpose of slaying Cainites, and many are eager to join the frontlines. The leading authorities, the Judges, are also expected to fight. While there are scholars, they aren't treated with as much respect as warrior roles.
  • Deconstructed in the prologue. The ex-Judge, Tovit, pushed his daughter to become a warrior and Judge, but this led to her abandoning her post and committing suicide.
  • This is also deconstructed with some of the younger Judges, who find themselves with no purpose in life and no chance for glory after the Idinites won the war against the Cainites.
  • In a twist, the aggelia in the Fortress of Dan reveal that Jehuda and Attika grew tired of the endless war and wanted to make peace with the Cainites, only for an outside voice to manipulate Nestor into framing the Cainites for killing Attika. Earlier than that, Avram attempted to form an alliance with Cain, but the Kosmokraters sabotaged that as well by manipulating the Cainites into killing them. The Kosmokraters do their damndest to ensure that the Idinites remain an example of this trope.
• The Hissho from Endless Space are a playable example. They're a race of staunchly tradition-bound warriors, and almost all of their traits improve their ships' combat abilities. They also gain stacking 'Bushido' bonuses from successfully defeating enemy fleets and taking over occupied systems, maxing out at a 20% increase to weapon damage and a 60% increase to all production for 45 turns. A Hissho player that is able to build momentum through conquest can quickly become unstoppable.
  • Through certain choices, it is possible for the Vaulters to abandon their scholarly trappings to become a more martial culture. Fittingly, as they are Space Norse.
• Escape Velocity: Nova:
  • The Aurorans 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.
• Ever Oasis has the Drauk, who are an all-female race of spear-wielding lizard people who place a great deal of emphasis on personal strength. Your Lancer, Miura, is one of the Drauk, but you can recruit a large number of Drauk townspeople/party members. While all of them are warriors, you discover that their culture places a high value on personal appearance as well—Drauk don't just want to be strong, they want to be strong while looking good, so many of their favorite shops and items tend to be fashion.
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy XI has Orcs that are like this, although more of the "Psychotically Violent" variety. The Elvaan also fit this trope, being all about chivalry and such.
  • Final Fantasy XIV:
    • The Amal'jaa pride themselves on their strengh, particularly the Brotherhood of the Ash, a small splinter group who find the acts of kidnapping and pillaging their brethren commit for the sake of appeasing the primal Ifrit to be cowardly and weak.
    • In a similar vein, the Vanu Vanu like to display their brute strength and will use a war dance to scare off weaker enemies.
    • The people of Ala Mhigo are proud warriors and mercenaries who worship Rhalgr the Destroyer and created the Monk job in the modern day. Though much of the nation had its spirit broken when they were conquered by the Garlean Empire, many resistance groups still thrive and fight back.
    • Many tribes of Xaela Au Ra boast fighting prowess and pride in the Azim Steppe. The Dotharl tribe are perhaps the most battle ready and proud, eager to throw themselves in any conflict and die a glorious death so they may be reincarnated to fight anew.
  • 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.

• The Laguz especially of the Beast Tribe in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. 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.
• Tai Kaliso, and other South Islanders from the Gears of War series.
• 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.
• In Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 the Norn and Charr represent two radically different examples.
  • The Norn are characterized as a blend of Native American and Viking. They enjoy all forms of contest, prize skillful hunters, and consider life-or-death battles as places to prove their worth. Their individualism in all things, even war, means that they lack any army of their own.
  • The Charr are raised as soldiers, taught to value their warband and Legion over their own lives and families. Much like the Turians, they are closer to Proud Soldier Race Guy.
• Halo:
  • The Sangheili/Elites play up the "Proud" aspects of this trope. Heck, the scientific name for the Sangheili is given as "Macto Cognatus", which means "I glorify my kin" in Latin. In particular, their portrayal in the book Halo: The Cole Protocol takes this to extremes; think of Imperial Japan on crack.
    • 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.
    • 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. Sangheili also believe that blood should only be shed in proper combat; as a result, they tend to really hate doctors. The future Arbiter Thel 'Vadam remembers in The Cole Protocol that when he was younger and suffered an injury in the training ring grievous enough to require medical attention, his family had the incident and the resulting trip to the physician hushed up out of fear of what it would do to his reputation if word got out.
    • This culture also gets deconstructed in Sangheili society as the extreme focus on combat and being a warrior has made them intellectually inert in other areas, such as science. As shown in Halo 5: Guardians and related media, the Elites of the Arbiter's Swords of Sanghelios are starting to move away from this; they're still quite proud, but many of them are more earnestly pursuing non-warrior pursuits. The Arbiter is even trying to get rid of his people's disdain towards doctors.
  • Also the Jiralhanae/Brutes, for the "psycho klingon" side of this trope; they're very much a "might makes right" race who take joy in literally eating their enemies. Think the Turian/Krogan side presented in the Mass Effect entry.
  • In post-Halo 3 media like 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, many of whom are having an even harder time dealing with it. As said by Glasslands's main Sangheili character Jul 'Mdama, "It's easier to vaporize a planet from orbit than to build a society from scratch". Another comments 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. As hinted above, the Sangheili do adapt pretty quickly; many factions are now able to design their own technology, and Jul himself becomes by Halo 4 a ruthless pragmatist more than willing to resort to "dishonorable" means.
• 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 mantises in Hollow Knight respect only strength and meet all outsiders with force. They're actually doing the best out of any group in the game, their village seemingly completely free from the Infection; the Hunter's Journal speculates that this is because of their warrior nature. If the Knight defeats their leaders, the Mantis Lords, every mantis in the village will subsequently bow to the Knight, no longer hostile. This doesn't apply to the mantises serving the Traitor Lord, who were forced out alongside him when they became infected and no longer uphold the code of the village.
• Deconstructed with the Komato in Iji, an aggressive race of aliens bound and determined to wipe out the Tasen, even going so far as to annihilate all life on any planets the Tasen forcibly settle on. By the end of the game, the Tasen are either driven to extinction, or Iji managed to save a few survivors who have fled the planet and gone into hiding. General Tor, the leader of the Komato invasion force, muses that without the Tasen, it's only a matter of time before the Komato turn on each other because their entire society is just that bloodthirsty.
• In Pursuit of Greed has the Zollissian reptilian aliens, where all their members - including Xith, one of the playable characters - are hunters and fighters. Xith notably joins the mercenaries in order to prove he's one of their best.
• 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 Chiefs of the North in King of the Castle are a faction of proud warriors, starting with the highest Military value of all the territories and being the focus of events such as wrestling bears and fighting ice giants.
• Knights of the Old Republic:
  • Canderous Ordo is a Mandalorian who fought under Mandalore the Ultimate in the Great Offscreen War. Mandalore the Ultimate led a faction called the Neo-Crusaders who believed that the ultimate test of one's mettle was to actively seek out battle with difficult opponents—and they considered the Galactic Republic and particularly the Jedi Order to be the most challenging opponent in existence, and committed horrible atrocities on first neutral worlds, then Republic fringeworlds, to provoke them to battle. They were ultimately defeated by a group of Jedi called the Revanchists after their leader, a young Jedi Knight named Revan, who defied the Jedi Council to join the war effort. Revan slew Mandalore at the Battle of Malachor V and dealt the Mandalorians as a whole a defeat from which they never fully recovered. Despite much of his people having been reduced to petty banditry and mercenary work, Canderous praises Revan's generalship to the Player Character, and doesn't mind having lost. In the sequel, Canderous himself claims the title of Mandalore, becoming known as Mandalore the Preserver.
    "Win or lose, as long as the fight is worthy, then honor is gained. The glory of having triumphed over impossible odds is what drives us. If there’s nothing at stake - your possessions, your life, your world - then the battle’s meaningless. We Mandalore take everything we are and throw it into battle. It’s the ultimate test of yourself - the battle against death. Against oblivion."
  • In Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, 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 in an argument he has with Canderous:
    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.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic:
    • The Mandalorians are very much still around, and are cobelligerents with the Sith Empire against the Republic under Artus Lok, Mandalore the Vindicated—who can adopt the Bounty Hunter PC into his clan in Chapter 2 if they so choose. Interestingly, the Mandalorians continue to side with the Sith because they retain the Neo-Crusaders' Challenge Seeker attitude: they consider the Jedi and the Republic the strongest possible opponent, they're simply willing to accept Sith money for it as a side benefit. Mandalore was challenged in the backstory by Jicoln Cadera, who wanted the Mandalorians to switch sides and ally with the Republic instead; the ensuing Civil War saw most of Clan Cadera and its allies wiped out by Mandalore's loyalists.
    • Mando the Vindicated in turn is Killed Offscreen battling the Eternal Empire in the expansions, and Shae Vizla takes over as Mandalore the Avenger. Shae previously appeared as a flashpoint boss in the Shadow of Revan expansion, and after aiding her in Chapter XIV of Knights of the Fallen Empire, the Player Character can encourage her to try to reform Mandalorian society into something more sustainable and peaceable. Or encourage her to attack the Republic again, whichever works.
    • The Sith Warrior PC can espouse this kind of attitude as well, seeking out battle both to achieve their objectives and as part of a code of honor. Other Sith they interact with often do likewise: one apprentice encountered on Nar Shaddaa can even commit seppuku with his lightsaber when defeated.
• In Kult: Heretic Kingdoms, the Sura seem to be a combination of this and Proud Merchant Race, being a proud mercenary race. They value strength and prowess, but are very insistent that it be within the framework of a contract, and never given for free. There's a sidequest where the protagonist is able to save a Sura warrior from fatally flunking his trial of endurance, but he'll only accept help if she has been hired to rescue him — being rescued for non-financial motivations like pity or compassion would be so shameful he'd rather die.
• 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.
• Mass Effect has the disciplined Turians and the thuggish Krogans.
  • The Krogan are actually a rather brilliant deconstruction of the trope. They place very little emphasis on research or industry if it doesn't have to directly do with fighting, and likewise, there are very few merchants in their society. Because of their complete lack of aptitude for anything other than war after they were uplifted, the Krogan once threatened to conquer the galaxy, causing the other races to ally against them, and eventually they had a Depopulation Bomb used on them that sharply limited their birth rate. Unfortunately, the Krogan warrior culture did not go quietly into the night. Though they would still be able to hold a stable population if they tried, none of them want to stay at home and help rebuild their race — instead, they've become a race of Death Seekers who hire themselves out as mercenaries, dooming their race to a slow extinction. It is even highlighted in the Codex: Krogan live with the mantra: "kill, pillage, and be selfish, for tomorrow we die". It's a great example of how a purely warrior culture with no room for any other societal roles would have serious trouble surviving.
  • However, 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 Humanity as this, since their debut on the galactic society scene was the "First Contact War", where they managed to hold their own against the Turian military for three months before the ceasefire was called. The Turians in particular were astonished to learn afterwards that only 3% of their eligible population choose to serve in the military, far less than any other council race. With the rapid and aggressive expansions they've made since then, many council races have come to consider Humanity to be a "sleeping giant".
  • 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 Reconstruction - 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.
  • The Drell may also qualify, as they are a client race of the jellyfish-like Hanar who they handle the more physical tasks for. Though they are more of a proud assassin race.
• 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.
• 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. Metroid Dread establishes the existence of a Chozo tribe that still pursues their warrior traditions: the Mawkin. The tribe that raised Samus, the Thoha, had abandoned those traditions to become pacifists (though they didn't have a problem with Samus choosing that path).
• Mortal Kombat:
  • The four-armed Shokan race from Mortal Kombat, particularly Sheeva from MK3. The most famous of which is Goro. This is emphasized even more in the novelization of the first movie when Goro is depicted as a nobler creature who throws himself off the cliff after being defeated by Cage, claiming he'd rather die than live in disgrace.
  • 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.
• 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.
• No Man's Sky: The Vy'keen are a warrior sentient species with a reciprocal honor system (doing something for one obligates the Vy'Keen to do something for the doer and vice-versa), and a deep veneration of their ancient ancestors. If an explorer accidentally offends them in conversation, it can easily lead to physical violence. Their technology, from tools to ships, is almost completely dedicated to combat use. They excel at few other things beyond using brute force to rid them of their problems. In a very weird Subversion of the trope, however, their long-term goal is peace, mainly be conquering the galaxy to ensure only they can go to war, then demilitarizing their entire civilization.
• Pokémon function as a less brutal "extreme sports" version of this. While there are a few individual outliers, the vast majority of them across all subspecies live to fight to the point that it more often than not fuels their Evolution Power-Up. Pokémon become friendlier to you if you use them against strong opponents or have them level up in battle, and it's established that half the reason so many of them attack you on sight is because they're jealous of your team.
• 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.
• The Agorians in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time are an overexaggeration of this trope.
• 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.
• Rocketmen: The Mercurians are borderline space Amazons and their queen is their greatest warrior.
• The Fyros of Ryzom love fighting and combat, to the point where they want to go into the Prime Roots and kill the Eldritch Abomination sleeping there for no other reason than because they can.
• In Saints Row IV, during the final round of "Professor Genki's Mind Over Murder", as the two announcers admire your performance, they express disappointment that they were not around to see "The King" in action. The King was the single greatest champion of his entire Proud Warrior Race. When the Zin conquered his planet, he challenged Zinyak for his people's freedom, and proceeded to beat every challenge that was thrown his way. Enraged, Zinyak separated his mind from his body and trapped it in the simulation permanently, and nobody knows what became of him after that. Except you. He became your Robot Buddy after you helped him download his mind into a new body. That's right, the snarky floating ball that spends most of his time either insulting you or flirting with Shaundi used to be another planet's equivalent of you.
• 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.
• Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic the Hedgehog series takes great pride in his heritage of the echidna race in Angel Island and takes his job in guarding the Master Emerald very seriously. He also likes fighting, which is no wonder he uses his fists more than his intellect to solve his problems. In Sonic Forces, he laments not being able to get directly involved in the fighting as a result of serving as the Resistance's commander.
• 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.
• Starbase Orion has the Isather, whose in-game backstory even mirrors that of the Klingons (i.e. threw off an alien invasion and became a star-faring race as a result). One of their ship commanders even forces all fleets in a battle to commit to the end (i.e. no retreat is possible).
• StarCraft:
  • The Protoss, 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.
    • The few Judicator characters tend to act like Scary Dogmatic Aliens, their tribes were nearly wiped out in the first game. While Phasesmith Karax, the only member of the Khalai caste to appear in any of the games, acts more like a Proud Scholar Race Guy, though that might just be him.
    • Starcraft II introduces a third faction of Protoss, the Tal-darim, who follow strength and determine leadership via Duel to the Death.
  • StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm introduces the Primal Zerg, the Zerg who were not integrated into the Hive Mind and left behind on their homeworld of Zerus. Their philosophy/culture is a Darwinian on the principle of survival of the fittest. Their entire society basically operates around constantly fighting and killing each other so they can evolve and grow stronger.
• Star Control 2 gives us a total of three species of Proud Warrior Race Guy: the thuggish Thraddash, the vaguely Scottish Yehat and the less vaguely Japanese Shofixti. The Thraddash regularly lose centuries of achievement in determining what the strongest Culture is.
• Star Trek Online presents the Breen as a Proud Soldier Race. In episode "Breen Invasion", mission "Cold Comfort" a captured Breen Combat Medic mentions that "there is a nobility to being a soldier", and that among their beliefs is that while soldiers on all sides enter into an unspoken agreement to risk their lives, civilians are not part of this unspoken agreement and therefore purposefully attacking them, as the Breen had prior to the mission under orders from Thot Trel, is dishonorable.
• The Honorbound Warriors AI type from Stellaris, which results from Fanatic Militarists with a Spiritualist, Xenophile, or Egalitarian bent (sometimes also from Fanatic Xenophiles with a Militarist bent). Ordinarily, Militaristic AIs have no particular negative opinion of Pacifists; if their other ethos match closely enough, they may even become allies. Honorbound Warriors are unique in hating pacifism, willingly going out of their way to antagonize a species that professes anti-violence philosophies, even if that species can and will defend itself if forced. Earn their trust, though, and the "Honorbound" half kicks in — they make steadfast allies.
  • A very specific combination of traits and ethos ^note Militarist/Materialist/Xenophobe with the Industrious and Strong traits can result in the "Metalheads" AI personality. These guys are so hardcore and batshit crazy that they never do peace: they're at war with everyone. All the time. Even empires which are several times stronger than them and could crush them easily. Put this way: Aggressiveness is an AI behaviour modifier that works in the background and determines how likely a species will declare war on another. Honourbound Warriors have an aggressiveness rating of 1.75x. Metalheads' rating is 10x.
• 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 society — a better way of putting this would be a Proud Warrior Race whose 'honour concept' is very different from that of humans, who the Tarka consider to have a Martyrdom Culture.
  "The Tarka are degenerate and laugh at war, but the humans are sick and laugh at death."
  • The Tarka are kind of a weird example due to Bizarre Alien Biology. The majority of fighters are male, and most of their males are stupid enough to go full "barbarian horde" if uncontrolled because most of them never get the necessary diet supplements to reach maturity. The upper officer cadre of each ship is thus occupied by the more rational females, with mature males in ultimate command (since the younger males will only follow an alpha).
• The Canaanites and the Barcid family are this in Tears to Tiara 2, exemplified by Monomachus. Subverted by Hamilicar Barca, the last of the Barcids.
• Warcraft Universe:
  • Orcs, 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, altough they are extremely honor-bound.
  • Trolls are a much more ruthless and usually xenophobic flavor of Proud Warrior Race Guy. Only the Darkspear and Zandalari treat other races with anything besides general contempt. As of the third expansion, the Zandalari no longer think allying with the young races is a good idea, and have started making alliances with the more barbaric troll races to rebuild the troll empires of yore, while the Darkspear actively oppose them despite having been invited to their new faction as well.
  • With the fourth expansion, the Mantid seems to run on this trope, along with some Blue-and-Orange Morality thrown in for good measure. To elaborate, their social system implies sending their young to Zerg Rush a great wall expy and kill as many pandaren as they can, and those who survive can return to their tree cities and be given their social status in accordance to their deeds/kills/conquests. These practices pretty much assures that the mantid who survive into adulthood are adept warriors in whatever area they choose to specialize in. The kicker, they do all this as a form of worship to one of the Old Gods, their "master", with the ominous implication they will use the evolved warriors/tactics/technologies they get from this social darwinist system to kill or worse all the other races should their God ever come back. Even worse, the majority of their race has been corrupted by the Sha of Fear, who have skipped the whole waiting for our god to return and went straight to zerg rush Pandaria.
  • The Djaradin of the Dragon Isles desire nothing more than to fight and slay worthy opponents, and they view dragons as the worthiest of all opponents. Some even flat out refuse to fight player characters, as they view such a battle as insulting. Peace with them is not an option because their entire culture is built on proving one's valor through the hunting of dragons.
• Warframe: The Tenno (the player characters) were initially presented as this, an ancient race of honor-bound warriors dedicated to fighting the fascist Grineer and the mercenary Corpus. The truth... is a little more complicated. The Tenno were children who survived an accident in the Void, but gained incredible powers as a result. When they proved capable of controlling the powerful warframes as Remote Bodies, the Orokin placed them in a suspended animation state called "the Second Dream," where they acted as if they were playing a game. The Lotus eventually had to awaken them again when they were threatened by the Sentients. They do still have a strong sense of honor and duty, however, especially in the way they protect civilians from the Grineer and Corpus.
• WildStar has the Drakken and the Granok for the Dominion and Exiles respectively. .
• Bringing us to the Kilrathi, from Origin/Electronic Arts's Wing Commander series of video games.
• XCOM:
  • The Mutons were an entire race of Dumb Muscle until the Ethereals made them undergo Bio-Augmentation with human DNA, making them leaner but smarter. They developed a Barbarian Tribe culture which they kept even after integrating into human society in XCOM: Chimera Squad, alongside their Hair-Trigger Temper.
  • The Poisonous Person Andromedons were a much more savage example. Unlike the Mutons who quickly adapted to life on Earth, the Andromedons were Enclosed Extraterrestrials who couldn't survive without their Powered Armor in our atmosphere outside of custom reservations, with the fact that they're stranded on Earth making many of them bitter and spiteful. While they were able to integrate into society to a lesser degree by performing labor too dangerous for others, because of their temperament and tendency to leak Hollywood Acid the aliens unanimously agreed to house them first after ADVENT fell, placing them in a slum where they regularly kill each other in Gladiator Games. They're also militantly isolationist, refusing to interact with authorities or explain why there's gunfire every Thursday.
• Xenoblade Chronicles X:
  • The Prone are introduced as unintelligent thugs who kill whatever they're pointed at without question. Later in the story we learn that this is only half their race: the Cavern Clan are the ones you've been fighting, while the Tree Clan are much more friendly and readily make friends with humanity. While primitive, they are surprisingly reasonable and have a much deeper culture than just "War is good!" Even the Cavern Clan gets some characterization, when you meet one team of Cavern Prone who are not psychotic berserkers and are, again, quite personable.
  • The Wrothians are much more technologically advanced, and emphasize the "Proud" aspect, being expies of Japanese samurai. Most of their disputes are solved through ritual combat, but they are highly honorable, respectful of their opponents, and they absolutely despise the Ganglion, whom they are forced to work for. Appealing to their warrior's pride and honor is how Elma gets them to pull a Heel–Face Turn.
  • The Marnuck, another Ganglion race, are mentioned as having a culture revolving around warfare, and they see slaughtering their enemies in battle as a tribute to their chief deity (who also happens to be their god of death). Unlike the others, they get no characterization and are simply Mooks for you to cut down in droves.
  • The Milsaadi are a variation, being a Proud Hunter Race. They view combat as a form of hunting, and their pride comes in their usual refusal to use Skells, and fight on foot (though there are a handful of Milsaadi that use Skells regardless). They are strong enough that this limitation doesn't slow them down as much as you'd think. They also receive no characterization beyond being evil slavers who work for the Ganglion.

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