Hi everyone,
I want to play a witch with an "irish feel" to her. You know, gaelic name, red hair, green eyes, freckles, etc.
The question is, what might be her country of origin? Where could someone like that come from?
Irrisen is a bit too frosty for my taste, so I looked into Varisia, Nirmathas and the River Kingdoms. But I'm not quite sure which of them would be really fitting.
Can you help me? :) Perhaps I've even overlooked some obvious choice?
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Kellid tribes strike me as the closest thing to celts in Golarion. It is rather suprising that there doesn't appear to be an irish or scottish parallel culture in Golarion since just about every other culture IS represented. Galt=france, Andoran=America, Taldor=English, Varisia=balkan states, Linnorm=Scandanavia, etc.
Hi everyone,
I want to play a witch with an "irish feel" to her. You know, gaelic name, red hair, green eyes, freckles, etc.
The question is, what might be her country of origin? Where could someone like that come from?Irrisen is a bit too frosty for my taste, so I looked into Varisia, Nirmathas and the River Kingdoms. But I'm not quite sure which of them would be really fitting.
Can you help me? :) Perhaps I've even overlooked some obvious choice?
Is she named Siobhan? Maeb? Morrigan? (Some would say this last one's overdone, but I still like it best. :D)
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If she is from someplace like a small rustic village or the like, you could place her near the farms outside of sandpoint. There are several moors there, some very intersting weird supernatural things going on there, etc.
If you decide to place her in the River Kingdoms, you should put in her backstory how she feels about the hags of Gyronna, probably the largest percentage of witches in that area, and primarily evil.
I would choose in Varisia though, if you want her more civilized, place her near Magnimar or Korvosa, if more rustic sandpoint or one of the other small towns/villages in the Hinterlands.
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I'd make her from the town of Greengold in Kyonin. It's the human port city in the elvish kingdom. Kyonin is green enough to pass for Ireland and is crawling with fey, so most of the stereotypes are in place, and you have patronizing Elvish overlords in place of patronizing English overlords.
Alternately, make the character from Taldor, but lowerclass from some place unfashionable.
Skimming the race chapter of the Inner Sea Guide, the closest fit to an "Irish" looking people seems to be either the Azlanti or Chelaxians. Given Ireland's historical role as one of the last bastions of the Celtic culture, you might want to try saying that your Irish witch is a member of a population of Chelaxians who still hold onto much of the culture that existed in Cheliax before Taldor invaded and converted them to the worship of Aroden.
I'd suggest fleshing out one of those islands off of Cheliax's west coast. For extra bonus points you can even have them suffering under the oppression of House Thrune as they try to bring this "superstitious", "backward" and rebellious population under control.
I nominate the country of Isger as a good choice. It's a vassal state of Cheliax, formerly of Taldor, was originally inhabited by more savage human tribesmen, and is VERY much seen as a backwater and a place to go through rather than to by the Chelish at large.
Huh. Remind me to check that one out.
Personally, my group tend to associate irish accents with either halflings (though golarion halflings dont really fit this mold) or with fey.
I can see it applying to gnomes almost universally (this is how I play it), or possibly to elves if you can pull of a serious tone rather than sounding like a leperechaun...
Nirmathas for me always struck me as something close to Sherwood Forest, being so heavily wooded. I could be well off on this assumption though, most of my reading is focused around northern Avistan where most of the APs are set.
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I'd make her from the town of Greengold in Kyonin. It's the human port city in the elvish kingdom. Kyonin is green enough to pass for Ireland and is crawling with fey, so most of the stereotypes are in place, and you have patronizing Elvish overlords in place of patronizing English overlords.
Alternately, make the character from Taldor, but lowerclass from some place unfashionable.
+1 This sounds like the best fit, IMO. Witch? Fey? Irish-inspiration? This one is a no-brainer. Now I want to do this, too! :D K.A.M. always has awesome ideas.
Iobaria might work as well - real bastardisation of different cultures and their green faith/cult culture [along with a real sense of fey and untamed wilderness] would also work.
This Celtic Witch is Varisian.
But I do like the idea of the island off Cheliax..
or just look for Irish monsters, lyrakiens in Varisia, a baobhan sith in Narlmarches, dullahans in Kaer Maga dnd Caliphas, there's got to be Irish people around
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Verduran Forest has an island at the center, inhabited by Druids and modeled after Anglesey. Not quite Irish, but rural Andor might be a good place to be 'Irish'.She could max-out heal and be a bone-setter.
The stero type of Red Hair and Freckles is really not an Irish gene. That gene came from the Norse that settled on the northern coast and along the eastern edge. The true Isish person is very dark haired, dark skinned, dark eyes
Just an FYI
I've heard of the two colorings as Fair Irish and Dark Irish. Me? I prefer the dark one.
The Morrigan is a Dark Irish, if any depiction of her/them/it can be accepted as correct.
The Morrigan is a Dark Irish, if any depiction of her/them/it can be accepted as correct.
Ah but the 'Battle Raven' is one of the Tuatha De Dannan who are not exactly Human
I prefer the red myself
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Verduran Forest has an island at the center, inhabited by Druids and modeled after Anglesey. Not quite Irish, but rural Andor might be a good place to be 'Irish'.She could max-out heal and be a bone-setter.The stero type of Red Hair and Freckles is really not an Irish gene. That gene came from the Norse that settled on the northern coast and along the eastern edge. The true Isish person is very dark haired, dark skinned, dark eyes
Just an FYI
I think we're able to exploit/play with stereotypes in a fantasy game. Kerney and I were suggesting throwing Welsh stuff into the mix.
To be honest, the notion of 'True Irish' is quite an unsettling one, given recent history.
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The Morrigan is a Dark Irish, if any depiction of her/them/it can be accepted as correct.Ah but the 'Battle Raven' is one of the Tuatha De Dannan who are not exactly Human
I prefer the red myself
In Irish myth the line between human and 'other' is rather fluid. Tuan for example goes through several non human incarnations. The Morrigan at times is a goddess, ravens, a washer woman etc. In fact, Irish myth is closer to animistic rather than polytheistic in the Greek/Egyptian sense of the word.
And I'm a pale skin dark hair type of guy.
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Considering there were 12 waves of invaders in ancient Ireland according to legends, the Green Isle may be as much of a BC era melting pot as America was. There were often north south divisions in Ireland, long before the English took over. Given all the viking raids in the north of ireland around the 700s it makes sense there may have been some infusion of new genetic features though.
Check out this website, its fairly neat for a lot of Irish history via maps: LINK
For this character I would suggest a kelllid/ulfen hybrid to produce the effects you want. Have her be raised in one of the iron bound islands off the coast of the land of the linnormian kings. This in my opinion would work best.
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If you're looking for red hair and freckles, Ulfen is probably your best bet. If you're willing to diverge some in your trope, Sarkoris (now the Worldwound) comes across as very much like the Scotland of the Picts. Barbarism, strange witchery, woad, barrows, cairns and standing stones aplenty are all to be found there. Of course, many Sarkorins fled their homeland when the Abyss came calling and it would be easy enough to assume that in the last hundred years some of them made it as far west as the Land of the Linnorm Kings and have intermingled with the native Ulfens.
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Iobaria might work as well - real bastardisation of different cultures and their green faith/cult culture [along with a real sense of fey and untamed wilderness] would also work.
I thought Iobaria was more Slavic/Mongolian, as Choral the Conqueror was an Iobarian warlord that conquered Issia and Rostland, creating Brevoy, pretty much just like how the Mongols conquered the bickering princes that became a unified Russia.