Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Arthur, King of the Britons

In previous installments, I have described the “main characters” in Banish the Snakes: the historic people that players represent in their attempts to convert Ireland. But now I’m moving on to the “supporting cast” of historic characters, people who were notable in the history of the time and show up in the game on Event cards. The previous articles in this “supporting cast” series can be found here.

Arthur, King of the Britons

Yes, it’s that King Arthur. While it’s unexpected to find King Arthur in a game about St. Patrick in Ireland, here he is. Most historians believe that the legends of such a king come from the late 5^th or early 6^th centuries, firmly within the time scale of the game.

The legend of King Arthur is well known to everyone from the casual historian to fans of Broadway musicals. Oral traditions about him survived for hundreds of years before being written down in the 12^th century. Born at Tintagel, the son of Uther Pendragon, he proved his worthiness to rule by drawing the sword Excalibur from the stone. Or was it presented to him by the Lady of the Lake? Anyway, with the magician Merlin and his wife Guinevere by his side, he gathered to him many noble knights. Lancelot, Galahad, Gawain, Percival, Tristan, and many others each have their stories. They met around the egalitarian Round Table at Arthur’s grand castle, Camelot. From there, they fought back the Anglo-Saxons and revived traditional Romano-British culture.

Historians have long debated if King Arthur actually ever existed. The earliest written evidence comes from two texts from the 9^th and 10^th centuries, but both references are questionable. Gildas the Wise wrote On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain in the 6^th century. It includes the Battle of Badon, a great victory for the Britons over the Saxons. Later texts give Arthur credit for leading the Britons to victory, but Gildas does not mention him. The Venerable Bede does not mention Arthur in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written early in the 8^th century. Some historians claim that Arthur was originally a fictional hero, or even a god, who was later given credit for real victories and accomplishments.

Regardless of his historical veracity, Arthur represents a brief period of revival of the Romano-British people and culture. The advance of the pagan Germanic tribes of Saxons, Angles and Jutes was not without occasional setbacks. The Arthur card represents a period when the advance of paganism in Great Britain was stalled, or even forced back.

In game terms, the arrival of the Arthur, King of the Britons card will be celebrated by the players! It is the only card that forces the Paganism in Great Britain track backwards- by one space. This will delay the addition of nasty cards into the deck from a pagan Great Britain, and delays the end of the game. It also has a blue arrow, meaning that the event on the next card will be the best (or least bad!) event on that card.

Previous Articles:

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Palladius

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Patrick

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Auxilius

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Ciarán

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Iserninus

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Secundinus

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Brigid

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Finnian

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Ibar

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Brendan

Historic Characters in Banish the Snakes: Moninne