#but I'm thinking of them as just lore outfits rather than skins

[anothertina]

Sketching outfits for the PnZ kids inspired by Jinx's rebellion look in Arcane 2, these are very messy 3 am ideas to figure out their styles

[itsclydebitches]

Cinder is a lot more sexualized then the male parts of Salem's inner circle

Like tyrian is shirtless sometimes but that does not feel as...drawn attention to, as say, the lingering shots of Cinder's butt or thighs. Or her wearing short shorts and high boots you know what I mean?

I do, anon. RWBY got a lot of attention back in the day for its anti-upskirt technology, but that doesn't give it a free pass for all the other ways you might (and it does) sexualize the cast. I've never been inclined to give RWBY too much shit in this regard because it is pulling from media with a LONG history of such designs and cinematography - it feels unfair of me to act like RWBY is uniquely responsible for such problems when I'm simultaneously willing to overlook, say, the 90's "gag" of Yusuke flipping up Keiko's skirt - but there's nevertheless a voice in the back of my mind constantly asking things like, "Why are so many of the girls fighting in heels?" and "Why are they dressed like they're going to the club and not the literal TUNDRA??" I'd kill for the whole cast, but the girls in particular, to get a re-design that focuses on fashionably compelling practicality, rather than sexy fanservice. (Though Ice Kingdom did a good job overall, particularly for Ruby.) Sure, RWBY didn't give us panty-shots, but one of the first characters we're introduced to is literally designed like a dominatrix.

If we're talking about outfits though... I'd say Emerald gets hit the worst out of Salem's minions. Yeah, Cinder is definitely sexualized in a more general sense as the tall, white (that's not a coincidence), long-legged beauty who sensually conjures fire as she prowls towards the heroes, camera focused on her hips swaying. But Emerald?

She suffers from the same problem Yang has. AKA, if your woman isn't classically beautiful (like Wiess and to a different extent Blake), or cute / child-like (Ruby, Penny), but is instead going for a sporty, comparatively masculine-esque vibe... then they've got to show a LOT of skin. RWBY makes it sexy by just denying them clothes. You're entering dangerous battles on the daily? You want to protect yourself? Too bad. The audience needs a midriff and cleavage and your whole arms to stare at. Shorten the skin-tight pants so we can see some leg too. Oh, Yang has to have long pants because she's heading into the coldest Kingdom in Remnant? Never mind that, cut a strip out to show her thigh.

"But Clyde, the girls don't need to wear armor because of aura--" then why the hell does Jaune bother wearing that heavy-ass suit? Is it weight training? Does he just think it makes him look cool? ...or does it exist in case his aura breaks and he's allowed to wear more protective gear because there are different gender expectations attached to his design? The aura argument is just a modern rehashing of the Supergirl sun argument: using made up lore to "justify" getting your women characters into skimpy outfits, despite the men rarely being held to the same standards.

Tyrian is actually an interesting exception here and if I were less tired I'd think through this argument more, but something something as the "crazy" character he's allowed more leeway in breaking those expectations. Also the open shirt shows off his scars, which likewise help sell how dangerous he is. With the exception of characters like Cinder and Nora - whose injuries are Important Character Moments the audience gets to see play out - scars are surprisingly uncommon in Remanent. Or, again, they're severely downplayed so as not to interfere with that classic beauty design (like Weiss', or even Yang who gets a perfect cut when losing her arm). So when you see a character with giant scars spanning the length of his chest, an open shirt drawing deliberate attention to them... that makes you go, "Oh shit. What's he been through to scar like that in a world where most people make it out of fights with no permanent damage?"

[sebwritesstories]

Okay, so, I'm gonna give you lore on my Welcome Home Oc in the form of an episode pitch. Bare with me.

Lucy Literature was an elephant with a love for stories, whether written into fabulous books to read and admire, or when told by others when discussing their interests and lives. So it's no wonder she worked hard to become a librarian and finally got the funds to build her very own library!

All she needed was to find a place that needed the uses of her library. So she did her research. She found out that the only town in the county that didn't have a local library was a snug place in the middle of nowhere called "Home".

With that, Lucy packed a suitcase and went on a holiday to check out the area and its suitability. Unfortunately, due to an incident with the bus breaking down that took hours to fix, she arrived in town very late in the night. She felt extremely exhausted from the ordeal, only wanting to sleep away her worries, but panicked after seeing that there was no inn or motel.

The only one awake at the time was Home, and it shocked Lucy to meet a sentient house. But she was able to converse with Home, and only asked if Home could keep an eye on her while while she slept on their lawn. Home reluctantly agreed, not sure if it was the right choice since Lucy was vulnerable to the elements.

Regardless, Lucy dreamt a blissful dream of building her library, finding romance, family, school, a math test, cameras, coffee, string, and cigarette smoke. Lucy had a tendency to dream a collection of things, her memories smushed into calm chaos.

Once the morning arrived, she was still asleep, but all of the neighbors were getting up and ready for another glorious day! Wally especially, as he put on a new outfit and was just heading outside to meet with Barnaby.

The only thing that stopped him was seeing a purple, floppy creature sleeping on his lawn.

He didn't know what to think of his strange, sleepy visitor, so he just observed them for a bit. Home decided to wait on telling him, just to see what happened next.

Because of that, Wally went straight to Barnabys', to bring him to see the new visitor.

Once Barnaby saw the stranger, he didn't know what to think of them either. But he explained to Wally that the creature they were was an elephant, due to their long-limb like trunk and large ears.

When Wally wanted further explanations that Barnaby couldn't give, the comedic canine suggested "Howsa 'bout we round up the rest of the gang, and Frank can explain it better?

So, with the help of Howdy, the rest of the neighborhood was gathered.

Frank explained that elephants were types of pachyderm (mammals with little hair, thick skin to protect the body from the elements, and no paws), and how they could trek for miles, had a good memory to remember places and techniques, and had very large families going back generations, lead by the most capable matriarch.

But only Home could explain how and when the elephant arrived into town, and preferred risking her health in the elements rather than to wake and disturb the neighbors.

All of them felt increasing guilt over this, and were contemplating waking her up.

That is, until Wally decided to join Lucy in her nap, laying down beside her, repeating the phrase "I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping..."

"Welp, at this point, it would be rude not to join," said Barnaby as he lies down next to the two. After that, one by one, the neighbors joined in for the nap fest, circling the sleepy visitor and looked after by the amused Home.

And once Lucy awakens, she finds herself in the middle of so many silly sleepers!

Except for one besides her with a blue pompador, droopy eyes, and a soft smile. "You're awake now. That's good."

The two got to converse with each other in whispers, so they didn't disturb the other neighbors. Wally enjoyed talking about his neighbors and their routines. And Lucy talked about her parents and sibling, and her own dreams to be a librarian.

Of course, she had to explain to Wally that a library was a building of books people could borrow, and that a librarian organized and took care of the books.

After being told by Lucy that they're were many types of books with different lessons and stories, Wally was enchanted at the idea of having a library in the neighborhood! Especially since many of the neighbors could benefit from the new ideas learned from the free books within.

So with that, Lucy Literature became the tenth neighbor of Home!

And after the two woke up the other neighbors, they had a grand picnic to get to know Lucy and to celebrate.

The End

So this is Lucy's intro (which to a crazy amount of fine motor skill to draw), but I'll make more short stories and comics with her.

Anyways, I'd you do want to find the content I made for this character on my blog, just search up the hashtag (#lucy literature) when looking for content.

Alright byee. 😎💅

[catcze]

Re: the thing you posted about sumeru and the skin colours.

I have to say as someone who’s south asian and has lived in the middle east + south asia, its not entirely correct. Sumeru has more of an Arabian vibe and that entire Middle East area does not have many people who are dark skinned, heck most of the people in my country (South Asia) literally have light skin. Many (people from one of our provinces) have white skin and blue/green type eyes. It depends on which parts they’re from. In the Middle east its the same, many Arabs are light skin toned and there are a few who have darker skin- but mostly those from the North African regions.

This was to kinda clear out the entire Middle East/ South Asia = Dark skin for people. I don’t think Genshin would try to add more dark skinned characters tbh because the game caters to chinese audiences which usually prefer light skin tones. As a person from the region Sumeru is supposed to be based off on, I really don’t care if they add the variations of the skin or not- and that means that if they do, then good! But i’m not biased in the sense that I don’t want them to. Its important for them to try and incorporate the culture in the Lore because of how rich it is because that would be so interesting!

We can’t expect much from a game that basically caters more to their own audience rather than others, but for others who do expect something, I think they should try to make an effort and the entire forest= light skin, desert= tan skin thing is intriguing and it is a possibility, so if they would do it then good, but once again, we can’t expect much from such a game.

I'm sorry if I said something that gave off vibes as generalizing all Middle East and South Asia as dark skinned, and i do thank you for sharing your own observations. I'm assuming that this comes from what I said regarding the one image about all the leaked characters lined up, and how all of them except Dehya were light-skinned. 

My criticism of the lineup of new characters isn't based on the expectation that we would be getting only dark-skinned characters, but on the fact that instead of, say, choosing characters who have skin tones that vary according to the region (and possibly giving them culturally-accurate outfits based on said region, instead of just throwing a lot of cultures into the blender and producing several orientalist designs) and helping to balance out the scales by giving representation to pocs who have darker-toned skin, which people have been asking for since the very start of the game, and have gone mostly ignored, they instead chose to not diversify their characters and give the majority of their characters just the one skin tone, with only a few darker-skinned characters here and there. 

Honestly, the main problem with the Sumeru designs as a whole isnt that people were expecting all the characters to be dark skinned–– like you said, there are always gonna be variations in features when talking about race, which is true basically anywhere you go. The issue stems from the poor representation in the game. If you lined up all the current characters we have, you'd see that there is a similar trend with Kaeya and Xinyan being the only poc characters out of all of them. This has always been a problem in genshin, and it's just that the Sumeru designs were merely the straw that broke the camel's back, considering all the expectation that had been riding on it to redeem the diversity issues. Some desi persons have also spoken up about how they aren’t satisfied with the Sumeru designs, which can be found here, for whoever may be interested X X

Criticizing these issues with diversity this strongly is something necessary, considering that they have plans to take inspiration from countries with people of color in the future— particularly with Natlan. And it would be wise to give them feedback and criticism sooner rather than later, before they can mess up another country’s culture. 

It's unfortunate that like what you said hyv doesn't seem to be listening to the people outside of its chinese audience, but I can't say I'm surprised about it, unfortunately. I agree that we shouldn't get our hopes up for them to re-design the characters, as much as many of us are asking, and as much as the variation in cultures and features would have (imo) made a lot of the characters less controversial + would have been interesting in terms of lore and character design.

[sparxwrites]

Hi!! I'm the anon that sent that long and uh, "immaculate" ask about the scarian fic :D I'm really happy that you liked it so much, it made my day to read your response <3 (i somehow saw it only days after you responded and i was like "aw man it'd be awkward to respond so late" so... i didn't, sorry ;-;)

But!! I saw you were curious about the Winged Grian lore, so I'm gonna try to expand a bit on what other have already said.

So, there's a few ways that the fandom originates Grian's wings: Avian/Mob Grian, Watcher Grian, or simply Shapeshifting Elytra.

Avian/Mob Grian: Either born as an avian (a person with bird characteristics) or a mob (aka parrot/chicken). This usually presents as: Grian with white chicken wings, parrot wings (either the tri-coloured mc one or other irl parrot species) or custom coloured wings pertaining to his colour palette. Lately, due to Him getting the Dragon Egg and protecting it, people have also been giving him dragon wings, which belongs to the headcanon that his wings have shapeshifting abilities. This headcanon (i can't remember who first made the headcanon, sorry!!) can be found related to the other origins as well. (You might also find older stuff with dragon wings due to a very brief story line at the end of s6).

Watcher Grian: The backstory to this one is pretty big, but to condense it: In Grian's previous SMP series, Evo, there were beings of great power that tasked themselves with creating worlds, updates and so on in the MC universe. It happens that they take an interest in Grian and his server, helping them along the journey of hopping from update to update, beginning from the Alpha build. At the end of the series, right as Grian & co go to the end to defeat the Ender Dragon, Grian is taken by them (this technically was him starting his Hermitcraft series at this point, but lore wise it's a big blank of time). They are not really shown as malevolent, but since we don't really know their true motives, people went on to create their own takes of them. ATUS (And the Universe Shifts) was the most popular HC fanfic for a long long time (it was even read by Cleo) and it is what shaped today's most popular interpretation of the Watchers: entities with too much power and too little compassion, aka pretty evil! Anyway, Watcher Grian is presented as: Purple, lots and lots of purple and void and EYES (the SUPER focus on eyes is a bit more recent, tho), with the Watcher symbol & mask. He's been called (by the fandom) the Red Watcher, Techno's Blood God (due to the red watcher thing) and the Chaos Watcher. Wings usually are purple, void, cosmic, EYES, red, black, his cloak, or a combo of any of those.

Shapeshifting Elytra: this sorta speaks for itself. It's actually a headcanon that is used for all the other hermits as well, due to the focus being on the Elytra, rather than the character's origins! Mostly, the idea goes like this: Elytras take the shape, form and colour of whatever the player is like, unique to each of them. For example, Scar, as he is sometimes (canon and fanon!) a vex mob/hybrid, would have vex wings, sometimes he'd have wings matching his outfits and skins. This is presented as: Grian's wings shifting from watcher wings (s6) to (sometimes, depends on the fan artist) chicken wings (s6) to parrot wings (s7) to dragon wings (s8). That, or simply from parrot species to other parrot or bird species across seasons & smps (like last life).

I think that's all! I miraculously haven't hit the word limit in anon asks, so imma stop here, before i do! Hope this is helpful, but if you'd like to know more, check out @/give-grian-rights, they're basically the expert on Grian and his lore :D I'd also be okay with dms, btw, as long as you are too, but tbh I'd prob just ramble on and on (like I haven't already xD) Hope you have a great day <3

ah, hello again!, and yeah, that’s pretty much what i was aware of - thank you for the very comprehensive guide, though.

i’m very ambivalent about assigning hybrid status to people who don’t have skins that make it very evident they’re some kind of animal/mob cross, but i do very much like wings and i think given grian’s history of bird-related pranks and fondness for flying, i can see where it came from... i’ve seen some of the elytra designs for all the hermits, though, and i loooove them, they’re so good. very fond.

the watchers have shown up in last life since evo (which i have now watched in its entirety; taurtis my beloved...), btw - watch inthelittlewood’s pov for more. they’re pretty unequivocally evil in that. and, i’d argue, they’re also pretty evil in evo. the only reason it gets overlooked is that like... grian is almost worse behaved lmaooo.

...someone remind me at some point, when i’m drowning in work a little less, to write a meta post about how c!grian is, in fact, kind of a Bad Person. especially in evo, where he kills and explodes and burns and traps and teases remorselessly, and generally without asking permission, and often taking it just a few feet over the too far line. and how that makes him more interesting to me, rather than less, this man who’s natural inclination is chaos and violence and explosions and an absence of natively-felt empathy, very carefully reining himself in for the sake of his friends, because he was told to, because they asked him to, because he cares about them and wants to be liked and accepted. and also makes me want to use him as the world’s featheriest football even more, rip.

(also my dms are always open, as a general statement!! i know like... nobody in this fandom, it’s like me and one poor fucker i’ve dragged in after me, please come talk to me about shit. but also please bear in mind, depending on your age, that i am Very Much over 18, and that this blog / myself is intermittently 18+ in the nsfw sense.)

[snowfianna]

Fable IV rant:

I'm so pumped up for the 23rd because everything has led me to believe that Fable 4 will be announced this year and the game's existence has been confirmed for a while anyway it's just a matter of time of when will Fable 4 show itself. It's a badly kept secret tbh.

So to those who don't mind a big rant or wish to add on to my rant- here we go!

Can you imagine how good the graphics would be for this game, we've all seen modern games, surely, and they're all bloody fantastic looking. Fable Legends is technically the most recent Fable game despite it being a free to play online game

and that it's cancelled

but it also had a gorgeous look to it all! And the character models did great justice to the concept art and honestly that has my hopes real high because I love the concept art of Fable, specifically from Mike McCarthy, so exaggerated and recognisable- yet in all the games I can confidently say they did not do justice to his character design, specifically for Reaver. Sure, he looks stunning in the third game, but not quite what he looks like in his concept art sadly.

But also, since Fable was made in Unreal Engine (I'm pretty sure at least) we've seen examples of what can be done in Unreal Engine now and it's absolutely breath taking!

If you haven't seen here are some examples and they're so life-like.

Moving on from graphics!

Since Playground Games is behind the development of Fable 4, they would be spectacular at an open spaced world, judging from the Forza games.

I always loved the open world feature added to Fable, it made things more adventurous and you could do so many things that weren't at all related to the main quest to progress the story and it was just thrilling to see there were other things going on! I'd love to just have my dog companion running through fields, fighting enemies left and right and finding buried treasure or forgotten chests.

Run into strangers who request aid in something silly or rather serious and it would be up to you with how you go about the quest or if you even accept it to get renown or gold. Cause a massacre in towns and villages, running off with low morality and plentiful loot- oh one could fantasise of this all day.

Story, characters, writing and voices.

Fable has always had a fun environment of fantasy and a rather good story (despite the curse of mundane or pathetic boss fights in which I hope Fable 4 breaks this cycle) but the one thing that's always kept me on my feet in the games is the writing and the characters. It always just tried not to take itself too seriously, throwing in absurd quests that probably requires cheese or a really weird-looking outfit. It always kept my attention rather than just pure edge and seriousness of life or death.

The characters are a given, the writing done for them all is perfect in my eyes, I love hearing the variations of how characters of NPCs interacted (enough so that I even bought two of the Fable books written by Peter David). Despite Fable 3 not being the greatest at it's time, I found myself absolutely enjoy the characters for how they were- I even cried over Walter's death because it genuinely felt like I lost somebody pretty close (RIP Walter🙏). The writing and the chosen voice actors were superb and I'd love more of it.

I hope this time we can receive a full story instead of how Fable 2 and 3 were where plenty of plot points and such were cut out due to time constraints- thanks Microsoft, very cool. I'm still in anguish when listening to the Developer's Diary 3 of Fable 3 hearing lines that were just never said in the final product and it was definitely not just additional lines that weren't required as it seemed to mention entirely different things that weren't in the game; i.e. Reaver talks about his pirates in Bloodstone and how he misses them- in the final product he never mentions it and it's even shown that he's tried to completely bury his pirate past for whatever reason.

The pacing in Fable 3 was rather strange too, it felt like the revolution should've lasted longer.

Another hope of mine is to have choices that aren't so painfully black-and-white because it's very obvious which is the good or bad option to a scenario- personally for me I'd like to be morally grey rather than pure good or pure evil.

They better have kept the mechanic of your actions affecting your appearance too to the point where you grow horns and get cracked magma-like skin or this slight glow and aura around you and this flawless skin. It kind of died down in Fable 3, only looking more tired or have completely black eyes and the good- eh yeah not much I can say for when you're good. Purity and corruption seemed to also vanish in Fable 3 (at least I think) since you couldn't really change prices of the homes you were renting out, unless I've been a big goof who didn't arrange the rent prices in the game because I didn't know how.

Combat

Combat in all the games was rather straight forward, especially in Fable 2 and 3 where everything was just easy to beat or you could get overpowered around the start of the game. I'd hope the combat improves greatly this time and even bring back real consequences to dying instead of immediate revival with some lost experience and a scar. We need more serious consequences to your actions (this can be applied to all decisions rather than just if you die in a battle) even if it's just having to reload the last checkpoint. Makes things more challenging this way.

Another thing is to make boss fights less repetitive and simple- sure I can forgive it if the boss is from around the start but if they had phases you had to keep ontop of and didn't rely on summoning a bajillion other enemies to strike you, I'd be ever so grateful.

And if there's other characters fighting along side you, I'd hope they'd genuinely be helpful and keep up to speed with the player. I'm sure the AI in the past was the problem for this as AI wasn't at its best during that time so characters fighting by you didn't do too much or just did whatever that wasn't helpful. Now though, AI has improved immensely (I mean look at The Last Of Us 2, the AI is👌) and due to this, I'm sure characters would make battles more fun and the characters be more involved with the fight and even story.

Mana should be brought back as well, in Fable 2 and 3 mana just ceased to exist so you could just endlessly and repeatedly use the same spells and it just gave you too much power and the enemies barely stood a chance.

We need challenges people- CHALLENGES!

Medieval times? Yes.

I love Medieval fantasy and as much as I like the Victorian era too, I didn't think it quite suited Fable, as fascinating as it was to see fantasy turn industrial, it kind of took away from the Fable feel that I so crave. If they have indeed brought the game back to medieval times it means more creatures and enemies are back rather than driven away or limited to the same handful of enemies.

We can all also agree the guns were overpowered, though I did like receiving the Red Dragon late in Fable 2 to absolutely mow down enemies, it was satisfying to say the least. However, guns were far too powerful for the game, so I demand the bows and crossbows back thank you very much- or even throwing knives- I'll take what I'm given.

I'd love to see more of the natural landscape rather than towns or buildings that took over once entirely natural areas (Millfields/Bowerlake). However, I won't object to ruins of old buildings taken over by nature.

Skeptical with Playground Games? Don't be.

Are you worried that Playground Games wouldn't do justice to Fable since it's not Lionhead Studios? Don't be, it's been noted that Playground Games has hired several ex-lionhead workers and plenty other skillful workers to ensure we get the best product. I have high hopes and expectations for Fable 4 even if it's developed under a different studio, I've seen great things from them and I will believe they'll deliver us only the best.

Side note to all this

I will crash and burn if I don't see a crumb of Reaver or Jack of Blades in Fable 4- I don't know how true any rumours are of Fable 4 with time travelling and Jack returning, but we'll just have to see. Reaver still remains as my absolute favourite character of all time and I'd love to see more of him, even see him before he was 'Reaver'.

Jack too, more of his lore is stated elsewhere rather than in the game itself and I'd love to see it all be brought into light and really expand on his lore and make it known- rather than have ever-loving Fable fans like me dig around for these rather delicious bits of canon information.

That's my big rant, feel free to share your thoughts and what you'd look forward to!

Have some accidental art leaks from a Playground Game concept artist- believed to be for Fable 4👀

[diasporatheblog]

Ohhh that last ask had me wondering if they (Cine, Castulian and Iskendi) had a custom of special outfits for weddings like we do with wedding dresses and all! also if its not too much to ask I'm also wondering about clothing in general for all of them? Like what kind of things and colors are common for them to wear and stuff like that! (sorry if it doesn't make much sense I'm not too sure how to word it and also sorry this is so long lol)

Seriously, worldbuilding questions are never too much of an ask. I’m a huge lore nerd for basically everything I’ve ever been into, and getting an excuse to think about the minutiae of our own world is like the Best Thing™, so don’t ever hesitate to ask me/us this kind of stuff.

I’ll cover these one by one again, starting with the general manners of dress and then moving on to the specific occasional customs that go with weddings and such.

The Cine:

The Cine are, as you all know by now, typically a northern people. This isn’t to say that all of them live in fantasy Norway or Greenland or whatever, but the region they’re from does average much colder than the Mediterranean-like climate of Tarracina and the surrounding areas. Because it’s hard to cultivate plants in the Cine homeland (one of several reasons the culture raids), there aren’t a lot of textile fabrics available, except what they happen to be able to steal. So a lot of Cine clothing is fashioned from animal products like fur, wool, skins, and leather, as well as what basic plant matter they can get.

They are also a seafaring people, and so for the most part, heavy metal armor and such is a no-go, meaning that even when dressed for battle they usually stick to the same materials, even if the design and function is otherwise entirely different. Clan Maghnus had enough raiding success, and was in general located in a region warm enough, that this was supplemented by other material like hemp and linen. So on any given Cine from the PC’s clan, clothing is likely to be a mix of those elements. Designs favor trousers, tunics, short cloaks or vests for warmth (rather than long cloaks that might get tangled in rigging), and so on. Footwear is usually boots, and very often someone’s shoes are the most carefully-made article on their person. Cine boots have to keep water out, be sturdy enough for battle or serious hiking, not slip on a wet deck, but also be warm enough for snow. It’s a lot, and one of the most acceptable uses of magic is shoring up the properties of clothing items like that.

In the warmer seasons, Cine tend to forego sleeves first, and some will switch to longer tunics that hit the knee without the need for breeches. On land in warmer months/climes, variations on the theme can include shorter shoes with winingas (leg wraps to keep pant legs out of the way) and the occasional dress. The practicality of all this does not preclude some ornamentation, and Cine jewelry is a wide selection of raided items in metals that can’t be melted down for better use (such as gold, which is much too soft), and more natively carved bone, antler or obsidian articles. The Cine favor decorating their hair and beards over most other kinds of ornamentation, but cuffs, earrings, necklaces and bangles are not uncommon either. A nice set of embossed or worked leather armor is also a common symbol of status, especially given the culture’s emphasis on the value of battle and those who participate in it.

Cosmetics are by and large unheard of, with the exception of woad, which is sometimes painted on the body and face in various patterns. Some of the patterns have specific meanings and are worn at specific times, but others are just decorative and accord with the preferences of the individual. Roise’s woad patterns, for example, are a personal touch and don’t have anything to do with her position as Chief, though if she goes into battle, the patterns change to indicate her standing in the clan. The Cine tend to wear their hair long, or their beards in the case of those who want to/can grow those. This is not at all a rule, and exceptions exist untroubled.

There aren’t any particular types of clothing reserved for weddings; pretty much everyone is expected to wear their best, whatever that best may be. This means some people show up in a nice linen tunic and some people in their fanciest armor—it’s really the individual’s choice. White is the color of Cine death shrouds, so no one wears primarily white to a wedding. Traditionally, both of the couple getting married will wear green, as it’s the color associated by the Cine with life rather than death. One item, like a sash or something, is plenty, and since vivid dyes are hard to come by, the item is often an heirloom. There are some other ceremonies that demand more formal attire, such as the annual coming-of-age day. The young people participating do wear white, as the day represents the symbolic death of one self and rebirth of another. (Sometimes this has a lot of meaning, as coming-of-age day is when one declares one’s gender and intended profession, sometimes against all expectations and patterns in one’s life thus far.)

Castulia:

Castulians typically wear fewer layers of clothing than the Cine do, because the main part of the Empire is quite warm. It’s a very large empire, though, and so at its more remote corners, styles of dress show strong influence from conquered populations, and those on the northern border do tend towards thicker garments. But by and large, the fabrics involved are linen, cotton, and for the more upper-class, silk or satin as well. Most common are long tunics, varying from knee to ankle length, with shawls, capes, or light cloaks worn in various arrangements over the shoulders and body. Dye is available, but rather expensive, as are magical alternatives to natural dye. This is often graded by color, with purple being the most expensive and thus something of a status symbol. The military favors red (for perhaps obvious reasons), and the priesthoods wear mostly white or grey by rank, but with accented accessories or smaller pieces (belts, sashes, wraps, headscarves, and so on) in colors appropriate to their deity. Most Sages wear all and only white, however.

As far as other touches go, metal jewelry (with or without precious stones) is quite common in Castulia. The designs vary widely, and a lot of influence from the former nations that make up the Empire can be seen in regional variants. There’s definitely some stylistic divergence by gender, but the greater differences are those across classes and professions. Soldiers like Sangarinus typically don’t wear much if anything like that, and depending on the trade, tradespeople also have to be selective, but those in the civic and mercantile professions tend to prefer at least one or two pieces at a time. It is vanishingly-rare to see a Castulian pierced anywhere but the ears, and though they will often make artistic use of dyes on the body (think henna), permanent tattooing is also very uncommon. 

Like with accessories, cosmetics range across class and occupation, but it’s not unusual to see eyeliners or lipstains, and those in more aesthetically particular professions may also elect for shadows or powders. Lighter touches are preferred so as not to melt off in the heat of a Castulian summer. While eyeliner is fairly ubiquitous across genders, the rest tends to show up much more frequently on the feminine (or, e.g., actors and artists).

Castulians differentiate more between formal attire and the rest than the Cine do. Some garments (such as togas) are considered occasional in the same way a three-piece suit is. And even when formality is not garment specific, the quality of fabric or ornateness of embroidery will often mark a tunic, dress, or whatever off as being for fancier occasions. Castulians getting married will wear either a dress, a toga, or the formal version of the military uniform, if they are soldiers. There are no specific wedding colors, as the same general rule about dyes and things applies, and most people honestly just choose whatever color is their favorite, or sometimes whichever is associated with their family heraldry.

The military has uniforms: formal, informal, and full battle gear. The most commonly seen on Castulian streets is the informal, which is usually a red tunic with half-length sleeves, optionally a layer of padding, a long shirt of scale or chain mail, and then usually a leather chestplate, though sometimes these are metal in the case of heavier infantry. Belts, bracers, and the like accompany this, along with either boots or in some months knee-high sandals, and ocrea (greaves). There are also helmets, but these are rarely worn outside the context of battle or patrol. Officers additionally have special types of cloak, the color and stitching identifying their rank. Depending on where the soldier is stationed, breeches or leggings may serve as an additional layer of warmth, and tunics may be modified to have longer sleeves. Uniforms for the cavalry are heavier, and for the navy are lighter, often lacking the scale or chain in favor of additional padding or simply leather.

The Iskendi:

The life of an Iskendi is lived either primarily on board a ship, or occasionally in small, mobile settlements on islands. They tend to favor clothing in bright colors, the material mostly being what they can steal from Castulia, or manufacture from their limited horticulture. Access to magical means of color alteration is much easier, however, as they’re fewer in number but with a very high proportion of mages in the population, so dyes are seldom necessary. If the Iskendi wear armor at all, it is also stolen, so scavenged and piecemeal bits of Castulian uniforms are not uncommon to see.

Captains tend to be associated with particular colors; for example, Meryem wore a lot of red and gold. Her crew followed suit, and in this way they are recognizable as belonging to a single unit. There is of course variation; not all of Baltasar’s garments are purple or blue, but there’s nevertheless a clear theme, and it distinguishes one group from another quite easily. The Iskendi are also more likely than either the Cine or Castulians to forego certain articles in everyday situations: shoes, for example. Typical Iskendi style is for looser, more draping garments as one moves up the hierarchy. While any captain certainly knows how to rig a sail, it’s part of the status of being captain that they don’t usually have to, so while ordinary crew often tie down sleeves and such while they go about their work, officers typically don’t. The quality of clothing follows a sharp gradation with status, one emphasized by the fact that most everyone is wearing the same color, as the other differences are then more obvious to the eye.

The Iskendi favor jewelry both as ornamentation and for the practical purpose of being able to barter or gamble with it amongst each other. Multiple piercings are the norm, especially around the face: ears, eyebrows, noses, lips, and the like. They also decorate hair and beards like the Cine do, but usually with gold or silver rather than bone or antler.

Given the tight quarters and need for efficiency, there aren’t really any formalwear standards to speak of. Iskendi sailors and settlers alike wear what they have, and keep it in good condition whenever possible, as it’s often hard to say when they’ll be able to replace it. Cosmetics, like finer fabrics, are a luxury item, but quite popular aesthetically. Iskendi also frequently get tattoos, usually centering around some theme of personal significance or particularly-important autobiographical events. Some designs are even shared amongst families, a way of keeping the most important pieces of their history alive.