Champhain, Champ

Flavor Profile: Rich, Herbal

Specialization: Support, Strike, Ranged

Champhain is a mysterious Gourmon. It has an amorphous body of potato mash under a green cloak. It has a potato head with a carved face like a jack-o-lantern. There is a golden glow from within it.

The unchanging expression of its carved face makes it difficult to determine what this Gourmon may be thinking, but by the laughter that echoes within the hollow head, it seems to be enjoying itself. 

Champhain flies about by a means unknown, making it quite adept at obtaining and ignoring strategic positions. With it utilizing its ever regenerating potato head as a bombardment projectile, this ability to position itself as it wishes makes it a terrifying support Gourmon. 

Champhain was concocted specifically because of this written project. I’d been looking for a way to represent my own ancestry in this food-centric world, so a dish of Champ seemed ideal. With a combination of lore surrounding Halloween, Samhain, Jack-o-Lanterns, Dullahan, and Sleepy Hollow, Champhain was born.

There are many dishes that one could say represent Irish history, but the association of Champ to the origins of Halloween were something I couldn’t ignore. 

Putting it succinctly, Halloween is short for All Hallows Eve, the night before the Catholic All Hallows Day. This was the day that the Catholics chose to convert from the old celtgael festival of Samhain (SO-win).

Champ is a dish that was traditionally offered to the fae as part of an old Samhain tradition. It is a dish from Ulster that contains potatoes and leeks. 

Another Halloween tradition of the Jack-o-Lantern had a heavy influence on this Gourmon’s design. The use of Pumpkins for Halloween decorations started as an American tradition, but the original Jack-o-Lanterns wee carved into root vegetables such as turnips, beets, and potatoes. 

This is a very simple dish, but research is still needed to write a proper recipe out for it.