jeffjerwin

This is why I had my player characters take Arthur all the way to Penllyn (avoiding or defeating trouble en route) rather than have Merlin do it. Of course they didn't work for Uther in my campaign... they worked for Igraine.

There is a solution to Kay's action and motivations that I am working on for Chaosium. Kay's killing of Loholt/Llacheu is also in Welsh legend so it's not as non-canon as you might think. Gareth's adventure takes place when he is young, in the 520s. He's newly knighted in the Tale after all. I wonder if it was left out because it would make a smashing solo adventure for a PK. Annowre comes from the Prose Tristan and it essentially replaces the False Guinevere story. That one would probably piss off even more people. (Arthur is tricked into believing that Guinevere is an imposter and that he really married her half-sister, and basically kicks out Guinevere and becomes a tyrant under the false Guinevere's influence. The realm is excommunicated but finally Arthur sees the light when the false Guinevere gets sick (God's punishment) and dies. It's a satire/critique of Philippe Augustus' repudiation of his first wife and remarriage (against Papal wishes) and final return to her after being faced with the interdict. While 'divorced' from Arthur Guinevere consummates her relationship with Lancelot (this detail replaces the consummation during the Abduction to Gorre as in Chretien, which is a better story).

The language of the nobility of Aquitaine would be Gothic, really, though most of them would be able to mumble their way through Low Latin. Lancelot and his family are descended from Nascien, who was actually a Christian Saracen, but I doubt if they still speak Arabic at home.

Obviously, everyone speaks French.

The 'Saracens' are indeed 'Sessoines' (Old Fr. Sessoigne, Saxony) in Malory's sources, but there are indeed descriptions of 'sarrasin' as a synonym for payen, pagan, and in the Carolingian cycle the Saxons are depicted as essentially being Moors (and worshipping the same polytheistic gods as the 'Moors' do in those romances). People knew better, but it was part of the genre conventions that the Saracens and Moors were pagans, not Muslims in a recognizable sense. Since Malory correctly translated Sessoine in the Merlin Continuation (the first part of the Morte) he knew what the word meant. Ironically, in the Prose Tristan, the Saracen characters are mostly positive, so when Malory makes Cornwall be attacked by them he is altering the source in a somewhat negative way (in general the PT actively attempted to subvert bigotry, though Palamedes, the various Saxon/Danish heroes, etc.). Barbary pirates did sometimes range the North Atlantic so perhaps Malory thought it was a reasonable change. Despite Palamedes not being a baptized Christian (this occurs just prior to the Grail Quest so he can participate) he seems to be a godly person who worships 'the One God'. The same romance has a Danish/Saxon knight at the Grail feast after Galahad achieves it, so it rejects the idea that either Saxons or Saracens are inherently bad. Malory presumably thought of Arthur as 'English' and the connection between the English and the Saxons is not really obvious to 15th century writers. The French writers of the romances would have identified Sessoines with their enemies of the House of Welf. Note that in medieval romances, 'Briton' or 'Bret' always means a Welsh or Breton person, not an Englishman. The romances' slant is mainly _against_ the Britons, following the narrative of Geoffrey of Monmouth, where they are condemned for their sins, and thus lost England. The most hostile language of rebuke in the romances blames the Britons and in the Post-Vulgate, Arthur himself, for falling into sin. Malory does much to edit this out. But the P-V is explicitly a tragedy, and the tragic heroes are the Britons. This sets up a tension between the material and KAP, as in a sense, the players' characters are themselves guilty of seeking Glory instead of righteousness. Glory destroys the Round Table.

The interface between 'Iron Age Ireland' and Arthurian Britain in the stories comes from two main sources: Tristram's interactions with the Irish (after all his beloved is Irish) and from Galeholt, who is culturally Irish in KAP. I'd argue that Isolt's family (including Marhaus (aka Li Morholt)) and Galeholt's extended family and friends make better premises for an Irish-Arthurian game than the activities of British adventurers/despoilers like the ones in Pagan Shore, even if their interests don't always align with Arthur's. They are at least heroic in a recognizable way, rather than the sort of people whose primary motivation is plunder. Finn Mac Cumhail has some interactions, entirely anachronistically, with Arthur, 'chief of the Fianna of Britain', which are an excellent insight into the pre-chivalric Arthur of Welsh legend, now mostly lost. There's a very interesting French Romance called the Marvels of Rigomer which could be adapted into an Ireland based Arthurian adventure but would require some work (it's a little weird). I may work on it when there's a Pendragon Fan Publishing path developed. Another is Durmart, which has the hero become king of Ireland, but it's harder to adapt to a group of player characters.

I think so.

Yes. Though the choice of colors and charges was almost always influenced by their lord and their alliances. Often if a coat wasn't chosen, it was differenced from a father-in-law, or an overlord. The first type of heraldry is vary basic colors in some geometric pattern (two colors only, usually) so the knights might choose the same colors as their lord (Roderick of Salisbury uses the same colors as King Arthur, note). As animals and other complex charges were used, these acquired political meaning: for example the eagle = the Roman/German Empire; the lion = England, Anjou, the Welfs; the Lily = France. Note that Gawaine received his arms (traditionally) from the Pope, and thus bears the double-headed eagle of Rome. Consider what arms that your PK's ancestors' lords bore and it may suggest colors: Uther: dragon(s), gold/yellow and green Vortigern: lions; black and gold and red. {his arms: sable three escutcheons or, each charged with a lion gules) Etc. Also, certain colors do not appear in early heraldry, like brown or purple. Red and Blue are often associated with royalty.

They are based out of Winchester/the White City (Welsh/Cymric: Caer Wynt). Historically they correspond to the Benedictines of Hyde Abbey, but Greg I think invented them. The British Church is pretty much a game construction, to reflect in part the pre-Augustinian church of the Britons.

I think it's helpful overall for the campaign (and Arthur's motivations) to make Arthur a great king (he tries but is uneven in the literature) and his father a pretty bad one. It's also almost impossible for most female players I've run with to support Uther at all, and certainly his attitude toward Igraine can't be really disassociated (in our modern eyes) from his other acts of greed and selfishness. In order for him to act the way he did he had to check a whole handful of negative personality traits, all at once.

If you haven't got it, the Great Pendragon Campaign. The Book of Sires provides detailed family history back to Vortigern and Constantine's days for a PC. It's useful if you want the players to have a deeper connection to the history and are starting in 485 or so. Book of Feasts is useful for any campaign, as feasts and parties are a regular part of chivalric roleplaying.

I need some players to playtest in my ongoing KAP campaign (we're in 540 now). On the off chance that people are in the Monterey Bay Area and want to join, PM me. Cheers, Jeff

yeah. they can't be the same. I think Monsieur Sibileau made a small mistake. But Hermin, as Morien indicates, a bad person, regardless.

yes, well, a fell fellow is given to felonies. But they aren't quite the same. Anyway, Hermin le Fel is not a nice person, we can agree on that.

Hermin le Fel (not Felon) appears as a Round Table knight during the Grail Quest in the Post Vulgate and Prose Tristan. He's of sufficient Glory that he's not obscure. The likeliest explanation is that Hermin is a relation of the Earl's, and the coat is not an accident, though it was held that near identical coats were permissible if they came from different countries. 'Armant' (Malory's Hermaunce) is a different character, not evil, who was slain by a serf and was king of the Red City/Ile Delitable in the Prose Tristan and Malory. But he died before the Grail Quest and can't be the same man who bore these arms. Not to say that the possibility that Hermin le Fel committed a murder is impossible. Several RT knights were not good men, as we know.

No, only the valleys, which are heavily forested. But Snowdon is still called a 'forest' - it being wild country - but the uplands are pasture for sheep and cattle; open brush. The forest where Perceval grows up is in the deep valleys below Snowdon, where there are tangled woodlands.

The forest cover in KAP is based on maps made in the 1930s of forest cover in the 'Dark Ages' that have since been discarded. Here: You will notice that the boundaries of the forests have a bit more detail than in the KAP maps. I use the following website for my game: http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/forests/. Note, however, that Forests and Chases are not necessarily woodland, just areas with abundant game, such as open fields, light woodlands, and marshes.

Yes, it is better put here: Arthur never becomes Emperor, though he certainly kills the Emperor and routs the Roman army. He becomes Emperor in Harding and Malory alone (and, well, in Welsh poetry, where he is 'amheraudr" - the Welsh also considered Magnus Maximus an emperor).

The story of Arthur defeating the Romans (rather than turning back) first appears in Harding's Chronicle (first edition in 1457), which is a work of English nationalism that is meant (originally) to glorify Henry V, beside whom Harding fought at Agincourt. Malory probably knew this text. The Alliterative Morte is pre-Malorian and pre Harding, and reflects the tradition before Henry V's day: that Arthur did not defeat the Romans because of Mordred's treachery. Edit: Note that in the Chronicle tradition, Arthur fought the Romans only in the last year of his reign. The Romans (and French/Claudas' people) appear in the Vulgate as part of a conflict over Benoic/Benwick, and also in the Estoire de Merlin shortly after Arthur becomes king, so by the time that the whole Vulgate and Post-Vulgate is done (c.1250) Arthur fights the Romans three times: in (KAP dating) c.510 in alliance with Ban and Bors, in c.536 in alliance with Lancelot, and in 564 before Mordred's treachery. In KAP the first is moved to 527 because Malory adapted the Alliterative Morte, which had Lancelot present (it being part of a tradition where Lancelot doesn't have anything to do with the Downfall).

The Lisa Free illustrations were so good. I particularly liked Mordred, the Raven Witch, the Questing Beast, and Morgan.

I agree. Just pointing out as well, Recognize is modified by Glory. Too much Glory for either persona, and you might be found out!

As a descendant of Vortigern and Morgan le Fay, I am ready for him! Bring it on, boy...

That never made sense to me as Gaihom is where Guinevere is held and it remained in Gorre. Edit: if you want Malory's foreshortened abduction story you can place Meliagant's castle in Surrey, where Malory did. But I think Chretien's is far more magnificent.

Well this would be Cambrians specifically, not the lowland peoples of Logres; on the other hand, Welsh troops were also famously poorly outfitted, so they weren't very effective except as bowmen. By the 1400s of course (I'm estimating here as I'm more of a cultural/literary historian) the English proper spent quite a bit of time training with the longbow, and the longbowmen wore armor.

I tend to agree and prefer the Cultural starting skills to be the main source of ethnic distinctiveness.