[Originally posted on my Patreon ]

So last time we looked at Sacaask clothing via what some of our protagonists are wearing. This time around, I’m going to take a slightly different tack and look at a kind of clothing that hasn’t shown up in the story so far: wedding clothes.

Or, to be more specific, the kind of high formal traditional dress seen at a full Sacaask marriage ceremony, because Sacaan actually has two types of wedding: full marriages, and canvas pledges.

Canvas pledges are much more informal – no special clothing required, for one – but just as legally binding, and come about as a result of the Sacaask mercenary tradition, specifically marriages made on the eve of battle in mercenary camps (hence ‘canvas pledge’, since they’d be celebrated under canvas). As a result of their origins, canvas pledges are generally fairly simple in form: all participants in the marriage swear oaths to one another, witnessed by a chosen few trusted friends, then mingle their blood in a cup of wine to solemnise the union. In the case of canvas pledges that aren’t being made before a battle, everyone involved usually stays up late drinking and singing, and there might even be a boot dance or two if someone’s brought instruments along – none of these are requirements, however, and there’re plenty of canvas pledges that’re made quietly between the folks involved and one other person they trust and celebrated with a quiet toast, if that.

Full Sacaask marriages, on the other hand, are a good deal more loud, complex, and crowded, involving several days of ceremonies and gatherings and ritual, and culminating in a feast, a party, and (usually) everyone staying up until well into the next morning drinking and dancing. The thing that outsiders tend to comment on most frequently, however, are the clothes. Sacaask weddings are one of the few events where the really traditional formal clothing is still seen, and it’s a point of pride that, no matter how poor or humble your origins, your family can still clothe you properly for your wedding (for those who don’t have families, various of the temples traditionally step in to take that role).

Proper clothing, in this context, could best be described as ‘opulent’ (or, if you’re the person wearing it, ‘really bloody heavy’). Those who present feminine traditionally wear long dresses with heavily embroidered bodices and hems, as well as elaborate headdresses adorned with either glass beads or real gemstones depending on how wealthy their families are. Those who present masculine wear knee-length coats made from embroidered panels, which are often as heavy or heavier than the dresses and can quite seriously impede movement (hence the traditional presence of a fairly large number of heavily armed friends and relations to protect the happy couple/trio/etc if the wedding is attacked). 

Once you get past these overlayers, things become a wee bit less cumbersome, but there’re still traditions to be followed – certain colours of shirt or belt or underdress depending on what month you’re marrying in, additional pieces of jewellery or clothing if you’re from certain werewolf clans, specific ways to do your hair if you’re from some of the very old vampire families (or marrying into them) – and we’ve not even got to the whole rigmarole when it comes to what belt-knife you’re expected to wear (answer: if you were the one proposed to/you proposed to each other, you wear the knife you were given as a betrothal gift. If you don’t have a betrothal knife, you wear either one given to you by an elder or one you’ve in some way earned, and there’s a whole set of rules of precedence for which you wear if you’ve been given/earned more than one).

Often the dresses and coats worn by those getting married are family heirlooms, handed down from generation to generation, with each owner both repairing and adding to the embroidery. As such, particularly old examples of the garments can be seen as wearable historical documents or genealogies, with the embroidery charting the adventures and fortunes of the family down the ages (though a certain amount of Ship of Theseus is in play here, given the deterioration of cloth over time).

It should also be no surprise that, given the weight of cloth, embroidery, jewellery, and metal that most Sacaask newlyweds are laden down with, most weddings in Sacaan take place in the winter – trying to get married in full regalia in midsummer, even in Sacaan’s climate, is a good recipe for heatstroke. The actual marriage part of Sacaask weddings also traditionally happens at sundown, since that’s the time when Father Sun and Mother Moon are closest in the sky (and also a time of transition, symbolising stepping from one stage of life into the next), and, since sunset in the winter is early, that allows for a good deal more time to be spent at the celebration afterward.