I'll try to do this justice, but I want to touch on medieval style clothing. Layered clothing is one of the nicer additions to Gemstone IV in the past few years. Surcoats tend to have a small pocket. Tabards tend to be decorative items over the chest.
A surcoat was usually worn with heavy armor from the 13th to 15th century. A tabard could have been work clothing and afforded extra padding as a short coat. Both are commonly seen as items with heraldry or organization symbolism.
Heraldry, for the purposes of this spotlight, is the key factor. In most instances a tabard or a surcoat are interchangeable in the public eye of portraying your symbols and affiliations, but are styled differently from one another.
Tabard's were popular in the later middle ages into the renaissance when surcoats were phased out as full armor became the standard for knights, as prior to that epaulets, arm greaves, bracers, etc were worn more piece mail.
In Gemstone IV both tabards and surcoats are worn to display loyalty to groups or nations so be sure to INSPECT (name of player) item to see the long description and better flesh out the intended look and feel for many characters who wear these type of items.
FIREPHOENIX
MAZEIKISJ
Re: Spotlight: Tabards and Surcoats
08/15/2016 05:50 PM CDT
I solve the SHOW problem by just altering with a LONG instead, personally, but yes, I do like this idea. Demeanor gets in the way a tic, but usually when RESERVED or COLD you can tell when someone's trying to peek. So you can always if you don't want people to see you SHOW it to them, just C&P the info in an OOC whisper YAAAYAYY
Personally, considering the technological advancements and crap in Elanthia, I consider the surcoat-over-armor sort of like a relic/vintage look. Dat Bristenn specifically does this because his armor wasn't originally forged for him, just retrofitted to fit his different frame and build (which is still pretty close to who was slated to be the original owner), and to reflect his more old-fashioned perspective, since his armor could feasibly also be worn alwyte (he just prefers the surcoat).
Also a term to be aware of- alwyte, or white armor, is the term for when a harness of plate-and-maille generally became basically full plate, worn without a surcoat or jupon or other covering. The garments that bore the armsman's personal sigil/device evolved with the armor of the time until they were no longer necessary. As after the surcoat over maille transitioned into the tabard/jupon over plate-and-maille, over time more and more plate was added to the harness. Which isn't to say everyone simply upgraded at once- transitions in armor (in tandem with advances in weaponry) happened over gradual periods. So one could imagine your pauper knight in the early 1400s still wearing a tabard over his maille hauberk while some of his wealthier peers being able to afford a full harness of plate armor. rambleramble
The big plus of GSIV's random breakfast hash of genres, though, is that even in say the Turamzzyrian Empire, some cultures would still be using bone and wicker (Tehir), some still wearing maille and surcoats (less affluent provinces, like say Oire and its earthier bumpkin sort of situation that sees a lot of peaceful periods), and others in the greatest technological achievements in armor of the day (particularly in the more affluent/closer to the capitol provinces). And everything and anything inbetween, due to wealth distribution, class of soldier, etc etc ramble
-james, bristenn's player
Personally, considering the technological advancements and crap in Elanthia, I consider the surcoat-over-armor sort of like a relic/vintage look. Dat Bristenn specifically does this because his armor wasn't originally forged for him, just retrofitted to fit his different frame and build (which is still pretty close to who was slated to be the original owner), and to reflect his more old-fashioned perspective, since his armor could feasibly also be worn alwyte (he just prefers the surcoat).
Also a term to be aware of- alwyte, or white armor, is the term for when a harness of plate-and-maille generally became basically full plate, worn without a surcoat or jupon or other covering. The garments that bore the armsman's personal sigil/device evolved with the armor of the time until they were no longer necessary. As after the surcoat over maille transitioned into the tabard/jupon over plate-and-maille, over time more and more plate was added to the harness. Which isn't to say everyone simply upgraded at once- transitions in armor (in tandem with advances in weaponry) happened over gradual periods. So one could imagine your pauper knight in the early 1400s still wearing a tabard over his maille hauberk while some of his wealthier peers being able to afford a full harness of plate armor. rambleramble
The big plus of GSIV's random breakfast hash of genres, though, is that even in say the Turamzzyrian Empire, some cultures would still be using bone and wicker (Tehir), some still wearing maille and surcoats (less affluent provinces, like say Oire and its earthier bumpkin sort of situation that sees a lot of peaceful periods), and others in the greatest technological achievements in armor of the day (particularly in the more affluent/closer to the capitol provinces). And everything and anything inbetween, due to wealth distribution, class of soldier, etc etc ramble
-james, bristenn's player
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