Get ready for LARP season with renaissance costumes

The end of February is not too far off, which means that Live Action Role Playing (LARP) season will be here before you know it! Many groups like to hold their first events of the year during March. This means that it is time to dig out your Medieval costumes, oil up and polish your Medieval armor, and to start practicing with your boffer or latex weapons.

What is LARPing? LARPing is a type of roleplaying that takes you away from a gaming table and actually places you inside the role of your actual character. When you create a character, you actually come up with their personality, put on a Renaissance costume, and head out to a location, such as a campsite, to act out how your character would respond to the situations that are presented to you.

In most cases, there is a game staff that comes up with the story, villains, and other characters to help immerse you within the world of the game. Then you spend the entire length of the event acting out your character as you come across various scenarios. It is both a unique and entertaining experience.

If you are thinking about attending a LARP and are in need of a costume or armor, make sure to visit our site to see all of the fun options we have available.

Just as a quick reminder, a haiku is a three lined poem. The first and third line may only contain five syllables, while the second line must contain seven.

Without further ado, here are a few Renaissance themed haiku! (Did you catch the rhyme?)

Hark! ...Renaissance Haiku for all!

“Young Queen of Fashion”

Ruling easily

the essence of power is

repugnant to all.

“Should They Attack?”

This morning he saw

that one of the ships was sunk.

It be made certain.

“Complete Revolution”

She invaded North

and First Lieutenant Litchfield

was made a Captain.

“Profoundly Trustful of His Convictions”

The returning guards

suppressed a note of warning

sent by King Henry.

We hope you enjoy! Write your own in the comments section!

Sometimes one must improvise...

After a few minutes of being trapped in our precarious situation, the skeletons that were ordered  to bind us fell into some sort of a trance. They became eerily still and the small red glow in their eyes subsided. We pondered amongst ourselves as to what we could do to escape our current predicament. The only one who continued to move was the mage, who wandered off down one of the side corridors.

That is when we heard footsteps coming down the path that we had used to gain entry into the cavern. We feared that the vampire had already returned, when we noticed that it was Trevor. He was moving slowly as to not alert the skeletal guards, though we weren’t sure if they would have heard him anyway.

“Did he take the Medieval pendant?” Trevor whispered.

“No, I have it in my hand,” Grantiere replied.

“Give it to me, we haven’t much time,” Trevor said.

He reached forward and clasped the pendant to his left shoulder and started reciting what sounded like a prayer. The jewel on the pendant began to radiate a bright light, that soon encompassed the entirety of the cavern. When the light subsided, all of the skeletons in the chamber were gone; piles of ash on the ground were all that remained.

“I had hoped to use that on Rulatha,” Trevor started, “But sometimes one must improvise.”

“How did you know to come for us?” Baltus asked.

“I saw the vampire speed down the path,” Trevor answered, “We may not have long, we must leave at once.”

“What about Josephus?” I questioned, pointing up to where our comrade was currently being held.

“We have to get him down quickly,” Trevor responded.

“And we must get back to warn the kingdom that our ruse didn’t work,” Grantiere added.

“I wouldn’t count on that just yet,” Trevor said.

“Everyone get ready to catch Josephus,” Balthus commanded.

“What do you mean, catch?” Grantiere asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"What? Me hungry!" said the barbarian

As you may know, in the past we have had some of our readers submit their funny LARP stories to us so that we can share them with everyone. For newer readers, LARP stands for Live Action Role Playing, and it is a game where you actually become your character and roleplay him or her out in a physical setting. Depending on the organization you are with, there can be combat with safe-for-combat weapons, while other games use other methods. It is a great place to utilize Medieval and Renaissance costuming.

This particular story starts in the town’s Medieval Tavern. Most of the players had gathered for the Saturday afternoon feast and were enjoying merriment and games. Since everyone was going to be in one location, the game directors had organized a valuable piece of information to be released to the players by way of a good old fashion tavern fight.

While everyone was enjoying their meals, the two people who were “staging” the fight were throwing taunts toward each other, gearing up for this elaborately planned affair. The tension was running high as the players were waiting to see what exactly would happen in the following altercation.

Just as one of the participants got up to draw their sword, something unexpected occurred: A player, taking the role of a barbarian, did not wish to have his meal interrupted by petty barroom antics. Before the person initiating the fight could even draw their weapon, this barbarian picked up his club and used a skill that knocks someone out for ten minutes, thus adverting the fight.

Once complete, the barbarian sat back down, looked up, and realized that everyone was looking at him. He simply shrugged his shoulders, that were covered by his Medieval Barbarian wrap, and said, “What? Me hungry!”

Please feel free to share your own funny LARP stories in the comments section!

Delicious Medieval food is simple to do!

We have in the past presented you with Medieval or Renaissance themed recipes that have been largely focused on main courses. Today we wanted to sweeten things up a bit with a traditional Italian desert. This recipe is for a Cherry Torte.

Ingredients list:

1 pound cherries

1 pound ricotta cheese

3 eggs

1/8 cup rose petals

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ cup sugar

½ tps. ginger

1 pinch black pepper

1 Tbsp. rose water

Procedures

-Start by grinding the dried cherries, making sure to drain them if they are from a can.

-Take the eggs, sugar, ricotta, and ground cherries and mix them thoroughly into a large bowl.

-After mixed, add in the ginger, pepper, cinnamon, and rose petals.

-Pour this mixture into an unbaked pie crust, covering with a top crust and bake at 350°F until the top of the crust is golden brown.

-Prior to serving, make a small hole in the top of the crust and pour in the rosewater.

This recipe brought to us from the good folks at Medieval Recipes. If you are planning on a Renaissance themed dinner, then this Cherry Torte can be an excellent desert compliment to the meal. For added ambiance, consider serving the dish as an authentically as possible while wearing this Tavern Keep Clothing.

Enjoy!

Pearson's Renaissance Shoppe is your source for Renaissance and Medieval info!

Have you ever considered exploring your interest in the Renaissance or Medieval era? Have you ever wanted to don some Medieval armor and participate in a Live Action Role Play or Society for Creative Anachronism event? Are you looking for specific types of costumes for a theatrical production? If you’ve answered “Yes” to any of these questions, then we can definitely help you.

We also wanted to take the time to let you know that we have a number of resource articles that can help provide you with more information about the various types of costumes you can find on our site. There are also some tidbits of advice that you can use in order to better your experience when it comes to your Medieval costume. Whether you want to be a wizard, or you want to wear a lady buccaneer costume, you can find information that can be helpful to you.

We are always here to help, but we wanted to let you know about this Renaissance Resources page so that you can browse through all of the information that we’ve assembled to see if you can find additional answers.

We hope you find the exact costume that you are looking for!

If I were to venture down the path to this cavern...

After the Vampire demanded the whereabouts of the Baron’s daughter, Grantiere bravely stepped forward.

“Given her elderly state,” he began, “Her rate of travel has been slowed.”

“She is on the road and should be here within the hour,” Celebryn added.

The Vampire pondered the response as he slowly paced before us. He cast a glance toward the Skeletal Mage, then back toward us. He squinted at us in what seemed to be disapproval.

“The Baron wanted us to offer you this pendant in exchange for your mercy,” said Grantiere as he held out the trinket.

“If I were to venture down the path to this cavern,” the Vampire started, “I would eventually encounter the Baron’s daughter.”

“That is correct,” responded Grantiere.

“Well then,” said Rulatha, “If that is accurate, then I suppose you wouldn’t mind waiting here until I can confirm your claim.”

He nodded toward his mage. The skeleton raised its arms as the ground beneath us start to rumble. Skeletal arms emerged from the ground as a battalion of the undead warriors surrounded us and proceeded to bind us together. As their lifeless forms were following the commands of their leader, I noticed that the chain they were tying around our Medieval belts was extremely rusty.

Before I could completely process this thought, the chain was pulled tight and we were completely restricted. The Vampire stood with his back to us.

“If you have deceived me, my entire host shall be unleashed upon your kingdom,” said Rulatha as he disappeared into the shadows.

Imagine if it was 1582!

As with many of the holidays, a lot of our fans are curious as to how people treated these specific days during the Medieval and Renaissance time periods. Since the most relevant holiday is the start of the New Year, we thought we would give a brief history and overview of what things were like during the era we all know and love.

As with most of our traditions, the origin of the celebration of the first of the year came with the Romans. The Roman calender initially only included ten months, with the start of the year coming on March 1^st. This date was chosen due to its proximity to the vernal equinox.

In the year 700 B.C., the Roman King Numa Pontilius included January and February to the calendar. Eventually, in 153 B.C. January 1^st became the new start of the year. This change was made because it was regarded as the start of the civil terms of elected officials within the Roman political system. Each January 1^st would mark the election of the two new Consuls, which were the high public official the Roman Republic.

During the Middle Ages, many religious organizations abolished the 1^st of January as start of the year as it was considered to be pagan. Many religious officials that would wear Medieval Priest Robes called for Christian communities to observe the first of the year to be either the birth of Jesus, December 25^th, or the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25^th. The official repeal of January 1^st was in 567 due to the Council of Tours.

Finally, in 1582, the calendar year was reformed via the Gregorian calendar. This called for the first of the year to once again coincide with the beginning of January. This became the popular and widely accepted custom throughout the Catholic world. This change was more of a gradual process for Protestant communities, with a prime example being the British Empire. Up until the year 1752, England and all of their colonies, which included America, still recognized March as being the start of the New Year.

That is a brief overview of the history of the holiday. We hope this help answered some of the questions you may have had. We also hope that for this year, you are able to achieve your New Year’s Resolution.

Where is the Baron's daughter?

We rode as hard and fast as was possible, stopping only to feed and water our steeds. We wanted to ensure we met with the appropriate time table of Vampire so that we did not insight the launch of the Unholy assault prematurely.

Trevor rode with us but had planned in advance to not accompany us inside of the underground structure. He was convinced that Rulatha would be able to sense his presence if he got too close as they have had encounters in the past. We agreed that as we descended into the depths that we would leave a trail of lamp oil behind us. If things did not go according to plan we would light the trail and Trevor would come to our assistance.

We tied our steeds off to a tree, readied the replica pendant and started down into the darkness, with but one lamp to light the way.

The closer we got to the antechamber the more we could hear the clicking of boney feet against the stone floor. As we entered, we saw a number of skeletons moving about, seemingly assembling the necessary accessories for war. Though, we did notice that the number of skeletal warriors had significantly decreased since the last time we were in this desolate place.

Suspended from the roof of the cavern we spied Josephus. He was bound by several leather straps and seemed to be unconscious. Beneath him stood the same skeleton, who wore the black Mage’s cloak, that transported us with such speed only a few days early. Its eyeless sockets turned toward us as we entered and although I knew it was impossible, it seemed to offer us a grin.

The Skeletal Mage lifted its arm, one of which grasped the staff made of petrified wood. An feint breeze rustled through cavern, causing the lamp lights to flicker for mere seconds. When the flames regained their intensity, standing before was Rulatha.

“You were wise to return,” his steady voice informed us, “Now where is the Baron’s daughter?”

Hear ye, Hear ye!

If you are planning on visiting a Renaissance Faire in the near future, wearing a costume can help add to the atmosphere.  Or maybe you are a seasoned veteran who loves to dress up, but you are looking for a different costume to change things up a bit.

Popular roles at a Faire are:

-Warriors

-Knights

-Clerics

-Tavern Keeps

-Pirates

But there is one role that people sometimes shy away from: The poet. Medieval poets were often great lyricists who penned some of the most beautiful poetry that we read today. If you are looking to meet a lovely lady while at the fair, why not consider wooing her with some vibrant verses? An appropriate costume to go along with this archetype would be this Renaissance cotton poet shirt.

We also wanted to bring up this idea this week because the 22^nd of December is National Haiku Day. We thought it might be fun to pair a pop-culture event with some of our Renaissance themes. Therefore, we have tried our hand at some of our own haiku.

“Cunning Rogue”

O’ Wondrous Maiden

Your vast beauty radiates.

Please bring me some ale.

“The Calm Before the Storm”

Rain, nor thunder could

draw the evil Duke from his lair

Churchmen prayed all night.

Can you come up with any? If you can feel free to post them in the comments section!