So now that I'm about to enter the final act of my first Profound Decisions' Empire character, I guess blogging here about the makings for the next character might be ideal.
But first, I want to introduce my first/current Live Action Role Playing (LARP) character, who is a Brass Coast Freeborn draughir. Depending on what happens at the last event of the season/Earth year in September, I'll either be a non-lineage Freeborn, or an Imperial Orc in April 2020. In the game, if one wants to join a group, it's always good to interview them and they - you, to make sure the motivations and ideals are in alignment, that's why I don't yet know which character I'll be playing in April 2020 when the next season begins.
I'm including some splendid photos of my first and current character, Ieri i Kalamar i Guerra, so that I have a record of em and eir costume.
I'll begin with this image, taken by Irina Goodwin shortly before time-in, when we become our characters. It was a soggy, waterlogged event, it was cold (35F at night, 45F in the daytime) and a quagmire, and it was my first time costuming for LARP in nearly three decades. It was also my first time camping in over three decades. I look back at this costume and inwardly cringe; however, one has to begin somewhere. My makeup and prosthetics skills improved over the course of the character's life. The date for this is Winter Solstice, 381YE (aka April 2018).
My clothing layering was rubbish, but there was a foundation to build from. I also didn't seem to remember that thermals could be a friend. I didn't have wellies, but they were one of the first items purchased after this event.
Now we skip ahead six events. I wish I knew who the photographer was for the following image so I could credit them. This is Ieri coming off the battlefield, unknowingly dying. For the battlefield, I do wear a simplified outfit compared to what I wear in Anvil (the game's 'capital city'). One character quirk is that Ieri always knots eir tagelmust for battle; relatedly, Ieri is never seen without eir tagelmust so no one knows what Ieri's real hair looks like, or even if Ieri has hair. The toy llama has been there since Summer Solstice 382YE (aka E3 July 2018) and represents the character's Kittens (aka eir adopted children) that were captured by barbarian orcs before Winter Solstice 381YE (aka E1 April 2018).
From Paul Baker comes this image of Ieri at a Marcher feast, Ieri now realises ey is dying and has switched to wearing a black tagelmust, with a brightly coloured strip of fabric wound into the outer portions of said tagelmust. The bordeaux canvas coat is the same as the one in the battlefield picture. Different shirt, which is orange, rather than yellow. Ieri does have quite the wardrobe. The llama is present to watch over the revelries. The Marcher feast was part of a player-event, rather than a PD event that took place between E3 (July 2019) and the event coming up in September 2019, known as E4. The in-game date for E4 is Autumn Equinox 383YE.
Do I clash? Yes, yes of course. :)
I have tried almost from the beginning to make Ieri's wardrobe look like real clothes, even if they are 'costume'. When one can easily spend sixteen or more hours wearing a costume, I want comfort. I wash the garments between events, but they do come home smelling of wood smoke and incense, and yes, sometimes a bit of sweat if it's been baking hot. But they do pick up small stains, scuffs, and wear. Nearly all of what I wear actually are clothes, just mainly hippy clothes, considerately layered and/or embellished to fit into the game and national costume brief. That bordeaux canvas coat is costume from Mytholon; I added the plastic gems to the neckline and metal amulets on the bottom hem (not visible in either image) to personalise the coat so it doesn't look exactly like other Mytholon Shapur coats. The patterned fabric beneath the coat? That's a polyester chiffon beach cover from either H&M or Primark; originally destined for the charity shop because I wasn't otherwise wearing it, it gained a reprieve by becoming a clothing layer. Some of the necklaces came from charity shops, others, I made/strung myself, another is Buddhist prayer beads, and another is Santeria beads from decades ago.
Wait, what's with all the 'em, eir, ey' nonsense?
Glad you asked, I'm non-binary gender, my - and my characters' - pronouns, are 'ey, em, eir'. PD supports equality and diversity, and gives people like me a safe haven to express our true selves without the bigotry of the 'real' world. Many of us wear a gender pronoun badge to help wordlessly clue in other people what our gender pronouns are, which is good for those of us who are shy. Cisgender people have also taken to wearing the pronoun badges to help normalise and assist everyone who isn't cisgender. It's beautiful. The pronoun badges are optional, but if someone who isn't wearing a badge tells you their gender pronoun and you don't use it, you will get called out on it, either by that player, or their friends. In other words, don't be a bigoted, transphobic jerk.
Also, during my entire time playing Ieri, the character never revealed what genitals ey had and may well have had a penis or maybe was intersex or maybe had a uterus. Ieri was panromantic, but asexual; married to two people who had two daughters, Ieri adopted those daughters as eir own children. It's part of why I enjoyed playing Ieri, and I will miss em when it's time.