Women Characters

Women in Dark Age Britain, while having to deal with some limitations and social preconceptions, come from a long history of spiritual and temporal power. In Imperial times, warrior women like Boudicca and Cartimandua commanded their own troops against the Romans. Tales tells of the fierce Queen Scáthach of Skye, who is said to have presided over a whole academy of women warriors and who taught the arts of war to the Eruish hero Cú Chulainn from her hall at Dún Scáith, the Fort of Shadows. Throughout the Dark Ages, Viking women were able to fight alongside their men when necessary and even officially take on the obligation of blood feud when the men of the family have all been killed.

Women are known for their magical powers as well. Saxon women use pagan incantations and rituals to ensure healthy childbirth and conception, not to mention amulets made of plants to cure illness or bone dice for auguries. That aura of power that surrounds the “wise woman” also surrounds the nuns in their priories, reputed healers with great spiritual powers. Cymbrian legends tell of goddess-sorceresses like the fabled Rhiannon the Lady of Horses, or Arianrhod the Lady of the Silver Wheel.

Players who take on the roles of women characters will generally be warriors or scouts (with the skills of woodsman characters). Women will be less accepted into the bardic fraternity or among the scops, but they might learn these skills if they are the daughters of a Pencerdd or if they have been encouraged by some rogue Harper. Due to the impediments to official advancement, the female bard or scop does not have the same abilities as her male counterpart. But she may begin either with more developed fighting skills (since she will have to fight in a man’s world), knowledge of healing or charms, or even sorcery.

Encountered as NPCs, women may be hedge witches or wise women. There are some priories famous for their healing, which may be helpful after characters have been in prolonged combat. Characters may encounter secret pagan priestesses, or powerful sorceresses.

But most encounters will be with normal women engaged in the tasks that occupy most women of the time. Throughout the Dark Ages, women are locked in the time-honored and important task of spinning and weaving. Every great estate has its gynaeceum, where the women spin, dye, and weave cloth for cloaks, banners, and tapestries. Even the humble bondsman’s wife is rarely without her spool in hand as she spins the day away. One of the greatest gifts that can be bestowed upon a guest is cloth from the household looms. Whether intricate or homespun, it represents the best care the women of the house can give. It is always an honor. In certain extraordinary circumstances, there may even be magic in the web of it.

In an earthier, but still vitally important setting, women are skilled brewers. To commend the ale or the mead of a house is to commend its women workers—and it is polite to do so. In both Cymbrian and Saxon houses, the cups are filled by the women, often the women who have made the drink they serve.

Female PCs are assumed not to come with such skills; they have chosen a different path from that of the ordinary woman of the Dark Ages. For that reason they may be looked upon with mistrust, pity, or envy. They will never quite fit in. But like the Saxon character among Cymbrians, or the Briton among Saxons, the female character can sometimes move in a world that is closed to her male companions. Because of that, she may be an invaluable addition to an all-male party.