Roleplaying in Dark Age Britain
Britain in the Dark Ages is a world of heroism and magic. While the setting is in the “real” world, the stories and characters are the stuff of legend, not reality. Where heroic narrative comes into conflict with historical reality, reality must make way for romance and magic.
But what makes this setting special is the centrality of magic and the supernatural. The Cymbrians have traditions that go back to the time of the druids long before the Empire. While druidism is no longer practiced, vestiges remain in folk memory and perhaps even in forgotten corners of the isle. The newly converted Saxons are much the same. They are close to their dark pagan gods, and the new religion sits uneasily with older, ingrained ideas about fate. But beyond cultural traditions, magic is embedded in the world itself—whether in the tangled forests of the Weald, or in the fenlands of East Anglia, or in the mists and bogs of Blackmoor in Cornwall.
Closely connected with the magic of the world is the eerie presence of mythical beings. Creatures out of dream and nightmare skulk in shadows and stalk the lonely places untouched by men. Ancient powers hold sway in wood and fen and stream. Sometimes they cross into the mundane world, in the guise of giants from a previous age, restless spirits haunting forgotten cairns, strange faerie folk who come to the world of men to help them, to harm them, or to test them. In a world so permeated by magical forces, anything can happen. The point of the campaign is not to recreate literal history, but to make a fantastic history that might have been in a world where magic is real, where heroes battle for honor and glory, where goblins, trolls, and elves guard golden hordes and magical treasures that can make ordinary men into princes.
Britain in the Dark Ages is a world of heroism and magic. While the setting is in the “real” world, the stories and characters are the stuff of legend, not reality. Where heroic narrative comes into conflict with historical reality, reality must make way for romance and magic.
The campaign is set in the early 8th century, a time of ambitious kings like Ine of Wessex and Aethelbald of Mercia, of living saints like Cuthbert of Jarrow and Guthlac of the Fens, of pious scholar-monks like the Venerable Bede and fervent missionary priests like Boniface. It is a time when Britons and Saxons struggle for power, when the Church is beginning to supplant and subsume old pagan traditions, when dozens of tiny lordships are coalescing into larger kingdoms.
But what makes this setting special is the centrality of magic and the supernatural. The Cymbrians have traditions that go back to the time of the druids long before the Empire. While druidism is no longer practiced, vestiges remain in folk memory and perhaps even in forgotten corners of the isle. The newly converted Saxons are much the same. They are close to their dark pagan gods, and the new religion sits uneasily with older, ingrained ideas about fate. But beyond cultural traditions, magic is embedded in the world itself—whether in the tangled forests of the Weald, or in the fenlands of East Anglia, or in the mists and bogs of Blackmoor in Cornwall.
Closely connected with the magic of the world is the eerie presence of mythical beings. Creatures out of dream and nightmare skulk in shadows and stalk the lonely places untouched by men. Ancient powers hold sway in wood and fen and stream. Sometimes they cross into the mundane world, in the guise of giants from a previous age, restless spirits haunting forgotten cairns, strange faerie folk who come to the world of men to help them, to harm them, or to test them. In a world so permeated by magical forces, anything can happen. The point of the campaign is not to recreate literal history, but to make a fantastic history that might have been in a world where magic is real, where heroes battle for honor and glory, where goblins, trolls, and elves guard golden hordes and magical treasures that can make ordinary men into princes.
While research into the actual figures of the time can enrich play in many ways, too strict an adherence to actual history will impede what the campaign encourages. That is to develop an alternate history, in which events might unfold in a very different way. Players may encounter the historical Charles Martel, grandfather of Charlemagne. But they may also throw in their lot with the Saracens—and there is no telling but the influence of the player characters may allow the Saracens to win in the fields of Poitiers. Players should feel like they are making history, not just observing it.
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