Life Is Feudal: MMO

Clothing and Architecture

The Gottlungs wear the mark of the Sleeping God on their breasts. As the most advanced and civilized of the peoples, the Gottlungs wear the most intricate, fashionable clothing. Their women wear dresses covered in lace and frills, and their men wear loose shirts and vests or sleeveless jackets. Unlike the rough straps used by the northerners, the belts worn by the Gottlungs are long and thin, often nearly touching the ground, and they are adorned with intricate, modestly sized buckles. Their buckles are often adorned with the Eye of the Sleeper.

Their men, as a rule, wear only dark colors (white and red being the exceptions to this rule), while their women wear brighter colors.

Gottlung women use cosmetics, especially powder, with which they whiten their faces, necks, chests, and arms. Those people considering it immodest to bring out the lips, so their women usually direct attention to their eyes and cheekbones.

Men cut their hair rather short, with a bowl cut, but often let it grow long. They often wear mustaches. Beards are much less common. A Slavard will just "let his beard go," but a Gottlung is more likely to keep it short and trimmed.

Gottlungs tattoo their bodies. They may use small emblems of the Sleeping God, or images that encapsulate the personal history or character of their owner, but they most frequently use incantations in the common and Gottlung tongues – though the meanings of the most ancient have been forgotten – and quotes from religious texts or other religious sources.

The Gottlungs pay great attention to their apparel. Clothes indicate not only their wearer's status but also their wearer's vocation.

Gottlungs are not nomads. They have large families and build massive framed houses on solid rock foundations. The walls of these houses are made of stone, wood, or wattle and daub, and the roofs are covered with tiles or straw. These homes are large and spacious, up to 4 stories tall. The Gottlungs also have strong stone castles.

Every town and village has temples to the Sleeping God. These temples are short, squat stone structures, though there may be exceptions. The windows of these temples are upside-down and decorated with stained glass in various shades of red.

Gotlung weapons and armor

Suits of armor, chain mail, swords, pole war hammers, bows, and crossbows.

Clothing and Architecture

Everyday clothing for the Khoors includes boots and vests intertwined with laces and ropes, puffy hats, and laced leather bracers.

The Khoors do not build temples, but they have burial mounds throughout the steppes. The Khoors build them on places where especially bloody and fierce battles have been fought, places where many warriors have died. For it is not possible to grant so many warriors a proper funeral pyre, as there is not even enough fuel on the steppe for such a blaze. They leave gifts for the "ghost warriors" (those never given a funeral pyre) on the mounds, including horse skulls – thus giving them ghost horses for their journeys – and weapons, especially old weapons that have seen many battles and are no longer useful to the living. The Khoors consider the unburied warriors the guardians of the steppe. At night, they wander the Khoorsian lands on their dead horses, scaring away foreigners and entering their countrymen's dreams to warn them about impending invasions. But these warriors have not been laid to rest. They are trapped in the world of the living, a place unsuitable for them. And so the Khoors are not only "equipping" the dead men when they give them slain horses and old weapons – they are also appeasing them.

Bonfires must never be lit near the mounds, for it is not good to remind these fallen warriors that they never received a proper funeral pyre. Any unfortunate traveler who does light a fire near one may attract evil spirits as his persecutors and for the rest of his life suffer as they plague him with nightmares and demand their funeral pyres. All in all, the Khoors consider it a bad idea to spend the night close to a mound. The dead might decide to arrange a particularly "exciting" night for those sleeping nearby.

The Khoors' dwellings are the least defended of all the peoples'. Few trees grow on the steppe, the rocks are too large for construction, and animal skins make a very weak wall. The Khoors must often spend the night under the open sky, away from any shelter at all. When this happens, fire is the only way to keep the wild animals and the cold away. Under these conditions, the Khoors have developed a special sensitivity to this element. They continually thank this "younger sibling of the sun" for the help it gives to mortals.

Khoor weapons and armor

Khoorsian armor is simple and straightforward. It is designed to be of minimal weight and provide maximal speed. For this reason, it is made of skins and leathers.

However, it does sometimes feature metal parts. These mainly include light chainmail and wide metal plates fastened to leather belts covering the chest, shoulders, and back. The strongest and most agile warriors can also add a skirt of modestly sized metal plates joined by ring mail, which covers their legs to the knees or even lower, as well as a forged helmet with a terrifying iron mask.

Clothing and Architecture

Slavards dress simply and practically. The most common dress for men is spacious leather or homespun woolen pants and a shirt, with a jacket sewn of two skins and/or a hooded fur cloak over top during the cold season. Slavard men wear knitted stockings or leggings made of fabric strips, tanned leather boots, shoes of tree bark, and fur caps on their heads. When working, they wear aprons of fabric or leather. The belt is the most important – and often the most valuable – item in any self-respecting Slavard's wardrobe. Purses, wallets, keys, knives, adornments, charms, and weapons are all attached to the belt. For this reason, belts are not made cheaply. They are crafted of good, thick skin, reinforced with metal rivets or fasteners, and fitted with sturdy buckles. It is an unbearable humiliation for a Slavard to have his belt taken from him.

Slavard women wear full-length dresses, fastened at the neck with bone or amber buckles. Over top, they wear tunics made of two rectangular lengths of fabric joint at the shoulders by leather buckles (for poorer women) or brooches (for richer women). Women who work around the home wear, in addition to belts, chains fastened to their clothing by buckles or brooches. These chains are fitted with small bark boxes for holding needles, knives, keys, and other small items.

The farther south a Slavard lives, the more his wealth and social status will be reflected by the way he dresses. Rich and famous Slavards from Imperial cities often wear silk and cloth brocaded with gold or silver thread, two-colored cloth jackets similarly brocaded, and cloaks embroidered with exquisite needlework. But Slavards from the North primarily view such countrymen with contempt, men and women "dressed up like girls going to the fair."

The northern priests of the Lei Sisters, called Leiwargs, wear two-toned black and white loose-fitting garments during their rituals. Both of these colors are used to symbolize death. White is the color of the Iceeyed's hair and eyes, and black is the color of her sister's cloak. The pagan, ancient beliefs of the Slavards center on death, and the Slavard priests are guides into its world – living servants, in a sense, of the Lei Sisters. Most pagan rituals include sacrifices, and once a sacrifice is complete, the priest generally dips his finger in the split blood of the victim and with it draws a scarlet sickle on his chest. Warriors setting off for a battle that will be especially hard – or that all know will be a fatal defeat – also wear the Sisters' scythes, painted on their foreheads and faces in blood.

What the people of other nations express with their dress, the Slavards express with tattoos. Tattoos are an indispensable part of every northerner's life. A Slavard's tattoos tell you what lineage he belongs to, what vows he has taken, how many victories he has won, what honors belong to his ancestors, and what honors belong to him. Or, to the contrary, a man's tattoos mark him as an oathbreaker, a traitor, a coward, or a deserter. Such people are branded with special tattoos (assuming the Jarl allows them to live, of course).

Each image depicted in tattoos has a specific meaning. For example, an ax is the mark of a professional warrior. A raven shows that its bearer has competed in the yearly contest of skalds, and the scythe of the Lei Sisters reveals that the warrior has vowed to perish on the field of battle. A gavran tattooed on the chest marks a man out for a sailor who lives by piracy. A gavran tattooed on the back identifies a sailor who lives by trade or fishing. Many Slavards, of course, will have ships displayed on both their chests and their backs. No Slavard would consider getting a tattoo for "beauty's sake." The tattooing process is quite painful, besides being sacred, and it is carried out under the guidance of a special priest, a "master of inks." But each Slavard's life is full of happenings and accomplishments, so by old age, many are covered with blue-green ink from head to toe. The more tattoos a man has, the more authority, wisdom, and experience he is considered to possess, and the more significant his opinion becomes to others, on any subject.

Battle amulets are forged in the shape of various weapons: Axes, hammers, shields, daggers, arrowheads, and spears – made of bone, stone, copper, and wood for ordinary warriors, and made of silver or gold for Jarls and their militiamen. Women often wear pendants depicting household items: Spoons, keys, and combs. The spoon is the symbol of family prosperity. The key indicates family stability, faithfulness, and devotion. Craftsmen prefer more practical amulets, depicting the anvil of Dost, a hammer, or a pail. Fishermen carry amulets shaped as Tolki's tentacle to ward off storms, or as fish to ensure a good catch. Hunters wear boar fangs. Northern pagans often use fragments of bone from their ancestors or defeated enemies (be they humans or dangerous beasts, like bears) as amulets. These include fingerbones, teeth, pieces of a jaw or rib bone, and so on. Those who worship the Sleeper, however, will generally only wear a single amulet of the Sacred Eye.

The Slavards live in long, low-roofed log cabins, with roofs covered in grass or sodden earth. Packed earthen floors, wooden benches for sitting and sleeping, glowing hearths, and sheep and goats sleeping under the roof with their owners during severe frosts – Slavard dwellings can hardly be called places of comfort. Their houses are heated with chimneyless stoves, to make matters worse. Slavards prefer to sleep outside whenever the weather permits. The braces of their doubly-sloped roofs are usually decorated with depictions of animal heads. The shutters on their windows are also covered with stylized carvings depicting waves or plants of the sea. A Slavard's yard is generally enclosed by a fence or palisade wall. Human skulls are often seen hanging over the gates, the skulls of the ancestors of those who now live here, elevated to protect the inhabitants from misfortune, frost, and evildoers.

Slavard weapons and armor

Slavard armament, too, is not known for being intricate or adorned. This people often wears a felted, leather, or quilted jacket lined with metal plates or ring mail, as well as high-top boots, riveted bracers, gauntlets, and an open bevelled helmet with nose guards. Chainmail pieces are rare in the North, normally only worn by Jarls and their militiamen. In the Empire, though, nearly every Slavard, whether he be a professional warrior, a trader, or a craftsman, keeps chainmail at home.

A Slavard's weapon is an indispensable companion. Every Slavard learns to use his weapon from a very young age, until it becomes second nature. There is no such thing as a Slavard unable to wield a weapon. Slavard women, too, are quite skilled with bows and "Ungersverden," literally "young swords," which are large Slavard knives. The most widely used types of weapons include: Axes and pole-axes, short swords (Frossnesangen), bows, short spears, daggers, and sometimes whaling harpoons. Swords are rare weapons in the North and are symbols of might and authority, wielded by Jarls and their militiamen. In the Imperial lands of the South, however, swords are not so revered and are often used by common people. The pagan Slavards also often wield slings, war hammers, and clubs enhanced with bone spikes, bone arrowheads, or even tips of stone. Slavard shields are round and wooden, with large metal bosses in their centers and bright decorations depicting their bearer's heraldic crest, or that of the Jarl.