ModernChivalry.org
Main => The Round Table => Topic started by: Sir Gerard de Rodes on 2009-07-14, 22:17:13
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I thought I`d start a thread to see what you guys have done about background for your personas, the knights that you portray at your shows and events. We could possibly share ideas.
Our group works slightly different to other UK groups in that we don`t portray very famous people from history, thus giving us the flexability we need to build scenarios for the particular venue we do. In other words we can make up an entertaining storyline for our event that doesn`t have to be 100% historicaly accurate.
Here`s mine as it is on our site;
http://www.freemenofgwent.com/index.php?sid=&book=derodes
I find doing the research and getting a background history, fascinating. I just wondered if any of you had done anything similar.
G
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I think this is a very interesting topic. I have been working on my Elizabethan era persona for PaRF for a while now. I have a sort of roughed out version that encompasses most of the aspects of my real life family. Here it goes: Sir Matthew, oldest surving child of Master Raymond and his wife Diane. Younger Sister, Carrie, married a local Sheriff (my brother in law is a police officer). Younger brother, Christopher, joined the protestant clergy and is studying to be a pastor (he is in Church Grad school). Father was a freeman farmer and assistant miller (my father works in a feed mill and is an avid gardener), mother was the oldest daughter of a weathy merchant/shopkeeper and was able to read and write, she taught her children to do the same. Finding that I had no taste for farm life, I left home with my parents blessing at the age of 12 to follow a Landsknecht unit on their way to serve a contract with a border Lord. I earned my keep by taking care of weapons, armor, and whatever other odd jobs I could. In my spare time, such as it was, I learned pike, musket, halberd, rapier, katzenbalger, and various unarmed fightint techniques. Being a rather slight young man, I was not deemed suitable to take a place among the Border Lord's retainers until the age of 17. Coming from the Gentry, I took a place in the pike ranks. After serving for 5 years, I left the Border Lords service to join a mercenary company forming to answer the calls for aid from English lords in Ireland. Finding I could make more money serving on a gun crew, and finding my education made me valuable as a gunner, I joined the company's cannon crew. I served with various mercenary companies throughout Ireland and continental Europe as a gunner, pikeman and musketeer, before finally being wounded while in the service of the Spanish. I was recognized for my bravory by a Spanish noble and fate would have it that I caught the attention of the Spanish King. He confered the title of Knight upon me and bid me return to Spain should my native monarch refuse to recognize the title. Upon returning to England with my new wife, I secured an audience with Queen Elizabeth and she chose to recognize the title I had been granted and cofired a modest estate upon me. Once again, finding sedentary life a poor suit for me and the financial responsibility of Knighthood more than the estate could bear, I have again returned to that which supported me so well for so long, soldiering.
The final part about the knighting comes from a wedding present my family gave my wife and I, a trip to Medieval Times. When we met the King we explained why we were there, as we went in garb. He Knighted me as way of a gift. Since MT protrays a Spanish theme and Faire patrons see anyone in armor as a Knight, I amended my personae to portray this. Any thoughts or suggestions?
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You know, this is a really good question. :) I haven't really built a historical background or persona, as such. I've been attending the renfaires in my kits pretty much as myself, but with my early 14th C kit, I've been imagining it lately as my "700 years ago in England" persona, in a way. That would make it summer of 1309 for me right now. :)
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I find doing the research and getting a background history, fascinating. I just wondered if any of you had done anything similar.
Fantastic and inspirational. I've been researching mine since you've posted and I am nearly ready to share mine as well. Just need a little bit more to add.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
A most excellent background story and even more enjoyable since I got to see you in your full harness at PARF's opening weekend! :)
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Ok here is mine for my Persona of...
Sir Brian FitzMatthais FitzGerald
http://modernchivalry.org/knights/view/Sir%20Brian (http://modernchivalry.org/knights/view/Sir%20Brian)
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Sir Brian,
That is qiute a detailed and intricate personae... very interesting indeed. Glad I got to see you at PaRF this past weekend and you finally got to see my kit. Like most of us, mine is ever evolving and changing as I add and remove pieces and as my research uncovers new facts about the period...
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Most excellent! You're going to shame me into creating one too. :)
I have an idea for creating an area on the site for people to post stuff like this, and maybe some pictures too. We'll see if I have time to do it.
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can u make a list that we can just add dates time places to? i'm lazy and Brian's shamed me heheheh
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lol, I certainly didn't expect that I'd get that detailed but as I was researching the Fitzgerald line
it started branching all over the place. (The Geraldines were randy as goats apparently, so with a
goat as a charge in your family COA Sir Wolf you might have the same problem!) ;)
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OK, I found some time tonight to work on this some more.... "this" being the idea I mentioned a few messages above. I've been wanting to set up a place where our forum knights can create small home-pages with information, personas, and photos.
The photo thing isn't built yet, but for basic text, I think it's working well enough to let you guys take a crack at it and let me know what you think. Check it out!
http://modernchivalry.org/knights/ (http://modernchivalry.org/knights/)
So far I'm the only one in it, of course: http://modernchivalry.org/knights/view/Sir%20Edward (http://modernchivalry.org/knights/view/Sir%20Edward)
Let me know what you think of the program!
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I like it! Well done Sir Edward! ;D
I went ahead and moved my persona over to that page.
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kinda cool man
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Excellent :)
Like I said, I want to add some photos too. Nothing huge like a photo album, but have the option to include a few select images inline with the text and maybe a few more to follow at the bottom. I won't have time to work on it til next week probably. I've never tried the "upload" feature in HTML before.
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really cool! can't wait. hehe maybe I can put all my personas up hehe got that much bandwidth? ;)
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THAT many? ~ You could be considered the "Sybil" of the ages!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Ardell_Mason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Ardell_Mason) :D
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really cool! can't wait. hehe maybe I can put all my personas up hehe got that much bandwidth? ;)
lol! Well, the text blocks are allowed to be fairly large. If you devoted a paragraph to each, you could probably do it. lol!
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THAT many? ~ You could be considered the "Sybil" of the ages!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Ardell_Mason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Ardell_Mason) :D
5th century BC Greek
3rd century BC Roman
2nd century BC Celt
1st century BC Roman
1st century AD Roman
3rd century AD Roman
4th century AD Roman
5th century AD Frank
8th century AD Saxon
9th century AD Viking
10th century AD Irish
11th century AD Norman
12th/13th century AD Hospitaller
13th/14th century AD knight
15th century AD Archer
15th century AD Billman
WWII US Infantry (Ranger)
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Well well well.
I`ve been off the net for a little while and haven`t you been busy bees lol. I feel very proud that a few of you (who I consider my peers) have felt inspired.
Sir Brian, that really is a nice piece of work. You have mixed factual research with imaginative, interesting fiction and thrown in a little artistic licence to tailor your persona to be suitable to your hoby. I like it alot. It`s very similar to what members of our group have endeavoured to achieve ( you have put some of our guys to shame by the way lol).
Madmanpsu, Another very thorough and informative bit of work. It has all the things needed to arm you for any questions that MOPs might throw at you.
I like the way you have both gone into the smaller and deeper details of your personas life.
Some times it really isn`t as easy as just portraying an actual character from history, because sometimes they simply aint interesting enough or they are so well known, or their life is so well documented, that there is simply no room for bending their story to suit what ever event, or location, you are re-enacting at the time. We found that choosing a relatively unknown personality gives you that flexability.
Well done guys.
I`m just about to have a look at Sir Eds bits :-\
G
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Sir Ed,
What a great idea. Hope you get a persona together soon ( I`m sure it will be amaizing)
Just one question, (I`m a PC idiot) how do I upload my persona onto that section ???
Cheers,
G.
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Sir Ed,
What a great idea. Hope you get a persona together soon ( I`m sure it will be amaizing)
Just one question, (I`m a PC idiot) how do I upload my persona onto that section ???
Cheers,
G.
While you're still logged into the forum, just click through to the Knight Pages, then you should see an "edit" button up near the top. That'll give you a link to create and then edit your page. You can just paste your text into the provided input boxes.
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Sir Brian, that really is a nice piece of work. You have mixed factual research with imaginative, interesting fiction and thrown in a little artistic licence to tailor your persona to be suitable to your hoby. I like it alot. It`s very similar to what members of our group have endeavoured to achieve ( you have put some of our guys to shame by the way lol).
Thank you kindly sir and thank you for getting the ball rolling with starting this thread. ;)
I do apologize if my "artistic embellishments" seemed a bit over the top, but I do fancy myself a little bit as a writer and relish any chance to exercise whatever meager writing skills I possess.
~ If I was truly gifted I'd be able to make a living at it! ;)
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Well, clearly unless you're portraying a specific historical character, you have to blend in a certain amount of fiction. As for fantasy elements, it's useful to remember that myths and folklore were an important part of period culture. :)
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I have photos working in the knight pages!
It resizes for you, so you can upload large photos.
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Excellent! Thank you Sir Edward!
I noticed the pictures don't display the captions however. ???
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Doh! :) Yeah, they work for the ones you assign to text blocks, but not the ones at the bottom. I'll work on that. Right now it's just lining them up in a row and letting the browser auto-wrap down there. I'll have to change it to a grid layout to put the captions on.
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Doh! :) Yeah, they work for the ones you assign to text blocks, but not the ones at the bottom. I'll work on that. Right now it's just lining them up in a row and letting the browser auto-wrap down there. I'll have to change it to a grid layout to put the captions on.
OK, I think I have this working.
I've edited mine a bit, and you can look there as an example.
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Excellent! Your page is looking good!
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Thanks! :)
BTW, if you want to put pictures inline with the text areas, you can do so from the Edit page.
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BTW, I made some small edits to the program. I fixed a sorting issue in the list view, and also you now have the option to hide your page from the list view, which will automatically happen if you don't enter any text for your page.
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I also added the following to the "about" section. Does it sound good?
"The Knight Pages do not imply any sort of official knighthood, beyond what you
already have or consider yourself to be. Since we can not tell you when or if
you are worthy, and when you can be a knight, it is entirely up to you.
Spend time in introspection, or prayer if that suits you. Spend time with the
tools of your trade, whether it is a pen, sword, computer, etc. Assemble your
armor or uniform, and clean your sword. When you feel that you are ready to
bear the title of Knight, do so with humilty and honor, and bear it well."
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Great work Sir Ed. ;)
G
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Excellent pictures you've added to your persona Sir Gerard! :)
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Indeed, looks great! Well done!
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Knight Pages section now supports some BB-Code for formatting text and including links and pictures.
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I'm trying out a parchment and red/brown color scheme for the Knight Pages section. Let me know what you think. I can easily switch it back.
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I like it! :)
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Me too
G
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And I've updated the navigation buttons, parchment backgrounds, and made the list columns sortable.
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woah way cool. now i gotta do something...
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Yes but we all know you've been very busy lately...but our patience is limited! ;)
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*tapping feet*
(http://ed.toton.org/photos/2009/faire/hurry-up.jpg)
:)
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LOL :)
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http://modernchivalry.org/knights/view/Sir%20Wolf
welp I sorta started.
man what a work in progress.
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http://modernchivalry.org/knights/view/Sir%20Wolf
welp I sorta started.
man what a work in progress.
Hey, that's a great start! You'll have a place to point people to, so you can show off your century-by-century array of kits.
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That is a great start...maybe you can embellish it a bit by taking on a persona similar to
the "eternal champion", an immortal warrior destined to live throughout the ages. :-\
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HAH! i thought about the very thing last night. hehehe but i didn't wanna sound lame ;) but now that someone else came up with the idea publically hehehe maybe i'll run with it ;)
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ug this is gonna take forever. just shows me how many holes i have in each kit
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HAH! i thought about the very thing last night. hehehe but i didn't wanna sound lame ;) but now that someone else came up with the idea publically hehehe maybe i'll run with it ;)
Here is a link with a fantasy flair to give you some inspiration…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_Champion
…and of course there is Saint Longinus, who was the centurion that pierced the side of Jesus when he was crucified which was the basis for several quasi-legends that he was cursed with immortality until the second coming of Christ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Longinus
ug this is gonna take forever. just shows me how many holes i have in each kit
Don’t let the scope of the task overwhelm you! With all your research and knowledge you’ve done in making your various kits I’m sure your persona will be an excellent read! Of course Ed might have to expand the size of your page to cover them all though! :D
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:) thanks.
shhh i started working on a 1330s archer kit today. dont tell the wife. i got my hosen cut out and 1 sewn up already. i have a hood w/ lillirpipe. heheh shhhh
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Hey, can I get in on this too?
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Hey, can I get in on this too?
Yep, just being a member on the forum gives you access to create a page for yourself. Just click through to the "Knight Pages" link at the top, and there should be an option for creating your own. You just have to be logged into the forum, since it uses your forum account.
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Awesome...gonna start on it now.
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The knight pages are really starting to look FAB !! Well done all as it really isn`t that easy is it? ::)
G
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I'm done! Actually, I was done last week but been tweaking it a bit here and there til it sounded like I wanted it to. ;)