Shardrobes
Shardrobes are the ceremonial and functional robes worn by all Láenthelin crystal-farmers, passed down and augmented through generations.
Mechanics & Inner Workings
Workrobes: Lighter, shorter, with only recent crystal fragments. Worn when harvesting lumicrysts or tending lake gardens.
Ritual shardrobes: Layered and long, with stitched crystal histories and whisperpanels. Worn during ceremonies like the First Fracture, naming rites, or moonfasts.
Mourning robes: Dyed smoky gray, with shards turned inward against the skin to “press memory back into the heart.”
Significance
To gift a shard from your robe is the highest honor, often reserved for a wedding, farewell, or ritual apology. If a shardrobe is burned or buried, it’s a funerary act—returning the robe's magic and memory to the lake. Some believe shardrobes possess ancestral memory—guiding those who wear them with dreams or emotional echoes from the past.
Outsiders often view shardrobes as “decorative relics,” not grasping their emotional and historical weight. Some cities have tried to replicate shardrobe fashion for luxury markets, causing tension with the Láenthelin, who see such mimicry as deeply disrespectful.
Trade with Aisling, and any other continent besides its parent one, is rare and tightly controlled. Therefore, the Shardrobes - at least the original ones- are only found on the isle.
Woven from reed-silk, a plant-fiber grown near the lake and treated with crystal dust. They are embedded with fragments of lumicryst from previous harvests, ceremonies, or family events. The crystals are sewn into the fabric using thread dyed with moonbloom ink, making them shimmer subtly in daylight and glow gently at night.
No two shardrobes are identical. Each one tells a story—of lineage, harvests survived, blessings received, or mistakes made.
Crystals are color-coded:
- Blue for a plentiful harvest
- Violet for a sacred rite or vow
- Emerald for healing or community service
- Clear for grief or remembrance
Some robes also have whisperpanels—thin bands of mineral-fused silk that record brief spoken phrases. Only the wearer or a Shardward can activate them.
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