Worms

The Holy Roman Empire during the High Middle Ages

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Appearance

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Climate

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Economy

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Pilgrimage

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Geography

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History

Prehistory

Worms was in ancient times a Celtic city named Borbetomagus, perhaps meaning "water meadow".[3] Later it was conquered by the Germanic Vangiones.

Roman Occupation

In 14 BC, Romans under the command of Drusus captured and fortified the city, and from that time onwards a small troop of infantry and cavalry were garrisoned there. The Romans renamed the city as Augusta Vangionum, after the then-emperor and the local tribe. The name does not seem to have taken hold, however, and the German Worms developed from Borbetomagus. The garrison grew into a small town with a regular Roman street plan, a forum, and temples for the main gods Jupiter, Juno, Minerva (whose temple was the site of the later cathedral), and Mars. St Martin's Church.

Roman inscriptions, altars, and votive offerings can be seen in the archaeological museum, along with one of Europe's largest collections of Roman glass. Local potters worked in the town's south quarter. Fragments of amphoras contain traces of olive oil from Hispania Baetica, doubtless transported by sea and then up the Rhine by ship.

During the disorders of 411–13 AD, the Roman usurper Jovinus established himself in Borbetomagus as a puppet-emperor with the help of King Gunther of the Burgundians, who had settled in the area between the Rhine and Moselle some years before. The city became the capital of the Burgundian kingdom under Gunther (also known as Gundicar). Few remains of this early Burgundian kingdom survive, because in 436 it was all but destroyed by a combined army of Romans (led by Aëtius) and Huns (led by Attila); a belt clasp found at Worms-Abenheim is a museum treasure. Provoked by Burgundian raids against Roman settlements, the combined Romano-Hunnic army destroyed the Burgundian army at the Battle of Worms (436), killing King Gunther. It is said that 20,000 were killed. The Romans led the survivors southwards to the Roman district of Sapaudia (modern day Savoy). The story of this war later inspired the Nibelungenlied. The city appears on the Peutinger Map, dated to the 4th century.

The Middle Ages

Worms has been a Roman Catholic bishopric since at least 614, with an even earlier mention in 346. In the Frankish Empire, the city was the location of an important palatinate of Charlemagne, who built one of his many administrative palaces here. The bishops administered the city and its territory. The most famous of the early medieval bishops was Burchard of Worms.

Worms Cathedral (Wormser Dom), dedicated to St Peter, is one of the finest examples of Romanesque architecture in Germany. Alongside the nearby Romanesque cathedrals of Speyer and Mainz, it is one of the so-called Kaiserdome (Imperial Cathedrals). Some parts in early Romanesque style from the 10th century still exist, while most parts are from the 11th and 12th century, with some later additions in Gothic style (see the external links below for pictures).

Four other Romanesque churches as well as the Romanesque old city fortification still exist, making the city Germany's second in Romanesque architecture only to Cologne.

Worms prospered in the High Middle Ages. Having received far-reaching privileges from King Henry IV (later Emperor Henry III) as early as 1074, the city later became an Imperial Free City, being independent of any local ruler and responsible only to the Holy Roman Emperor himself. As a result, Worms was the site of several important events in the history of the Empire. In 1122 the Concordat of Worms was signed; in 1495, an Imperial Diet met here and made an attempt at reforming the disintegrating Imperial Circle Estates by the Imperial Reform. Most important, among more than a hundred Imperial Diets held at Worms, that of 1521 (commonly known as the Diet of Worms) ended with the Edict of Worms, in which Martin Luther was declared a heretic after refusing to recant his religious beliefs. Worms was also the birthplace of the first Bibles of the Reformation, both Martin Luther's German Bible and William Tyndale's first complete English New Testament by 1526.

The city, known in medieval Hebrew by the name Varmayza or Vermaysa (ורמיזא, ורמישא), was a center of medieval Ashkenazic Judaism. The Jewish community was established there in the late 10th century, and Worms's first synagogue was erected in 1034. In 1096, eight hundred Jews were murdered by crusaders and the local mob. The Jewish Cemetery in Worms, dating from the 11th century, is believed to be the oldest surviving in situ cemetery in Europe. The Rashi Synagogue, which dates from 1175 and was carefully reconstructed after its desecration on Kristallnacht, is the oldest in Germany. Prominent students, rabbis, and scholars of Worms include Shlomo Yitzhaki (Rashi) who studied with R. Yizhak Halevi, Elazar Rokeach, Maharil, and Yair Bacharach. At the rabbinical synod held at Worms at the turn of the 11th century, Rabbi Gershom ben Judah (Rabbeinu Gershom) explicitly prohibited polygamy for the first time. For hundreds of years, until Kristallnacht in 1938, the Jewish Quarter of Worms was a centre of Jewish life. Worms today has only a very small Jewish population, and a recognizable Jewish community as such no longer exists. However, after renovations in the 1970s and 1980s, many of the buildings of the Quarter can be seen in a close-to-original state, preserved as an outdoor museum.

Timeline

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Current Events

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Politics

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Population

• Likely Population, 1100 A.D. ????

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Citizens of Worms

Clergy

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Source

http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/frankish-names.php

Craftsmen

Criminals

Crusaders

Patriciate

Students

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Festivities

• Twelfth Night (January) -- Religious festival and feasts celebrating the visit of the Wise Men, or Magi, following the birth of Jesus.
• St Valentine's Day (February) -- The Medieval festival celebrating love - singing, dancing and pairing games.
• Carnival (Late February - Early March) --
• Easter (March) -- Easter celebrated by the Mystery plays depicting the crucifixion.

Lent (40 days)

Ash Wednesday (start of Lent)

Holy Week (last week of Lent before Easter)

Good Friday (end of Lent)

Easter Sunday

• All Fool's Day (April) -- The Jesters, or Lords of Misrule, took charge for the day and caused mayhem with jokes and jests!
• May Day (May) -- May Day was a spring festival celebrating May Day when a Queen of the May was chosen and villagers danced around the maypole.
• Midsummer Eve (June) -- Midsummer Eve, the Mummers entertained at the 'Festival of Fire' reliving legends such as St George and the Dragon. Bones were often burned leading to the term 'bonfire'. The summer Solstice was June 23rd.
• St. Swithin's Day (July) -- St. Swithin's Day falls on 15th July. Legend says that during the bones of St Swithin were moved and after the ceremony it began to rain and continued to do so for forty days.
• Lammas Day (August) -- Lammas Day was celebrated on August 2nd. The ' loaf-mass ' day, the festival of the first wheat harvest of the year. Houses were sometimes decorated with garlands and there were candle lit processions.
• Michaelmas (September) -- The 29th September was when Michaelmas celebrated the life of St Michael and the traditional food on Michaelmas was goose or chicken.
• St Crispin's Day (October) -- October 25th celebrating St Crispin's Day. Revels and bonfires and people acted as 'King Crispin' .
• All Souls Day (November) -- The Day of the Dead - All Souls Day or All Hallow's Day ( Halloween ) when revels were held and bonfires were lit.
• Christmas (December) -- December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of Christ.

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Fortifications

The Walls of Bremen

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Inns

Source

https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/inn/

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Law & Lawlessness

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Monuments

Amphitheaters

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Aqueducts

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Arches (Triumphal)

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Baths

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Bridges

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Catacombs of

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Cemeteries

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Columns

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Fountains

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Gardens

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Statues

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Tombs

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Hospitals

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Markets

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Private Residences

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Taverns

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Religion

Roman Catholic Worms

Convents

Monasteries

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Visitors

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Whore Houses

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Vampires of Worms

• Humphrey Brunatis (Ventrue)
• Martin Krus (Malkavian)

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Crucesignatis (Crusaders)

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Incognitos (Strangers and Aliens)

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Memoria pro Mortuis (Remembrances for the Dead)

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Wraiths of medieval Worms

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Storytelling Medieval Worms

Mood of Medieval Bremen:

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Stories of medieval Bremen

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Websites

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