Clorkworks

Where were we. Ah, yes, fabrics. I think I could spend an eternity here getting into several thousand variations of patterned fabrics. I'm only able to provide a tiny taster of the possibilities.

Disclaimer: I wanted to mix it up a little by drawing both Chimer and Dunmer. Furthermore the garments depicted should not be expected to be totally accurate I'm not doing a garment deepdive. If I did, I would get so much weirder with it. But I took way too long as it is to finish this post.

Also I didn't think super hard about character design really but couldn't help thinking up little descriptions for them.

With that settled lets jump in.

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A merchant's son hailing from Ald'ruhn.

Hey I said this isn't a garment deep dive but I wanted to note that the Chimer/Dunmer are big on both shoulder and waist accentuation. I think about that a lot. Anyway I am enamoured with the idea of a fabric inspired by the lava flows of red mountain. I imagine its a popular weave for those who live closer to it. This Dunmer lad also has a fondness for gold kanet flowers shown by his belt embroidery.

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A rising star devotee found in a house Hlaalu member.

I wanted to exemplify a high ranking Azuran priestess. High saturation fabrics are quite labourious to make after all.

Sunset fabrics are hands down the most coveted right next to blue. The patterns I also imagine are block printed. Also I was thinking about the colour scheme and... Azura would have loved Lisa Frank so much.

^ This is what moonshadow looks like to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I feel like Azura fans would loooove the woven wheel stitch also

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She leads a Mephalan cult in secret. As dangerous as she is beautiful, especially when displeased.

I pretty much just ended up making one each for the good three in general I'll be real with you. I wouldn't say it's easy to make images for them because I feel like they have a propensity for wearing basically just armour. Also Mephala's sphere of influence. Well. yknow.

So like. I think abstract genitalia patterns. Or idk. Flat out genital representations. Probably a thing. Irl humans have been doing it since forever already anyway. Pussy fabrics lets go

On the side though do you think the dunmer would get into bobbin lace or crochet lace as like. an extension of Mephalan influence?

Not featured here but nodded to in her tattoos is that nightshade flowers would be a huge influence as well.

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His strength an agility will lead him to victory. Your blood will be spilt in Boethiah's name.

When your favoured daedric prince wants you to do ritual combat in his/her honour and is mostly excited by the amount of deaths and bloodshed. I doubt many material possessions matter all that much. In any case I think triangles would be a very common motif in many fabrics given how important the three/the tribunal(eventually) are to life.

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Adventure awaits him in the city. As long as he remembers to come home with what his mother asked for.

I hit the fucking ground when I think about how especially children would love motifs of Morrowind fauna. This Chimer child has silt striders on his outer tunic and a guar on his purse. The shape isn't very clear but I also wanted to add a coda flower. Design alert!!! Notice the pin tucks also. They'll be let out as the kid grows. And to me just one of many things that'd can be reminiscent of mushroom gills if used right.

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This well off daughter sits for her first painting with many luxuries surrounding her.

And this baby has another example of mycological mimicry. I think Dunmer would get real into pleats of all kinds. They would eat that up. especially knife pleats I think

Also I think one of the ways cliff racer plumes would be used is definitely for shoulder accessories.

Getting Funky With It - Part one (1)

Things are stabilizing. Well, there's some issues with the neighbours but that will be temporarily resolved in a while from now. Anyway.

Decoration is a serious matter. While decoration can reveal personal details and status, uniting under a style is also important.

Two clades stand before us. Embellishment, and dyes/patterned weaving. We do have to consider practicality. Heavy embellishment will always be considered for upper class or ritual dress. You're not going out into the wilds today with delicate beetle wing embroidery (if you don't know about this look it up it's gorgeous) draped all over you.

Still though everyone likes a little bit of luxury so even if your pockets are emptier than a nord's brain. Dyed fabrics, simple woven patterns, and amateur embroidery are accessible yet.

__________________________________________________ Based on existing media we already have an idea of what dyes are accessible but I wanted to dig in to the potential sources of such colours.

Notes:

I did not list any giant mushrooms because dyeing is already laborious. Unless its already being chopped down for other reasons I don't think its practical to cut down what is essentially a whole ass tree for dye. Unless its a well staffed dye house that has the facilities to process it for a large batch dye.

I do also imagine that by proximity to other regions such as Skyrim and Black Marsh... plus more open trade by 3rd era there would be greater selection but this list is already long.

While some of these are obvious based on the colour of the flower, the rest are just vibes based so feel free to debate with me.

Also these colours are going to be wildly dependent on concentration and mordant I'm just ballparking it. Some might not even be viable based on ease of harvesting but I'm listing it all anyway for options~

Greens won't be listed because most plants you can probably extract some kind of green out of the leaves and the list is already asking you if you love the colours of the sky.

There may also be a couple more plants that could be added to the list. But, are only listed on the wiki as "found in ESO" with no geographical information so those are a mystery left to a video game botanist.

Ashen fern (eso) - a weak blue

Ashflower tree (eso) - red brown

Bat bloom (eso) - purple

Bittergreen petals - red

Black Anther - purple

Black Lichen - May be a source for an almost black colour. Lichens are bug fuck crazy though when it comes to dyes honestly

Black rose - It's like 2 pixels. A dark colour of some kind but bonus points for being sacred to Azura.

Bloodtooth toadstool - No evidence to support this but to me it feels like it'd be a dookie puke yellow

Blue enteloma (eso) - pale blue grey

Bugloss (eso) - pale purple/blue

Bunglers bane - probably can get some browns out of this

Buttercake mushrooms (eso) - cream yellow

Caldera mushrooms (eso) - yellows and oranges

Cherry blossom (eso) - pale pinks, oranges, purples <- varietal dependent

Coda flower- they do have a blueish colour but intuitively I don’t think it’d be a very strong dye.

Comberry - berries stain that’s how it is. Pinks and reds galore but won’t be colourfast and go brownish.

Cornflower (eso) - definitely blue

Fire petal - orangey. A bit hard to come by. So expensive. But maybe alchemical effects of resist fire will pass onto fabric?

Gold kanet, Nirthfly stalks and golden sedge - both are getting you yellows. based on vibes though golden sedge is a little more greenish yellow

Gold lichen - Yellow. Maybe

Green lichen - could be fucking anything I swear lichens are insane

Heather - some more pinky purples

Holly berries (solstheim) - another red berry thank you

Horn lily bulb - some more purple

Hypha fascia - some more browns probably

Imp stool (eso) - yellow orange

Ink-cap mushroom (eso) - irl ink cap mushrooms have been used for ink so it stands to reason that it could potentially dye. Blacks and greys

Kwama cap (eso) - salmon orange

Lavaburst mushroom - Red brown

Spiny lloramor - idk what colour flower it has but whatever it is may be theoretically used.

Luminous russula - a weird blue grey

Milkcap (eso) - pale yellow

Mucksponge - pale yucky yellow green

Narsis peony (eso)- pink red

Noble sedge - purple again

Parasol lichen (eso) - Blue

Belladonna berries (solstheim) - purple berry stain

Red lichen - probably a source of a more true red

Roland’s tears - identical to gold kanet but probably would be fucked up expensive and sacred to make

Scathecraw - a dull red

Spongecap (eso) - buttter yellow

Stinkcap (eso) - much like inkcap mushrooms

Stoneflower - blue to periwinkle blue

Flowering sweetbarrel - orange

Timsa-come-by flowers - pink

Trama root - something in me says it’s another dull orangey red.

Violet coprinus - good range of purples to blues

Willow anther - pink

Wolfsbane (solstheim) - dark purple

For scrolling this far here's a fun fact I learnt. Cork bulb is used as a wood substitute.

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Now. Embellishment. Lots to explore.

I previously mentioned beetle wing embroidery. I mean. Come on. They would do something like that.

Speaking of beetles though. If bred for lustre maybe shalk carapace can be used to cut out sequins from. Perhaps also the wings? (if they have them) under the elytra can be stiffened with resin and used as a design feature in a garment.

Metal sequins would have likely become a thing as well as slaughterfish scale sequins. Wood, metal and bone beads wouldn't be hard to come by either.

Applique and embroidery motifs would be probably be based on plants, creatures, religious iconography and representations of the landscape. Plus any favoured geometric shapes. *More on this in part 2

Are there birds in Morrowind??? Maybe? Maybe feathers?? But also cliff racer plumes.

"Racer plumes from the native bird-like cliff racer are used locally and throughout the Empire as decorations for garments and household goods."

My thoughts about these is that the plumes wouldn't have normal feathers. More like emu feathers or something more like dinosaur proto-feathers.

Hey can you imagine trying to visit a Telvanni lord who has a keen interest in breeding specialised cliff racers for plumes and entering the wrong fucking room.

Chimeri Resourcefulness

Now obviously only gods know what materials the Chimer were wearing before they arrived to Resdayn but they would have had to soon figure out brand new textiles to face the harsh landscape of Vvardenfell. Even if they had brought seeds with them they might not have taken at first.

Not all plants are suited to rich volcanic soil, or the salt levels coming in from the coast, PH could be entirely off, not to mention the ash wastes.

So what, theoretically, could they have used to clothe their growing colony?

Within Morrowind (2002) and ESO there are a select few options:

For the obvious real life analog we have cotton. Which according to ESO is found pretty much everywhere in Tamriel. However it is native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world in real life. So theoretically the southern half of Morrowind could support cotton production. But less so on mainland Vvardenfell I imagine.

There's more interesting fibers to think about however.

Kreshweed (Morrowind) "Kreshweed fiber is a resinous fiber with modest magical properties that comes from the coarse grass of the Grazelands and Azura's Coast called kreshweed." There is also a version of kreshweed in ESO which looks entirely different and is used as a clothing material. I prefer the Morrowind version but idk perhaps its just two different plants that just have the same name. Things like that do happen. The ESO one is probably a bast fiber.

But still I'd like to imagine this could be used for material. Looking at the plant itself I’ve tried to discern what part would be used for the fiber. It does have flower stalks which may have been used for a bast fiber but I could also posit that the leaves were processed much like pineapple leaf fiber.

Ash Reed (ESO) "A plant that thrives in wet, marshy volcanic soil by the ocean. Ashreeds have stiff, inflexible reeds that are typically woven together to protect one's head."

The description is self explanatory in that the fibers are woven for hat making and likely basketry. I imagine that it could also be used to make other crude garments and accessories. Processed it could be a workable fiber or at least a cordage material as well.

*Note: Marshmerrow leaf could also be used potentially for certain purposes? Though based on description its larger use would be for the culinary realm.

Blessed Thistle (ESO)

This wouldn't be a common commercial fiber I am just autistic.

Wiki says it can be found all over Tamriel which I am inclined to believe due to how invasive thistles can be irl. Personally I need to do some more experiments but I do know for a fact that thistle has cordage potential if processed. Thistle seed fluff has been played around with in the spinner's sphere as well though they are very short stapled and require finicky removal of seeds. Would need to be added to a fiber blend.

Potentially any number of other long stemmed plants in Vvardenfell could be used as a bast fiber but that'll come down to imagination.

Now I will note that ESO also has things like ancestor silk, void blooms, ironweed and etc as clothing materials. I'm putting my foot down. Would be too many options if native to Vvardenfell. 2nd era trade routes and negligent Telvanni wizards letting that shit escape captivity are to blame.

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While only textiles adjacent... Resdayn does have a wide selection of leather and pelt options though. Armour is interesting but armour isn’t necessarily textiles. Textiles can be involved. But sadly I can’t wistfully think about bug armour.

Kagouti, alit, and guar hides. Slaughterfish leather for accessories. Netch leather obviously as one of the reason's they are farmed. Rat pelts I guess. Daedra skins are also used already alchemically so why not. Also I imagine bear pelts wander in from near Skyrim or Solstheim.

Chimer would be weird enough to try mushroom leather but they wouldn’t have the industrial means to do so. Which to be fair a neighbouring race might be curious enough to try it. Looking surreptitiously at the Dwemer.

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Back to textiles though

The material that got me started into this thought hole.

Silk.

While Cyrodil is already known for its moth based silk production. I do think the residents of Resdayn would have taken on production of arachnid based silks. I mean... giant spiders wouldn't be impossible to find. Neighbouring regions have them aplenty. However, I propose. The Chimeri worship of Mephala could open… opportunities involving daedra silk.

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