Added D-293, D-294, D-295, D-298 Fully mundane (§15). Only humans; Earth-like animals; no magic.
A crossroads. The Tower stands near no realm's heartland (§8). Every realm has its own identity and culture, and its people take after a real-world region. Realms are named descriptively. The cultures below are canon; the names are set by D-348, and the frontier roles are SOFT DIRECTION. Amended D-351 There are five realms of the world outside. Amended D-369 The city-born of Lowerreach are a sixth realm (§37), the only one at the Tower: Amended D-370 the Footfolk.
| Realm | People and culture draw from | At the frontier (soft) |
|---|---|---|
| The Crownlands | Western European (Frankish, Germanic) | The Capital's realm; home of the Commission. |
| The Frostholds | Nordic, Slavic | Hardy fighters, furs, long winters; many Porters. |
| The Middle Sea | Mediterranean, Levantine | Merchant houses; most of the trading companies. |
| The Sunrise Realms | East Asian | Disciplined swordsmen and scholars. |
| The Red Earth | West African, Sahelian; Amended D-440 and East African herder-warriors | Old kingdoms; iron-working, spearmen and horsemen. |
| The Footfolk (the city-born of Lowerreach) | Their own culture, born in the valley; no real-world model (§37) | The only locals; the city's officials, makers and old families. |
The Capital is the seat of the nearest of these realms. It is still far away. Its Commission reached the frontier first and holds the paperwork (§27).
Amended D-375 Every realm has several lines — professions, families or clans — that differ in look but share a common line: the anchors below. Amended D-386 The lines drawn for the game are the kinds of people who come to the Tower as recruits: fighters, device-bearers, healers and scouts, not the whole of a realm's society.
Amended D-359, D-364 The five realms, on the page and on the body. Each
realm is drawn recognisable, not historical: it starts from the image of its
culture players know first, then is designed, not reconstructed, with an
artsy, stylised feel. It reads medieval (never Renaissance) and is not
exaggerated. A realm lives in what survives combat distance (VISUAL §7): a
silhouette, a head, two or three clothing masses, a dominant
colour and a Tower-tech craft. Detail belongs to portraits. Which realms
are at war at home is UNSPECIFIED (§35). The concept is
../art/records/Realms/climbers-003.png (D-363).
The Crownlands
River plains, deep forest and walled market towns; the nearest realm, still weeks away. A crown, great lords and a growing army of clerks: the realm runs on stamped paper, and its Commission brought that habit to Lowerreach first (§27). Faith: one God and many saints, stone churches, relics of the holy dead in gilded cases. Why they climb: younger sons with no land, deserters, debtors, knights whose title means nothing here (§36).
- Silhouette: vertical — long surcoats and tabards, tall shields, pole arms, pointed hoods.
- Head: kettle hats, bascinets, mail coifs; the chaperon hood.
- Masses: gambeson or surcoat over mail; hose; hood and shoulder cape.
- Arms: mail to early plate; heater shields, pavises; arming sword, halberd, pike, crossbow.
- Colour: madder red, with steel, undyed grey-brown and bleached linen. The Commission's deep blue and silver is the state's own.
- Craft — the reliquary: Tower stone held in pierced, riveted, gilded cages, like a relic in a church case, the fragment visible behind bars.
Added D-380, D-381 Lines. The common line is the long tabard or gown, hoods and kettle hats, madder red with steel, grey-brown and linen, and the reliquary cage.
| Line | Who | Look |
|---|---|---|
| The Knighted | lords, knights and men-at-arms | plate and mail under long madder-red tabards, bascinets and great helms, heater shields and pavises |
| The Mages | the realm's device-bearers, called mages (§28) | the classic mage — robes, a tall hat, a staff whose head is a reliquary cage of Tower stone — or a medieval gunslinger with a caged-stone hand-cannon they call a wand |
| The Cloth | priests, friars, nuns and relic-keepers of the saints | hooded habits, rope belts, relic cases, prayer beads, censers |
| The Bowmen | archers and crossbowmen of the shires and the town walls | padded gambesons and kettle hats, hoods, longbows, crossbows and pavises, quivers and bolt cases |
library/crownlands/crownlands-looks-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands (UNIVERSE §25)
Canonical for The Knighted, Mages and Cloth, their common line, the reliquary craft on staff and wand.
Not canonical for The caged-stone lantern at every belt (the reliquary is the craft, not a uniform); the quartered shields, close to heraldry (§19). The Bowmen line is not on it (D-381).
What it shows
"The Crownlands — three lines": A the Knighted (a young knight with a raised bascinet, sword and heater shield; a man-at-arms with a great helm and a tall pavise); B the Mages (a young mage in a pointed hat with a reliquary-caged stone staff; a gunslinger with a caged-stone hand-cannon); C the Cloth (a hooded friar, a nun with a book and a censer).
library/crownlands/crownlands-line-knighted-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands (D-380)
Canonical for The Knighted: plate, mail, tabards, helms, the reliquary pavise.
Not canonical for The squire's belt lantern; the shared red-and-cream stripe on shields.
What it shows
"Crownlands — the Knighted": a young knight with sword and heater shield, an old man-at-arms with a wall-slab pavise in a gilded reliquary frame, a woman with a halberd, a squire with a great helm and a pennoned lance.
library/crownlands/crownlands-line-mages-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands (D-311, D-380)
Canonical for The Mages' two looks: the classic mage and the gunslinger, the device always visible.
Not canonical for The old mage's belt lantern.
What it shows
"Crownlands — the Mages": an old and a young mage in pointed hats with caged-stone staffs; a woman gunslinger with two short wands; a heavy gunslinger with a long wand and a bandolier of stone charges.
library/crownlands/crownlands-line-cloth-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands (D-380)
Canonical for The Cloth: habits, vestments, beads, censer, reliquary.
Not canonical for The small crosses on the beads (a human faith's sign, allowed by §19 but not specified).
What it shows
"Crownlands — the Cloth": a hooded friar with a staff, a young nun with a book, a stout priest with a censer, an abbess with a reliquary.
library/crownlands/crownlands-line-bowmen-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands (D-381)
Canonical for The Bowmen: gambesons, hoods, kettle hats, longbow, crossbow, pavise.
Not canonical for The pavise's stripe shared with the Knighted shields.
What it shows
"Crownlands — the Bowmen": a hooded yeoman with a longbow, a heavy crossbowwoman with a caged-stone crossbow, an old crossbowman behind a pavise, a young archer.
library/crownlands/crownlands-dress-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands (D-380, D-381)
Canonical for Each line's garments, helmets, devices and weapons; the common line.
Not canonical for —
What it shows
"Crownlands — dress by line": front and back of each line with details — the Knighted (four helmets, gauntlet, plain shield, reliquary pavise), the Mages (caged staff head, gunslinger's hats and coat, caged wand, bandolier of caged charges), the Cloth (vestment, veil, beads, censer, reliquary), the Bowmen (longbow, quiver, crossbow with windlass, bolt case, arm guard, pavise); the common tabard, hoods, kettle hat, belts and purses.
library/crownlands/crownlands-portraits-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Crownlands; portrait reference (VISUAL §1, D-081)
Canonical for How Crownlands portraits look: natives at home, varied ages and faces.
Not canonical for The grid, which mixes the lines across columns; the gunslinger's long gun (the Mages' wand is a caged-stone hand-cannon); the freckled red-haired girl drawn twice; the portrait library's format (OQ-A4).
What it shows
"Crownlands — portraits": twelve hand-drawn busts — knights, mages, the Cloth, Bowmen, a gunslinger.
The Frostholds
Birch and pine forest, fjords and long rivers, winters that close the roads. Holds of kin under hall-lords; trade moves by river and by portage, carrying boats and cargo overland, which is why so many Porters are Frostholders. Faith: many gods and the household dead, offerings at the hearth. Why they climb: debt, exile by a hold's judgement, the family's winter, and pride.
- Silhouette: broad and low — fur and layered wool bulking the shoulders, round shields, wide stance.
- Head: fur hats and hoods, rounded or nasal helms; braids, beards, headscarves.
- Masses: a long wool or fur-lined kaftan belted at the waist; leg bindings; a heavy cloak.
- Arms: mail, leather lamellar; round shields; bearded axe, spear, long knife, hooked poles.
- Colour: undyed cream wool, grey fur, soot black, one red of embroidery at hems and cuffs. Nordic and Slavic alike, never all blond.
- Craft — the rig: heavy iron-bound frames, straps and buckles, carried like a load. Frostholders prize hot Tower stone as a body warmer.
Added D-382, amended D-383 Lines. Each mixes the Nordic and Slavic sources (D-378). Runes are the Frostholds' script (D-383): carved or painted on wood, bone, charms, tools and cloth, most of all by the Hearth-kin. They are human writing, never glowing and never working any power, and never on the Tower (§5, §19). The common line is the belted wool kaftan, fur, braids and fur hats, undyed cream, grey fur and soot black with red embroidery, and the iron-bound rig.
| Line | Who | Look |
|---|---|---|
| The Hall-sworn | a hall-lord's sworn warriors | barbaric: pelts worn as hoods, bare scarred arms, war paint, trophies of claw and tooth, mail, round shields, bearded axes and great hammers |
| The Rivermen | boatmen and portage-haulers of the long rivers | hooked poles, rope, load frames and boats carried overland; the line most Porters come from |
| The Hearth-kin | elders, smiths and keepers of the hearth and the household dead | a druid's air: antler crowns, gnarled staves hung with bone and bells, amber, herbs, sickles, runes carved everywhere; the smiths make the hot-stone rig |
library/frostholds/frostholds-looks-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Frostholds (UNIVERSE §25)
Canonical for The three lines and their common line; the iron-bound craft.
Not canonical for No runes yet (D-383); ragged, speckled hems close to the climbers' pale (§39).
What it shows
"The Frostholds — three lines": A the Hall-sworn (wolf-head and bear-head hoods, war paint, bare scarred arms, trophies, a bearded axe, the iron-bound cornice hammer); B the Rivermen (a man with a hooked pole and rope, a woman under a load frame carrying a boat); C the Hearth-kin (an old rite-keeper with an antler crown, amber, a bone-and-bell staff, a sickle, herbs; a smith with a carved staff and a glowing iron-bound hot stone).
library/frostholds/frostholds-line-hallsworn-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Frostholds (D-382, D-383)
Canonical for The Hall-sworn: barbaric, a different beast on each, a range of armour weight; war paint; runes on a shield rim.
Not canonical for Ragged, speckled hems (natives are clean-hemmed, D-379).
What it shows
"Frostholds — the Hall-sworn": a heavy berserker in a bear hood over mail with a bearded axe; a woman in a wolf-head hood, short mail and bare arms with the iron-bound cornice hammer; a light skirmisher, bare-chested and painted, in a lynx-fur kilt and seal-skin cloak with two hand axes; an old champion under an elk hide with the antlered skull, a studded kaftan, a spear and a rune-rimmed shield.
library/frostholds/frostholds-line-rivermen-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Frostholds (D-382)
Canonical for The Rivermen: river dress, poles, oars, rope, the load frame (where Porters come from).
Not canonical for Ragged hems.
What it shows
"Frostholds — the Rivermen": a man with a long hooked pole, a young woman under a load frame carrying a boat, an old boatman with a pipe and a rune-carved oar, a girl with a coil of rope.
library/frostholds/frostholds-line-hearthkin-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Frostholds (D-383)
Canonical for The Hearth-kin's druid air; runes as a human script on bone, wood and cloth, never glowing.
Not canonical for Ragged hems.
What it shows
"Frostholds — the Hearth-kin": an antler-crowned rite-keeper with a staff of bells and herbs, a young keeper with a carved wooden ancestor post, a smith with a rune-carved hammer and a glowing iron-bound hot stone, an old man casting rune-carved bones on a cloth.
library/frostholds/frostholds-dress-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Frostholds (D-382, D-383)
Canonical for Each line's garments, pelts, weapons and rite objects; embroidery and runes as the realm's pattern and script.
Not canonical for —
What it shows
"Frostholds — dress by line": the Hall-sworn front and back with an animal study (bear and wolf hoods, lynx kilt, seal cloak, elk hide with antlered skull), helms, a rune-rimmed shield, war paint, trophies; the Rivermen with fur hats, leg wrappings, hooked pole, rune oar, rope, load frame; the Hearth-kin with the antler crown, bell-and-bone staff, amber, sickle, rune bones, ancestor post, the smith and the hot stone; the kaftan laid flat, a red embroidery study with a rune band, fur hats, braids, belts.
library/frostholds/frostholds-portraits-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Frostholds; portrait reference (VISUAL §1, D-081)
Canonical for How Frostholds portraits look: natives at home, the three lines at bust scale.
Not canonical for The grid set in a narrow band of the canvas; the portrait library's format (OQ-A4).
What it shows
"Frostholds — portraits": nine busts, one row per line — bear and wolf hoods and a painted skirmisher; a boatman, a woman in a red headscarf with rope, an old man with a pipe; the antlered rite-keeper, a soot-streaked smith, a young keeper with rune charms.
The Middle Sea
Port cities round a warm inland sea: merchant republics, harbour quarters of many faiths, dye works. The Charter is from here (§27). Faith: several one-God faiths street by street; it was Middle Sea pilgrims who first called the climb a pilgrimage. Why they climb: contract with a house, fortune, debts that are not forgiven.
- Silhouette: draped — long robes, wide sashes, head wraps, a cloak over one shoulder. The medieval Levant and Mediterranean, never a Renaissance doublet.
- Head: turbans and head wraps, soft caps, dust veils; curled dark hair.
- Masses: a long linen robe; a broad sash; a short cloth-covered brigandine.
- Arms: brigandine, lamellar, quilted coats; round shields; falchion, sabre, spear, recurve bow.
- Colour: indigo and saffron, sea-green, purple on the rich; the Charter's ochre and brass.
- Craft — the astrolabe: fine brass in nested engraved rings, pierced plates and filigree: the prettiest devices and the most precise. No dials or clockwork. They like liquids and pressure.
Added D-384, amended D-386 Lines. Each mixes the Mediterranean and Levantine sources (D-378). The common line is the long robe, broad sash and head wrap, indigo and saffron with sea-green, and the astrolabe's brass craft.
| Line | Who | Look |
|---|---|---|
| The Astrolabists | savants: astronomers, natural philosophers and apothecaries | scholars' robes and layered head wraps, books and star charts, astrolabes and brass-ringed devices, flasks; learned, not craftsmen |
| The Hired Blades | contract swords of the port cities | lamellar and quilted coats under robes, sabres and falchions, round shields, the recurve bow |
| The Assassins | a secret order of killers bound by a rite of one of the faiths | dark wraps and veils, close-fitted, hidden blades, poison flasks and needles; a sect's cult, not magic |
library/middlesea/middlesea-looks-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Middle Sea (UNIVERSE §25)
Canonical for The three recruit lines, their common line, the astrolabe craft.
Not canonical for The belts of vials on every figure; speckled hems.
What it shows
"The Middle Sea — three lines": A the Astrolabists (a savant with a star-chart book raising an astrolabe fire device; an old apothecary with a green flask and mortar); B the Hired Blades (a veteran in scale lamellar with a sabre and brass-bossed shield; a young archer with a recurve bow); C the Assassins (two masked, veiled figures in black and indigo with curved daggers and poison vials).
library/middlesea/middlesea-line-astro-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Middle Sea (D-384, D-386)
Canonical for The Astrolabists as savants: robes, head wraps, books, astrolabe devices.
Not canonical for Belts of vials and brass tubes on all.
What it shows
"Middle Sea — the Astrolabists": a savant raising a fire astrolabe, an old apothecary with a green flask and mortar, a young astronomer with an armillary and star chart, a stout philosopher with a book and a frost astrolabe.
library/middlesea/middlesea-line-blades-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Middle Sea (D-384)
Canonical for The Hired Blades: armour under robes, sabres, shields, bow, spear.
Not canonical for The spearman's blond curls; the masked duellist, close to the Assassins.
What it shows
"Middle Sea — the Hired Blades": a veteran in scale with sabre and brass shield, a woman archer with a recurve bow, a heavy spearman in a quilted coat, a masked duellist with two blades.
library/middlesea/middlesea-line-assassins-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Middle Sea (D-384)
Canonical for The Assassins: masked wraps, daggers, poison, blowpipe.
Not canonical for Vials on every belt.
What it shows
"Middle Sea — the Assassins": a masked poisoner with a green flask, a crouching knife-fighter, a tall elder with a hooked blade, an initiate with a blowpipe; black and indigo with saffron sashes.
library/middlesea/middlesea-dress-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Middle Sea (D-384, D-386)
Canonical for Each line's garments, devices and weapons; the Assassins dark.
Not canonical for —
What it shows
"Middle Sea — dress by line": the savant front and back with head wrap, star-chart book, the fire astrolabe (glowing stone), an armillary, flask and mortar; the Hired Blade with scale lamellar, quilted coat, brass shield, sabre and falchion, recurve bow and quiver; the assassin in near-black and charcoal with the veil, daggers, needles, poison flask, blowpipe and darts; the common robe, sashes, head wraps, a filigree clasp.
library/middlesea/middlesea-portraits-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Middle Sea; portrait reference (VISUAL §1, D-081)
Canonical for How Middle Sea portraits look.
Not canonical for The grid set in a band of the canvas; the portrait library's format (OQ-A4).
What it shows
"Middle Sea — portraits": nine busts, one row per line — a savant with an armillary, an apothecary with herbs, an astronomer; a scarred veteran, a braided archer, a swordsman; three veiled assassins.
The Sunrise Realms
Several courts sharing a script and classics: river terraces, monasteries, examination halls. Chinese, Japanese and Korean sources alike; never one national look. Scholars and officers are sent west to study the Tower; the Collegium employs many. Faith: ancestor rites, temples, philosophy. Why they climb: orders, failed examinations, a masterless sword, a lost son.
- Silhouette: layered and geometric — cross-collared robes, wide sleeves, crisp lamellar.
- Head: topknots, wide or conical brimmed hats, flared helmets.
- Masses: a cross-collared robe; a broad sash; loose trousers or a pleated skirt.
- Arms: lacquered lamellar with coloured lacing; straight or curved swords, spear, glaive, tall asymmetric bow, repeating crossbow.
- Colour: black lacquer and cinnabar, deep blue, white, gold-brown lacing.
- Craft — the lacquered case: Tower stone sealed in lacquered tubes and cases, bound in silk cord, labelled with ink tags that never glow.
Added D-377, amended D-378, D-379 Lines. Every line mixes the Chinese, Japanese and Korean sources; a line is a way of life, not a nation. The common line is the cross-collared robe and broad sash, bound hair, the lacquer, silk-cord and ink-tag craft, and the black, deep blue and white palette with a cinnabar accent.
| Line | Who | Look |
|---|---|---|
| The Sworn | court officers and drilled soldiers | lacquered lamellar and studded coats, cinnabar lacing, flared helmets, brimmed hats |
| The Examined | scholar-officials and engineers sent west to study the Tower; as recruits, mage-type device-bearers (D-386) | pale layered robes, scholars' hats (the wide black brimmed hat among them), brush cases, lacquered projectors |
| The Searovers | sailors, raiders and smugglers of the coasts and islands | sea-worn coats and wraps, wide conical straw hats, sashes, short blades and boarding weapons |
library/sunrise/sunrise-looks-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Sunrise Realms (UNIVERSE §25)
Canonical for The Sworn and the Examined; the common line; the lacquer, silk-cord and ink-tag craft. Pair C is superseded: the Wanderers became the Searovers (D-379).
Not canonical for The scholar's round wire spectacles; the Wanderer woman's sword guard, which leans Japanese (Yui carries a jian, ../records/Yui/BRIEF.md).
What it shows
"The Sunrise Realms — three lines": A the Sworn (black lamellar with cinnabar lacing, a young archer with a tall bow, an officer in a wide lacquered hat); B the Examined (a scholar in pale layered robes and the wide black brimmed hat with scrolls and a writing box, an older engineer with a lacquered frost projector); C the Wanderers (a woman after Yui: navy coat, cream robe, crimson sash, bun; a wanderer in a straw hat).
library/sunrise/sunrise-line-sworn-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Sunrise Realms (D-377, D-378)
Canonical for The Sworn line: mixed-source armour and dress, the common line.
Not canonical for The four's sameness of build and armour; no helmets (see the dress catalogue).
What it shows
"Sunrise Realms — the Sworn": a young archer with a tall bow, a grizzled officer with a war fan, a heavy-set glaive bearer in scale, a messenger with sealed scrolls; lacquered lamellar with cinnabar lacing over layered robes with mountain-pattern borders.
library/sunrise/sunrise-line-examined-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Sunrise Realms
Canonical for The Examined line: scholars' dress and hats, the engineer's lacquered device.
Not canonical for The surveyor's blonde curls (the realm is East Asian, §25); the examiner's wire spectacles.
What it shows
"Sunrise Realms — the Examined": an old scholar with a writing box and brushes, a young engineer with the lacquered frost projector, a heavy-set surveyor with a sighting staff and maps, an examiner with a document case; pale layered robes, winged and tall court caps.
library/sunrise/sunrise-line-searovers-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Sunrise Realms (D-379)
Canonical for The Searovers line: natives of the coasts at home, their dress, weapons and sea craft.
Not canonical for The ragged, pale-spotted hems, which sit close to the climbers' pale (§39): a native's wear is salt and sun, not Tower dust.
What it shows
"Sunrise Realms — the Searovers": a woman captain with a drawn sabre and a lacquered spyglass case, an old helmsman with a pipe, a heavy-set raider with a boarding hook and a broad blade, a young smuggler with a lacquered chest; straw hats, head cloths, straw sandals, wave-pattern borders, ship's rope.
library/sunrise/sunrise-dress-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Sunrise Realms (D-377–D-379)
Canonical for Each line's garments, helmets and hats; the common line's craft.
Not canonical for —
What it shows
"Sunrise Realms — dress by line": front and back of each line with detail crops — the Sworn (lamellar, lacing, shoulder and shin guards, four helmets), the Examined (robes, four hats, writing box, brush roll, document case), the Searovers (straw hat, head-cloth knot, spyglass case, rope, boarding hook, a sabre beside its scabbard); the common robe laid flat, sash and silk-cord knots, ink tags, a lacquered case, hair bindings.
library/sunrise/sunrise-portraits-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Sunrise Realms; portrait reference (VISUAL §1, D-081)
Canonical for How Sunrise portraits look: natives at home, the three lines at bust scale.
Not canonical for The portrait library's format (OQ-A4); no helmet on the Sworn (see the dress catalogue); faces too young and alike in the first two rows; the grid set in a narrow band of the canvas.
What it shows
"Sunrise Realms — portraits": nine hand-drawn busts in a 3 × 3 grid, a row per line — the Sworn (lamellar with cinnabar lacing, topknots and red cords, an officer in a lacquered war hat), the Examined (the wide horsehair hat, a winged official's cap, an inked scholar with spectacles and a brush), the Searovers (a straw hat over a head cloth, an old helmsman with a pipe, a grinning scarred smuggler).
The Red Earth
Old kingdoms and trading cities along a great river and the savanna's edge: gold and salt roads, horse lords in the dry north, forest kingdoms in the south. Iron-working is an old and sacred craft; Tower stone threatens it, so its smiths come to master the new material first. Faith: many gods and the ancestors, beside a one-God faith in the trading cities; both honour the smith. Why they climb: craft, rank and trade.
Amended D-440 The look below replaces the Benin-led look of D-367 and
D-385–D-388. Master: ../art/references/library/redearth/redearth-dress-002.png.
- Look: several sources mixed in every line, as the Sunrise Realms mix theirs; a line is a way of life, not a nation. The Sahel empires lead (Mali and Songhay: the river, Timbuktu's scholars, Djenné's mud brick, the horsemen), with Kanem-Bornu and the Hausa states (quilted cotton armour and mail), the Benin forest kingdom (cast brass in raised relief, coral) and the East African herder-warriors (the rungu, the draped blanket, beaded headbands). Designed, not reconstructed; medieval.
- Real clothes, not costume: cut and sewn garments, layered, worn and mended, most of the body covered. No bare torsos, no fantasy kilts, no brass plates worn as armour.
- Silhouette: wide robes (the boubou), smocks and draped blankets over drawstring trousers or wrapped cloths.
- Head: turbans, head wraps and veils; beaded headbands over long thin braids; iron helmets wound with a turban; close cast-brass-and-coral caps. Never a Greek or Roman crest.
- Masses: the robe or smock, the draped blanket with a woven border, the quilted coat or vest; leather amulet packets sewn on clothes or hung on cords; red leather boots or sandals.
- Arms: long spears, straight swords in red leather sheaths, the rungu (a hardwood throwing club), throwing irons, short bows, iron claws.
- Colour: indigo, undyed white, earth ochre and mud brown, madder red, red-dyed leather; blackened iron and some brass; coral and amber beads. Woven borders and stripes, never checks.
- Craft — set like a gem: forged blackened iron and cast brass with raised relief, the Tower fragment set in it like a stone in a ring.
Added D-385, amended D-386–D-388, replaced D-440 Lines. The common line is the robe or smock over trousers, the draped blanket, turbans, wraps and beaded headbands, the amulet packets, the indigo, white, ochre and madder palette, and iron and brass setting stone like a gem.
| Line | Who | Look |
|---|---|---|
| The Riders | the realm's warriors and horsemen | quilted cotton armour in bold panels of madder red, ochre, indigo and white, mail beneath for the richer, an iron helmet wound with a white turban and a veil (or a cast-brass-and-coral cap), a draped blanket or a long robe over it, red leather boots; long spears, straight swords, the rungu |
| The Marabouts | scholars, teachers and holy men and women, and the realm's casters | vast white boubous with indigo embroidered borders and indigo shawls, white turbans and veils, prayer beads, manuscript satchels and writing boards, rows of leather amulet packets; each carries a Tower-stone device in iron and cast brass (a censer-bowl, a caged rod, a flask, a hand-frame) |
| The Donso | sworn hunters' brotherhoods of four lodges (the lion, the leopard, the hyena, the crocodile); fast close fighters | mud-cloth hunters' tunics (brown and cream) sewn with amulet packets, head wraps, loose trousers; the lodge's pelt worn on the shoulder, the animal's head with it (a lion's mane and head, a leopard's pelt with a leopard-trimmed cap, a spotted hyena's collar, crocodile hide), never a hood over the face; iron claws worn on the hand, broad short blades, short bows, throwing irons, nets |
library/redearth/redearth-dress-002.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Red Earth (UNIVERSE §25)
Canonical for The realm's look: the common line, the three lines' dress, the details.
Not canonical for Three of the four devices' stones (the cold rod, the poison flask, the light frame): drawn glassy; Tower stone is opaque masonry (tower-tech §1), as the censer's is.
What it shows
The Red Earth's master (D-440): "Red Earth — dress by line": the Riders front and back (quilted coat in red and white panels over mail, turban and veil on an iron helmet; crops of the helm, a braided woman in a beaded headband, a brass-and-coral cap, the quilting, a red-sheathed sword, a spear head, the rungu, a bordered indigo blanket); the Marabouts front and back (white boubou with indigo borders and shawl; turban and veil, beads, satchel, writing board, amulet packets, four devices); the Donso front and back (mud-cloth tunics, a lion's head and mane on the shoulder; the four lodges' pelts, claws, blade, bow, net, a mud-cloth study); Common (indigo smock, white boubou, trousers, quilted vest, bordered blanket, turbans, veils, head wraps, beaded headbands and braids, amulet packets, beads, red boots, sandals, woven borders). Chosen by the owner 2026-10-07 (../records/RedEarth/, dress 003).
library/redearth/redearth-lines-mixed-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Red Earth (D-440)
Canonical for The common line across the three lines.
Not canonical for The Marabout man's staff stone (a crystal); the woman Marabout's lantern (the Chaplain's).
What it shows
The first sheet of the new look: three pairs, the Riders, the Marabouts and the Donso (then "the Leopard Society": a lion pelt and a leopard pelt), each mixing the realm's sources.
library/redearth/redearth-line-riders-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Red Earth (D-440)
Canonical for The Riders. The Sapper (humans/character_master_sapper_001.png) is one of them.
Not canonical for —
What it shows
"Red Earth — the Riders": a heavy rider in a quilted red-and-white coat over mail, turban and veil on the helmet; a young woman rider in a quilted vest, beaded headband and braids, a rungu at her hip; a grey veteran in an indigo blanket and a Benin brass-and-coral cap; a scout with a rolled blanket and throwing irons.
library/redearth/redearth-line-marabouts-002.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Red Earth (D-440)
Canonical for The Marabouts and their devices' forms.
Not canonical for The stones in the cage, the flask and the frame (glassy).
What it shows
"Red Earth — the Marabouts": an old scholar with a hot censer-bowl, a teacher with a caged cold rod, a veiled wanderer with a poison flask, a student with a luminous hand-frame; white and indigo robes, turbans, satchels, books, amulet packets.
library/redearth/redearth-line-donso-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Red Earth (D-440)
Canonical for The Donso and their lodges; the head on the shoulder (owner).
Not canonical for —
What it shows
"Red Earth — the Donso" (drawn as "the Leopard Society", renamed by the owner): four lodges in mud-cloth tunics sewn with amulets, horns and cowries: the lion (the animal's head and mane on his shoulder, claws, a broad blade), the leopard (a woman, pelt and leopard-print wrap, a bow), the spotted hyena (an elder, a pelt collar, a throwing iron), the crocodile (a youth, hide bracer, net and barbed spear).
The Footfolk
Added D-370–D-372 The people born at the Tower's foot, in Lowerreach: every
realm's blood mixed, the trade tongue native. Their look is invented from the
Tower, with no real-world model. Amended D-375 The concept is
../art/references/library/footfolk/footfolk-looks-001.png, and all three of its looks are
Footfolk: each is a line (a profession, a family or a clan), and they share
a common line that makes them one people:
- the lineage of height stones strung across the chest;
- long, layered coats over tall boots and wide belts;
- the stone's palette — ivory, slate, charcoal, ink — with one deep accent;
- fitted stone at the clasps, buttons and tools.
| Line | Look | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Tower-cut | blocky: rectangular panels like dressed blocks, square shoulders, stepped cornice tiers, ivory and slate (D-374) | the Guild's officials and the old families; a reference for the realm, not a recruit line (D-386) |
| Lettered | layered parchment, ink and umber coats, scroll cases, lenses, notebooks, instruments | clerks, scholars, record-keepers; as recruits, mage-type device-bearers (D-386) |
| Fitted stone | restrained, close-cut dark cloth; the showpiece is stone that fits its setting, and stone-built devices (D-373) | the makers; recruits with their stone-built devices (D-386) |
- Masters of the city. The Guild governs Lowerreach, and most of its offices are held by Footfolk. They run the Tower's economy: the offices, the workshops, the inns and the salvage yards. Knowing the Tower and the trade, they take the work that is light and well regarded, and leave the heavy, looked-down-on work, above all portering, to foreigners (§12).
- Keepers of heights. A family keeps its dead's height stones, strung together as a lineage; a Footfolk wears their ancestors' heights as well as their own.
- Added D-400 Names. With no real-world model, a Footfolk name is made from the city. The given name is a clipped blend of the realms' names, as the trade tongue would shape it (Mirei, Vessa, Tobek, Kenno). The family name is the height the lineage began at: the floor its first climber earned a stone on, spelled out and kept whatever later members reach (Mirei Thirty-Eight, Tobek Nine). A low number marks an old family, and numbers repeat between families, as a people ranked by height would repeat them.
- Knowledge is power. The Cartographers' culture shaped them: information is power, so education is too. Where many newcomers are unschooled, the Footfolk are lettered and proud of what they know.
- Stone is ordinary to them, and still precious. They have gathered it for generations and know it better than anyone, so they use it in advanced ways.
- Craft — the fitted piece. To the Footfolk the most valuable stone is not the biggest but the piece that fits its tool perfectly. Having collected for longest, they kept the best-fitting pieces for themselves. Nothing is cut (§14): the fit comes from choosing, among more found fragments than anyone else has seen. Their makers' devices are the most sophisticated and the most modern-looking Tower tech in the world. Amended D-373 Modern here means built of Tower stone, not of steel: where the realms hold a fragment in a metal housing, a Footfolk device is an assembly of fitted stone pieces, found to fit one another, with only the thinnest human joinery (pins, cord, a sliver of metal). Amended D-374 It stays medieval fantasy: no articulated grippers, jointed claws or machine-like mechanisms, nothing that reads as science fiction. Each piece keeps its broken faces and irregular outline; the precision is in how the pieces lock together, never in neat, smooth parts. Their dress is blocky: garments built of rectangular panels like dressed blocks, square shoulders and stepped, cornice-like tiers, the Tower's own masonry worn as a cut. Amended D-375 That is the Tower-cut line; the Lettered and Fitted-stone lines are cut their own way.
Faith has turned toward the Tower. Each realm brings its own faiths, and the old faiths have begun to reinterpret the Tower: whether it is holy, cursed or neither is argued in every temple and never settled (§2). Amended D-313 The four views are §34. Shrines, brothers, pilgrims and rites belong to these ordinary human faiths. Whether their rites work is not a question: they are comfort and custom, not magic.
library/footfolk/footfolk-looks-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (UNIVERSE §25)
Canonical for The three Footfolk lines and their common line (D-375); pair A is the blocky cut (D-374).
Not canonical for The lineage of height stones, which shows as one or two stones where it should be a string of several tones (§25); C's metal ring housing, where Footfolk devices are stone-built (D-373); brass instruments as Footfolk tech.
What it shows
"The Footfolk — three looks": three pairs, each a Guild official and a maker. A: Tower-cut (stepped, layered ivory and slate panels, navy accent). B: Lettered (parchment and ink coats, scrolls, a brass armillary, an apron). C: Fitted stone (dark close-cut cloth, stone buttons and clasps, a ringed stone device).
library/footfolk/footfolk-line-towercut-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (UNIVERSE §25, D-374, D-375)
Canonical for The Tower-cut line: its cut, borders, palette and people; mixed faces; the lineage string's place across the chest.
Not canonical for The stones, drawn as faceted white crystals (Tower stone is rough, dull, broken masonry in mixed tones, §14; see climbers-height-stones-001.png).
What it shows
"Footfolk — the Tower-cut line": a Guild official with a ledger, an old-family patriarch with a cane, a young heir, an innkeeping matron with stone keys; layered stepped capes and hems, borders on every edge, ivory and slate with navy, oxblood, green and madder accents.
library/footfolk/footfolk-line-lettered-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (D-375)
Canonical for The Lettered line: its coats, cases, props and people.
Not canonical for The faceted crystal stones, as above; the brass scroll tubes as a Footfolk craft.
What it shows
"Footfolk — the Lettered line": an old archivist under scroll cases, a young clerk with a quill and board, a heavy-set scholar reading, a record-keeper with a lens; parchment, ink and umber coats, scroll quivers and cases, ink-stained hands.
library/footfolk/footfolk-objects-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (UNIVERSE §25, D-372–D-374)
Canonical for The lineage string; Footfolk jewellery; the fitted piece as found fragments locked together; Tower stone drawn right.
Not canonical for The loupe's single curved piece, which reads carved.
What it shows
"Footfolk — stone jewellery and fitted pieces": lineage strings of mixed-tone chips (cord, leather, chain with gold spacers, one worn on a bust), clasps and buttons, rings and pins, fitted pieces (a device of fragments locked and pinned, a two-tone signet, a loupe), tools (a plumb weight, a rule and square set with stone, trays grading chips by tone).
library/footfolk/footfolk-dress-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (D-373–D-375, D-386)
Canonical for Each line's dress; the Lettered's and Fitted stone's devices and weapons; the lineage string's tones.
Not canonical for Faint device glows (only the fire wand shows heat).
What it shows
"Footfolk — dress by line" (redrawn 2026-10-01): Tower-cut front and back with layered capes, stepped hems and three accent head-wraps; the Lettered front and back with scroll cases and four casting devices of fitted stone; the Fitted stone front and back as fighters with the gauntlet, hand-cannon, launcher, shield and blade; common boots and stone-buckled belts; a lineage strip of seven stones in mixed tones.
library/footfolk/footfolk-headwear-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk
Canonical for The hats; the sorter's dust mask; the busts.
Not canonical for The spectacles (brass frames with stone stuck on, D-373; see the spectacles sheet); the flat ceremonial mask and visor, which read as headbands; single height stones on the busts.
What it shows
"Footfolk — stone eyewear, masks and hats": spectacles, masks, hats (a cap ringed with fitted chips, a brim that is one curved archivolt fragment, a tall cap with a stone crest, a maker's cap with a moulding visor), four busts wearing them.
library/footfolk/footfolk-spectacles-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (D-376)
Canonical for Footfolk spectacles, monocles and masks: one found stone, unequal openings, worn on mixed faces.
Not canonical for The openings, drawn as neat drilled holes where they must be openings the architecture already had (§14); the floating of buoyant pairs, which is not shown (no gap above the nose).
What it shows
"Footfolk — spectacles and masks": six heads wearing spectacles, each pair also drawn alone — one irregular broken stone with two unequal openings side by side (round and square, round and arched), glass in thin gold rims, most without arms, one tied with cord, one a monocle on a chain; three heads wearing masks (an official's across the upper face, a sorter's dust mask with a cloth filter, an old maker's visor), each also drawn alone.
library/footfolk/footfolk-portraits-001.png 1312 × 1199
Fills Library: Footfolk; portrait reference (VISUAL §1, D-081)
Canonical for How Footfolk portraits look: mixed faces, the three lines at bust scale, the lineage string.
Not canonical for Use only its top two rows (Tower-cut, Lettered); its Fitted-stone row shows makers, superseded by footfolk-portraits-002.png (D-386). The portrait library's format, framing and tags (OQ-A4); two faces (red-haired, blonde) that read closer to one people; metal rims on the monocle and loupe.
What it shows
"Footfolk — portraits": nine hand-drawn busts in a 3 × 3 grid, a row per line — Tower-cut (layered ivory collars, navy, green, oxblood accents, an old patriarch), Lettered (ink-stained hands, scrolls, stone spectacles, a monocle), Fitted stone (aprons, a stone-visor cap, a dust mask under the chin, a loupe); every bust with a lineage string.
library/footfolk/footfolk-portraits-002.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk; portrait reference
Canonical for Its bottom row only: Fitted-stone fighters at bust scale.
Not canonical for Its top two rows (use footfolk-portraits-001.png: better-mixed faces).
What it shows
"Footfolk — portraits" (redrawn 2026-10-01): its bottom row is the Fitted stone as fighters (the glowing gauntlet, the sparking hand-cannon, the frost launcher).
library/footfolk/footfolk-recruits-lettered-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (D-373, D-374, D-386)
Canonical for The Lettered as recruits; Footfolk casting devices of rough fitted fragments bound with cord.
Not canonical for The softened cut (stepped capes and borders, see looks 001); brass scroll tubes; the blonde clerk's face.
What it shows
"Footfolk recruits — the Lettered": mage-type device-bearers — a woman with a fire wand and a book, an old scholar with a frost staff and an open book, a heavy clerk with a sparking charged stone, a bespectacled record-keeper raising a luminous stone; scroll cases and notebooks.
library/footfolk/footfolk-recruits-fitted-001.png 1536 × 1024
Fills Library: Footfolk (D-373, D-374, D-386)
Canonical for The Fitted stone as fighters; the most modern-looking Tower tech, still fitted stone bound with cord.
Not canonical for Brass bands on the hand-cannon's breech (D-373); one-tone lineage strings; faces that mix too little.
What it shows
"Footfolk recruits — the Fitted stone": fighters in close-cut slate and charcoal coats with ivory layers and fine borders — a woman with an orange-hot gauntlet of fitted fragments, a man with a pistol-shaped sparking hand-cannon, an older woman with a rifle-like frost launcher, a young man with a tall fitted shield and a jagged stone blade.