Preview: Brittoi Factions

[il Pitta]

Brittoi (Britons)
(Iceni, Dumnoni, Demetae, Brigantes, Caledones)

In the British Islands somehow, celtic military and social evolution stopped to the IV B.C.
Isolated from the rest of Europe, even if subjected from time to time to influences from the mainland, the Britons never had to compete and confront themselves with different social and military systems like the Celts of the rest of Europe, and if in the continent the Gauls had to adapt progressively to more intensive and extensive forms of warfare, amplifying the levy basin and employing new kind of tactics to use the mass of the farmers and workers as effective or at least auto sufficient fighters, the Britons maintained the old, semi-ritualistic ways of fighting.
Till the arrival of the Romans, warfare in Britain remained what was for the earliest Celts: not really structured military operations, but more or less just cattle riding and champions challenge.


Brittoi Slingers
Brittoi Skirmishers
Brittoi Levies
Brittoi Warband
Brittoi Riders
Combrogi
Combrogi Riders
Brittoi Assedoi


Ethnic troops

Silures Hillmen
Priteni Warriors
Qriteni Warriors



II a.C. troops

Bolgi Warband
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Brittoi Slingers

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Brittoi Skirmishers

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Brittoi Levies

People not belonging to the warriors class rarely went to fight in Briton context, and it happened especially in case of great need.
On the other hand, due to the harshness of the life, all Britons were expected to be capable of defending their homeland when the necessity came.
These warriors are decent individual fighters but lack cohesion and tactics, and their equipment is rather poor, being just a shield, some javelins and a spear (formerly hunting equipment).

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Brittoi Warband

The Celtic warbands, that in the V century BC were the first thrust that drove the expansion of the Celtic culture, and subsequently a two-way vector of culture and ideas, in the British Isles stagnated inside what was a geographically closed system, and rather than expanding the horizons of the community, they generated a continuous flow of elements of disturbance, which could not vent their restlessness outside of their cultural context, preventing the development of a strong local political structure.
If in the insular epics warbands are celebrated as a heroic archetype, a realistic view can perceive their historical figures such as unruly elements, endemic generators of political instability; moreover, to the absence of various different counterparties to confront with, they didn’t evolve, but remained anchored to obsolete styles of life and warfare.

The equipment of these warriors was quite minimal, and armors and helmets were rare and not particularly developed (just two Coolus type helmet had been found in Briton context, besides the famous horned helmet of the Thames and the Mill Hill so-called "crown") being velocity and mobility the principal characteristic researched in warfare.
The sword undergo sometimes into modification, and aside normal La Tène blades we found earlier than in the continent long blades, designed for charioteers, horsemen, or simply infantrymen that favored a wide blows fighting style, scorning cohesion and teamwork.

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Combrogi

Combrogi is a Celtic term that means “fellow countrymen”.
Even if it became famous with in the first years of the middle ages, used to define the noble warbands of northern Britain, we can assume that was already used before to define companies of elite warriors from the highest noble class, the guard of a chieftain or a warlord.
Equipped with La Tene swords, oftn longer than the continental ones, this warriors can afford on the best equipment available for a Briton fighter, like chainmail (the Kirkburn example was dated early III b.C.) and different types of helmets.

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Combrogi Riders

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Brittoi Assedoi

In Britain and in Ireland the war chariot remained in use even when in the continent it longed passed by, as a sign of the profund ritual aspect of war and actually no need to abandon old and ultimately ineffective war habits.
Actually, If in the beginning the chariots were so old fashioned that they puzzled and create difficulties to Caesar’s Roman, with all their hit-and-run tactics, their use was more annoying than truly effective, and in the end the Britons tried to use them in a more efficient way (as happened long ago with the Gauls at Sentinum, before abandoning them), implementing frontal mass charges.

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Silures Hillmen

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The Silures were a particular Briton tribe living in southern part of Wales.
Their phenotype was quite different from other Britons, and they are describe stocky, short, with tanned skin and curly brown/black hairs.
Due to their physical appearance, the Romans believed they were ancient immigrants from Spain, of Iberian stock (Tacitus, Agricola, 11), but is quite more probable that they were the last descendants of the first pre-indeuropean inhabitant of the island.
However, besides their appearance, they were completely celticized in language and probably culture.
They were feared ambushers, starting a tradition of guerrilla tactics that will continue with middle age Welshmen.




Priteni Warriors

“Priteni” is a Celtic P (Gallic) word that means “Marked/Painted/Tattoed Ones”.
Used by the Greeks to indicate the inhabitants of the British island as a whole, it was probably coined by the Gauls.
While the term develop in Briton language becoming “Brittoi”, “Priteni” was probably used by Briton themselves to define their northern brethren from Scotland, that were the descendants of the first celtic settlers that deeply intermingled with the local population.
People of Scotland were described huge, with a big incidence of red hairs (Tacitus, Agricola, 11).
Also, their warriors are described to fought naked (Tacito, Annales, XII, 33; Cassius Dio, History of Rome, LXII, 12;Herodianus, History of Rome, III, 14, 8), probably a link with their warrior caste and the continental Gaesatae.
Also their equipment is described by Tacitus at the battle of Mons Graupius, of which he was an ocular witness, consisting in small shields and huge longsword (Tacitus, Agricola, 36), the latter identified by archaeology.

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Qriteni Warriors

Qriteni is the Celtic Q (proto-Gaelic) version for “Priteni”.
Eventually it will evolve in Crutheni/Cruthini, and was used to define some communities of north-eastern Ireland akin to the Priteni of Scotland.

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Bolgi Warband

The Belgae were the last celtic group to settle in Britain.
Caesar wrote that they at first pillaged the coast of the island, and after a while directly settled there, and he record also that in the past some Belgae chieftain ruled on territories both in the continent and in Britain (Caesar, De Bello Gallico, II, 4; V, 2).
However, Belgic arrival in the British isles is dated by numismatics somewhere during the II B.C.
Ultimately Belgae mingled with the local population, acquiring some of their customs

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[il Pitta]

Eblani


Eblani was the term used by the first classical geographers to define the people inhabiting Ireland, and probably was taken from the own language of that people (Ptolemy, Geography, 2.2.7-8 and subsequent analysis of O’Rahilly and Muller).
The people inhabiting Ireland were the product of different subsequent invasions from the continent and from the British isles, but however the main culture was Celtic.
As for the Briton context, war in Ireland was far from being a mass scale operation, but more related on cattle riding and champions challenge.


A color strictly linked with Ireland and irish people was saffron yellow (a luminous yellow-orange color) -cfr. T. Newark, “Celtic Warriors”, and as we know from irish Brehon laws (recorded in early middle ages but actually far more ancient) the richer/influent was the person, in Ireland, the more different colors were display in his clothes.
Even if bracae were known, they were scarcely used, and probably characteristic of some peculiar ethnic groups, while the bulk of Eblani used tunics.
About the panoply, Eblani warrior equipment was a very lighter version of the celtic one: armors and helmets are not attested, and the swords, even if of La Téne tipology, actually were far shorter than the swords of Britain and even of the mainland (B. Raftery, Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age, 1994, pp. 141-142; B. Raftery, La Tène in Ireland, in Marburg: Veroffentlichung des Vorgeschichtlichen Seminars, 1984, p.72).Irish Iron Age shields, also, were simple, in wood with wooden boss, or even in hardened animal skins, as reported in irish epic and confirmed by the evidence of the Clonura bog
(Cfr. Tàin Bò Cuailnge; A. B. A. O'Rìordàin, E. M. Prendergast, Etienne Rynne, National Museum of Ireland: archaeological acquisitions in the year 1960, in Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1960, p. 152)

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Eblani Hunters
Keterna
Keterna Slingers
Keterna Spearmen
Keterna Riders
Fian
Eblani Assedoi


Ethnic troops
Priteni Warriors
Qriteni Warriors


II a.C. troops
Bolgi Warband
_____________________________

Eblani Hunters

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Keterna


Keterna is a Celtic Q word akin to the Celtic P Katerva, and means simply “battle unit”.
Keterna was probably the term used to define the bulk of iron age Irish armies, and ultimately that term became the middle age Irish “Kern”, used to define a light infantrymen, equipped with javelins, shield and hand weapons (actually the 90% of the battle force of Irish armies)

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Keterna Slingers

Differently that most other war contexts, the sling wasn't regarded as a poor weapon in Iron Age Ireland, but was evenly connected with gods and heroes.
These slingers are very proficiscent with their weapon, but in case of need are a hand-to-hand combat unit as any other Keterna.

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Keterna Spearmen

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Keterna Riders

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Fian


Fian (plural Fianna) is a term used to define a semi independent warband of Iron Age and medieval Ireland.
Composed mostly by young aristocrats, mostly second borns, the Fian was virtually identical in concept to continental celtic warbands or celtiberian and Lusitanian Iuventus.

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Eblani Assedoi

As in Britain, in Ireland the war chariot remained in use even when in the continent it longed passed by, as a sign of the profund ritual aspect of war and actually no need to abandon old and ultimately ineffective war habits.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Priteni Warriors

“Priteni” is a Celtic P (Gallic) word that means “Marked/Painted/Tattoed Ones”.
Used by the Greeks to indicate the inhabitants of the British island as a whole, it was probably coined by the Gauls.
While the term develop in Briton language becoming “Brittoi”, “Priteni” was probably used by Briton themselves to define their northern brethren from Scotland, that were the descendants of the first celtic settlers that deeply intermingled with the local population.
People of Scotland were described huge, with a big incidence of red hairs (Tacitus, Agricola, 11).
Also, their warriors are described to fought naked (Tacito, Annales, XII, 33; Cassius Dio, History of Rome, LXII, 12;Herodianus, History of Rome, III, 14, 8), probably a link with their warrior caste and the continental Gaesatae.
Also their equipment is described by Tacitus at the battle of Mons Graupius, of which he was an ocular witness, consisting in small shields and huge longsword (Tacitus, Agricola, 36), the latter identified by archaeology.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Qriteni Warriors

Qriteni is the Celtic Q (proto-Gaelic) version for “Priteni”.
Eventually it will evolve in Crutheni/Cruthini, and was used to define some communities of north-eastern Ireland akin to the Priteni of Scotland.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bolgi Warband


Is an accepted opinion that they settled not only in Britain, but in Ireland too, and Belgic communities are identified with the historical tribe of the Dumnoni (with actually al belgic name), the historical tribe of the Erainn (related to the Ulaid, in Ulster), and also by some historians with the mythical Fir Bolg.

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[Mr.IAmHere]

How about a previews subforum?

Nice mod btw, I'll keep an eye on this.

[Black9]

How about a previews subforum?

Nice mod btw, I'll keep an eye on this.

I could be wrong on this, but I believe that after you have 10 topics that could go into a subforum, you have to have one of the TWC mods make it. The team can't make subforums themselves.