D&D General Travel In Medieval Europe

[doctorbadwolf]

So, in this video, my favorite youtube historian talks about travel in the middle ages amongst the peasant class, and how it was much more common than most modern people think it was.


The details of the video are really interesting, and like most of his videos, could be really fun bits to fit into your storytelling in DnD.

 

[Ixal]

So, in this video, my favorite youtube historian talks about travel in the middle ages amongst the peasant class, and how it was much more common than most modern people think it was.


The details of the video are really interesting, and like most of his videos, could be really fun bits to fit into your storytelling in DnD.

Especially pilgrimages are most of the time ignored in D&D despite being a main reason (at least officially) for travel. And they were not something limited to Christianity or Abrahamic religions (Hajj), but nearly every religion had its holy places and people travelled to visit them like asking for advice from the Oracle of Delphi, bathing in the Ganges or visit several temple complexes.
And as mentioned, there was often an entire industry for pilgrimages with waystations and souveniers.

Does the FR, despite all its lore, have a single pilgrimage route?

 

[cbwjm]

Does the FR, despite all its lore, have a single pilgrimage route?

Not sure about set routes, but I do recall mentions in the FR to holy sites that Faithful make pilgrimages to. Probably in the 2e god supplements.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Not sure about set routes, but I do recall mentions in the FR to holy sites that Faithful make pilgrimages to. Probably in the 2e god supplements.

The stopovers and itinerary are my favorite thing in the video, but yeah FRhas a ton of good nuggets of of Middle Ages mixed in with it's odd assortment of time periods and places.

 

[TwiceBorn2]

Thanks for sharing. I love videos like this.

 

[aco175]

Here is a list of site in FR. I used the Stone Bridge in my Elemental Evil campaign with a group of dwarves coming to the bridge and setting up a tent village over the summer.

 

[Tonguez]

.

Does the FR, despite all its lore, have a single pilgrimage route?

the City of Delights in Al-Qadim had a Pilgrims quarter, and I recall at least one Pilgrims adventure in an Al-Qadim supplement (though never played it)

personally Ive always wanted to do a campaign where PCs are low level pilgrims in the Hajj of Mansa Musa

 

[TheSword]

It’s a great video. Lots of snippets of knowledge. I love the idea of fake relic sellers at the big pilgrimage sites.

I was lucky enough to live along the route of the pilgrims way running from Winchester to Canterbury 160 miles or so. When I get a couple of week or two off and don’t have any other plans when the weather is nice I’ll walk it one day.

 

[Shiroiken]

Greyhawk had pilgrims as a pretty common random encounter, but it never went too great into detail.

 

[MGibster]

When most Americans hear about pilgrims they think of Thanksgiving.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

When most Americans hear about pilgrims they think of Thanksgiving.

okay?

 

[MGibster]

okay?

It was a silly joke. For the most part, I've found that religion doesn't play a promiment role in D&D. Which is odd for a game with clerics, gods, and all sorts of supernatural forces. Oh, sure, there's evil cultist, and even gods directly meddling in the affairs of mortals. But religion? Not really. At least not in my experience. D&D is oddly secular. So that might explain why you don't see a lot of pilgrims in most D&D games even though it sounds like a super awesome idea. Man, I'm surprised we don't have any good stories featuring a cross section of medieval society entertaining one another while on a pilgramige.

In addition to Thanksgiving, you'll most often hear Americans saying pilgrim when imitating John Wayne.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Pilgrimages in the Middle Ages must have been a pretty wild ride: entering a liminal space where all kinds of normal societal taboos based on propriety, class and gender fell by the wayside.

Secure in the knowledge that your sins - including those performed while on the pilgrimage - would be expiated upon arrival at your destination, and receiving mass.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It was a silly joke. For the most part, I've found that religion doesn't play a promiment role in D&D. Which is odd for a game with clerics, gods, and all sorts of supernatural forces. Oh, sure, there's evil cultist, and even gods directly meddling in the affairs of mortals. But religion? Not really. At least not in my experience. D&D is oddly secular. So that might explain why you don't see a lot of pilgrims in most D&D games even though it sounds like a super awesome idea. Man, I'm surprised we don't have any good stories featuring a cross section of medieval society entertaining one another while on a pilgramige.

In addition to Thanksgiving, you'll most often hear Americans saying pilgrim when imitating John Wayne.

Ah okay.

I really think that pilgrimages and similar travel, like described in the video, could be integrated into dnd pretty easily regardless of how religious or not the PCs are. You make the pilgrimage to Cantebury because it's a rite of passage, because you've heard all your life how immensely awe-inspiring the cathedral is, and because you've spent your whole life in the same area, and it's hard to say no to that chance to go see the world in relative safety.

In dnd, that cathedral could be at the top of a mountain whose foundation are the bones of a giant, and the trees grow magical fruit, and the waters of the temple fountain make you live longer or whatever.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've found that religion doesn't play a promiment role in D&D.

It's generally played down to avoid negative interaction with the wide variety of real world beliefs players have.

But having at least one very powerful religious organisation would be quite important for a "medieval" setting. The only setting that actually has that is Eberron, which isn't trying to be medieval at all.

 

[John R Davis]

I'd say in DND land there would be few pilgrimages. Afterall " miracles" are very real and performed everyday by clerics and such that religion wouldn't need such journies

 

[Hussar]

Interesting watch. But, his very first line does kinda put it in perspective. If 95% of the population are farmers, then 95% of your population isn't traveling all that much because it's kinda a bad thing to let all your chickens die so you could spend the weekend in the city.

 

[Ixal]

Interesting watch. But, his very first line does kinda put it in perspective. If 95% of the population are farmers, then 95% of your population isn't traveling all that much because it's kinda a bad thing to let all your chickens die so you could spend the weekend in the city.

Even farmers travelled. One or two large journeys in their lifetimes and smaller travels anually or every few years was common.
While today we only remember the big pilgrimage destinations back then there were also many local pilgrimage sites all over the place where people from the surrounding areas travelled to.

 

[gamerprinter]

Well, according to my grandmother's genealogy research, the oldest ancestors in any kind of records, were Irish nobles who settled in western and southern Scotland during the Dal Riata era. And later fought the Romans and lost, so they sailed to Norway to recoup their forces, rest and plan for future attacks against Rome. While they were in Norway, an envoy from Hungary of Attila came and offered rank and title to those who joined their effort. Some of the family went, and today their are descendants in Hungary still. All that traveling occurred sometime in the fourth century, a half millennia or so before the height of the middle ages.

Then there's both pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and the Crusades, priests sent to serve in distant monastaries, not to mention sailors aboard merchant ships across that entire span of time. Not every person of the medieval period was a peasant farmer.

 

[Dioltach]

While today we only remember the big pilgrimage destinations back then there were also many local pilgrimage sites all over the place where people from the surrounding areas travelled to.

Hiking around Europe I've come across plenty of local pilgrimage sites - small chapels in the mountains where farmers would go to pray for the end of a drought, for example. Usually there are shrines up and down the mountain sides to mark where some of them didn't make it.