Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

Anything to say about roleplay? Want to share a story? This is the right place.

Moderator: Wizards

Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Devi
Hero
Posts: 332
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:58 am

Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

#1 Post by Devi » Thu Sep 19, 2013 8:16 pm

I've had a few questions in the back of my head for a while. I was hoping someone could point me to some answers, if there are any. If not, maybe we could invent some answers and post them on the wiki.

1. What's the fashion of each city? Common motifs, common adjectives (Elvandar is elegant and Arborea is gaudy?), common colors, real-word similarities? (is Elvandar kind of classical greek, and Arborea kind of Italian renaissance?) Halfling fashion? Tshahark fashion?

2. What are the traditional weapons of each culture? Humans have crossbows, it seems, and so do dwarves. Elves like their longbows. Dwarves have hammers and axes and picks. Anything else?

Edit: originally this thread included two other questions. If someone wants to discuss them, she should make a new thread. I repeated them below.
2. What does each city import and export? I know Arborea does the tanning, logging, mining, bookbinding stuff, and Underground does the mining thing, and forging, and glassblowing. What about Elvandar? Do they have silk sheds? Herbalism? Art? Sculpture?

3. How do elves feel about nature? There are hints of them being really pro-nature (their feelings on logging, for instance), but I'm still not sure. Are there elven vegetarians?)
Last edited by Devi on Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Delia
Overlord
Posts: 2782
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:22 am
Location: Finland

Re: Some still-unanswered questions

#2 Post by Delia » Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:07 am

I imagine tshahark fashion being more of bits and pieces variety. I mean, no one really produces anything that suits a tshahark perfectly(barring Xuchal)physically speaking and with most of them leading a nomadic or otherwise outdoors-type existence, practicality is preferred over other values. Imagine a post-apocalyptic nomad warrior and turn that into a tshahark. Comparisons to goblins, orcs and ogres are not that far off. Of course guilds change this image drastically or even dictate the norm sometimes. Anyways, IMO.
"To be is to do" - Sokrates
"To do is to be" - Jean-Paul Sartre
"Do be do be do" - Frank Sinatra

ferranifer
Champion
Posts: 533
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2005 3:16 am
Location: Europe CET

Re: Some still-unanswered questions

#3 Post by ferranifer » Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:20 am

This is kind of how I see each of the cultures. I'll try to put this in a few words.

Elves: Warhammer High Elves. Chainmail. Elegant, elongated weapons and armour. Lots of decoration in their attires. Gold, silver, gems, pearls. Maybe a touch of Chinese. I imagine all the Eastern weaponry in the game to be Elven.

Humans: Dirty middle age Europeans. Nothing classy or fancy here. Pretty much what you see in the Sword & Sorcery and more 'realistic' middle age movies. Scoundrels, villains, people that just try to get to the next day. Muddy streets, crying children. Beggars. Dirty, unmannered, untrustworthy, barbaric. I see the humans from the Arrival as the darkest and most 'evil' of all the races of Forostar. Naarved leaning towards the Viking stereotype. Arborea towards core middle age dirty town. Bandama towards Celt. Funny lore tidbit: Bandama is the name of a place in the Canary Islands, and the names of their inhabitants are the Spanish words for drunk/shopkeeper/etc made to sound like a character from Asterix & Obelix). Also, Ormian is pretty much Tenerife.

Dwarves: Classic D&D mountain dwarves. Focused, crafty, innwards straight-to-the-point people.

Halflings: Tolkien Hobbits.

Tshaharks: Warhammer Lizardman. Touch of Aztec. I always imagine them as having armour that is so makeshift, that it's bascially pieces of metal hanging from leather strips with lots of warpaint and tribal ornaments.

User avatar
Devi
Hero
Posts: 332
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 11:58 am

Re: Some still-unanswered questions

#4 Post by Devi » Fri Sep 20, 2013 10:36 am

Maybe a touch of Chinese. I imagine all the Eastern weaponry in the game to be Elven.
I would love this to be the case. If the guards had katanas and naginatas, or more elves started using them, I think it'd go a long way to making elves unique. I imagine elves as always wearing robes and dresses -- even the men. Lots of vines and floral imagery too.

I'm going to edit this topic to only be about fashion, armour, and weapons. :)

User avatar
luminier
Overlord
Posts: 2732
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:40 pm
Location: Manitoba Canada

Re: Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

#5 Post by luminier » Fri Sep 20, 2013 1:02 pm

Queensguard (but not the Palace guard I think) tend to use the better weapons like katana's and such.

The regular guard will use longbows and normal swords... normal guardsmen usually get crap weapons and armour anyways.

But yes, anything to spice up the armour and weapons in this game I am very down for.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

Zehren
Overlord
Posts: 1057
Joined: Sun Dec 06, 2009 7:50 am

Re: Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

#6 Post by Zehren » Sun Oct 20, 2013 3:12 am

Warriors wear armour all day.
Everyone else dresses in modern leather jackets. :roll:
Drayn wrote:Zehren, the Karmassassin!

ferranifer
Champion
Posts: 533
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2005 3:16 am
Location: Europe CET

Re: Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

#7 Post by ferranifer » Sun Oct 20, 2013 7:08 am

Grease lightning!

User avatar
luminier
Overlord
Posts: 2732
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:40 pm
Location: Manitoba Canada

Re: Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

#8 Post by luminier » Sun Oct 20, 2013 1:00 pm

Psh, mostly those damn greasers wear leather jackets. They are no true Socs.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

User avatar
Cuetlachtli
Veteran
Posts: 149
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2008 10:12 am

Re: Cultural fashion, armour, and weapons

#9 Post by Cuetlachtli » Mon Oct 21, 2013 9:48 am

ferranifer wrote:Grease lightning!

That is funny.

Post Reply