Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England

341 Pages·2020·11.481 MB·English

by  Kevin Crawford

II

ISBN 978-1-950965-05-2
Written by Kevin Crawford
Cover by John Hodgson
Interior art by Joyce Maureira
©2020, Sine Nomine Publishing
able of ontents
Introductory Matter 2
Creating an English Hero 8
Wherein Are the Rules of the Game 42
Of Galdor and Godly Miracles 82
The English Lands and the Life Thereof 112
Of Minsters and the True Faith 146
Monstrous Foes and Wondrous Treasures 182
Running a Campaign of This Game 244
Being a Gazetteer of England 282
An Index of Terms of Note 334
Introdtu cwtoarys Mtaott etrhe universal excitement of all ludologists of antiquity
when the document now known as the Rathmore Codex was discovered
in 1998, unearthed during construction at
Homerton College in Cambridge. I hardly
need to rehearse the remarkable qualities of Being A
this document or the interest it garnered among Foreword
scholars, but I fear a certain amount of explanation to the
is necessary if the present publication is to be put in Work
its correct scholarly context.
Ludologists of post-Roman Britain have been
painfully limited in their source evidence. Aside
from a few fragments of Pictish treasure tables and
the discovery of a debatable Briton weapon-ver-
sus-armor matrix scratched into a sword blade, the
early evidence is almost nonexistent. Only the discovery of the Bolingbroke
Road manuscript in 1975 cast the slightest light on the development of RPGs
in pre-Conquest England and that manuscript was clearly written in reaction
to a significantly older tradition.
The Rathmore Codex appears to be the keystone to the mystery. Authored
by a monk of Jarrow in 710, it is a compendium of contemporary gaming
practice and traditions. The “Brother Cornix” who appears to be the primary
contributor included everything he knew about the customs, practice, and
implementation of role-playing games in Anglo-Saxon England at the time.
The physical artifact itself was in astonishingly good condition thanks to the
peculiar circumstances of its preservation, which need not be repeated here,
and it seemed as if this Rosetta stone of early gaming practice was soon to be
in wide circulation.
Unfortunately, the publication of a critical edition of this vital work has
been lamentably delayed for more than two decades now. Despite numer-
ous excerpts and fragments published over the years in ludological journals,
efforts to produce a single, properly-edited critical edition of the text have
foundered on a series of setbacks and personal complications. It is not nec-
essary to remind readers of the unfortunate affair of Mr. Featherstonehaugh
and the all-too-early death of Professor Grinton-Smythe, but it is a regretta-
ble fact that there is no expectation of any imminent publication of the work.
In the hope of providing some practical material for scholars outside
that charmed circle which has access to the physical text, I have produced
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this modest translation of the Rathmore Codex. I understand the somewhat
scandalized reaction of certain fellow scholars at producing such a popularized
translation, and the effort would doubtlessly have been improved enormously
by the contributions of more able researchers than myself, but at this late date
it seems to me that something must be put before the public if the Rathmore
Codex is not to languish in wholly unjustified obscurity.
I have made certain alterations and adjustments to the text to aid the
understanding of modern readers, and note significant edits to the RC man-
uscript in the footnotes. These notes are also used to provide clarifications on
vague points of play or obscure gaming practices. I have at no point attempted
to harmonize Brother Cornix’s worldview with more contemporary values;
such a choice should not be interpreted as a moral judgment on the editor’s
part, aside from the judgment that it is best to let the past speak in its own
voice. If using this material at the table, it will be for individual groups to
adjust the details of the setting to best suit their own tastes.
Kevin Crawford
2020
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isten! We are the English, the sons of conquerors and the
fathers of kings, who came over the whale-roads to whelm the Wealh
and take from them the land they had lost by their weakness. We
are a great people, in sin and strength alike, and God has used
us for His ends. Once we were His wolves upon the wicked, to
wound the faithless and condemn their crimes, and now we are His children
in the true faith. But our sins hang heavy on our hearts yet, and a shadow
falls upon us from the deeds we have done.
I write this book so that the gamesmen of other lands may know of us
and our ways, and may play at our mighty deeds as they do their own. The
dicers of the Franks may add English heroes to their tale-makings, the Greeks
may smile at our customs from the carved halls of Constantinople, and even
the distant men of Tang may make curious stories of our far-off isle in that
land of silks and strangeness. We are a poor people before the riches of Rome
and the splendors of the Persians, but we are conquerors still, and our tales
are worthy of telling.
Few are the gamesmen who can bear to be told ten thousand things before
the dice rattle on the board, so I spare for now the many things I might say,
and tell you only what you must know to fashion a hero of your own, and
what grave perils await the work of your thoughts.
For four hundred years Rome ruled Britain and its people, appoint-
Effective ing its lords and instructing the Wealh in their ways, making the land richer
Roman rule than any in all the North. But so thoroughly had the
lasted from
Romans broken the Celtic kings that few among
around 43
them were found fit to bear the sword, and so the The
to 410 AD.
legions sought for strong men from other lands to Past
serve as their auxiliaries. Our fathers were first of the
among these warriors who came over. Our own lands Land
were poor, and the waters were rising year by year
and drowning their halls upon the shore.
Britain For a long golden season the Britons grew
became an wealthy and grand. They raised cities of stone under
important
Roman tutelage, and the Artifexes of Rome taught
Roman
them secret ways by which wondrous Arxes and sor-
province,
cerous marvels were wrought by their sages. They scattered rich villas upon
with much
wealth. the hillsides, where slaves labored to bring sweet wine to the lips of languid
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masters. Roman saints made Christians of the Britons in Constantine’s time,
though some lingered in the worship of false gods and made sacrifices to
Mithras or Isis in their temples in Londinium. They wore the Roman toga
and spoke the Roman tongue and forgot the war-chariots of their fathers and
the feel of the spear in their fist.
But ten generations ago, Rome released its grasp upon the island, for Starting in
the empire was scourged by heathens and tormented by barbarian spears. It 410, Rome
called home its legions and left the Britons to their own devices, telling our was forced
by internal
fathers to find their own food in labor upon the land. No sooner had Rome’s
turmoil to
legions left than Rome’s peace departed with them, and the Britons turned
cut Britain
upon each other like furious beasts, frenzied and tearing at each other for the loose.
avenging of grudges and the seeking of gain.
But they were only Wealh, and while their hate was strong, their hands
Britain
were weak. They loved cleverness too much, and cunning words, and woman- fell into
ish artifices of deceit and subtlety. They went to our fathers and begged their anarchy,
aid, offering the riches of their prosperous lands in exchange for our spears. outside
raiding, and
Our ancestors called over the whale-roads to their kinsmen on the continent,
civil strife.
and bade them come and fight for the Britons. Year by year, more came to
aid these British lords for British bread and silver.
For a time we fought for the land’s lords, but their sin was great, and The English
where Wrath was found, so too was Avarice. They stinted their silver and came as
begrudged their bread, until our fathers grew furious, and took with their own mercenaries,
raiders, and
hands what was not given freely. More and more of our people came from over
colonists,
the sea, to swell our steadings and conquer the unworthy holders of this land.
adding to
The Wealh had worn themselves out with their strifes and killings, and the settlements
brave among them were already dead. They had no hope against our spears. that dated
back to
In some places we slew, slaughtering every Briton that could not flee
Roman
us and burning their cities of stone. In other places we were content to con-
times.
quer, making ourselves lords of British peoples and commanding that they
labor for our food. In a few, we made ourselves allies to Wealh lords who still
had strength to oppose us. But all through the good land of England there
were none who could drive us out. The Wealh ran, hiding themselves in the
shadows of the mountains and the hollows of the hills, seeking refuge with
the Picts in the north and fleeing to ancient fastnesses in the western depths.
They dwell there still, cursing us year upon year for what we have taken
from them. We fight them every war-season, raiding and being raided, slay-
ing and being slain. Their bishops will not even break bread with our own
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Britons
but left it to Roman missionaries to make Christians of us. There are times
don’t
all hate when a peace is made between a Briton king and an English one, though only
English, but ever to make mischief. They are friends to our exiles and vagabonds, and good
unconquered companions to usurpers and oathbreakers, for they know that such men will
ones are still
bring bloodshed upon their kin.
hostile.
Now we of the English peoples rule all the good parts of the island, leav-
There are ing only the desolate north and unprofitable west to the Wealh. Our land is
several divided into several kingdoms, each belonging to one of the kindreds that
major came over the sea. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes together make up the English
English
tribes, and their several kings are as often at war with each other as they are
kingdoms
at peace. Each is eager to make himself bretwalda over all England, overlord
and
numerous and greatest of all the kings of the isle, and they use sword and scheme alike
petty ones. to get their way.
Yet for all our glorious past, England suffers now under harsh trou-
bles, ones earned by our own godless wickedness and
Our Present
the enmity of old foes. Each of these troubles requires
Troubles
heroes to rise up and dispel them, to smite the forces
of Hell and upbraid the intriguers among men. Common ceorls have no hope
to overcome such troubles, but only brave gesithcund who fear neither devil
nor man.
Primus, we war among ourselves. Kings fight kings, ealdormen fight eal-
Some degree dormen, and gesith fight gesith. Even common ceorls will take up the spear to
of warfare avenge some slight or seek some passing gain. Royal law is bent and broken,
between
and wergild goes unpaid. Some lands are stronger and better-ruled than other,
English
but no king sleeps easy in his hall, and every man knows well that a bloody
kingdoms
is a normal raid may meet him and his herds on the morrow. We need peaceweavers to
state of bind up our self-made wounds and teach us to honor the law.
affairs. Secundus, we war with the Wealh. While they are a beaten race in many
places, docile beneath our hands, the free lords in the north and the last of the
Roman kings in the west remember old grudges. They send raiders to plun-
der our halls and steal our cattle, and encourage outlaws and usurpers with
shelter and aid. Some Wealh kings can be bargained with, and sometimes a
lasting peace can be made, but it takes a wise man to best the cunning Brit-
ons at all the works of speech. If they cannot be tamed with words, they must
be broken with steel if our people are to have peaceful enjoyment of the land.
Dumnonia has fallen to King Ine of Wessex, but much remains to their lands.
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