I'm gonna post this wip here as well because idk when im gonna finish it...
This drawing was inspired by the old circassian corset tradition (which i'll be infodumping about under the cut)
Let me give you a little detail about this drawing because I love talking about circassian culture. Traditionally, circassian women were required to wear corsets from puberty until marriage. They wore it day and night. (Well ofc they changed the old corsets into clean ones but basically they wore it all the time) On the wedding night, the bridegroom initiated the consummation of the bond by cutting the laces of the corset one by one with a sharp dagger. This required high skill and any scar on the bride's body, no matter how small it is, brought great shame upon the groom. This procedure also helped showing how much self-control the groom has (haha)
I know everyone loves knifeplay with Abysswalker (me too) so it always reminded me of this tradition whenever i heard someone mention it lol. As circassians are mostly people in diaspora, Rafayel's story always makes me think of my culture and people, that's why i love drawing paralells between them. I think this tradition just fit Abysswalker and the princess but i might make a circassian backstory for my mc because it feels nice implementing things from myself to the story.
Here are some references to the circassian corsets. The one on the left is apparently a kabardian corset and the other 2 are back and front of adygean corset. I went with the kabardian corset even tho im abkzah because it got more reference like the pic above lol
The corset has been used for good posture, small waist etc but unlike european corsets (which have been a thing in caucasia for much longer than europe), circassian corsets restrict the chest area much more because small bosom was the beauty standart for them. The wood in the corset is a bit crazy,, so sad for the women who were required to wear those. Im not advocating for corsets but still, it's fun to learn about traditions like this and implement them to the fantasy genre
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