Giving Life to a Character : A Firbolg at Dumnonni by Brian Wells

After playing a well known character at Dumnonni Chronicles (DC) live role-play events, I felt that I needed to disguise my appearance and behaviour in some way for my new character. I wanted to do this to stop myself falling into the same patterns of role-play and to hopefully avoid other players thinking of the new character as the old one in a different tunic. So what to do? After a bit of a think and look through the background section of the old Dumnonni rulebook, I decided I liked the Fir Bolg, an ancient race from Irish mythology. The deciding factor was that DC use masks as a device to identify the Fir Bolg – this is an entirely fabricated notion (albeit a splendid one) that doesn’t appear in the mythology – but a mask would go a long way to completing my disguise. As the Fir Bolg had historically only appeared in the game as non-player characters or antagonists I had to ask permission from the Dumnonni ref team to see if my idea would be allowed. After conferring they kindly agreed and I was all set to start designing the characters kit and personality.

In the Dumnonni game the ancient races dislike, are troubled by, and generally don’t use iron, so this equates them nicely with being bronze-age peoples. The style of DC is mythic and heroic but loosely based on the historical Celtic and dark-age peoples of the British Isles. Generally the costume and kit style for the ancient Celtic peoples is based on that of the iron-age British/Irish i.e. plaid or checked trousers and cloaks, La tene inspired curvilinear designs, anthropomorphic hilted swords and so on. Sort of the iron-age without the iron. In order to give my new character a distinct cultural identity I decided to draw heavily on the look and feel of the bronze-age for inspiration instead. I’ve decided that my character belongs to the Fir Gaelion  - the lesser of the three tribes of the Fir Bolg and also probably the most culturally isolated – a good excuse to make them look different, in fact alien is what I’m going for. This then, is a collection of the images I’ve been using and my related thought processes - a sort of mood board with notes. I make no pretentions to historical accuracy – it is a fantasy game after all – but I have generally tried to pick bronze age stuff from Europe or the British Isles and well as stuff which seems to fit well. Although the mythology tells us that the Fir Bolg spent a period of exile in ‘Greece’ I’ve decided not to use anything from the bronze age Mycenaean culture – I think it’s too iconic in its own right.

So having thought about the equipment and background of the character I wanted to give myself some other ways to make my new character unfamiliar and different. I thought about portraying him as a bit mad, but once I got to thinking about it I found madness was a bit hard to quantify and probably too difficult to maintain during play. In the end I decided the best I could do was try to make him a bit different and a bit odd in certain ways. My first idea was to always speak in the third person with the character referring to himself by name rather than using ‘I’ or ‘me’. It was tricky to keep up but I’ve persevered and I’m getting better at it. An unexpected side effect was that because you’re always saying your character name – everyone remembers it. The other idea was to give the character a distinctive gait – something I remember from a characterisation workshop given by Dave Oliver years ago – so I adopted a sort of shambling walk, again it’s hard to keep up but I found some other characters parodying it at the last event so clearly I’m doing it enough for it to be noticed.

MASK

After deciding that I would call this character Caliban, the next thing on the agenda was to get the mask sorted. The old DC guide states that the Fir Bolg and the Fir Domnan wear bronze masks whilst the Fir Gaelion wear masks of silver. I asked Fred Ryall of Ryall Armouries if he would undertake the commission to make it, and after process of discussion he suggested making it out of aluminium. Here it is just prior to finishing off.

ARMOUR

Deciding on the armour for Caliban was tricky, what should I use for inspiration? I wanted fur because the Fir Bolg always seem shaggy and rough from the descriptions, and I had an idea of some sort of leather harness-like arrangement with metal plates. After a lot of image searching I came across this, which might have been what had been lurking in my memory anyway. Look familiar? That’s right it’s Connor Macloed’s armour from the Highlander film. It looks pretty tasty apart from the belt buckles but I didn’t need to include those.

I don’t have much in the way of images from Caliban’s first outing, but here is a great one from his second taken by Roy Smallpage. You can see the finished mask now with added hair- another bid to disguise myself and alter my silhouette by covering up my distinctive shiny bald pate with a shock of thick springy curly gingery hair. This is also the first good image of Caliban’s armour, loosely based on the armour worn by Christopher Lambert in Highlander. Leatherwork courtesy of Bob Baker, and metal plates by Fred Ryall. You can see at this stage I’m wearing plaid trousers (actually pyjama bottoms from Sainsburys), again this was a compromise due to running out of time and not deciding on or sorting out how the character ought to be dressed – I’ve since ditched the trousers. I’ve also decided against the leather bracers as these lacked the overall chunky roughness of the rest of the armour and seemed out of odds with it.

SHOES

I briefly considered making my own shoes as these early shoes are simply made from a single piece of leather. In the end I was running out of time so I bought these shoes from Armamentaria – I was just about to try out PD’s Odyssey game and thought they could double up as Greek sandals. They are actually copied from a quite posh Roman shoe but I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. Also I wore them without socks for Odyssey and they ripped my poor toes to shreds. I’ve since oiled them and worn them in a bit and replaced the nasty bit of thonging they came with, oh and invested in some naalbinding socks. I’m glad to report they are now very comfy indeed.

 

BRONZE AGE WEAPONS OF WAR

Although the shillelagh probably has its origins in the eighteenth century, it always feels to me like it’s drawn from an earlier tradition. Whether it is or not I’ve recently learned that wooden clubs have been discovered from a bronze age battle site in Germany. One of these clubs is described as looking like a base ball bat – the other, pictured here, is described as looking like a croquet mallet. I think it also looks quite a lot like a shillelagh. In any case I thought it had a nice Irish cultural reference (albeit a modern one) that I could take advantage of for my character idea.

 As you can see shillelaghs come in various shapes and sizes.

 

This is the Gangs of New York Shillelagh prop – I used this as the image for Caliban’s war club and Saxon Violence made me a nice copy.

 The archetypal bronze- age shield seems to be round and decorated with concentric circles of raised ridges and sometimes a series of bosses. Many bronze examples have been found and for a long time most of these were considered as ceremonial objects only, recent tests however have proven they stand up to combat very well. This is the shield I chose as a model for the one commissioned for Caliban.

Here is the LRP version of the bronze shield as made by Chris Docherty from Saxon Violence. Needless to say I’m very happy with it.

Selection of bronze age weapons shields and instruments from Ireland. They include two bronze, one wooden and one leather shield

This is the spearhead I chose as the model for Caliban’s short spear. I wanted something short and light to use with my shield that would be a good deal handier than a full length spear. Once again Saxon Violence obliged and I’m now the proud owner of a very nippy stab safe spear.

Once again referring to the old DC guidebook, I noted that the Fir Bolg favour long spears in battle. So here is the style of head I’ve chosen for my long two handed spear . More views of a lunette spearhead showing plenty of detail



Archaeologists gave this weapon the designation of halberd, although clearly it bears little resemblance to the later medieval weapon of the same name. This one from the museum of London has a reconstructed haft to show how the blade would have been mounted. For a long time it was believed that these would not have been very effective weapons because of the blade’s seemingly weak mounting. Subsequent tests on sheep skulls have shown that they would have been quite capable of inflicting lethal wounds without breaking or falling to pieces. I currently have a copy of one of these on order with Saxon Violence – with a 4 foot haft for two handed use.

I used this image of a replica bronze age dirk as the model for Calibans dagger – once again made for me by Saxon Violence.

 

 CLOTHES & ADORNMENTS

I believe these are described as basket rings. I don't think anyone knows for sure where they were worn. I've seen them described as earrings and also as hair ornaments. I prefer the latter. I've managed to find some gold metal ear cuffs which have simple geometric designs in them which I'm using as sort of braid keepers

 

Lovely illustration of ‘clean cut’ Danish mound burial people. Lots of really nice artefact detail although it has a sense of 1930’s political imagery about it.

This is an impression of a bronze age man from Ireland – he is wearing a particularly impressive gold gorget ornament (several of these have been found in Ireland) and some crazy ear-stretching gold jewelry. I particularly like the way this image shows a northern European looking decidedly more aboriginal or tribal than we’re used to seeing them. Having been brought up on children’s history books with pictures of lovely clean cut ancestors, it challenges some of my subconscious preconceptions. For a comparison see the illustrated impression of the Danish mound burial people.

Wanting to get away from buckle fastenings I’ve been looking at earlier belt fastening styles. This type has the belt loop back through a bronze ring and fasten to a toggle via a slit in the leather

The second picture shows the toggle style of belt fastening more clearly

This drawing of a fragment of bronze age fabric has helped inform my choice of fabric and the style of Caliban’s short cloak arrangement which is also herringbone weave with tassels.

A number of bronze ‘buttons’ were found in the some of the Danish mound burials. I’ve seen them represented as belt and strap fastenings on illustrations. Very similar fastenings in fact to the toggle belt images I’ve posted elsewhere in this album. This is an image of a metal button that I’ve found that I intend to use to fasten my belt and shield straps. It’s about an inch in diameter

A nice bronze bracelet from one of the Danish mound burials. I thought a pair of bracelets similar to this would be a nice accessory.

In an attempt to get away from the ubiquitous Celtic penannular brooch, I’ve once again turned to the Danish mound burials for inspiration. Here are two replica brooches or fibulae. I’m currently looking at commissioning someone to make the top one.

So here is the Caliban kit without the armour but with the short fringed cloak. Eventually I will make a suitable belt to go with this. You can also see my rather colourful naalbind socks which have made those shoes so comfortable. I’m really happy with this footwear combination - the little shoes make me feel quite light on my feet – and whilst it’s true that they don’t keep the wet out, being open they do dry off very quickly so any discomfort caused is minimal.

 Here is Caliban in his full kit so far. I feel that using tribal body painting on my arms and legs has really given this character the distinctive look I was after. Rather than go down the route of the usual blue ‘woad’ with complex curvilinear designs, I’ve opted for a red ochre colour and taken a simple linear pattern inspired by the decoration seen on early pottery. I’m holding the short spear mentioned elsewhere - as made by Saxon Violence, at five foot this spear is a really handy size and quite well suited to most of the fighting I need to do – only rarely so far have I felt the need to discard it and switch to my shillelagh.

(Finished costume and weapon photos all the property of Brian Wells, all other photographs are reproduced for inspiration only and remain the copyright of the original authors)