Hey, I am new to LARPing and plan on coming to Empire in a few months time once I have collected and made a reasonable costume. I was wondering if Celtic style body art is acceptable for a Navarr player? I know Navarr are inspired by Celtic nations, but I do not know if this style of body art will be too Celtic to be considered canon for Navarr.
Celtic knotwork in particular is requested to not be used much.
https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Navarr_look_and_feel#Celts_and_Native_Americans
What kind of patterns were you thinking of?
Most likely things that link to the character. So as I play more often adding more designs and such representative of the characters actions, or maybe lines representing waves or animals. I don’t plan on using Celtic knotwork, but do plan on using a dark blue paint, much like Celts.
I will let someone a bit more steeped in Navarr culture take that one, but if that was how you explained it to me IC my character would totally get that. Tattoos all have meaning, certainly.
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In general body art in Navarr is assumed to mean oaths - paint for short-term ones, tattoos for permanent commitments.
It’s a core part of the nation brief to have tattoos and to be adding to them over time, but people will expect them to mean something you’ve committed to do, not just a record of something you did in the past.
See here (under Vows and the section on the Binding of Thorns) and here for some basics, although it comes up a lot throughout the brief - basically every social role a Navarr might take is associated with some sort of oath, and literally every Navarr swears an oath called the Binding of Thorns when they join the nation.
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all I can say is for god sake don’t veet your chest and body hair if your not used to it, it drives you crazy when you grow it back. It seems like an awesome idea at the time. but it really isn’t. But body art in tattoos sounds great.
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Would it be acceptable to have body art as well as the tattoos?
I’ll make sure not to, I’ve seen Amazon reviews
You absolutely can have designs building up over time, though as MorkaisChosen says it’ll generally indicate commitments rather than actions. That said, there are a few characters who add extra vines to the tattoo that represents their Thorn oath every time they go on campaign, etc etc, so it wouldn’t be off-brief or weird to do that.
I’d suggest going for more thorns and vines and less Celtic imagery though!
I’d also suggest black paint for the purely pragmatic reason that long-lasting eyeliner only comes in black and it stays on better than body paint (also then you can use body paint for IC warpaint and it doesn’t matter if that smudges because it’s paint IC too) - that said the newer alcohol-activated inks are very good and come in a lot of colours.
I’m going to be entirely self-promoting now and show a worked example of tattoos that have built up over time IC: my left arm, which is starting to get quite complex to draw every event now…
Eleri started play with just the three circles of vines closest to her hand with the symbols in the middle, and none of the extraneous stuff. The top circle is her oath to Bronwen who founded the wayhouse, the second one to her oldest adopted daughter, and the third a lover’s oath. Later the fourth was added for her other (offscreen) children, the fifth circle and the dots above and below the first two more lovers, and the Phoenix in red happened after an. um. incident. Things Learn.
And despite how bleedin’ long it takes to draw on every event, it’s been worth it, as my arm is starting to tell a story. You find out an awful lot about Navarr by what oaths each one has sworn.
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That’s super cool!! I’ll have to do something like that.
Also, are you saying Warpaint is completely fine?
Navarr wear warpaint for battle- and generally wipe it off afterwards- to symbolise committment to the fight and to put the shits up their enemies. You’ll generally find stylised motifs in red, white and black rather than stereotypical Celtic stuff- the group shots on the wiki often show excellent examples.
https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Navarr_military_concerns
https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Thorn
We will often talk about “war faces” - Navarr are deliberately fierce and terrifying in battle and will often fight dirty- but taking off the paint and knowing how to have a good party is just as important as putting it on 
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