Drachenfest Part I - The Preparations

or: How to Become a Warrior in Two Weeks Time
or: How I became Arya, the Copper Warrior



Have you ever dreamt of jumping in a parallel universe, or back in time? Or ever sat dreamily over a medieval novel thinking how romantic and exciting it would have been living in those times? Or have you maybe watched Game of Thrones and ever wanted to be part of it?

As a student of history and a semi-professional daydreamer, I certainly have.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs18/f/2007/126/a/2/
LARP_I_by_DanielDeFoe.jpg

So when I first heard about the Drachenfest from my flatmate, I was intrigued.  I had never heard about LARPs before (Live Action RolePlay) but they are there, and they are MASSIVE! At DF alone this year there will be about 4500 people, all dressing up in medieval and fantasy clothes (elbs, orks and dwarfs included), and acting out a fantasy world of tribes and battles, intrigues, medieval city life, tavernas, espionage, discipline, breaking the rules and everything you could image for one week.
Weird? Certainly...
Fascinating! Loads!


I´m not a big fan of doing research on the internet and spending much time online, but in this case I had to do it just to get an idea of how this whole idea works. So many new things! But I wanted to do it, I was gripped by the idea of becoming part of this for a certain amount of time. So I spend evenings in front of the computer, klicking through the forum, talking to people.
Still, too much information. I needed someone to help me.

I was lucky to make the acquaintance of Edo, a guy from Berlin who had been doing this for years and has his own workshop for LARP armoury, who was willing to be my mentor. He could help me out with clothes, a place in the tent and a lift. If I was strong enough, he asked. If I would be an adequate knave to his high position in the paladin fraternity.

The Workshop

Edoran Bjolfurson

His test was a fifteen-minute sword fight in the blinding sun in the backyard of his workshop. After five minutes, I was out of breath. After seven minutes, I couldn´t hold the sword anymore.




But I wanted this. I don´t know why, but I wanted to be a warrior.I wanted to be in the midst of battle, among hundreds of roaring fellow fighters. So I thought

and continued, and staggered out of my first test, arms badly bruised and as heavy as a gorilla´s, but happy as, especially when Edo told me I had done decently for my first time.


Until I am ready to go into battle, I will need a few more of these trainings. Oufff...

In test armoury

How will this continue? How will Arya, my LARP alter ego, the knave of Edoran Bjolfurson, evolve, develop, change?
Only two more weeks until I leave for the Drachenfest! Which clothes am I going to end up wearing, how tired am I going to be, or how wide awake? Will I be able to fit in, or will I just surrender halfway and end up spending the rest of the week in the wooden bath-tub getting massages and eating and drinking?

I´ll keep you updated!