Dagorhir
Dagorhir is a live-action dark age battlegame (or LARP) organization founded in Maryland in 1977. It has since spread to dozens of locations in the US and Canada. Dagorhir is a combat-oriented organization with full-contact fighting as its primary focus, with a secondary element of acting in-character before, during, and after combat. Dagorhir fighters typically use weapons such as swords, spears, bows and arrows, morning stars, axes, and other weapons that were commonly used during the dark ages. Participants also dress up in period costume and are expected to stay "in-character" during events, though the amount of seriousness the role-playing aspect receives varies greatly by unit and chapter.
In the early days, the weapons were crudely made of carpet foam and broomsticks; today, they are usually made from closed-cell foam bonded with adhesive around a fiberglass core. Participants may also wear armor, which gives them an advantage in battle, but armor is not required, as the weapons are built and frequently inspected for safety. Fighters are organized into units of various sizes, organized along social lines, that generally fight and socialize together and are a club or fraternity of sorts. There is friendly rivalry between units. Units typically adopt a particular historical or fantastical race or nationality and dress, act, and fight according to their interpretation of that group, so at a battle you might see Roman Legionnaires squared off against Orcs and goblins, Vikings, Samurai, elves, and German barbarians. Chapters are organized by geography, and range between a handful of participants to several hundred. Typically a chapter will organize a battle each month, with the varous units participating, with occasional supplementary activities such as feasts, overnight camp-out battles, and even annual inter-chapter meetings. The general Dagorhir yearly gathering is called Ragnarok and is usually held somewhere in the eastern or midwestern US during the summer. The original chapter, based in the Washington, D.C. area, is known as "Aratari", and has fluctuated between a few dozen and several hundred active members over the course of the past 25 years.
Many Dagorhir participants also participate in Society for Creative Anachronism events, and many Dagorhir members will meet each other at the SCA's gargantuan yearly gathering Pennsic or other large regional events.