The worldlet: textiles
Sep. 29th, 2008 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alpharaposaI've been musing on clothing today. Specifically, on what people on my worldlet wear and where it comes from.
Beast-kings frequently hunt large game, so have a ready supply of hides and leather. Dwarves hunt boar and keep deer, so they have a source as well. But what about cloth? Beast-kings aren't built for weaving, so they'd most likely have felt, if anything. I suppose the hair scraped from a hide might work for that, or would I need another source of textile fiber?
Turning to the southern half of the continent (on the tropical side of the mountains), I suspect hemp (or something hemp-like) is a cultivated plant there. It makes clothes and rope, and would explain why the fishing villages would be culturally bound to the settled kingdom.
The nomads have birds for both feathers and leather, and probably weave the abundant grass from time to time into hats as well as baskets.
And I have an idea for a "fur" tree in the forest. The seeds all have several very, very long strands attached to them that tend to cling to fur or catch the breeze. It's a short, shade-loving tree that only grows in rich soil. Most of the time, it looks completely normal, but during the hot season, the seed pods split open all over the tree and it suddenly looks like a mad tinseler has struck.
And somehow, this doesn't seem enough. Maybe something from the sea? Giant silkworms in the mountains?
Beast-kings frequently hunt large game, so have a ready supply of hides and leather. Dwarves hunt boar and keep deer, so they have a source as well. But what about cloth? Beast-kings aren't built for weaving, so they'd most likely have felt, if anything. I suppose the hair scraped from a hide might work for that, or would I need another source of textile fiber?
Turning to the southern half of the continent (on the tropical side of the mountains), I suspect hemp (or something hemp-like) is a cultivated plant there. It makes clothes and rope, and would explain why the fishing villages would be culturally bound to the settled kingdom.
The nomads have birds for both feathers and leather, and probably weave the abundant grass from time to time into hats as well as baskets.
And I have an idea for a "fur" tree in the forest. The seeds all have several very, very long strands attached to them that tend to cling to fur or catch the breeze. It's a short, shade-loving tree that only grows in rich soil. Most of the time, it looks completely normal, but during the hot season, the seed pods split open all over the tree and it suddenly looks like a mad tinseler has struck.
And somehow, this doesn't seem enough. Maybe something from the sea? Giant silkworms in the mountains?
