Today I bring to you, fair players of Armageddon a new GDB post type called, 'In Focus,' that I hope to be posting once monthly. Below, you will find a help file that can be illustrated well via imagery to describe what is contained therein. I hope that this discussion and visual stimuli assists in everyone's play and that maybe newbies and veterans alike can learn something from reading (or rereading!) helpfiles and documentation pertinent to the gameworld at large. So, without further ado, here is our first session:
Allanaki FashionsAllanak is a rigidly traditional society, and this has affected the city's trends in fashion throughout the years. For example, the modesty of one's attire is considered before comfort, despite the high temperatures citizens must deal with daily. Even among nobility, style is the priority. While the body may be covered almost entirely, Allanaki fashion can nonetheless be provocative. Less bare flesh, yet more of the wearer's figure, is revealed. Hemlines are low and collars are high. Arms are sometimes left bare, though the lower a garment's neckline, the longer the sleeves.
Even among nobility, comfort is sacrificed for frivolity and whimsy. In fact, the more radical and hindering the style, the more successful its reception. For example, shoes that one could not possibly walk in demonstrate that a noble has sufficient resources for a carriage or palanquin. Likewise, sleeves whose cuffs extend past the fingertips do little to inconvenience someone accustomed to having all tasks performed by one's servants.
Despite the strong southern emphasis on modesty amongst commoners and flamboyancy amongst nobility, the intense heat of the desert is omnipresent, and concessions are necessary. Both nobles and commoners are equal in their struggle to stay as cool as possible. To this end, loosely woven and light fabrics worn in layers are utilized as daily wear to ward off the worst of the sun and sands. Many types of overgarments are worn in long layers, protecting the flesh from the harsh rays of sunlight and the pervasive heat.
Commoners often look to nobility for examples in most aspects of life, and fashion is no exception. The styles of commoner clothing available, while simpler and cheaper, often imitate that of nobles. For example, while nobles often wear ornately decorated silks and other lush fabrics, commoners wear cottons, sandcloth or other inexpensive textiles. Another difference in commoner attire is that it tends to be looser, more comfortable, and less hindering, in order to be practical for everyday use.
Some clothes unique to Allanak include wrapped pants, long tunics, kalasiris, long kilts, and many types of over-garbs, often worn in layers, are also commonly seen in the South. Green, particularly pale green, is generally considered an unlucky color, due to its associations with sorcery, and blue is perceived as a particularly somber color, associated with mourning and tears. Leatherwear is thought somewhat lower class, reserved for guards, hunters and other common military types.
While the weather on Zalanthas is consistently hot and sandy all year round, fashion has its seasons. Frequently, the Kadian shops will change their selections in response to an event or whim. One month, purple might be the rage and the next everyone must have blue. However, the one staple of the Allanaki wardrobe is the color white. Trims may change, and colors may go in and out of style, but white is always in fashion.
(A commoner's loose kalasiri.]
(An Allanaki neckline.)
(Kilt, long tunic that we'll pretend isn't actually wool.)
(An example of, "the lower the neckline, the longer the sleeves.)
(Another example of, 'the lower the neckline, the longer the sleeves,' it is as well
bordering on scandalous. This also exemplifies the impracticality of a noble's garb.)
(The Oashi lord is looking mighty dapper for the upcoming festival in his layers.)
(A Fale woman's shoes. She lifted her hem, to much controversy, to display the absurd footwear she couldn't possibly tread the path to the Arboretum in.)
(This Borsail woman had to have a modest neckline and hem, but she wanted to replicate her sixteenth nameday's cake in dress form. Kadius provided well!)
(Wrap pants!)
(White layers are always in fashion. And the soles of those shoes are thick enough to add too much of a burden to walk around. Get a palanquin, ya noble.)
What do *you* think of, when you think of Allanaki fashion?
