So; I'm trying to write about some desert elf civilisation; and I trying to think about what their cloths look like. Since they are supposed to wear ankle and wrist jewelry, I suppose that while in their city they have kinda short cloths, but I can't find any good design, does any of you have good pic for inspiration ?
Pic not (too) related.
Ponchos to keep cool
Pink poncho, sombrero and a shotgun.
Lemme see what I've got.
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This would be pretty cool, especially with shorter sleeve and "pants"; thanks user.
This one look cool in the optic of a more "classy" dressing.
I kinda like this one too, maybe with less metalic bits.
Also I think I about going full roving clan(pic related) for their outside clothing, any tough about that ?
Imagine a Burka-sized poncho, with a hood. They still have ankle and wrist jewelry because they make good sounds instead of looking pretty. The jewelry can still show over the unexposed parts of the garb.
the key to desert clothing is layers. You want something light and very breathy as your basic set of cloths, and then something more covering for the basic purpose of repelling sunlight or keeping you warm during the nights
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>bare arms
>in a fucking desert
It's like you want to fucking die
I mean, there's a reason the people who live in these regions have been wearing similar variations of garments since the fucking classical era
And it's not because "muh tradition". It's because "muh not fucking dying of heat stroke"
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You'll want loose clothing for better heat radiation, and generally speaking you'd want something that covers a fair bit of your body. Any exposed areas, especially if you have skin-tight metal jewelry on them, are going to get very damn hot in the sun.
Seeing the pattern? Flowing garments that breathe easily and cover most of the body, layers so little can be worn underneath.
This. The key to desert clothing is multiple loose layers of very thin but dark fabric. The dark fabric soaks up sunlight, and moving around causes your layers of clothing to shift and deform at different rates, creating airflow by displacement.
But these are elves. If you want to have them be more exposed, say that the wrist and ankle jewelry act as charms that ward sunlight away from them to keep cool. As an atmospheric bonus, this creates a kind of stealth effect where its almost impossible to spot desert elves wearing such charms from afar.
In races of the wild (D&D 3-3.5) it's suggested elves are less effected by extremes of temperature, and more 'in tune' with nature in general.
I also like your idea - make the traditional jewelry serve a practical purpose, they carry cantrips of resistance or elemental resist.
>The dark fabric soaks up sunlight
if my memory is right (which it may well not be), this is bad, as the soaked up sunlight is converted to thermal energy rather than emitted as light, resulting in higher temperatures.
personally id recommend non-metallic jewelry. even if this is a fantasy society, its likely not every bit of jewelry would be enchanted-- you could argue that they started making non-metallic jewelry as a result of its better ability to withstand the heat, and maintained this custom even after they started to (frequently?) enchant jewelry to imbue elemental resistance
Bedouin’s.
Nomadic people crazy enough to live in the desert, know how to kick ass when they have to.
Yes, the dark fabric absorbs the heat. BUT thats only the outermost layer, preventing it from getting deeper.
If you want fewer layers you go the opposite direction and go white for maximum reflection.
Different but equally valid solutions to the problem.
So is no one going to call out OP's pic is from porn?
sauce on pic?
Wait seriously ? I didn't even know that, I found it while roaming around and assumed it was from some amateur rpg makers game or something.
Yup, someone decided to make a vidya adaptation of the "Price for Freedom" webcomic" creatively named "Price for Freedom: Avarice ".
It's pretty much just a tech demo right now, and it's Patreon shit too. The creator of the comic is still pretty active but I won't hold my breath.
Actually they are not nomadic; instead living in floating city to avoid all the shenaningan of this god dam desert, kinda like the Alin from Rise of Legend.
I like those idea; and for indication, having a tons of enchanted jewels would not be far streched, since basicly they are a bunch of normal elves who where more or less force to imigrate on a crazy ass continent bathing in all kind of energy.
Well I don't know how to feel about that.
>BUT thats only the outermost layer, preventing it from getting deeper.
thats the thing though, if youre wearign multiple thin layers of cloth to act in a similar purpose to a radiator/heatsink, then wearing black on the outermost layer again, would mean the heat is less spread out amongst the layers, resulting in lower amounts of heat dissipation (on all layers)
i guess this might be slightly different since the body itself would also be producing heat, and this may come down to the specific temperature in the desert, average wind levels, etc.
again, its very late here so i may be wrong about some/all of this
Also, while I agree on the multiple layer of cloth (close enough from what I was imagining to begin with )
I think their "city" cloth could leave them much more exposed whitout risk, as their city are already heavily enchanted, and it would not be too much of a stretch to assume they use spells to help regulate the temperature to reasonable level; even if it would still be hot.
One thing you don't want to forget though.
Deserts get cold at night. As in, pretty fricken cold. No clouds means no radiation from the ground being reflected back down and keeping the heat locked in, so it all goes out. Add in wind chill and it'll be pretty chilly. Some jackets or thicker blankets would probably do the job though.
Dusk/Dawn and nights are typically when people go traveling across deserts anyway, if my knowledge from The Alchemist is still intact. People there know the dangers and general pain it is to travel in the day. So twilight hours and night would be the general time people go out. Of course, there are also more possibilities for bandits or monster/animal attacks at night. All comes down to cost-benefit analysis on when to go out and when to set up camp, but I could see most people err on the side of caution and do most stuff during dawn/dusk.
>every problem gets handwaved by lol magic
Poor worldbuilding.
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>Playing in a setting where magic exists
>Complains when magic affects the setting
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>any bare skin
>in a desert
Nobody is complaing when magic affects the setting. It's just bad when magic has to plug the holes of the world-building you couldn't be arsed to come up with something better.
Sometimes shit really is as easy as "Magic" or "A Wizard did it" though, also I'd rather not read through three paragraphs of bunk that basically boils down to those answers once you remove the prose and pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo.
>Implying most of their problem aren't created by magic
The continent concept is based around being crazy and filled with magic and wild supernatural spooky shit. Yeah they can do awesome shit with magic; but it's necessary to live in there. Sure it facilitate everyday life, but it also mean you have to deal with the angry desert spirit or things in the same idea.
>>BUT thats only the outermost layer, preventing it from getting deeper.
>thats the thing though, if youre wearign multiple thin layers of cloth to act in a similar purpose to a radiator/heatsink, then wearing black on the outermost layer again, would mean the heat is less spread out amongst the layers, resulting in lower amounts of heat dissipation (on all layers)
>i guess this might be slightly different since the body itself would also be producing heat, and this may come down to the specific temperature in the desert, average wind levels, etc.
>again, its very late here so i may be wrong about some/all of this
some elven cities are hidden-- you could strike two birds with one stone, by having the cities carved into cliff sides, or subterranean, which would help with heat immensely. hell, if memory serves there is an australian town which is purely underground since the temperature reaches 45-50C / 113-120F
>also I'd rather not read through three paragraphs of bunk that basically boils down to those answers once you remove the prose and pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo.
Or, you just let them wear appropriate clothes.
Subterranean city could be cool, but I don't really want elements that make to drow (even if they don't exist in the settings). I was imagining "floating" city much like the Alin in Rise of Legends (pic related)
by subterranean i mean, barely under the surface, just hidden out of view, not deep within the earth filled with creepy beasts and creepier people and the creepiest of beast-people
>So; I'm trying to write about some desert elf civilisation; and I trying to think about what their cloths look like
Uh, well yeah, it could help cool off the city while also being closed, and so easier to heat on a global scale. Tough they don't have many reason to hide: their direct neighbors are part of the the same empire than them.
My main reason for thinking about those floating city (outside of it being awesome I mean) was as a way to keep them out of range of the kinda dangerous beast that roam the desert at night.
well, its your call. if floating city suits your setting, and you think its cool, go for it.
Yeah yeah of course; I just find your idea more "realistic" (well it dosn't really mean much in a med to high fantasy setting, but still). I just have a bad tendencies to doubt about everything I create, but thanks for the ideas user.
Gee, think you got enough swords?
You are in the desert. Think how environnement influence the society.
> What materials are available? How rare are they?
> Against witch environnmental hazard does the people are exposed?
> How it can be used the most effectively possible ?
> What about trade roads? Any precious/useful merchandises traveling across the desert ?
> What about other tribes around? Are they often in conflict? If so, how is warfare thought?
For exemple, wood is pretty rare, snice except palmtree near the oasis, they are not a lot of it. Camel shit would be used as combustible insead of wood.Wood is light, doesn't become hot under the ray of the sun, and could be used as sunglasses like pic related.There is a lot of sand. Witch kind of clothing offer a good protection against flying sands and doesn't keep too much heat ?
Swords would be made for piercing trough layers upon layers of clothing, snice using a full plate in the desert would be a good way to cook alive the wearer.
Price for Freedom is shit.
Your reacting like they would alway wear their light cloth, and not only inside their protected city.
As I said earlier, I alway seen them as wearing different cloth inside and outside of their city, feeling much more safe and relaxed inside their necessary few city (since they would need to be installed near water source) than in the much more hostile deserts surounding them.
Sure yeah, they would use magic to make life easier in their city, but heavy use of magic and it being part of everyday life is part of the idea of the continent; it's not a way to brush away any problem they might have.
For some reason I always love it when races with tails have some form of over the tail buckle or sleeve system. Not sure why. I have seen it in some tiefling pics.
It's kinda irrelevant to the topic, but I happen to have a race with tail; and I love the idea of tail sleeve.
>Desert elf race
Simple
Harem wear
I had a tough: while enchanting every piece of jewelry could be a hard task, as it would require a constant effort (tough I think a portion at least of the jewell would still have this function, simply because I like the idea of adding a practical function to traditional jewelry), they could have invested considerable effort into applying similar effect to their cities.
If I go for the "floating city with micro-sandstorm under them" it would create a effect where from affar, the city would look like great sandstorm, with mirage-like optical effect on top of them, making them hard to spot.