33: Bradwen the Celt or Bradwen the Paladin? Two Worlds and Two Religions in Arthur's Knights: Tales of Chivalry

Renata Leśniakiewicz-Drzymała, @RenLesDrzym, Jagiellonian University

The game Arthur's Knights: Tales of Chivalry developed by Cryo Interactive is set in the Early Middle Ages, in a time shortly after the Roman occupation of the British Isles and in a world torn between faith in the great goddesses and veneration of the Christian God. Taking the role of Bradwen, the illegitimate son of King Cadfanan, leader of the Atrebates tribe, the player has two options: to play as a Celtic warrior or as a Christian paladin. Thus the player gets basically two games in one.

Both paths lead to a similar goal, but the hero is given different tasks to complete and meets different characters. Locations also are similar, but some of them are limited to either the Celt’s path or the Paladin’s path. For example, the player cannot visit a Christian monastery in the city of Magovenium as the Celt, while as the Paladin he cannot enter the sacred forest of Arden, where the wizard Merlin lives.

Fig. 33.1: Bradwen as Celt and Bradwen as Paladin, Arthur's Knights: Tales of Chivalry, Cryo Interactive

Regardless of the chosen path, the player visits two worlds during the game: the real world of Bradwen’s Britain and the supernatural world of fairies, Avalon. During his adventures the hero faces both human and non-human opponents, such as Saxons, Picts, enchanted servants of Morgan le Fay or ogres.

However, there are also two other worlds in the game, understood more metaphorically: the pagan world of the great goddesses and sorceress Morgan, and the Christian world of God and his saints. Both of them are shown as antagonistic to each other. The fairies show an aversion to Christian faith which has resulted in their expulsion from the human world. Christians, on the other hand, fear any display of Avalon’s magic as something coming from the realm of Satan. This antagonism also carries over to Bradwen’s own family: his father and uncle have grown very distant from each other after the latter’s conversion. Neither of them understands or respect the faith of the other, nor do the rest of the characters in the game. Thus the picture of two religions and two worldviews is quite schematic in Arthur’s Knights. Pagan is nostalgic, magical but fading. Christian is triumphant but somewhat fanatical and austere, with additional problem of Pelagian heresy in the background.

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However, there is an exception: the character of Bradwen who connects both metaphorical worlds. On each of the two paths, the hero is helped by both fairies and Christians as he needs representatives from both sides to fulfil his mission.

Bradwen’s two stories are therefore an attempt to introduce some nuances to the somewhat schematic world of the game. They are also an interesting reference to oral tradition, songs, ballads and legends that vary depending on the storyteller. As one of the characters in the game says, “there is not one story of Bradwen, bur rather, two”, since “the same life, as seen by different witnesses, will result in different stories”.

The young prince of the Atrebates as the Knight of the Red Dragon and friend of Gawain/Lancelot (depending on the path) is eventually included in the Arthurian cycle of legends, which itself is a genuine mixture of pre-Christian and Christian elements.

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