Celtic Lifestyle
- Living.
The Celts live a little different from the other realms of the Old World. The do not favour towns , although it is inevitable that some towns will develop over the centuries, but they are a more rural people who like their independance and lack co-ordination. Although the Celts do not like towns, they have their own sort of communal dwelling places, and every few miles in the countryside of Eriu you will find one of these.
The Rath.
The Rath is the most common of Celtic dwelling places. It consists of a large round fort usually surrounded by a dike or ditch, and sometimes walls built of mud and wattle. Inside the fort a small community exists, and usually you will only find a few families living in the Rath, if not just one on its own. Usually there are just a few mud huts in the Rath, but in a case of a larger Rath, you would usually find a stone building in the centre where the larger family or the chieftain would live. Most of the inhabitants would be farmers, and if they grazed cattle then the cattle would be brought into the Rath at night in fear of an cattle raid. This often results in the Rath becoming a dirty and smelly place and most Raths have a layer of straw covering the ground. Many of the Raths around the country have a small hidden chamber beneath the Rath known as a Souterrain. In case of attack, the food, women and children would be hidden in the Souterrain and the men would defend their home.
The Hillfort and the Cliff-fort.
The Hillfort and the Cliff-fort are variations on the Rath often used by the Celts. The hillfort is simply a Rath built on the summit of a large hill, as it is a favourable position as invaders approaching are at a disadvantage as they can always be spotted approaching. Cliff-forts are half ring forts built at the edge of a cliff. They offer a favourable defensive position as they can be only attacked from one side which is usually a hill, and the other a sheer drop to the sea.
The Crannóg.
The Crannóg is a less common Celtic dwelling built in the middle of a small lake. An artificial island is created in the lake, and on that island a small settlement skin to the Rath is developed. Around the island a large wall is built and a small bridge stretches across the water to the mainland. The Crannóg is a very favourable dwelling place as it offers the comfort of a Rath with the added protection of the lake around it. In times of attack the bridge is dismantled and unless the assailants have boats, their attack is usually drawn off. The inhabitants then use boats stored inside the crannóg to get back to the mainland.
- Religion.
The matter of Religion is taken very seriously by the Celts. The Celts believe in many different Gods and Goddess' the main ones being:
Lugh, the sun god,
Dagda, the father of the gods
Danu, the earth goddess who can split into three different forms, that of Blodeuwedd the maiden, Cerwiden the hag of death and Morrigu the crow of war.
Lesser gods include;
Hu, the God of power
Belenos, the God of light
Beann, Goddess of rivers
Diancecht, God of healing
Macha, God of games
and Cernunnos, the horned god.
When they are young, Celts are thought the ways of the Gods by the Druids who inform the young celts that they are all property of the gods and that nothing they can do can change that. They are all instruments of what the gods want to in this world and if we want to survive in the next life we should follow the biddings of the gods at all times.
Every month the Celts pay tribute to the Gods and spend a day of solitude and thinking, praying to the Gods and invoking their thoughts and biddings. Twice in the year there are large festivals held in honour of the gods, Samhain (November) and Bealtaine (May) when half the crops should be offered to the gods as tribute for there favour and livestock must be slaughtered in aid of a large feast at each festival.
The Earth goddess is the primary diety of the Celts and it is she who chooses the high Kings of her nation. She thrives on pleasure, and asks of the Kings to keep the land of the young a happy land, where Merrymaking and feasting is common. Her exact words to the first High King were " Rule not for power ... but for pleasure ... for singing, and dancing and making merry... for they bring peace and harmony to the earth. Restore the kingdom of pleasure to the earth, High King Sláine MacRoth ". And those are the words that every chieftain tries to live by and to keep the land of the young a happy and merry one.
- War
The Celtic nation as a whole love war and fighting, and have such gained a reputation across the Old World as a bloody and savage race. They are stronger than average humans of the empire, and better fighters, trained from a very young age. They grow up hearing the deeds of such great heroes as CúChulainn, King Cormac and Sláine Macroth that fill the young boy's imaginations and dreams alight, and every youmg Celt wants to be a hardened fighter and a well-known hero of the nation. That of course doesn't always happen, but as many young Celts train to fight from an early age there is never a shortage of good infantry for the Chieftain's warband.
The Celts also love riding to war in chariots, and are experts at rearing wild hounds that can pull chariots faster than an average warhorse. It is a rare occurance to see a Celtic army riding to war wihout a few chariot spearheading the attack.
The Celts are not a cowardly people, although in the heat of battle when things are going bad they can often run, but Chieftains and generals of armies will always keep their honour and head towards the opposite leader to fight one on one. No Celt will ever refuse single combat and it is deemed that good warriors will win a battle, but heroes never lose in a single combat. Not many of the other races of the Warhammer world realise when fighting Celtic armies that the Celts hardly value the fighting of the actual armies at all, and believe that the single combat between the two leaders decides the outcome of the battle. In general the size of your army is just for show as a status symbol, but the real fight is the single combat. This form of warfare was opitomized when Cúchulainn and the entire army of Eriu marched to the ford of the Boyne and found just one man, Daingean the rebel lord. But the fate of the civil war was between the single combat between Daingean and Cúchulainn, not the simple battle that could have been. In this way, Celts will often retreat instantly if their general is defeated much like an Undead army shrivelling away at the death of their unholy master.
- Feasts
The feast is the most common form of merry-making that the Celts love to indulge themselves in. Overall the Celts love good food and if an important event happens, a large feast is almost always bound to occur. Over the centuries a certain system has developed around the feast as so many feasts have happened through the centuries. At the top of the hall will be one large table and at its head will be the lord or chieftain who is holding the banquet. To his left will be his wife, or successor in the chain of command whether that be his brother, his son or his tanaiste, they will usually set in the first seat to his left. And then to his right sits the legendary hero of honour. This seat is left open to anyone who will take it in the room and usually there is one great hero of honour who will sit at the king's right. He will always recieve the legendary "hero's portion", the best an largest bit of meat given to the hero of honour. The hero's portion has been the cause of many fights over the years and it is a common occurance to see two heroes fight to the death over it. If two or more heroes at the feast claim to be the greatest hero in the room, and neither stands down, then by the Brehon laws they must fight to the death to see who is the greater. If one such fight does occur, the crowd will buzz with excitement and activity, gather around the two heroes and watch them fight it out while cheering and betting for their favourite. Around the other seats on the main table will be the king's close friends, family and druids and poets if there are any present. Then after the main table, there would be about five or more large tables for the rest of the assebly to sit and eat and talk at.
To cook the food at one of the legendary feasts, the Celts use a systen known as "fulacht fiadh". This system involves lighting a very hot fire and casting large rocks in the fire. These rocks are then left in the fire for a while to heat up, and once the rocks are steaming hot, they are lifted out using tongs and dropped into large vats of warm water. The super-heated rocks quickly bring the water to the boil and the meat is then placed in the vat to cook. The fulacht fiadh system of cooking has remained the same way of cooking food at a feast for over two thousand years!
Sport and Games.
Celtic children are easily amused by the different games available to them, many play a form of draughts with a battered old playing board, others play with hoops and a very common game is dice, where adults not only children play by throwing dice and getting different combinations to win. Many Celtic children like making mock-chariots, out of wood and scraps of metal, then using local hounds try to get the makeshift chariot moving, and sometimes even racing them. The most common sport across Tír na nÓg is hurling, the ancient game invented by the Nemedians. Hurling is a very violent sport as each player holds a large wooden stick or bat, known as a hurley and it is not against the rules to hit other things besides the ball! The main aim of the game is to get the sliotar, the small leather ball, into the opposing team's goal and games are faught brutally with clashes causing injuries being common and fights breaking out every few minutes. As to be expected, the Celts love the game.
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