Empire Player Event: "The Little Mother's Ball"

Photography stuff

Very last minute, but on Wednesday, I received an invitation to attend the Little Mother's Ball ("LMB") as a photographer. There were openings where people had to cancel or whatever, so I was delighted to attend in general, but also to challenge me and my fourteen-year old camera kit with indoor, low-light shooting. Note, I don't have the 50mm fixed/prime lens, so extra challenges there, as the lowest f-stop my lenses allow is f5.6. I'm also grateful that my hands are relatively steady, and I can hold a 1/30 second shutter opening with almost no shake.

Thankfully, there was a second photographer with photographer kit almost as limited as mine (I think theirs was better), which means I now have a few clearer images of Skywise Seppa.

Role play stuff

I got to play up some of the shaman aspects as I handed over Ieri's red canvas herb bandolier to Florina, with me shouting back at my ancestors who were telling me to not hand over the bandolier. I also had a couple of fellow orcs to interact with and Seppa didn't have to feel quite so anxious and isolated. Redhand Gezzar and Stormcrow Rork were my fellow Imperial Orcs.

The ball itself consisted of a buffet feast, bards of various nations, dancing, trading, and an auction of various goods to raise funds for the Empire's orphans. The location: Sarvos, the League.

I showed my nails, which had the pinkies done in sparkly varnish, the rest were plain, I said that it was the Freeborn children doing my nails. My use of gold eyeliner also provoked a little bit of attention from the Freeborn in attendance. Seppa's earrings also drew some attention, as one of them has a tiny tassel on it.

Oh, and I rode in the taxi in my mask; the driver asked to take my picture. No idea what he ended up doing with it...

The location that I listed for this post is where on Earth the event took place.

Some pictures

A selfie taken before the taxi arrived.

I'm slowly figuring out Seppa's appearance.

I'm grateful to Samantha Carrington for their pictures of Skywise Seppa. I did trim their photos to exclude other participants, partly because I was trying to focus on Seppa's kit, and also to minimise me accidentally sharing someone's face who might object to being on my blog.

Photographer: Samantha Carrington
I did trim the original photo to focus upon my character.

I usually don't mind sitting on floors, it challenges my flexibility and works my body. I put up my hood because the neck gap was bugging me. I really need to come up with a better neck cover that won't overheat me.

Photographer: Samantha Carrington
I did trim the original photo to focus upon my character.

I confess, I like seeing my characters from the back and sides, because I always wonder how those areas appear.

Photographer: Samantha Carrington
I did trim the original photo to focus upon my character.

Conclusions

I lasted well with my mask, but I did need a face time about 3/4 of the way through the five hour event. I am struggling to keep my hair from peeking out of the eye holes. Yes, I'm growing my top-scalp hair so that I can pin/braid it back, but it's too short for either restraint. I saw Redhand Gezzar using a wig sock/cap, so I might have to look for one for myself. Also, I physically struggle to get the mask back on when I've taken it off for a face time; it's like the neck shrinks or my head swells, I need to discover why this is so.

I'm starting to think that I need to redo my coven symbol, to a smaller size, and also stitch the panel to the coat. The current one is too large for me.

Also, I went with two layers again, the tunic and the coat; I started with the scapular and skirt as well, but quickly discarded it, as the hall was so warm.

I'll do another post about costume, but I wanted to make a post and include pictures of me in costume. I'm also kinda pleased that my glasses disappeared in these photos.

Where's my home?

I was going to write about the Tibetan Panel Coat, but I've gotten distracted by reading PD's Empire wiki. Specifically, the one land of the Imperial Orcs: Skarsind.

I'm playing at player events as my Imperial Orc, and I am most familiar with the Brass Coast because that's where I spent two years. So a bit of bleed from the player means that Skywise Seppa is spending at least part of the winter in the warm lands of the Freeborn. It also means that I can use some demurer sari scraps for fabric patches on Seppa's clothes.

I'm not familiar with Skarsind, so I've been reading, and rereading, and rereading again, about that region of the Empire. Partly due to dodgy memory, and also because I'm trying to grow familiar enough that I don't sound (and feel) like a clueless twit when someone asks me about Skarsind. I also feel that I need to decide where Seppa spends the majority of eir time, ie 'where's my home?' Something caught my eye in the Estermark area of Skarsind: The Weavers' Market("TWM").

I posted in the Imperial Orcs group about a potential player event set at TWM; and one of the persons who came up with TWM said that they had considered a player event, but they're too busy to make it happen. I was thinking 'it needs to be up north, where it's rocky and forested' and it happened to coincide with their thinking, which was they wanted to do it in the Lake District. I was thinking of the Peak District, simply because I've been there. Maybe a trip to the Lake District will take place sometime this year to help me better visualise TWM.

Regardless, the idea of a player event set in TWM will have to remain unfulfilled for now. I don't have the knowledge or skills to organise a player event; and the creators' ideas was a little bit different to my idea. They wanted a social with monster hunting and pit fighting (which is perfectly orcish). I was in the mind of 'invite players who are sewers and costume makers who have brought their wares up to TWM to IC-trade' but also socialise and maybe acquire, trade, or sell, lengths of fabric (which might be my Freeborn bleed).

For me, writing turns over ideas in my head. I just had another thought: since TWM also involves the trade of mana crystals and mana sites, could there not also be a discussion or a series of discussions about orcs and magic? Maybe a small delegation of Urizeni mages and magicians from other nations of the Empire to come and teach how magic could be done?

Perhaps too ambitious, perhaps it would need to run from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, if I wanted the magical discussions, alongside the trading market and craft-doing, and the monster hunting and pit fight and the social, with its thundering drums...

A person can dream, no?

Eslen i Riqueza

Ah, my possible second Freeborn, depending on what happens in the future. Eslen will be another Autumn Ritual mage, who then grows into healing skills. I like the battlefield physick game.

I'll have to come up with some imagery and doodles for how to make Eslen look distinctly different to Ieri. The most noticeable changes will be that Eslen is a plain human, no lineage. The second is what I'll be using for a tagelmust, a chiffon sari in orangey-red with diagonal yellow stripes. I have a purple and red sleeveless waistcoat that I need to finish that will also differ Eslen from Ieri. The costume will be richer and more embellished than the plainer wear of Ieri.

The incomplete rich sleeveless waistcoat.

I need to actually finish the clothes and soft kit I started for Ieri and never completed to give Eslen a very different appearance to Ieri's practical aesthetic.

Things people don't know about Ieri i Kalamar i Guerra

Things people may not know and may not even think to ask in the game about Ieri.

• Always keeps the knot in the tagelmust on the battlefield. Knew too many who died in battle because their tagelmusts came undone.
• Always wears a tagelmust when other people are around. Does Ieri have hair? Ey never told me, the player, if ey did.
• Always carries Antimedes' token tied to eirs. Antimedes died in battle at Winter Solstice 382YE. Ieri had strong feelings for Antimedes.
• Always carries the toy llama with its beaded necklace. The necklace and toy originally belonged to eir Kittens, Aesha and Temes.
• The skull beads mala. To represent Ieri being draughir.
• The purple, white, and green crochet bag. To represent eir genderqueer/non-binary gender.
• The rainbow crochet bag. To represent asexual panromantic polyamory.
• Always keeps the buttons on shirt buttoned up, else that part covered. Because the makeup eventually rubs off.
• The faceted glass rainbow of beads, the tasbih. To help the player manage anxiety by way of fingering them for affirmations work.
• Originally named Ieri i Lezaris i Guerra. Became Kalamar when contracted marriage with Policarpo and Calixto, who were Aesha and Temes' birth/genetic parents.
• Has a younger sister named Turi i Riqueza, who became kohan.
• Wears a silver and greenstone ring. Originally, it belonged to the player's mother; but the player wears it because it feels too weird not to wear a ring on that finger. In game, it was the wedding contract ring from eir spouses.
• The black spiral red velvet gauntlets. Are a friendship gift from Antimedes; Ieri would stroke the gauntlets in his presence to signify an embrace, as Urizen don't hug outsiders.
• Ieri is left-handed. But the player's left-handed writing is too slow to use in the field and tends to be backwards/mirrored, so Ieri is played as left-handed ambidextrous.
• Ieri nearly drowned and gets seasick on ocean voyages. But out of Loyalty to Family, goes out anyway.
• Ieri's draughir heritage manifested after the drowning.
• Ieri is fascinated with Urizen llamas. Ey managed to entice two of them to follow em back to the Brass Coast. Their names are Brownie and Misty; they are sentient and they seemed to respond to Ieri's draughir/Winter lineage.
• Ieri was born in Anduz, Segura. Ieri and eir parent fled Segura to escape the invading Lasambrian Orcs when the barbarians invaded decades ago. They lost contact with the remaining Lezaris Family, including Turi, until this year (383YE).
• Ieri dances Atalaya Tribal Style. As does other members of the Kalamar Family.

PD Empire LARP

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.