I’ve been thinking bit about hermits in RPG’s and how I want to represent them in my Dreamlands. As such I’m doing a Wikipedia binge, clicking links and having way more tabs open than I can probably read on one day. NPC hermits are a trope that has always seemed pretty neat to me. You’re traveling the wilderness and all of a sudden meet some strange and often crazy looking individual. Maybe they are sitting on a pole to be closer to heaven, live in a nest they built in a tree to be more natural and escape city life and thinking or perhaps they are talking to animals, having a seemingly one-sided argument. Maybe they are discussing wether you are a devil that has come to tempt them or an angel come to bless them.
I was wondering wether all of you would share your favorite things about hermits in games. Do you have good play experiences or ideas that you like about hermits? I’ll share a couple examples that so far have spoken to me.
1: Anchorites (from wikipedia)
“The term “anchorite” (from the Greek ἀναχωρέω anachōreō, signifying “to withdraw”, “to depart into the country outside the circumvallate city”) is often used as a synonym for hermit, not only in the earliest written sources but throughout the centuries. Yet the anchoritic life, while similar to the eremitic life, can also be distinct from it. Anchorites lived the religious life in the solitude of an “anchorhold” (or “anchorage”), usually a small hut or “cell”, typically built against a church. The door of an anchorage tended to be bricked up in a special ceremony conducted by the local bishop after the anchorite had moved in. Medieval churches survive that have a tiny window (“squint”) built into the shared wall near the sanctuary to allow the anchorite to participate in the liturgy by listening to the service and to receive Holy Communion. Another window looked out into the street or cemetery, enabling charitable neighbors to deliver food and other necessities. Clients seeking the anchorite’s advice might also use this window to consult them.”
Imagine coming to a city and fining out there’s this person that voluntarily let themselves be bricked in, living from the charity of people handing them food through a small window. Also imagine the people finding them valuable/holy enough to keep feeding them. They will also come to them for advice, and perhaps even as an oracle, asking them for advice and prayer.
2: Paul of Thebes (From Wikipedia)
The Life of Saint Paul the First Hermit (Vitae Patrum (Vita Pauli primi eremitae)) was composed in Latin by Saint Jerome, probably in 375–376. Paul of Thebes was born around 227 in the Thebaid of Egypt.
Paul and his married sister lost their parents. In order to obtain Paul’s inheritance, his brother-in-law sought to betray him to the persecutors. According to Jerome’s Vitae Patrum (Vita Pauli primi eremitae), Paul fled to the Theban desert as a young man during the persecution of Decius and Valerianus around AD 250.
He lived in the mountains of this desert in a cave near a clear spring and a palm tree, the leaves of which provided him with clothing and the fruit of which provided him with his only source of food until he was 43 years old, when a raven started bringing him half a loaf of bread daily. He would remain in that cave for the rest of his life, almost a hundred years.
Paul of Thebes is known to posterity because around the year 342, Anthony the Great was told in a dream about the older hermit’s existence, and went to find him. Jerome related that Anthony the Great and Paul met when the latter was aged 113. They conversed with each other for one day and one night. The Synaxarium shows each saint inviting the other to bless and break the bread, as a token of honor. Paul held one side, putting the other side into the hands of Father Anthony, and soon the bread broke through the middle and each took his part. When Anthony next visited him, Paul was dead. Anthony clothed him in a tunic which was a present from Athanasius of Alexandria and buried him, with two lions helping to dig the grave.
Father Anthony returned to his monastery taking with him the robe woven with palm leaf. He honored the robe so much that he only wore it twice a year: at the Feast of Easter, and at the Pentecost.
From this example I like the fairytale like “animals take care of you” and “one tree sustained him”. This I specifically want to try and incorporate in my games. Their greater connection to nature/wilderness.
Getting paid to be an introvert and occasionally say cryptic stuff? Sounds great!