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There are 3 things why you should be happy:
It’s the weekend, autumn is coming and “Svastarica” is beginning!
My name is Sanja and in the next 10 seconds you’ll see what to expect in today’s show!
Imagine how much fun would it be if you read a book while a bunch of people reenacted the characters filling up the story.
Well dearies, it’s not a fragment of our imagination anymore – we visited one Belgrade forest and met members of a LARP group.
LARP began in Serbia about the year of 2000, when me and a few pals of mine met and made something that in the end created LARP.
This group which is LARPing now is GOR – Guard of ravens,
but this group is also a part of a bigger group named “Branici gavranova” which,
as its own purpose, deals with preservation of old customs, tradition, cultures, arts and crafts…
You can notice that all of the costumes are hand-made, as most of the equipment, which is considered as arts and crafts.
Guard, or GOR only, has about 4 dozen members while the group “Branici gavranova” has about 70 to 80 members,
I’m not sure of the exact number.
As for costumes – we have a lot of young people which are creative.
There are a few of us men who make armors, a lot of girls, like this girl who wears a white hood, make costumes. There are a few girls
which are on a vocational level with us, which make really good medieval costumes, both male and female.
Today, we are having something which we call “QUEST” – it’s a simple adventure. It’s similar to a segment of a movie or a part of a book where we AREN’T limited with a script.
There’s a general story and then all the characters do what they want to do.
They don’t need to go straight down the road, like Little Red Riding Hood, but instead they can avoid it and visit the Hunter first and bring him with them if they expect the Wolf will attack them.
The catch is – we “pretend” that we don’t expect to be attacked by a bunch of things and creatures in a forest
and a lot of times I manage to hide the story (so nobody suspects a thing): For example,
two months ago on Bukulja people got really afraid when mummies appeared during the night! :)
Usually, I explain to people that it’s like a fantasy book, or simply fantasy characters like in games since a lot of young people know about fantasy games, for example WOW,
and then I explain to them: It’s all the same, but you see it LIVE. You see LIVE unique characters – everyone has to make its own story, biography, race, class...
Well, we are usually stationed here on Banjica since the location suits to most of us and we got used to it – it’s our standard...
territory...
for example, we were at Topcider too.
We have customs which are really nice on LARP, that’s why I would recommend it to everyone, we hang out and we often TRAVEL TOGETHER.
That’s one thing that most of the kids can’t afford today – to travel a lot and to have, better yet, TO EXPERIENCE something as interesting and as creative as this.
We also organize camps on which some of our friends from Bulgaria come.
I am usually a priest. On default, my alignment is good...
I should solve things with wise words more than with weapons...
but sometimes it depends –
SOME THINGS CAN’T BE SOLVED JUST LIKE THAT...
THANKS FOR READING! :D
TRANSLATION BY ZANTEN 2011. www.zanten.deviantart.com