Sekka 2023 - Winterized (Reference Sheet)
It's my tiger rogue! 2023 version includes more integration with the cultural inspirations from traditional Thai and Japanese attire! You can read my thoughts under the cut!
It's been two months since the Guiding Lights have left the Underdark, and it's beginning to become Winter. This is the coldest climate Sekka has ever experienced in her life, and she decides to stop shaving her head, and let her hair grow out a bit longer. Since copper is sacred to her tribe (or "streak", or "clan"), someone must be deemed worthy before being given any copper to wear. It represents someone's trust, love, and loyalties, and removing someone else's copper (or just their jewelry in general) is seen as a major offense and grounds for self-defense; her streak views each piece of copper as a piece of themselves, inherited from someone that cares about them. The Guiding Lights' adventures in the Underdark had driven Sekka to the edge with the kinds of enemies they were facing. With new copper captured from what she deemed to be unworthy owners, she had commissioned some Dwarves to purify the metal and use it to create some new accessories for her to replace what she had given to her teammates (read as: "newfound family").
Here's what the old reference looked like:
Credits to @stephanoodle for the adorable and badass character art of Sekka <3
Looking at the new reference, there's a lot more that can be spoken about.
The ear ornaments are little filigree covers which support the back of her ears, held in by simple piercings. The filigree pattern itself is inspired by thai lineart, such as the kranok pattern.
Traditional Thai clothing also many times features a chain belt made of precious metals like gold. For Sekka, this metal would invariably be copper. I chose a rectangular pattern for the belt because I felt it could represent the silhouettes of people, bound together, like family. The belt centrepiece is a four-petal flower that follows the kranok inspiration.
The pants that she wears is actually just a chongkraben- a traditional Thai garment that when girded, becomes something akin to pants, but when ungirded and left loose, would create a skirtlike silhouette like the sarong. I added a pattern-cut hole through all layers of the chongkraben for a copper ring to be inserted, for her tail to slip through. I especially like this garment because most anyone can wear it, men, women, children, adults, and everyone in between. This indiscriminate clothing with the ability to change silhouettes at the simplest tug speaks a lot to my inner thoughts on Sekka. On the field she is efficient, deadly and brutal, exploiting anything in the vicinity to keep the enemy crippled. These last few months have given her time to reflect and realize that at the end of the day, she just wants to be a normal woman with normal needs, desires, fears, and dreams. I think the chongkraben is a subtle symbol for this duality which she has begun to confront.
Her shirt is also inspired by Thai raatpatan pattern shirts. It filled her need for something that reminded her of home, but also something that fits in both a practical and aesthetic sense.
The way she wears the shirt is inspired by Meiji-era Japanese clothing. I found it difficult to find many references for this mixing of cultures from an era that was trying to look forward to the future but also not wanting to forget where it came from. One source suggested it was called Syosei or Shosei style, where people of the gentry class who lived in the city would mix both modern western clothing and traditional clothing. I felt it created a very elegant and unique emotion in the outfit and wanted to incorporate that. This becomes especially apparent when she adds the grey kimono over the top of the shirt, tucked neatly under her chongkraben as if it were hakama.
Seeing as it was now Winter and beginning to snow, Sekka decides to take advantage of the spoils of combat that other mercenaries and adventuring groups have contributed to the market. Direwolf pelts and Remorhaz parts seemed perfect for winterizing her clothing. I chose to use the membrane and spines of a Remorhaz as the gaiters and mantle of her clothing as some light protection and waterproofing against the snow and rain. The Remorhaz spines within the membrane also offer a bit of structure similar to whale bones that the Europeans used to structure corsets.
The silhouette of the mantle (and loosely the body of the cloak) are inspired by the rice-straw cloaks worn in East Asia's history, for example, the mino.
In the group's adventures along the coast, they run into a shop selling hats. We had all decided to purchase hats to accompany a pirate themed ensemble since we were about to head to sea for the next leg of our journey. I immediately thought about the round hats we had back home that farmers would wear, and also about the Wokou pirates of Japan. I felt this was a ubiquitous enough shape to add to her, and I feel it adds quite a bit of edge and an enigmatic presence to the new design. Especially with the attitude of the angle she wears her hat.
Included in each diagram is also a notation for the amount of tail she had amputated from her backstory, and the reason her tailcap is present.
