Sérannian Clothing Style

Commoners

Regardless of gender, commoners wear tunics of different lengths, going from mid-thigh to the ankles depending on season and activities. Those tunics are made of a big piece of cloth that is wrapped around them and attached at one shoulder with a brooch, leaving the other shoulder bare. Which shoulder it is depends on the occasion and is not something I've completely managed to elucidate yet...

This type of clothing is what all members of the Questing Party wore to try to stay incognito while we were defeating the Dark Lord.   Over the tunic, Séranniens wear large cloth belt that hold tools and weapons, vests with or without sleeves, and, in winter, cloaks. The only underwear worn is a long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the breasts to provide support for the people who need it. The only thing that can be said about that is that it's really not great, and I'm bringing back a stock of underwear with me when I'll go back!

  The shoes they wear are high boots, ankle boots, sandals, or slippers. But whatever they, are Sérannian shoes are terrible! We never laud enough what modern technologies have allowed us to do in matters of shoes! The only way not to end up the day with bleeding feet in Sérannie has been to sew runes onto my shoes and waste magic to power them all the time!

Soldiers

Soldiers wear tunics which are sometimes in the colour of their patrons' House. However, it is more common to have the tunic in a basic colour and to rather use the symbol on the pin holding it up to indicate the patrons—less expensive that way. The tunics are mid-thigh- or knee-length but never longer, so as to allow the soldiers to fight and run without impeding their movements.   They are worn above a leather armour that seems to be made of strips wrapped around the torso and one shoulder, and some kind of netted tights made with a plant fibre that has a great resistance to wear but is terribly scratchy. They wear metal protections around their arm, neck and ankles, a belt and a helmet, and all of them are covered with runic diagrams.   From what I've seen, each patron chooses a different runic design for their soldiers, and they all try to keep it secret. The magic they grant seems to be centred around magical and physical protections, enhanced strength and agility, and accelerated healing. All very nice, except that this sucks up an incredibly high amount of magic when used, and they completely lack any kind of flexibility in their activation.

The different layers are:   1) A shift, similar to a long nightdress without sleeves. It's not quite transparent, but almost.   2) Their equivalent of a bra for those who need it. It's a big square of tissue, commonly in a pale colour and with faint golden runes embroidered on it. One side of the cloth is positioned on the shoulder, attached to the shift with a very small pin. The cloth is then wrapped around the body, going below the breasts for the first round, covering the bottom half of them for the second, and ending back on the same shoulder where it is fixed with another pin.   3) The first real layer of the dress. It's a very thin, simple cloth that is slightly transparent. It is wrapped around the whole body and also pinned twice to keep it up on the same shoulder as before. This layer is replicated several times, varying the length and the placement over the body depending on the style you want to achieve. Together, all the semi-transparent layers make a fully opaque dress.   4) The last layer of cloth. It's also wrapped in the same way, and it is ends up covering most of the others. A more elaborate cloth is used for that one, often with patterns or runes embroidered on it. It is attached at the shoulder with a prominent brooch or cloth pin.   I've never worn anything like that.

During the Quest, this would have made us stand out way too much. And after we came back to the palace, I wasn't around long enough to get new clothes—or rather, it's now obvious that it was just an excuse they used to force me to keep wearing commoner clothing, a way to humiliate me and to keep me separate from the rest of the group in everyone's mind.

Jewellery

Outside of hairpins and cloth pins, Séranniens mostly use rings and bracelets clinging to the upper and lower arms. Most tend to be rather gaudy, showing off precious metals, stones, and woods, with the local green serpentine being well appreciated. Séranniens do not pierce their ears and so do not wear any jewellery on them. Necklaces are more rarely worn, and when they are, they are almost always some kind of collar.   During my time in Sérannie, I only wore a few bracelets offered to me by my boyfriend, Calendre. Not that I've gotten to keep any of that, of course, now that I was forced back in the normal world.

Hairpins and cloth pins

While hairpins and cloth pins can be decorative, they're surprisingly mostly seen as a way to show off political affiliations.

For nobles, the cloth pins they wear are supposed to be their own house emblems, and they can also choose to wear a hairpin to indicate their belonging to a political party or an organisation or their fealty to a patron.   Servants and employees don't have a choice and have to wear the pin of their patrons either as a hairpin or a cloth pin. Poorer Séranniens only use cloth pins since they don't belong to any house of note themselves. Anyway, a client's pin is always in a different colour from that of the members of their patron House, so there is no risk of confusion.   It is patrons' duty to offer the pins to their clients, and so their quality is a direct statement of their wealth and of how much they value the client wearing it. It is also a proof of being an official representative of a House, and so wearing a pin without authorisation is a grave insult.

Here are a few examples:  

• the King and royal family: a great golden eagle soaring in flight. Green pins are reserved for members of the royal family, while grey pins are worn by their servants and direct clients.

• the Academy of Mages: a prominent sarlane rune engraved on a pearl is worn by all members of the academy, with the colour of the pin used to indicate the speciality of each mage.

• the Caldère House: a cale, a small white and blue bird.

• the Naline House: a roanne purple leaf on a blue background,

• a new political party made mostly of young people fed up with the Caldères' hold on politics: an autumnal mérie leaf pin, resembling a maple leaf, to represent death of the old and change.

• a political party led by Lady Astrance representing people from the Ullie mountains in central Sérannie: mountain tops.

• some young people wear the pin of their crush in the hope of attracting their attention, and some older individuals wear the pin of their favourites or their lovers. However, most Séranniens find this to be a foolish custom, both because it demeans the wearers as being submissive to the owner of the pin and because they're wearing the pin without authorisation.