Dagorhir

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Dagorhir is a live-action dark age battlegame (or LARP) organization founded in Maryland in 1977. Dagorhir has since spread to scores of locations with thousands of members in the US, Canada and England. Dagorhir is a combat-oriented organization with full-contact fighting as its primary focus, with a secondary element of acting in-character before, during, and after combat. Dagorhir fighters typically use foam weapons such as swords, flails, spears, bows and arrows, morning stars, axes, and other weapons that were commonly used during the dark ages. This particular LARP does not involve use of “magic"--only medieval type weapons. Participants also dress in period costume and are expected to stay "in-character" during events, though the amount of seriousness the role-playing aspect receives varies greatly by unit and chapter.

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[edit] Description

The weapons used in combat are inspected for safety prior to each battle. Originally crudely made of couch foam and broomsticks, they are now usually made from combinations of both open and closed-cell foam bonded around a fiberglass or PVC pipe core. Participants may also wear armor, which gives them an advantage in battle, but armor is not required, as the weapons are built and frequently inspected for safety. Fighters are organized into units of various sizes, organized along social lines, that generally fight and socialize together and are a club or fraternity of sorts. There is friendly rivalry between units. Units typically adopt a particular historical or fantastical race or nationality and dress, act, and fight according to their interpretation of that group, so at a battle you might see Roman Legionnaires squared off against Orcs and goblins, Vikings, Samurai, elves, and German barbarians.

Unlike LARP organizations, Dagorhir is strictly a weapon combat game. More fantastic elements, such as magic, give way to more intensive battlefield tactics and off the field innovation in weapon design and components. Dagorhir also eschews the use of character class. Fighters are, therefore, not forced into class stereotypes and are free to fight unrestricted in types of armor, choices of weapon, and style of play.

Chapters are organized by geography, and range between a handful of participants to several hundred. Typically a chapter will organize a battle each month, with the various units participating, with occasional supplementary activities such as feasts, overnight camp-out battles, and even annual inter-chapter meetings. The biggest Dagorhir annual gathering is called Ragnarok and is usually held in Ohio during June. The original chapter, founded in 1977, is based in the Washington, D.C. area, and is known as "Dagorhir Aratari" after the founder's persona, Aratar.

[edit] History

Bryan Wiese watched the movie Robin and Marion while reading The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. He had never heard of medieval reenactment, Live Action Role Playing Games or even Dungeons and Dragons but he wanted something to capture the spirit and adventure that could only come from wielding sword and bow. As 1977 rolled by, Brian ran ads on the local radio station WGTB. Brian then became "Aratar Anfinhir the Stormbringer" and Dagorhir was born into its first incarnation (as of yet, unnamed).

The club grew and in 1980 a Washington D.C. community TV show PM Magazine ran a half hour episode where the host of PM Magazine spent a day at a Dagorhir battle game. After that point interest in Dagorhir exploded in the D.C. Area.

The explosive growth of Dagorhir took its toll on Brian Wiese. Brian, who had coined the game as “Dagorhir Outdoor Improvisational Dark Age Battle Games”, had a more theatrical bend to his dream. The new flood of players had an attitude that was more sport like. In order to combat this change, the Dagorhir Handbook was formalized. This included costuming requirements in an effort to encourage the players to think of it more of a theatrical game.

In 1981(?), a young man who went by the name of Falcon took the Dagorhir game to Cleveland, Ohio. Then in 1983, PM Magazine broadcast the TV episode to a national audience. The result was the founding of a group in Illinois. Dagorhir began to spread throughout the Mid Western U.S.

Dagorhir has enjoyed extensive nationwide growth in recent years, expanding to an international membership of over a hundred Chapters consisting of a total membership in the thousands.

[edit] Membership

Dagorhir is open to the public, membership is free of charge (though each event often has a nominal fee) and participation requires only a small start-up cost to obtain weapons and garb. Participants are generally members of chapters, called "realms," which are formally registered in order to be allowed the use of the Dagorhir name, or related designs and documents. Most groups will keep an armory of weapons for loaning to new members or guests. This is most common of larger groups, but often smaller groups will do it as well. Sometimes veteran members will give old, unused weapons to the new players. As a project on the Dagorhir forums, people began counting and listing active Dagorhir members. At last count this list contained 1486 people with several large groups not reporting. Due to the nature of the chapters of Dagorhir, as well as the definitions of "active", this number cannot be completely accurate. It is usually required to have a release form signed and notarized before engaging in any activities.

[edit] Ragnarok

Ragnarok is the national (inter-realm) Dagorhir event. Ragnarok XXI, which took place in June of 2006, had some 1,020 participants, approximately half of whom were fighters. More recently, Ragnarok XXII in June of 2007 had more than 1,200 attendees, with 601 actually fighting at the height of the event. Ragnarok has, for the last several years, been held at Spring Valley Campground in Cambridge, Ohio.

[edit] Other Events

Groups across the nation hold events open to the public, and first-time fighters generally have their battle fee, if there is one, waived. While all local battles are open to any participant, there are battles such as a Crown War, that decide the "king" or "queen" of a realm. Then there are larger-scale regional events which typically draw over 100 fighters, as well as national events, of which Ragnarok remains the largest and longest running. In Fall 2006, the second major national event, named after the battle of Badon Hill, took place in western Pennsylvania and drew over 350 attendees.

Annual Regional and National Events:

February:
Father Christmas Feast- Hamburg Community Center, Hamburg, NY

March:
Gates of Summer - Stewarts Farm, Holden, Missouri
Ides of March - Red Horse Stables, Bowden, Georgia

April:
Gates of Fire - Pioneer Park Campground, Somerset, Pennsylvania

June:
Ragnarok - Cambridge, Ohio

July:
Allthyng - Greenbelt, Maryland

September:
Battle of Badon Hill - Pioneer Park Campground, Somerset, Pennsylvania
War of the Iron Fist - Stewarts Farm, Holden, Missouri

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