[Ansteorra] RE: Romantic Personas

[Duncan MacNamara]

>>From reading this thread, you appear to be saying that the hollywood
>convention of what a "purate" is isn't period.  That's all that anyone else 
>is saying too, and to be blunt - that's probably what they see the most of 
>at events, so that's likely why there -may- be an assumption that this is 
>what you are doing.    This may not be as big a fight as you seem to be 
>prepared to engage in.
>
>Marc/Diarmaid

True, it may not be as big of a fight with most people, just a select few 
who issue bounties on my crew and our property, to be detained and/or 
stolen.

*****DISCLAIMER*****
Before I start on the following, I am not arguing or ranting. Merely 
educating... people hear the word pirate and automatically freak out, and I 
probably should have clarified my persona in-depth before getting this deep 
into this discussion, but better late than never, eh?
********************

As for my persona, most of it is based loosely on my own family's history, 
most of it is historically based, with a touch of "creativity" thrown in the 
mix. I usually carry documentation at my camp for the things that the 
uneducated throw out as being "out of period" so that when approached with 
that argument, I can refer them to my documentation and/or research 
material.

I'm not portraying a Golden Age of Piracy persona from 1775 either. My 
persona was born in 1573 in Ireland... The ship that I wound up "rescuing" 
was built in 1575 in Spain. There was an issue about the Cannon we display, 
that it wasn't a period design... which to a point is true, it is a replica 
of a deck cannon from the HMS Victory, dated 1805. But the Barrel of the 
cannon is VERY similar to a period Carronade barrel, and the Carriage design 
is VERY similar to other naval "truck" carriages which were coming into 
popularity in the mid to late 1500's. Some of which were found on the Mary 
Rose, in fact. The firelock I carry is a flintlock, which the flintlock 
mechanism was invented sometime between the late 1500's and 1607. The 
earliest surviving intact flintlock dates 1607. My garb is pretty generic, 
but most of it falls within the pre-1600 cutoff. I wear the same "cavalier" 
style hat that alot of rapier fighting personas wear, because it fits with 
the look I am going for.
I've done research, and put together an educational booklet, on period 
(pre-1600's) cannons and firearms.

I'm not just a stereotypical hollywierd pirate.

Lord Duncan MacNamara
Captain of the Iron Lotus
Commodore of the Allied Outlanders Fleet