Elves of mushroom - the fear and benefit of role-playing

The movement of fans of role-playing games gathers people with different views and goals. And not all of them are "harmless daisies". Of course, there are no outspoken outcasts among the role-players, but there are enough people whose actions are not called "hooliganism".

A small group, called "Elves mushroom", from the very beginning of its existence gained fame scandalists and destroyers of other people's games. Members of their movement at least feared and tried to isolate. But were "mushroom pickers" such as they are described by rumor, or simply "fear have eyes big"?

The origin of the group and the symbols

The first information about the "Mushroom Elves" appeared in 1993. It is known that the group was formed on the basis of the role movement of St. Petersburg and on the question of the name its members cheerfully replied: "We eat mushrooms!"

The union had its own unique symbolism, which quickly became widely known among the role-players. The elves assembled under a black flag depicting three white Psilocybe semilanceata, encased in a circle, a symbol of unity and fraternity of the group members. In Russia, this fungus is sometimes called "hilarious" because of the fact that its flesh contains strong hallucinogens.

Members of the group used music for their "appearances". March of "Mushroom Elves" - a song from three verses with interspersed Russian mat, sounding very bellicose even with a simple perusal. Subsequently, many hymns and ballads were written, but only the first song became recognizable by the role-players from the very first lines.

Main stages of activity

"Elves mushroom" managed to be noted in all directions of activity, which could only be accessible to active young people of that time. They were most active in the following:

• Overclocking role-playing games, conducted in the open air. And the nature of the events and the number of participants did not matter. The "mushroom" themselves claimed that they are supporters of the realism of the scenario being played out. Role-players should be prepared to the fact that the situation will begin to develop in a dangerous direction for them. They should not have the opportunity to step aside and say: "I'm in the house." Soon the "mushroom" became so famous that they had to hide their names and go to other people's games for 100-200 km. Often the masters only after the beginning of debauchery learned about who received their events. Evil jokes over the players were often accompanied by alcohol consumption, bullying, beatings and appropriation of other people's things.
• Environmental activities in the Committee on Forest (Leningrad region). In 1997, the "Elves of the Mushroom" volunteered to patrol the Polistovsky Reserve. The protection of state property from poachers was closely linked to various excesses, such as the destruction of technology or the unexpected shooting of a shotgun. In 1999, in connection with the request of deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and frequent complaints to law enforcement agencies, voluntary patrols were disbanded.
• Activity in the network space. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the elves have been actively "trolling" their opponents on the Internet, ridiculed and denigrated them with insulting posts and poems. They created several sites and forums, of which the most famous resource is the "Library of the Mushroom Elves".

In 2009, having issued a special "Manifesto", the group began to curtail its work "in the field", almost completely switching to the Network. To date, "Mushroom Elves" act as a creative team and do not show themselves in either political or social activities.

Composition and leaders of the "Mushroom Elves"

If you believe the rumors, a group of hooligans numbered hundreds of members and had branches in all major cities. But this is a huge exaggeration. The basic structure of "mushroom" numbered 10-12 people, their nicknames and appearance were known to many role-players.

Of course, in 2016, very few people know what the "Mushroom Elves" look like. The photos published on the Web mostly refer to the last decade of the 20th century, when they were all very young. At the moment, the main actors know the following:

• Johnny - in the world Ivan Petrovich Faulkner, July 25, 1977 birth. According to acquaintances, he has a good literary talent. The monograph about the adventures of the elves almost entirely came out from under his hand. There were rumors (and Johnny confirmed it) that in 2000 he was convicted of robbery for a suspended sentence.
• Straw - the main "voice" of the group Konstantin Mikhailov. It's this guy in the vest that sings the song "March of the Mushroom Elves", placed on YouTube.
• Crazy - Anton Ostrovsky, born February 11, 1976. For a long time he was the leader of the group, but in recent years he began to distance himself, which was noticed by strangers.
• MacLeod, or Sergei Maklaud Zotov, still remains a fan of role-playing games and sometimes takes part in them.

In addition, among the "Mushroom Elves" were characters such as Elephant, Ave, Goblin, Barin, Queen, Crimson and Skeeve. For some reason it was assumed that the members of the group were marginalized, fit only to drink and use drugs. But this is another mistake scared by the role-players. "Mushroom pickers" were urban guys, and almost all of them either studied or were going to enter universities.

Years later, the "Elves of the Mushroom" never revealed full information about themselves.

Musical and literary creativity

Despite the spatter of speech, bloody bravado and ugly antics, "mushroom" were and remain creative people. They created a lot of music, somehow related to the theme of role-playing games. On the current site "Library of the Mushroom Elves" published albums "Unexpected", "Steps along the curve" and several songs performed by the Goblin.

But there are many more songs for authorship of "mushroom", although not all of them can be performed when there are small children nearby. It would not be a big exaggeration to say that they put their hand and head to a large part of role-playing folklore.

In addition to music, some representatives of the group became famous for their literary works. In particular, the authorship of Johnny (Ivan Faulkner), there is a book "Fairy tales of mushroom elves," which describes the most vivid adventures of hooliganous rolevikov. Despite the abundance of the Russian mat, the description of drinking, debauchery, hooliganism and outright crimes, the product nevertheless describes the realities of games at the turn of the century quite well.

On the same site you can see the frighteningly evil stories of "Holy Greta" and "There is no Forgiveness" for the authorship of Olga Slavnejsheva (Queen), who went on the path of fiction.

Consequences for role movement

By 2016, "Mushroom Elves" became a part of folklore, but at one time they "spoiled the blood of all the role-players". Now it seems strange that only a dozen people could have nearly turned several hundred players into a flight and ripped off the prepared event for months. And for this they only needed to appear on the edge.

"Mushroom Elves" behaved in the spirit of the time, and most rolevikov it caused a stupor. After all, the latter were not the most socially active people and used games to escape from reality. From the point of view of modern players, they were passive and for some reason never asked themselves the question: "And if 40 people take a log and these" mushroom "? .."

However, their actions "fungal" rendered an inestimable service to the role movement of the Leningrad Region, revealing in time its main weaknesses - disunity, hindsight and fear of punishment. Already at the beginning of the XXI century the situation began to change for the better. Players have established communication between clubs, began to take care of security and information exchange. There is a well-known case when the "mushroom" expelled correctly organized protection from the Slavic games.

So the actions of the group "Elves of mushrooms" still served to the benefit of all parties, launching a kind of evolution of the role movement. And it remains only to be glad that no one was killed in the process.