Costume, Combat and Culture Part 1

By Guest Author Teel James Glenn

When constructing fantasy worlds on solid internal logic, a great deal of thought is often given to the political and religious structures of the world being created while the clothing and weapons are pasted into the picture like old Colorforms . Far too often the clothing, how and why it is worn, is all but ignored.

Clothing styles, however, happen for a reason-sometimes specious, sometimes political, and sometimes religious.

Edgar Rice Burroughs actually did quite a bit of research for his Indian stories before he distorted the information for his other fantasy worlds.

J.R.R. Tolkien of course, did copious research in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, German cultures to make his Middle Earth real. And Robert E. Howard was something of an expert in Celtic, German and Arabic cultures and used his historical research to weave a very real Hyborean age for his Conan to conquer.

 

Extremes and Oddities of Costuming

So, by way of starting you on that journey across your own fantasy worlds here are a few extremes and oddities of costuming from this, our own weird world to use as templates for your own world to work from.

Even the color of clothing can have major meaning in the real world beyond family color-coding; it can be dictated by political or religious authorities! We all know that Royal Blue is a color, but it actually was legally claimed as the color of kings and the exclusive right of that nobility at one point. Centuries before the color purple produced from Phoenician dyes developed into the royal color of Rome.

 

Romantic and Barbarous Garb

Most think of the Scottish Kilt as just romantic and barbarous garb. In fact the twelve yards of fabric of the old great kilt functioned as armor (just try to cut through that much wool), sleeping bag/tent and camouflage net. The old patterns of the plaids were actually perfect camouflage for the regions they were woven in. Incidentally the specific clan tartans were not Scottish--they couldn't have cared less. They wore what ever was convenient. The codified clan/plaid system was devised by an Englishman in the eighteen hundreds based on old prints and was totally arbitrary.

Silk is not just an elegant fiber; spun from the cocoons of worms; it is hypo allergenic and terribly strong. The Mongols, fierce nomads from the deserts of the East recognized both of these properties and wore shirts of silk under their felt jackets. Should an arrow strike them and penetrate the jackets it would push the shirt into the wound. To remove the arrow all the world conquerors had to do was gently pull the fabric of the shirt out and the arrow point would come with it.

The same cannot be said for cotton fibers driven by sword points into wounds. Often these fibers would stay in the wound and lead to infection, festering when undetected. This is why may duels in Regency England were often fought with the combatants stripped to the waist.

 

Combat Practicalities

That combat practicalities pervade all cultures at almost all times is a truism. Even stubborn boneheaded warriors like the crusaders could have learned from their enemies. Originally the European knights of the tenth century marched willy-nilly into Palestine wearing chain mail coats and gambesons, which were fine for cold damp Europe, but they died in droves from heat exhaustion and dehydration trekking across the deserts of the Holy Land.

When the Crusaders first encountered the Saracens they thought that they were unarmored. They soon discovered their mistake; the Muslim warriors were just smart enough to wear light colored cloth robes over their armor to fight off the desert sun. The Crusaders soon adopted this idea (along with, thank God, soap) that became the tabards we so often associate with medieval knights. They took to displaying symbols on their tabards to match their shield symbols and heraldry became the thing.

 

Guest Author Bio:

Teel James Glenn, a native of Brooklyn, is the author of five published novels, Poetry and a book on how to write fight scenes for writers. He has written articles on theater, and swashbuckling related subject s and sold short stories to: MAD, Fantasy Tales, Afterburns, Anotherrealm, Blazing Adventures and other magazines. He has taught stage combat at colleges and choreographed fake violence for over 20 years for plays, Renaissance Festivals, films and New York soap operas (where he frequently appears as an actor). Follow his further adventures at www.teeljamesglenn.com