| “ | ...with black shields and painted bodies, they choose dark nights to fight, and by means of terror and shadow of a ghostly army they cause panic, since no enemy can bear a sight so unexpected and hellish; in every battle the eyes are the first to be conquered.
— Germania by Tacitus
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The Harii were a group of North Germanic peoples. When preforming a raid they would paint everything on their body and all their weapons black. This served both to hide them in the dark and to keep any metal weapons from catching any light so as not to give away their positions. Because of their black appearance and their tendency to only attack during the night, they earned a reputation in the Roman Army for being ghosts.
Theories have been proposed connecting the Harii to the einherjar, ghostly warriors in service to the god Odin, attested much later among the North Germanic peoples by way of Norse mythology, and to the tradition of the Wild Hunt, a procession of the dead through the winter night sky sometimes led by Odin.
Battle vs. Ninja (by Swg66)
A lone Ninja is running through a German forest in the dead of night, he's on a mission. The for has rolled in and he's not sure where he is. He stops for a moment to get his bearings, then he hears a snapping twig. He draws his Wakizahi and three shurikan. He can barly see but he is listening intentilly. He hears somthing whisteling thru the air, and moves to barly avoid a large Dart. He can onyl guess where it came from, but throw a Shurikan at the direction he thinks it came from.
The Ghost warrior can't see his opponent but can see the shine of his blade. His dart has missed, so he takes up his spear. Throwing a rock past the Ninja's location, behind him. The Ninja throws another Shurikan, turining to where he thinks the unknown target is. With his back turned the Ghost runs at him spear held up over his head.
The Ninja quickly realizes he's be tricked and turns to see a giant shadow. He ducks and rolls out of the way. The slahes at the shadow, but hit's somthing hard he can't cut. He can't see it but he's only hit the Ghost sheild. Deciding on a different approch he jumps back, sheathing his sword.
The Germanic Ghost can no longer see the shine of his opponents sword and can only make out a vage shadow dissapeaing into the woods. He gives chase in the general dirrection he saw the shaown dissapear to.
The Ninja has now changed tatics to using his kusarigama. Swinging the chain, making it whistle. The Ghost can hear the chian but can barly make out it out. The Ninja swings the ball at the shadowy figure in front of him, hitting the same hard target. Deciding to try hitting him on the other side he switch the direction of his swing. As he gets the rotation up again, but the chian is caught on somthing, looking up he see's the dark warrior has thrown his spear tangeling the chain.
Having stopped the bizzare weapon, the Ghost warrior draws his club and charges. The Ninja rolls out of the way of the large club. The Ninja pulls out his Black egg. As the Giant charges again he crushes it and throws it at where he thinks his face is. It works, at least partilly. The dark darkness has thrown his aim off, he' hit the German in the left eye only. But it enought to get him to drop his club to try and rub the glass out of his eye, yelling in pain. It only makins it worse, while the Ninja rushes off to get behind him.
With only one eye working, the dark nature of his club means he's unable to locate it. Deciding to draw his last weapon, his Germanic long sword. Looking around he see's the shine of the Ninja's sword again. He deflect the first strike with his own sword, the Second the his sheild and kicks the Ninja to the ground. Rolling to his feet the Ninja goes for another strike. But his sword get stuck with the strike, wedge into the the Ghost warriors sheild.
The Ghost pulls the sheild aside and swings his long sword with all his strength, taking the Ninja's head off with one strike.
The Ghost drops his sheild, and kicks the Ninja body over. Walking over tot he severed head he picks it up and raises it over his head shouting a loud victory cry.
WINNER: Ghost Warrior.
Expert's Opinion
The experts believed that the Ghost Warriors won due to being trained for longer, and having generally more lethal weapons.
To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.
Battle vs. Hashashin (by Tomahawk23)
So normally in a reality match up I try to at least give a reason as to why these two warriors are fighting. Unfortunately, the Germanic Ghost Warrior existed from the 6th century to the 9th century. Hashashin (as an actual order) 11th-13th centuries. (The last Hashashin is believed to have died out in the 1500's).
5 Germanics walk towards the Castle of Masyaf during the reign of The Man of the Mountains under the cover of night hoping to assassinate him.
Unknown to the Germanics, the Hashashins were well aware of this plot, and had made preparations As they walked up, they felt like they were being watched.
"Halt!" (translated from Germanic) said the Ghost leader as they walked in between a set of buildings on each side.
All of the Germanics knew exactly why he had said that. They looked around; tried to see their opponents that their gut told them they were there. And they knew exactly where they were hiding.........
Suddenly, 3 Hashashins came out of the buildings. Two on the left, 1 on the right.
At the same time two Hashashins jumped out of 20 foot windows.
Right as the Hashashin came out of the left house the Germanic second in command quickly stabbed him in the chest with his sword.
The Hashasin that jumped out of the right window jumped right down onto a Germanic charging at the other left Hashashin, landing on his back, grabbing his hair, and stabbing him in the neck with his Khanjar.
The Germanic who killed the first Hashashin quickly found himself falling to the ground with a Khanjar in his back from the other Hashashin who came from the lef.
Right as the other Hashashin (who jumped out a window) fell, aiming at a Germanic who was looking at him, the Germanic quickly held up his shield which the Hashashin landed on, he tried to get his hand behind the shield and stab him in the head, but the Germanic quickly threw the shield back. The Hashashin landed on his feet and the two began dualing with swords.
(That all happened over the period of like.....5 seconds) The Germanic put his shield infront of him and went charging at the Hashashin with his sword pulled in, ready to be thrusted out like apush knife!
The Hashashin went under the Germanic's shield with his sword as he got close, right as he did that the Germanic thrusted his sword at him.
The Hashashin blocked it with his shield.
Right at that moment, the Scimitar went into the Germanic's stomach, killing him.
The Hashashin retracted his sword and suddenly felt the impact of a spear go right into his brain.
That spear came from a Germanic who just killed the Hashashin he was dualing.
We are down to 3 on 3!
The Germanics regrouped with each other on the left side of the field.....
The Hashashins on the right.
Each side gave the other a angry stare in the eyes.
Both groups charged at each other!!!!
The Germanic leader twirled his spear in the air.
The Hashashin third in command, with a dagger closed in, he quickly threw it at the Germanic.
He quickly did a spin jump to the left, right as he landed the twirling spear hit the Hashashin in the head; knocking him right on the ground bleeding heavily, and unconscious.
The Germanic Warrior twirlded his spear in the air preparing to stab it down onto the Hashashin he had just about killed.
A Germanic thrusted his sword at a Hashashin, he quickly blocked it with his shield, and with his left hand, quickly grabbed two throwing knives and threw them at the Germanic about to kill his comrade.
The two knives hit him right in the side, he fell to the ground and began to bleed heavily.
2 on 2!
As he turned his head back, the Germanic pushed forward with his shield push hing back, then stabbed him in the head.
He turned to assist his comrade fighting the last Hashashin.
The Germanic fighting him (he doesn't have a shield) the Hashashin locked his sword on the inside of the Germanic's he then sweeped it down and cut off his armed wrist.
With swift precision, before the Germanic could even scream, he loped the Germanic's head right off.
It's now down to one on one!
The tension brewed between the two as they circuled each other about 10 feet apart.....Getting ready for their move....Trying to figure out what their opponent will do......
The Hashashin pushed himself forward, making a attempted stab at the Germanic's throat.
The Germanic blocked it with his club. The Hashashin quickly curved his blade around the Germanic's weapon; the Germanic ducked and came forward hitting the Hashashin square in the balls.
He hit him so hard it made it hard for him to stand up.
The Germanic stood up infront of him, he raised the club above his head and came right down on him.
At the last moment, the Hashashin blocked it with his arm. However, the club broke his arm.
The Germanic then dropped the club and grabbed his hair, he then dragged him over to a window and smashed his head right through it.
The Hashashin, with his other hand picked up a piece of glass and put it into a icepick grip then stabbed the Hashashin in the very left corner of the stomach, not going very far in or hitting any organs.
"AHH!!". Screamed the Germanic.
He then turned around and hit him square in the face, causing his head to turn.
He turned his head back, while he did that he grabbed the piece of glass and thrusted it right back at the Hashashin.
He jumped to the side, evading his attack.
As blood spilled out of the Germanic, he simply couldn't hold on anymore.
As he started to fail to stand, he threw the glass at the Hashashin, it impacted his upper left leg.
"AHH!!!!!!!". Screamed the Hashashin.
The Germanic tried totackle him, but right as he moved.....He fell to the ground from blood loss.
The Hashashin then walked away to let The Old Man of the Mountains know that his opponents had been dealt with.
Winner: Hashashin
Expert's Opinion
The Hashashin took this for a few reasons. For one, he had better weapons. The throwing knives made the spear useless since somebody using it could be easily taken out with throwing knives. The Scimitar could go under Germanic shieldsand the Germanics were not use to dealing with curved slashing weapons whereas the Hashashins were use to dealing with straight blades. Another thing, if the Hashashin were to scracth the Germanic with the dagger he would eventually die. They didn't really have the cures for poisons back then. They were also able to fair better (still suck) in the Germanic's enviornment then the Germanics were in theirs. Them taking organization, ruthless, and creativity was also a factor but nothing huge. Those are the reasons the Hashashin won.
To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.
Battle vs. Sicarii (by 123chaseyoung)
TBW
Sicarii: 
Ghost Warrior: 
In a small village in the Mediterranean, two opposing forces meet. One group was the Germanic Ghost Warrior, who were sent to scout the place and take it as their own. Their skins painted black as the night. In the village were five Sicarii who were buying precious weapons they can use for their rebellion.
The Germanic Ghosts then storms the village. They killed many of the inhabitants with their swords and spears. The Sicarii sees this and they ready to defend themselves against the raiders. One Sicarius drew his bow and fires an arrow, hitting the ghost warrior in the face. He tried to fire again but the ghost covered themselves with their shields and charged. The Sicarii also drew their swords and attacked. One German hacked a Sicarius to death with his sword. A Ghost warrior tried to avenge his comrade by chucking a javelin, but the Sicarius just dodged it and slashes the German's throat.
A ghost and a sicarius clashed head-on. The Sicarius made a overhead chop but the ghost parried. The German then punched the Hebrew in the face before sinking his blade in to his gut. Before he can pull it out, a Sicarius plunged his sword in his back.
As the battle raged on, a Sicarius tried to fire his bow, but as he was aiming a German threw his javelin at his neck, killing him. The German then grabbed his spear, and as a Sicarius turns toward him and charged like a madman, the ghost warrior plunged his spear at his abdomen that lifted him up in the air like a piked meat.
In the other corner a German was readying his sword as he searches for his prey. But he didn't see the Hebrew coming straight towards him before a cloak suddenly wrapped around his head. Distracted, the Sicarius then lopped the German's head clean-off.
The remaining Ghost and Sicarius then stared at each other menacingly. Shouting both charged at each other with rage. The Ghost thrusts his spear at the charging Sicarius, but the blade only scratched the Jew's cheek. The Sicarius didn't stop, and as he got past the blade and into the German, he plunged the sicae straight to the German's chest, killing him. The sicarius then raises his knife in the air and yells in victory.
Winner: Sicarii
Expert's Opinion
The voters believed that while the Ghost Warriors were more successful in fighting the Romans than the Sicarii, the latter still carried the better close and long range weapons. The Sicarii were also better in stealth because they operated both in rural and urban areas while the Ghost warriors raided in smaller, night-time attacks.