Dark Albion has a ton of information on Medieval-Fantasy England and Scotland. But it actually has more information on medieval-fantasy continental Europe than Ireland.  You even get more information about the Isle of Mann or the Isle of Wight than you do about Ireland.

I'm not saying I'm planning to do an Ireland book for Albion (there's no plan for that right now, actually).  But if this were to happen, what do you think it should look like?

lots of faeries!

There's a ton of source material. Those Irish monks were not lazy. So to do it right would require a lot of research and work, but would also be incredibly rewarding.

When it comes to Ireland, I think that the Dark Ages are a more compelling time period than High Medieval. This is because the Catholic Church did not cement their control of Ireland until the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, and even then the weird Christian-Pagan hybrid spirituality probably continued in Ireland for a long time afterwards. So you probably had the remnants of the druids side-by-side with ascetic Christian monks. That's probably more compelling as a setting than what came later.

Speaking of druids, the reading I've done on this subject has convinced me that the traditional Druid/Ovate/Bard trichotomy is a bit skewed. What we think of as a Druid, colored no doubt by D&D, would actually have been an Ovate. The Druids were more ceremonial types - think a cross between a Priest and a Politician. They had an elaborate system of law and settled many disputes.

In the Codex Celtarum for C&C, the author had an elaborate cosmology based on source material and you would want to use that as well. The Tuatha de Danann were the pagan gods who were driven underground by the Milesians and became associated with fairies. The Fomorii were kind of like the Titans in Greek Mythology. The Neolithic gods were likely bloodthirsty and largely phased out by the Medieval period, but who knows what's lurking in those ancient ruins? The Indo-European connection apparently can also yield a lot of awesomeness here as well. Rumor has it that a good understanding of Vedic mythology can yield a lot of insight into Celtic myth.

Layers of invasion and resistance, cycles of history and folk explaining myths from different angles (were the Tuatha gods or magicians of antiquity ?). It's an evolving song. I think Alan Moore's view of words as magic, grimoire/grammar etc skirt close to the way the geas plays a huge part in the heroic cycle.

I really like John Kirk's home-brew RPG, Legendary Quest - so much research and sources given in each PDF tome: http://legendaryquest.netfirms.com/Download.htm

Quote from: ningauble;947911There's a ton of source material. Those Irish monks were not lazy. So to do it right would require a lot of research and work, but would also be incredibly rewarding.

When it comes to Ireland, I think that the Dark Ages are a more compelling time period than High Medieval. This is because the Catholic Church did not cement their control of Ireland until the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, and even then the weird Christian-Pagan hybrid spirituality probably continued in Ireland for a long time afterwards. So you probably had the remnants of the druids side-by-side with ascetic Christian monks. That's probably more compelling as a setting than what came later.

Indeed, I am a big fan of the Sister Fidelma series of historical mysteries, set in this period.

(Also kinda depressing how a native form of Christianity was completely supplanted by a much more controlling foreign version. Sorta reminds me of Iran)

The only RPG book I know that touched on medieval Ireland is Pagan Shore for Pendragon. Like the main game it presents an Ireland that is a melange of the 6th and 12th-15th centuries. It has fantasy version of the Pale, the Anglo-Normans are replaced with Arthurian British, Norse Irish and other facets of medieval Ireland.

Now that I think about it, despite the fact that every renaissance festival I've been to has been like 30-40% Irish outfits, music, etc., other than a few leprechauns and such, not a lot fantasy games have a log of specifically Irish stuff (except the stuff that is mixed in with the general fantasy mish-mash that I likely don't even know is Irish). I wonder why.

I seem to remember really liking the WFB stuff they did on Albion many years ago. It was part of some summer campaign thing or something. I used a bit of it in my WHFRP games. Pendragon had a great book on Ireland, too.

So, maybe things to look at.

But for me, I want lots of misty fens, strange stone tombs, demonic fish-people invaders, everyday weird magic, and definitely rules for cattle-raiding.

Hero Games' Tuala Morn is much more based on pagan-era Eire, but it has Christian-type knights and clerics (missionaries), apparently as a sop to those who want such.

jg

Perhaps an obvious choice but The Tain seems like a good resource.

You'd need a split between the people: Anglo-Norman rulers and soldiers, Norse-Gael descendants around the old Norse kingdoms, Gaels and Fae.

The royalty of the old Irish Kingdoms might be conspiring to restore the High King and the Old Kingdoms, against the Anglo-Normans.

Religion would be important. Ireland is Catholic Christian throughout the High Medieval period, but the Celtic Church would have a lot of influence and traditions. Pagans would be rare, as the Church would hunt them down and make them convert, but some Christians could have old pagan beliefs or knowledge of the Old Ways. Druids would be very rare, as they would be hunted down as Pagan Priests, but Bards would be more acceptable and Druids could masquerade as bards. The fae would have theor own religion, worshipping the Heroes and Gods of Mythic Ireland.

It would be a mix of Bogs and Castles, Peat and Ships, Old and New, Irish and Invaders, all in all a great mix of ideas.

Information on technology and tools that can up in play would be helpful (i.e. what ), gunpowder over the course of the period, how castles evolved, etc. Also architecture is something I find useful when I am GMing (just so I know what I have to play around with when I map a town, keep or dungeon). Roles and occupations. Settlement info.

Quote from: ningauble;947911When it comes to Ireland, I think that the Dark Ages are a more compelling time period than High Medieval. This is because the Catholic Church did not cement their control of Ireland until the Synod of Whitby in 664 AD, and even then the weird Christian-Pagan hybrid spirituality probably continued in Ireland for a long time afterwards. So you probably had the remnants of the druids side-by-side with ascetic Christian monks. That's probably more compelling as a setting than what came later.

Well, in Dark Albion I made Scotland much more primitive than it was in real life, to play up the whole "scottish barbarians" thing.  I could see doing a much more old celtic Ireland for that setting too. It's implied in the little material on Eire in the Albion book that it is less advanced than Albion, and that most (though not all) of the people living there are still heathens, and that Eire has way more magical/supernatural stuff than most of Albion.

Darby O'Gill And The Little People:

[video=youtube;uIT_ov0lOXo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIT_ov0lOXo[/youtube]