Templetroll
Explorer
mzsylver said:
damn straight
i only want to see hot elven women & fine human male sorcerers in any sort of chain mail scantily clad outfit. none of that half-orc stuff!
You are sooo missing out on dusky hot-eyed wenches!
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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Should RPG art feature chainmail bikinis?
- Thread starter S'mon
- Start date
You are sooo missing out on dusky hot-eyed wenches!
A Forlorn Attempt at Being Serious
Folks, ask yourself this. Do the people of your world even know about bikinis? If they did, would they use chainmail to make it? Why? I should think that any armorer worth his salt would absolutely refuse to make a chainmail bikini for someone who plans to go fight in it. Battle is really no place to look for mating opportunities. You have one set of gear for killing monsters, another set for recreational babymaking.
Where daily garb is concerned, you do need to ask a few questions. First, what is the climate like? Unless there is some sort of conflicting influence, clothing tends to be determined by the local climate. Those who live in hot, humid climes do tend to wear a lot less than those from drier, more temperate climes. Second, what about personal wealth? A wealthy man will have more to wear than a poor one. Related to this is the question, How easy is it to get stuff clean? The harder it is to get something clean, the more likely it is for people to do without clothing in situations where near or total nudity is possible (a nice, warm hut for example).
Which last leads to the question of children. What do they wear? In a land where clothing is expensive and laundry technology is primitive you can expect the younger childern to be running around nude. In a cold clime (or one where it gets cold on a seasonal basis) the youngest children are likely to be kept indoors. The older kids, the ones who can be trusted to at least make a stab at keeping their clothing clean, would have stuff to wear. But even then there will be times when they'll be in the altogether.
And that leads us to the question of privacy. Is there any? Is interior architecture like today, with corridors and individual rooms, or is it like the "good-old-days" when every part of a building was visible from every other part, with the exception of those rooms designed to be "set off" from the rest of the place. So why not use interior walls the way we do? Expense. Cut stone and concrete is expensive, and many a culture couldn't see the value in it. Even today this is true, with most interior walls being made of drywall and similar materials. If there are no interior walls, no distinct, separate rooms, then there will be no privacy or any expectation of privacy. Not only will there be no expectation of privacy in private, there will be no expectation of privacy in public.
That means you'll see the local leather worker placing jars in front of his shop for men to urinate in. (Urea is used in the tanning process, in case you were wondering.) Alchemists may set up urns for folks to defecate in so they can collect the fewmets for their work.
To make a long expositon short, how people dress will depend on their culture, what they are going to be doing, and their expectations regarding personal privacy. In other words, you're really not going to see chainmail bikinis out on an adventure.
One last thing. After awhile a nude person doing ordinary, everyday things becomes rather uninteresting. It really isn't what you wear, it's what you're doing while you wear it.
Folks, ask yourself this. Do the people of your world even know about bikinis? If they did, would they use chainmail to make it? Why? I should think that any armorer worth his salt would absolutely refuse to make a chainmail bikini for someone who plans to go fight in it. Battle is really no place to look for mating opportunities. You have one set of gear for killing monsters, another set for recreational babymaking.
Where daily garb is concerned, you do need to ask a few questions. First, what is the climate like? Unless there is some sort of conflicting influence, clothing tends to be determined by the local climate. Those who live in hot, humid climes do tend to wear a lot less than those from drier, more temperate climes. Second, what about personal wealth? A wealthy man will have more to wear than a poor one. Related to this is the question, How easy is it to get stuff clean? The harder it is to get something clean, the more likely it is for people to do without clothing in situations where near or total nudity is possible (a nice, warm hut for example).
Which last leads to the question of children. What do they wear? In a land where clothing is expensive and laundry technology is primitive you can expect the younger childern to be running around nude. In a cold clime (or one where it gets cold on a seasonal basis) the youngest children are likely to be kept indoors. The older kids, the ones who can be trusted to at least make a stab at keeping their clothing clean, would have stuff to wear. But even then there will be times when they'll be in the altogether.
And that leads us to the question of privacy. Is there any? Is interior architecture like today, with corridors and individual rooms, or is it like the "good-old-days" when every part of a building was visible from every other part, with the exception of those rooms designed to be "set off" from the rest of the place. So why not use interior walls the way we do? Expense. Cut stone and concrete is expensive, and many a culture couldn't see the value in it. Even today this is true, with most interior walls being made of drywall and similar materials. If there are no interior walls, no distinct, separate rooms, then there will be no privacy or any expectation of privacy. Not only will there be no expectation of privacy in private, there will be no expectation of privacy in public.
That means you'll see the local leather worker placing jars in front of his shop for men to urinate in. (Urea is used in the tanning process, in case you were wondering.) Alchemists may set up urns for folks to defecate in so they can collect the fewmets for their work.
To make a long expositon short, how people dress will depend on their culture, what they are going to be doing, and their expectations regarding personal privacy. In other words, you're really not going to see chainmail bikinis out on an adventure.
One last thing. After awhile a nude person doing ordinary, everyday things becomes rather uninteresting. It really isn't what you wear, it's what you're doing while you wear it.
Kichwas
Half-breed
Answers assume my own setting.
In the middle ground you have people like the Lomyrians; public nudity is accepted in their culture in certain forms. Such as bathhouses, athletics, the parks, and a variety of social and life changing events.
Otherwise they dress in loose outfits made from light materials.
In war many of the people in this region are likely to fight unarmoed and barefoot.
Simply because the most common form of engagement for them is to be on a navel vessel.
Land warfare is underdeveloped. All that fancy armor and such exists but is used more by explorers and marines than the regular sailors.
Land war is developed in the Eastern Kingdoms so the situation is a bit different there.
You will find 'bikini clad' adventurers though; among the spell casters.
Even some highly active Arashani women might adopt a support device that doesn't cover. Likewise the men.
It's a very practical clothing choice for the climate. You can get by with a bikini or loincloth and cloak in most of the regions you might find yourself in.
Here it is from my technology section: "Leather tanning is oil based using flax and sunflower seeds."
That technology has replaced the urine method in most of the civilized world. Though humanoid leathers and leathers from deep into the interior of the jungle or the archepelago will likely use urine since oil trade is not so developed.
I'll need to add that statement now that my site focuses on the globe rather than one nation...
Yes.mythusmage said:
Most of the civilized world in Fahla lives along the equatorial regions. Clothing here tends to be light but varies by culture. From the Arashani who feel covering the body is a sign of dishonesty (and thus go fully nude) to those few in the eastern kingdoms who are south enough to be in this climate and dress as light as they can while still covering everything from head to toe.
In the middle ground you have people like the Lomyrians; public nudity is accepted in their culture in certain forms. Such as bathhouses, athletics, the parks, and a variety of social and life changing events.
Otherwise they dress in loose outfits made from light materials.
In war many of the people in this region are likely to fight unarmoed and barefoot.
Simply because the most common form of engagement for them is to be on a navel vessel.
Land warfare is underdeveloped. All that fancy armor and such exists but is used more by explorers and marines than the regular sailors.
Land war is developed in the Eastern Kingdoms so the situation is a bit different there.
You will find 'bikini clad' adventurers though; among the spell casters.
Even some highly active Arashani women might adopt a support device that doesn't cover. Likewise the men.
It's a very practical clothing choice for the climate. You can get by with a bikini or loincloth and cloak in most of the regions you might find yourself in.
In many lands they go nude until puberty. Not in the Eastern Kingdoms though. Of course in Arashan you're nude from birth to death.
Probably a lot less than in the modern world. In my own setting it's a lot lesser in most of the cultures than what we're used to. Even among the modest people of the Eastern Kingdoms you still get stuck with a public outhouse, sleeping in a common room, or having the maid walk in on you to pour your bath water.
I know I wrote about this in Fahla...
Here it is from my technology section: "Leather tanning is oil based using flax and sunflower seeds."
That technology has replaced the urine method in most of the civilized world. Though humanoid leathers and leathers from deep into the interior of the jungle or the archepelago will likely use urine since oil trade is not so developed.
I'll need to add that statement now that my site focuses on the globe rather than one nation...
Quite true.
Dark Jezter
First Post
I'm voting for some women in chainmail bikinis.
Anyways, here is an observation: It seems that whenever someone talks about fantasy artwork featuring scantily clad women, someone always complains about that portrayal. But what about men? If you have ever seen a Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo painting, you'll notice that the men are always huge and muscular, and usually wearing nothing more than a loincloth. Nobody complains about the portrayal of men in fantasy artwork, so I find it silly to get upset over the portrayal of women in fantasy artwork.
Anyway, that's my two coppers.
Anyways, here is an observation: It seems that whenever someone talks about fantasy artwork featuring scantily clad women, someone always complains about that portrayal. But what about men? If you have ever seen a Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo painting, you'll notice that the men are always huge and muscular, and usually wearing nothing more than a loincloth. Nobody complains about the portrayal of men in fantasy artwork, so I find it silly to get upset over the portrayal of women in fantasy artwork.
Anyway, that's my two coppers.
PenguinKing
First Post
Men aren't allowed to complain. In these hyper-PC days, women can insult and stereotype and discriminate against men all they want, and if we complain, we get (figuratively) disembowelled for trying to "oppress" them.Melan said:Jezter: ah, but men are pigs and probably don't notice if they are discriminated against in this way?
YMMV.
- Sir Bob.
Last edited:
Bonedagger
First Post
Melan said:Jezter: ah, but men are pigs and probably don't notice if they are discriminated against in this way?
No no no... We do notice. Men simply do not care. Men are more.... focused. Men don't see other men as 'family'. They see each other as competition and if one man poses half-naked well... the laugh's on him. When people go out men are most often seen trying to convince women that they got what the women want (The classical gentleman as an example) But since most men act (In the 'hunt') it usually turns out to be the other way around
.... I'm generalizing. Bonedagger starts to prepare his protection spells.
