Please regard my following contribution to the great menswear flame war of 2005 as you would a lively pub discussion. Jeer, throw peanuts, tell me to 'get orfff!' or offer to buy me cider in the appropriate places. Given the kilt's association with Scotland, Digesters of Scots descent are especially encouraged to correct me or throw insults or corrections in the dialect of their choice. :)
Mark provided much sense on kilts and trousers. I have some further, somewhat-long-winded thoughts on these, and the yet unmentioned Heortling penchant for leather mini-skirts. (I'll get back to that. No, seriously...)
For those who came in late... The earliest official RQ miniature figures favoured kilts and skirts, and established the tradition. KoDP depicts trousers. Thunder Rebels mentions trousers and kilts. In the opening paragraphs, it describes that to *be* Orlanthi is to throw off your kilt (*and* trousers!) and run naked in a hail storm. In a similarly defining way, HeroQuest's commissioned artwork for the Heortlings depicts a male and female warrior wearing a late style 'english' or modern kilt with an implication of tartan. (And possibly very thin trews as well). Your Garment May indeed Vary.
META BITS & GENERAL RANTING <rant>
Roleplaying games generally employ a top-down approach to descriptionculture, religion, magic history, politics, big things to kill. Bottom up approaches - descriptions of everyday life, colour, food, clothes, games etc. often tend to come a poor second. Glorantha, because of its depth and sense of immersion, can sometimes be strong on bottom up description. Personally, I think a conscious mix of TD and BU is ideal, and that we need to work more on the second. The 'WMF/M/U/SSOTM'*. approach has been a good mix. This issue is a good example of how the everyday habitus that tends to get overlooked and taken for granted, so visible that it becomes unconscious and therefore invisible.
[*'What My Father/Mother/Uncle/Significant Senior Other Told Me'. The Heroquest Voices thingee. More power to it.]
Having said that, I am *not* a source literalist or fundamentalist, be it text, rule or indeed computer game. I have tremendous respect for the writers and artists who've added to our collective world, but I don't buy into the argument they (or I, or Greg) are somehow omniscient, fully cogniscent of everything that's ever been written previously, aware of the full implications of everything that they write or draw, comfortable in describing the full range of variation across a culture or epoch, and somehow immune to the currents of retro-fitting, rules-fitting, re-thinking or sheer forgetfulness that sometimes shapes (and shakes) our collective storytelling background. Nor do I think its appropriate in a game world to treat source texts as such. While obviously invaluable in guiding our collective imagining, their role is to inspire our creativity, not limit it. Hence list discussions. :) Hence gameplay. :) Hence GAG. :) Genre is everything.
Why mention this? I'm a little dismayed that some of the arguments advanced so far on kilts and trewsers are along the lines of 'X is really good, you better believe it', and that no one so far has advanced ideas for why kilts or trousers might be more appropriate in certain situations. Or why people might prefer to wear one of the other. And when. Or where such traditions might originate. In other words, perhaps we should drop these arguments from authority and source text fundamentalism and concentrate on the perspective of the people who wear them. Or don't :)
</rant>
KILTS AND TROUSERS Stepping down from the soapbox, here's my suggested framework for kilts and trousers in Sartar.
Before I expand, I should begin by declaring my Far Place, and hence kiltish, biases. My particular interest in this topic comes from 5 years of trying to accurately model Heortlings in 3d programs such as Poser (see the Questlines website). Its been a slow haul, though I now believe I can model decent Heortlings in both kilt and trews, as well as Ernaldan gowns (a different topic). One of the reasons I seem to have rendered so many vingans is a long-term dissatisfaction with my attempts to accurately model Heortling males, and especially with their beards. :) That's now solved, so stay tuned for a flood of male clansmen.
WHY KILTS? What's the advantage to wearing a kilt? In referring to kilt, I mean the more historic knee-skirt or tunic ('leine-chroich') or plaid or folded blanket tunic ('feileadh mor') as much as the modern pleated style kilt depicted in HeroQuest..
WHY TREWS? Similarly, what's the advantage in wearing trews?
KILTS AND TREWS IN MY GLORANTHA So what does this mean for the Heortlings? My preliminary thoughts for my Glorantha are these:
Kilts are worn for certain types of farm work, for hunting and herding, and by godi or fighters when nudity might be required in ritual and battle. They are more commonly worn in Sea and Fire Season. They are worn almost universally in the Sea Season shieling and shearing drives to the heather-covered uplands.
In wet and rainy areas (such as the Far Place uplands) kilts provide a definite advantage, and are common year-round attire.
Though there are exceptions, kilt-wearing is associated with simple toil and even stickpickery. Because of their association with men abroad for battle, kilts may even be banned in certain areas by Lunar authorities. Which is about as effective as their ban on orlanth worship...
Trews are worn just about every where (and every time) else. They are associated with horse riding and hence with wealth and thanehood, but in practice are worn by practically everyone.
There are strong clan, regional and cultic variations in style for both trews and kilts (and indeed Ernaldan gowns), just as there are for hairstyles, tattoos, body scarring, woad and henna patterning, personal jewellery and cloaks. Basically, most Heortlings can recognise the clan or tribe of origin for someone on sight. There may be tartan-like patterning, but these are far from standardised. (Tartan is itself a quite recent invention in Scotland). Marns or cloak shoulder patternings provide a more reliable and standardised code of identity, as do (for more powerful individuals) runes.
And the Pavic influence? I've always held that Imperial Age Pavis had its own distinctive style of dress, a style that continues in part to this day. Lets call it the 'Citadel miniature greek style', which is of course where the idea came from: those beautiful Citadel RQ2 adventurer miniatures that featured Greek-style dress for adventurers. We were all Pavisites back then. I have quite a few on the bookshelf by my computer: there's Helden, a humakti as hoplite with crested helmet, hoplon and leather mini-skirt. With the settlement of Pavis County by Sartarites, and the more recent three waves of Sartarite refugees to the city itself in the wake of the invasion, the Righteous Wind, and Starbrow's Betrayal, the traditions are mixing more strongly than ever in the past. It's not inconceivable that you'll see a stylish Sartarite in the markets of Boldhome or Jonstown wearing a pavis-style leather miniskirt.
YGMV! :) WHAT MY FATHER TOLD ME: HOW IS IT PROPER TO DRESS? Finally, and on the topic of Sartarite appearance and dress, here's some personal notes from a much longer-though unfinished-WMFTM type essay on the Heortlings:
How is it proper to dress?
A man or women should always be clean, no matter how hard their labour. Happy the hours spend in the great bronze tub by the hearth, singing and telling stories as your grandmother scrubs your back!
A man's beard is his pride, and a woman's hair her glory. Braided hair is much-admired, and a full moustache will help in straining beer! Long hair is fitting for the young, but it is chopped in the marriage rites, and should only grow again when you have sworn a great vow.
We use the dyes of field and forest in our weaving and spinning, and love rich colours and bold patterns.
All men wear trews or tunic kilts of wool and linen according to their labour and their status. Kilts are favoured when we follow the sheep to the shielings in Sea Season, and by hunters, herders and travellers. At other times, trews are more common. A horserider will always wear trews.
All women wear tunic gowns, unless they labour in the field or mountain meadow. Nudity is for children, or blessed ones, for battle and for the most holy rites. It is best to wear a cloak out of doors, and its marns and borders are a runestick to be read, to tell as much about you as the tattoos on your face and arms, or the marriage band on your arm, or the torc about your neck.
A man should dress well for the feast, and the law court, and for ceremony. For battle too, if he not fight naked, lest he enter Orlanth's Hall clothed like some unwashed pig herder! Every man should carry a small bronze mirror, and every woman a burnished comb.
Jewels and broaches proclaim status and wealth, yet even a king will dress simply when he ploughs.
Torcs of bronze, copper or silver are common gifts, and are the mark of a man or women who is valued by the clan. If several powerful patrons gift you with a torc, you must choose carefully whose to wear.
In pins and broaches we favour the sacred shapes of bull and thunderbird, sheep or pigs or bear, alynx or grain or thunderbolt. The shadowed ones may wear runes about their bodies as a sign of power, but this is dangerous, and best left for battle or for ceremony.
A man of status will wear a sword when he goes about the stead, but will always unbuckle it upon entering a hearth. Wives wear bronze keys at their waist, to show their power, and a priestess will wear the broad copper knife of her calling.
Though it is less common in custom since the coming of the Red Ones, we hold to the old ways, and say that tattoos carved on face and arms are a sign of beauty and power for men and women both.
Cheers!
John
nysalor_at_mythologic.info John HughesQuestlines: http://mythologic.info/questlines/
May God us keep
>From Single vision and Newton's sleep!
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 61
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