Hi all, first time poster, long time reader
I play GPC in the user Gilmeres campaign, and by some freak of luck and skill my character is a pagan knight that just recently survived past 16000 glory.

The year is 510 (we've played since 484), and Merlin has returned to the islands. A boy has pulled a sword from a stone and civil war is in the air.
As the situation is now, our group is mostly christian, I play one of two characters that have survived since 484 and the only pagan besides my bastard son, and since my character is extreme in personality and ridiculously lucky he is still alive and kicking at 45 years of age.

My pagan knight has for a long time upheld the ideals of the pagan religion without actually being very spiritual. He has been to the feasts, celebrated Beltaine and has a horde of children and bastards. At the same time he has been worldly, brutal and cruel, not bothering with spirituality at all.

And, he has just now started to do a U-turn on that, as I delightedly am playing through his turnabout to becoming a spiritual pagan, reflecting upon his life and trying to better do right by his ancestors and gods.

This leads me to my query:

As I play more on the spiritual parts of paganism, I try to act more on the pagan ways to pay homage to the different gods.
In the religion-chapter of the 5.1 rulebook the religion chapter has short descriptions of the normal pagan deities and their aspects, but I can't seem to find any information about how pagans usually sacrifice/celebrate/pray to their gods (maybe I'm just blind :) ).

The gods I'm in this instance praying to is the following:

A prayer to Epona, to strengthen our horses legs when we ride forth, to Llew so that he will follow us out and disperse the saxon darkness over our lands, and to Beli Lugh and Bran so that they will hold their hands and protect our lives in exchange for the lives our blades will bring them.

So what I'm wondering is:

What would fitting sacrifices/homages to the gods be in these cases? And how could a pagan faith be upheld in an interesting way in a group of christian knights?


If any of the answers I'm looking for is in any older books, I'm grateful for guidance towards them :)

that's a hard question to answer as we may never know what/how rituals were practiced. the commonly thought of as druid religion was exterminated and partially revived (with the degree of success contested hotly by religion study professors and historians)4th ed Saxons even comments on this. that said KAP 4TH might have something. or Google Roman-Gaelic paganism and change some names if only for expedience. if you don't care as much about historic accuracy you my consider looking into rituals performed in the Victorian era Celtic revival

As for the other, older, books, I'm pretty sure that there is little in them to help you. The magic chapter in 4th ed might give something.

You have to remeber that we know next to nothing about the pre-christian, pre-roman faith(s) in Britan, and that "Paganism" have been invented by Greg for this game. Dont be afraid to add things of your own! You could look att what modern practiconers of wicca and neo-paganism are doing to get some inspiration, I guess. As long as you GM agrees, anything goes, after all.

As others have replied there is next to nothing about the practices.

If you look at it from a roleplaying perspective you could create some practices that are almost opposite to the christians. Especially if the traits are opposite (like the proud vs modest and lust vs chaste). That way the otherness of the faith is more visible.

Of course you should not overdo it, but some sudden and subtle difference may be fun to play out.

Thank you all for the comments and the advice!
I think I will try to gather together practices, rituals and stuff like that from your advice and write up some rituals that "feels" Pagan and see if they fit with my GMs vision of how paganism is.

I am thinking about both practices that feel different from Christianity because of the opposed traits, and also things that have many similar points so that they can highlight differences and similarities between Christian and Pagan worship (to reflect some practices that Christianity may have adopted from Paganism to make conversion easier) for example the pagan Ostara compared to Easter.

Bit late in replying, but I see others have already given you some good advice.

Sounds to me that you are already doing quite well to showcase your knight's religious convictions. In short, whenever you can consider a Christian knight praying to the saints/God, then that is a good moment for your knight to say a few words to his own gods. No reason that he couldn't wear his own 'holy symbols': vikings had Thor's hammer pendants.

I am not encouraging him to go all headhunter on his enemies, but certainly it would make sense to dedicate a special enemy's weapon to the gods (throwing swords into ponds and lakes seemed to be popular...). Or an arm ring or something like that.

Import a bard from Ireland or the pagan North to sing tales of the old gods and heroes in your halls. And then get him to sing about your own deeds, too. Good for those Proud checks, too. ;) Bonus points if he has some druidic training as well, or maybe you can get in contact with a real druid, who would be willing to settle or at least visit on occasion of the big feasts.

Set aside a grove of trees in your estate as a natural shrine for your gods. The aforementioned ponds are good for this, too. Even better if it already has some pagan markings there, a stone circle or something. Doesn't need to be Stonehenge.

Many peasants are still half-pagan. You mentioned Beltaine, but other Celtic festivals as well, in particular Samhain. Get your peasants to celebrate by sponsoring feasts with your own money: feeding peasants is cheap! Samhain is of course not a good time to be outside, what with the Wild Hunt and all...

And of course there is a chance for all those fertility rituals that ensure a good crop! And are good for Lustful, too...

Since I posted the question here, I've been trying a bit to write up some general paganish texts about the different possible feasts to get my mind more into the pagan mindset and to get ideas for different ways to be and act religious. I'll post two of the works in progress here, feel free to comment on if they have the right feel to them. :)

Right now they are a rewrite of material I've found on wikipedia and through google, combined with some ideas from the pagan part of religion in the 5.1 rulebook.

Imbolk (pronounced ‘im’olk’, Celtic) aka Oimelc aka Disfest February 1-2

This feast marks the change of seasons from winter to spring, halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Imbolk also coincides with the start of the lambing season, with new life coming into the world after the winter. This celebration is dedicated to the goddess Don in her aspect Brigid representing Fire and Poetry.

During Imbolk, hearths are kept burning in all homes, and candles are lit to signify the lengthening of the days heralding spring. The whole family is usually bathing or washing themselves during the day, purifying their bodies after the long winter. Afterwards, special foods are eaten, a lot of milk and butter from ewes milk and flat breads. Many also travel to holy springs or wells, praying for health while walking sunwise around the well and giving offerings to the gods.

When evening falls, great bonfires are lit to represent the returning warmth of the sun and celebrants walk around the bonfire and through villages carrying torches and lights.
Druids, priestesses and wise men and women keep an eye out during the day, divining the weather for the coming weeks by watching if badgers and snakes leave their dens.

Ostara aka The Spring or Vernal Equinox (March 20-21)

This feast is held on the day when night and day are equally long in the spring. Depending on where in Britain this feast is celebrated, it might be dedicated to Blodeuwedd, Creudylad, Ostara or Eostre, all being names for the goddess of spring, fertility and new life.

The day and evening of March 20th is a day of joy. During the day there are games and sport, treasure hunts or tests of skill, mostly among commoners although nobles test their hunting skills or watch the commoners play.

In the evening the feasting starts the moment the presiding priestess signals the disappearance of the sun below the horizon by striking a bronze shield decorated with a sun relief. This heralds the start of a great feast with music and song, eating lots of meat and special pastries baked for this evening and drinking beer and barley wine.

As midnight approaches, all pagans shed their clothes and pick up a piece of wood (logs for the common men, but nobles usually just bring a ceremonial branch) and carries it to a nearby hill to build/add them to an already built pile of wood.

The presiding priestess lights the bonfire at midnight, and to the sound of drums a dance is held around the fire until morning. In some parts of Britain, it is also customary here to name any newborns as they meet their first spring.

As the first sun of spring rises above the horizon, everyone walks to a nearby river, spring or well. All water drawn on the spring morning is considered holy and healing and is drunk with great reverence (perhaps the source of the great Pagan constitution among religious knights). After drinking water everyone takes some water in a cup or scoop and carry up to the hill again to water the ground where the fire burned, signifying watering the soil so that there will be bountiful growth and a good harvest.

Bit late in replying, but I see others have already given you some good advice.

Sounds to me that you are already doing quite well to showcase your knight's religious convictions. In short, whenever you can consider a Christian knight praying to the saints/God, then that is a good moment for your knight to say a few words to his own gods. No reason that he couldn't wear his own 'holy symbols': vikings had Thor's hammer pendants.

I am not encouraging him to go all headhunter on his enemies, but certainly it would make sense to dedicate a special enemy's weapon to the gods (throwing swords into ponds and lakes seemed to be popular...). Or an arm ring or something like that.

Import a bard from Ireland or the pagan North to sing tales of the old gods and heroes in your halls. And then get him to sing about your own deeds, too. Good for those Proud checks, too. ;) Bonus points if he has some druidic training as well, or maybe you can get in contact with a real druid, who would be willing to settle or at least visit on occasion of the big feasts.

Set aside a grove of trees in your estate as a natural shrine for your gods. The aforementioned ponds are good for this, too. Even better if it already has some pagan markings there, a stone circle or something. Doesn't need to be Stonehenge.

Many peasants are still half-pagan. You mentioned Beltaine, but other Celtic festivals as well, in particular Samhain. Get your peasants to celebrate by sponsoring feasts with your own money: feeding peasants is cheap! Samhain is of course not a good time to be outside, what with the Wild Hunt and all...

And of course there is a chance for all those fertility rituals that ensure a good crop! And are good for Lustful, too...


Thanks, many good ideas, I will use a few of them without doubt.

I already have a Druid in my entourage, a family member who seem to find great purpose in keeping me pointed towards a greater dedication towards my ancestors and gods.
Also, I really like the thought of doing something special with vanquished enemies weapons to dedicate them to the gods.


And as I have written above, I'm currently working on some texts about the different feasts to aid my GM with, so that it will be easier to use the pagan faith as a counterpart to christianity :)

You might want to check out Pagan Shore. It has some additional information on druids, poets and geases, although it is probably more useful for a GM than a PK.

Also, the 'king and the land are one' theme is quite strong in Pendragon. This might apply to lesser chieftains, such as your knight, as well (ask your GM). Thus he could have a more central part to play in ceremonies, festivals and other religious functions, as a representative of the land itself. This is in stark contrast to Christian manors, where the lord plays little to no part in Masses, and the role of the clergy is more predominant.

You might also want to check with your GM how strong the druidic order is in your campaign. They used to be a power to reckon with in the ancient Celtic world, capable of unifying clans and kingdoms, so the Romans decided to exterminate them. The Pagan Shore druids are depicted this way. This definition is important in regards to the druid in your entourage - is he merely a religious advisor, or a powerful factor in his own rights, who can manipulate and lay geases on pagan chieftains?