Fantastic winter holidays
Young people, including young fantasy fans, have just returned to school, seeing the holidays as a distant memory. He has to put Harry Potter aside and take Teutonic Knights or math textbooks in his hand … But he can also start dreaming about winter holidays! It’s best to think about choosing them now, before places in the best colonies and camps are reserved. So we present to you one of the organizers tested by the Last Tavern!
Quatromondis – The Four Worlds of Hugo Yorck
In Quatromondis, every fan of fantasy will find something for themselves, because during a two-week stay at one of several fairy-tale castles (you can choose from several in Poland!), Participants can move to fictional worlds, where special tasks to be performed and activities await!
The world of Wizards, Hunters, Recruits or Sanguins – just waiting to be discovered. Magic adepts can put on wizard’s robes and study the secrets of plants in herbalism lessons, attend a history of magic or learn… runes (definitely my favorite lessons!)! Those who understand the power of artifacts and appreciate the ability to wield a sword or a bow should enter the walls of the school as Hunters. On the other hand, fans of science fiction and space operas such as Star Wars or Star Trek will find themselves best in the Recruits World. Inquisitive masters of deduction will like Sanguin’s path, which could be patronized by Sherlock Holmes himself!
It’s time to visit the school!
Last summer I had the opportunity to enter the Wizarding World as a visiting teacher – I came to the one located in the Czocha Castle. I was surprised to discover that some of the participants, after a few years or a decade (!) Of trips, decided to stay with Hugo Yorck’s Four Worlds for longer – but as adult tutors. This in itself makes the best recommendation for these colonies.
The feeling of creating something amazing together seems to be what also defines participation in Quatromondis. When the adepts of magic were to answer what magic is in this place – during these several days in fantastically thematic worlds – they did mention the importance of the landscape and the appearance of the Castle itself, but much more often they simply said “WE”. Thus, they pointed out that magic is being together – and indeed, being with other geeks who shared their interests turned out to be magical in itself. Also for me!
Fantastic weekends
You don’t have much vacation time left to take advantage of, but would you like to take a fantastic trip over the weekend? Larps will be the perfect solution! The ones that I am going to present to you start on Thursday afternoons and end on Sundays. The College of Wizardry only offers international editions where the language of the game is English. While Witcher School ( School Witcher ) also has in its offer views Polish.
You must know that larring is a great way to enter a fictional world and great fun. It allows you to incarnate in characters whose features and history can be freely created on a certain level – the limitations are the rules and properties of the universe in which we play it. What is going on? Let me explain! In the game zone (being in-game) we are not ourselves – but characters. We are also in a universe with a specific history and in a specific time relative to it – not always the same as characters known to us from books or movies or video games. In the case of fantasy worlds, there is also no place for selfies or checking routes on Google Maps – you have to adopt the rules of the game and activate a kind of imagination filter that we put on the surroundings – and ourselves during larping. So it will be said that the castle was reached by a bumpy trail on a horse, and not by an old toddler who fell off this and that while going up the hill.
Witcher School – The Witcher School
As the organizers inform on their website and in design documents, Witcher School is a larp for adults inspired by The Witcher game and the saga created by Andrzej Sapkowski. It is a kind of “simulation of training carried out by witcher apprentices”. The game, however, is set 200 years before Geralt, so an in-game question about him or Ciri would be quite misguided. During larping, once we get into the role, we have to remember what time we are in a given universe. For example, when playing a game set in medieval Europe, we will not ask what another knight thinks about the last performance of Maryla Rodowicz or Lewandowski’s goal. Otherwise, we’ll be helping to destroy the immersive gaming experience!
If you are interested in entering the witcher world, you have to remember that it will not be a rest in nature, but a real training. Wake up early, strict discipline, demanding masters, classes to improve various skills that will be useful on the course, and monsters to overcome and secrets to discover – all of this awaits players at the Witcher School . You do not have to worry too much about the outfit – you will get it on the spot.
Which castle will you choose – Moszna Castle, Czocha Castle or Grodziec Castle?
College of Wizardry
College of Wizardry (CoW) is a larp once inspired by the world of Harry Potter, but now you can talk about its separate magic cow-versum . For many years, it has been held in one place – the Czocha Castle in Lower Silesia. Players can assume the role of both three-year students and teachers. So you can become the star of the Fireball team (such a dodgeball, but more complicated) or a lover of dark magic (and summon demons!). You can spend whole days in the Tavern and make a mischief, or you can go to all lessons and earn points for your house (or lose them). You can experience romantic stories or get involved in complicated dramas. You can do a lot more too!
I have described my impressions from participation in the 20th edition of the College of Wizardry here . In December of the previous year, I went on another one – I impersonated a completely different character, entered into more difficult relationships, experienced even stronger emotions and returned home richer with new reflections.
Larp as a ritual?
For some, Larp is an opportunity to work through different topics, to get to know someone else’s perspective, to feel like another, or to discover their own boundaries (or cross them!). For me, CoW turned out to be a game that took me out of my comfort zone – and let the character take control. And it was an incredibly positive feeling! Larpowanie has something of a rite of passage [1]. Pre-game workshops can be the preliminaries (shutdown) when we break away from the ordinary world and slowly enter the game world. The liminal phase is the time of playing and being a character – the Other – in isolation from the outside world. The end of the game and the after party, when we come out of our roles and at the same time discuss them lively with the rest of the players, resemble the post-limit phase (inclusion). We then return to “ourselves”, but changed by the experiences of several days of being in a fictional universe and by the newly established relationships. So we are on a fantastic journey that can change us.
Where will you go?
Traveling through fantasy worlds is possible and accessible to everyone. It can also turn out to be a profound experience. Quatromondis , Witcher School or College of Wizardry – each offer entry into a fictional world on slightly different terms, but the basis in them is immersion. Which one will you choose?
[1] If you are interested in the concept of rituals / rites of passage, I refer to Arnold van Gennep and, for example, to his book Rites of Passage. Systematic study of ceremonies .
Research work financed from the budget for science in 2018-2022 as a research project under the “Diamond Grant” program
