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Fashion

Although modern technology has made the production of textiles and clothing easier than ever, mass production is still rare due to the sheer variation in human anatomy. Clothes designed to fit people from one town may be unwearable for people from another. Most towns import raw materials like fabric, then local shops design, create, and sell individual garments. This means each piece tends to be somewhat expensive, but also well-made - most people's wardrobes consist of a small number of outfits that last a long time.

This isn't to say that fashion doesn't exist. In fact, people put a lot of thought into their outfits, since they'll be stuck with them for years. Trends and fads exist as well, though they are slow to spread and fade. They often evolve in strange ways as they spread, since people adapt them to their own anatomy - for example, ear cuffs and false nails first became popular as a way to emulate decorative horn caps.

Civilians

three silhouettes wearing the styles of clothing described below
Some examples of everyday outfits.

Loose, baggy clothes are the most common; they're comfortable, and their patterns are easy to adapt for different purposes. In large cities inhabited by a variety of humans, store-bought clothes come with ready-made slots and loops so one can easily attach or remove things like tail sleeves with minimal tailoring knowledge. Other people make do by using belts, straps, and other fasteners as necessary.

Accessorizing

In contrast to shirts or shoes, accessories like scarves and bracelets can be easily sized up or down for a variety of different humans. It's easy to pick out something that fits, even if one is buying from an out-of-towner. Thus, trends in accessories spread fast, and they enjoy widespread popularity. A fashionable middle-class civilian might have only a few shirts, but a big collection of jewelry for mixing and matching.

Modifying existing garments is also a popular way to show off one's personal style. Fancy buttons, lace borders, and sew-on patches are omnipresent in clothing stores. In recent years, small metal charms have become especially popular - fashionable teens attach them to unused straps or belt holes, filling up the empty space with colourful little accents.

Pact Trinkets

In some parts of Wywick, there is a tradition of exchanging trinkets as a gesture of friendship. These pact trinkets are inspired by and named after the objects used in spirit pacts, and carries a similar meaning: by giving someone a trinket, you promise to be there for them in the difficult moments to come.

Most trinkets are small wooden or metal figures, shaped like something meaningful to the pair. Some incorporate a shed part of the giver's body - e.g. a lock of hair, a shed scale, or a chip shaved off a horn. These are considered especially meaningful, and reserved for close loved ones.

Traditionally, they are given from superiors to subordinates - parents to children, masters to apprentices, and so forth - and worn as pendants against the skin, in a private gesture. They are also incorporated in marriage ceremonies in some places. More recently, though, kids have taken to handing them out to all their friends, and even stringing them together to wear as charm bracelets. There's a lot of grumbling about the dilution of meaningful rituals, but to little avail.

Adventurers

three silhouettes wearing the styles of clothing described below

Being eccentric travelers with too much money, adventurers tend to cultivate wild and unusual senses of fashion, incorporating elements of style from a variety of different places. Some of them are trendsetters; others look like they robbed a costume store in the dark.

Capes and cloaks are particularly popular among adventurers - they're practical for travel, and can be worn in a variety of different ways to accommodate for weather anomalies or modesty standards in the towns they visit.

Traditionally, mages and magically-inclined adventurers often wore robes to conceal their spells in as they were casting them, to prevent their opponents from reading their moves. Although this has fallen out of fashion in present day, the stereotype persists, and some lean into it to advertise their status as wizards. Some mage academies have robes incorporated into their ceremonial regalia, as well.

Enchanted Apparel

Accessories and articles of clothing can be enchanted to give them small magical effects - for example, jewelry that glows or floats. Since the wearer must consciously use mana to keep the effect activated, most consider them too impractical to bother with. Adventurers love them, though - since most adventurers are already bristling with enchanted items for combat purposes, a few more floating earrings make little difference.

Nobles

two silhouettes wearing the styles of clothing described below

Nobles dress to accentuate the physical features associated with their hometown, often using an animal they resemble as a motif in their fashion and symbols. This serves as an easy way to distinguish their family from other nobles, building an immediately recognizable "brand" when they're socializing or campaigning. Those adopted or married into nobility often wear prosthetics and jewelry that imitate these features, to identify them as part of the family.

Since Empyria's monetary standard is an iridescent black metal, dark colours contrasted with bright accents are symbolic of wealth and luxury. Many nobles wear rich, dark fabrics with colourful embroidered or inlaid metal detailing. It's easy to overdo this, however, and cross the line into excessive and tacky; someone who wears too much trim might be mocked as a showoff, or attract snide comments about compensating for something.