I stole the Necrognomicon

Radu of Bistritz

Radu is the Vampiric Prince of Bistritz. Transylvania by Night tells us that he is of Szekely descent... something that his Tzimisce brethren look down on-them being of "pure" Vlacho-Dacian "stock". He is also described as being foppish.

Now, I'm not sure what can qualify as foppish in the 12th century -the time period where rich people clothes were heavily ornamented and were complimented with fine jewelry by default.

For Radu, I wanted to give him a more Wallachian look, as I do imagine him being insecure about coming off as a Szekely. The coat and sash/cummerbund are more stereotypically eastern European, but the hat is distinctively Wallachian. We have accounts from mid-16th century describing the clothing of the Moldowallachian light cavalry on the Sultan's service. The cavalry men were minor nobility and a lot of them could afford to wear bee hive shaped hats made from lynx's furr, often adorned with feathers.

Abraham de Bruyn ~ 1585

Abraham de Bruyn ~ 1577

(https://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2023/06/wallachian-calarasi.html?m=1)

The feather on Radu's hat is supposed to be an ostrich feather, since an ostrich is depicted in Bistritz's coat of arms... But as I was very tired when sketching I thought it was a stork instead and thus drew a stork's feather >_<

Pls retcon it in your mind :')

The medallion he wears, is based on reconstructions of the medallion worn by the members of the chivalric order of the dragon. The only difference being, that the dragon is eating its tail, like the emblem of the Tzimisce clan.

Trakai History Museum, Trakai, Lithuania

Tiberiu

Tiberiu is Radu's messenger. In both TbN and TC, it's stated that Tiberiu wants to keep most of his identity a secret, so I won't reveal his secrets bc I don't want to spoil any new players [tho one can catch a couple of hints ;)]. Tiberiu likes wandering the countryside and seemingly doesn't invovlve himself in politics. At a first glance, Tiberiu looks like a well off peasant.

The sheepskin fur hat is called cușmă and the fur cloack is called sarică and he wears it on one shoulder when he needs to use his hand. Clothing usually worn by sheperds. The tunic he wears is knee-length so he wears padded chausses to protect his legs. He also wears studded leather boots.

Wallachian peasant~Dieudonné Lancelot, The Picturesque World, 1882

Wallachian carter~ Trachten-Kabinett von Siebenbürgen, 1692 (1729 reprint)

The chest ornament depicted is not Transylvanian or Moldavowallachian, but I thought it's approprietly gothic. It's based on the tsaprazi (τσαπράζι, çapraz: cross-shaped, crosswise), an ornament that was worn by peoples of Epirus and Macedonia -such as: Souliotes, Sarakatsani and Aromanians.

Late 18th century tsaprazi, Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, Athens, Greece