Scarlet Scroll: High Court Fashion

The New High Court Fashion

I can hardly believe Fiona let me do this interview on my own, but here I am at the Silver Needle, the finest tailor shop on the Tower Ward. Princess Elize Crane herself, sister of the Trade Prince, has graciously agreed to show us the latest fashions in her store.

I’m always happy to speak to the Scarlet, Lily. Fiona is a great friend of mine. And Fiona, your human is such a doll, I can’t wait to dress her up.

From what I hear, fashion in the court has taken a rather sharp turn in the last dozade, can you tell us what happened.

Absolutely, Lily. You might think I’m to credit—or to blame, depending on your view—for these new trends, seeing as I run quite the successful tailoring circle. But I actually credit my sister, a girl who had no interest in fashion, for this turn.

Princess Sejal?

My dear Sejal, yes. As you might know, we Crane siblings didn’t grow up together, for reasons I won’t go into here. Sejal was raised as a duelist and mercenary—not exactly trained for the high court, and neither was I with a background in the theatre. When our brother reunited us, I slipped into the role much easier than my darling sister. She hated the colorful patterns, frills, and numerous underskirts that used to be all the rage.

The Crane federation was a quickly-growing force in Bloodworth, with our brother just having built up his district and started to hold his own court. Nobles from all over Bloodworth gathered; some to hedge their bets should this be the new power in the city, others came just to see their new rival. But that isn’t the point of this story.

Into the ballroom walks my sister, straight from her sword-practice, wearing pants like a commoner, a simple tunic and even a sword on her hip. Whether she had forgotten about the court or if she didn’t care, I don’t know, but it became quite the talk of the nobles.

You know how they are, the endless gossip and insecurities of the high ladies. Oh, sorry, I guess you as a human don’t know… Well, the questions and rumors went wild. Was the young princess making some kind of statement? Maybe she had picked up this fashion from her travels with the Trade Prince? Was this how one should dress to impress Icarus Crane, who himself also favored the more practical male fashions.

To this day, I don’t know exactly why the court picked up on my sister. The growing Crane reputation, the fact that she is a known seer, or maybe the old style had simply played out?

Either way, it didn’t take long until other ladies showed up in much simpler garb, even pants, which only months before would have been unspeakable for a lady of the court to wear. Sejal, of course, found this hilarious. Suddenly, she was the one people looked up to and wanted to emulate, even after all my efforts trying to teach her the ways of the court, she was now throwing everything the court knew out the window.

And to be honest, she is having too much fun with it… Between you and me, she still doesn’t care about fashion. It turned into a little game for her to see how far she can go and have the court copy her. And by the direction it’s going, I wouldn’t be surprised if she showed up to court naked one of these days just to see how many would rip their clothes off.

I’m sorry, Lily, I’m just talking and talking, I don’t want to take up all your time with my story.

No, princess, I’m fascinated. Tell us about the latest trends our readers should be looking out for.

Not to shine my own lantern, but I think my own new collection of spider-silk garments, which my sister could be seen in at last court, are surely going to be fire this season. Spider silk is a fantastic material to work with, usually used in high-end gambesons for its incredible strength. We have woven it in a new way to make a thin, partly see-through fabric that is strong enough to hold its shape. We call this collection “puffy” for its airy and free appearance. And it goes well with the snakeskin or other body wraps that have become a staple of the times. As Sejal said, “What’s the point of fancy undergarments if you are just going to hide them?”

That sounds… quite revealing. You aren’t going to dress me up in that, are you?

You’ll be fine. I’m sure I can find something that is flattering to the human form, too.

Oh, rocks above, I see now why Fiona was so giggly when sending me here.

I can’t help but ask, why is there a sword rack in a tailoring shop?

Ah, yes, well, Sejal is quite an accomplished duelist, so she often wears swords and daggers to court. And now everyone wants a walking sword or dagger as an accessory. But I should advise some caution to the lady who wants to buy one; only carry a sword if you can use it.

Lady Miranda Ravenwood took a longsword to court and used it as a walking stick. When Sejal saw this, she complimented the sword and asked the girl to show her the basic forms, which the poor thing obviously didn’t know. It was quite embarrassing, but Sejal offered the girl to tag along to her sword practice and today Miranda is a fine duelist of the court and can walk with her sword proudly.

She actually works as my weapons importer now, turning her blunder into a profession. ◆

Everyday Wear

Everyday wear in the Tower and Mid Ward is far simpler and more practical than court wear, though some styles carry over. It’s highly dependent on profession, but some staples are pants, slops, bodysuits, tunics, button ups, simple doublets, cloaks, gambesons, and, in some professions, uniforms. Skirts of knee length or shorter combined with high socks are also making a comeback this season.

In the Low Ward, even simpler, less fitted garms are common: loose pants, baggier tunics, and longer skitrs (sometimes called sacks).

Depicted above is Princess Sejal Crane (left), as seen recently boarding a ship in the docks, sporting a gambeson, sparring pants, folding leg armor, arming sword, and greatsword. She was spinning a gold and onyx fountain pen between her fingers. Is this the new must-have accessory?

Fiona True­tale (right) in a one-legged body suit and matching high sock with a simple button-up top, and you can never go wrong with a traditional sword belt.
And me (middle) in sack and tunic.

Bloodpress Printing

We had some questions about how we print this scroll, and what better time to show it off than now as we, for the first time, print the scroll in three colors.

Once Fiona and I have written our articles, it goes off to the typesetter who picks the lead type one by one and arranges them into the form. Meanwhile, the carver painstakingly carves the images in wood blocks, which are also placed in the form. The forms are then loaded into the printing presses—one for each color—and the pigments are applied then pressed to the mushroom-wood paper.

This scroll is printed with squid ink, blood, and the new yellow whale bile (it might smell a bit funky and we advise you not to lick the scroll). In combining these colors, we can now print almost anything.

The Curious Human

You ask, we answer! Send in your questions and we will answer without blushing… too much.

Shane asks: Hello! In the last scroll, you told us about seers, but what do they actually do? How do they give souls to the children?

Fiona answers: Hi, Shane. There was a lot of interest regarding the seer and exactly how that all works, so I will try to explain.

The “seer’s eye” is an organ attached to the lower spine, the eye is an orb of a hard glass-like substance held in place by a black bone growth somewhat resembling a horned skull. The eye is not attached by muscles but is rather turned by tentacles growing out of the “skull.”

Encased inside the body, the eye sees through flesh into the realm of the spirits and the dead, which is described as a roiling fog hiding horrors just beyond sight. It can see the souls of the living at a distance of an arm or two and is how the seers can identify each other. Many seers say they always keep their eye turned into the skull, blinding it because what they glimpsed on the other side was too terrifying.

The eye is also used to create the spiritual connection to their male and female partners to cut off part of their souls and form the soul-seeds which will grow into the children’s souls.
As you can imagine, having your soul split is no small sacrifice, which explains why elves do not reproduce nearly as often as you humans do. The seer cannot cut her own soul, but the process tears at her sanity in other ways.

How much of the parents’ soul should be used is a contested subject, and there is a split between the high and low society elves. The elves of the low ward usually only use a small part of their soul and, instead, choose to have several clutches over their lifetime. Parents in high society often take more of their soul, sometimes all of it leaving themselves soulless husks to produce a single clutch of stronger children. Doing this requires not only the total willingness of the parents to let go of their souls, but also an exceptionally powerful seer. Some elves of the low ward will be offended by me saying this, but there is no doubt this produces stronger-minded elves that also live a lot longer before the madness sets in.