I said I was taking requests for Firmament posts, and Vayra (after observing that hat culture in 2005 was fucked up, for semirelated reasons) inquired after a Firmament hat culture post.
Here is that post.
THE GRAND DUCHY OF DRAAD
Broad-brimmed hats are the standard in Draad, for anyone who likes to be anyone. Light-coloured, or light-coloured on the underside, they once suggested a solaresque halo. Among the well-off, these are felted, or made of expensive material, while among the ordinary population, they’re usually straw. Wealthy women sometimes attach a shoulder-length veil of translucent silk to the brim. The broad brims are a very iconic Dradian thing, and they have been wearing them for quite a long time, with the usual and expected shifts in fashion, and so forth. Currently, wearing feathery plumes is de rigeur, but a few decades ago, having a plumed hat marked you as a puffed-up fool or a brigand.
These types of broad-brimmed hat, with a slightly taller crown and a saffron-coloured band, have made the jump from Dradian to World-over as the hats of Captains in the Royal Army.
The children of ordinary subjects generally wear a small, brimless, bell-shaped hat, which is designed to be hardwearing, practical, and a blank canvas. Some people jokingly call this an eggshell or hatchling hat. Embroidery is a very highly-regarded skill in Dradian society, and children are encouraged to pick it up by decorating their own hats. Of course, the smaller-scale brimmed hats worn by children of the nobility are rapidly, densely covered with embroidery by the servants, to give the young master or mistress the appearance of diligence, intent and skill.
When Draad still had its many hilltop and island monasteries, the monks wore a squarish little hat, sometimes called a monk’s box, or a monkhelm hat. In the century leading up to the dissolution of the Dradian monasteries, the monkhelm gained about a foot of height, and the occasional white pom-pom, but before that, it was a low, small, humble sort of hat. Nuns at these institutions usually wore something like a heavy wimple. Modern Dradian Scribes sometimes affect monkhelms and wimples, although usually only in private, since you don’t want to wear a hat that makes you easy to identify and arrest on the street.
All across Draad, but especially in the great plains of Torni and Atiyong, headmen wear tall, broad-brimmed hats, with a sturdy band. This band is used to decorate the hats with freshly-harvested crops, when it’s possible, as a boast of agricultural productivity. A crown of wheat for the alderman - this tradition is believed to be very ancient. In places where the village has become a town, and the farmers have become artisans, the decorative crops have likewise become embroidery, or brass.
The stereotypical hat in the western Duchy of Iridia is the bycocket and relatives, or chapeau á bec, as an Iridian would call it. A little cap with a brim formed into a beaklike protrusion, they have the mien of a hunter or a poet, at a glance. Iridian fashion is popular at court at the moment, so a lot of young gentlemen, ladies and signatories are wearing bycockets and disdaining the old broad-brim as a fatherly, dour sort of hat.
The hats worn by the Idami, the people of the mountainous hinterland of Ida, are more similar to Magnite hats than to those of “other Dradians”, aside from the shared habit of agricultural decorations for village headmen.
THE DUCHY OF DEFIANCE (FORMERLY, SERIAS)
Coastal Seriasi (especially men) have picked up the Dradian habit of broad-brimmed hats, due to long centuries of trade and influence across the Seriasi Sea. All along the coast, it’s fashionable to pin up one side of the brim, and equip oneself with the brightest, most extravagant plume one could possibly find. Sometimes the Seriasi version has a tall, cylindrical crown. The most expensive variants are made of a see-through fabric mesh, also.
Most Seriasi women will wear a decorated couvre-chef, or kerchief, on their heads, usually to tie back long hair. Many will tail right down to the shoulders. It may be worn around the neck, tied off whichever way you please, if you have short hair.
As an aside - short hair is always associated with a dangerous profession, at least in the Kingdom-proper. In the civilian society of Draad, Serias, Saral Sar, Arumell and (to a lesser extent), Zzargod and Magnos, both men and women associate long hair with beauty. They cut your hair when you join the army, and soldiers who enjoy the life tend to keep it short from then on, resulting in particularly martial families having a reversed association, considering long hair a sign of lethargy and cowardice. People who are bounty-hunters, night watch, bandits, or hell, even serial duellists, may copy this martial coding.
In the big cities, especially Zulian and Rozendak, it’s traditional for those whose job is to work with money to wear a “coffer” hat - sort of ovoid, stiff, flat-topped and brimless, with space inside it, and two tassels to tie it on. Some people joke that it’s a form of security to store one’s purse inside one’s “coffer”, for no Seriasi would ever be so rude as to knock off another’s hat. Some people observe this joke became so common, they had to add tassels to keep the damn hats on.
On the ships which ply the Seriasi Sea, a broad-brimmed hat with a pinned-back brim is preferred by most - in the “bicorne”, “tricorne”, or “square-boat” forms. Hats created with the intent to be pinned back sometimes have a taller, sturdier crown, for a sort of head protection. Some even approach a sort of sugarloaf shape - someone called these tall examples “island hats”, and started putting wave-patterns on the underside that show when you pin up the brim.
On the inland steppes of Serias, the broad-brimmed hat is impractical for the fast-moving, horse riding fellow. Some wear couvre-chefs, but those disdaining these for reasons of machismo wear a jeździec, a tight-fitting, collapsible, soft and rounded cap, with a fabric “tail” to protect the neck.
Out in the montane south, especially in the towering peaks of the Far Mountains, a fur hat made from a whole fur-animal is a fashion-statement. Usually, the choice is raccoon, fox or coati, made so the animal’s tail hangs down the side or the back.
THE DUCHY OF SARAL SAR
Saral Sar shares the tradition of the couvre-chef with Serias, though over here it’s more capacious, (sometimes to the extent of being a headscarf), is worn in a wider variety of styles, and is an entirely gender-neutral garment (which, as you may assume, the masked actors love to use for gags and misunderstandings.) Atop peasant couvre-chefs, you will often find a sun-hat of woven straw or grass, but atop a noble couvre-chef, you may find small decorated hatlets, fancy bands, a circlet, an Iridian-style bycocket, or a cylindrical hat-of-honour. Sometimes, it is worn with a little rounded cloth “beak” that shades the eyes.
In Idári, they wear a sort of soft, round, flat-topped hat, occasionally with a pom-pom, pin, or short plume. The rest of the world creatively call it an Idári cap, and it would remain a footnote of fashion and history if not for its recent adoption as a sort of uniform by Defiant militias operating along the Defiance/Saral Sar border. They have thus become a revolutionary symbol, and escaped Idári to the east, north and south, like an invasive species. Duchess Serafin of Defiance has even been seen wearing one!
THE REPUBLIC OF ARUMELL
Hat culture has experienced an explosive shift since Arumell’s revolution began. Previously, an all-black version of a Dradian broad-brim was considered a thing to wear in polite society, but the hats have practically vanished overnight. Now, in the Defiant body which governs the newly-formed Republic, the Nova Senate, hats of a rustic and/or Kelkoran character have taken charge.
A few centuries ago, the black broad-brim was adapted into the walder hat. In paintings, you can see the slow transformation - every bit the brim narrows, the hat’s crown gets higher. Once the brim has become only an inch wide, and upturned in the back, the cane-reinforced walder is about the height of the wearer’s head. Sometimes they have a little pin in the front, sometimes this pin is replaced by an identifying medal, if the hat is a professional one. These are worn by serious gentlemen, skilled artisans, by foresters, by members of night watches and schutterijen, and by sergeants, ensigns and lieutenants in Arumite regiments.
Artisans, on the other hand, might wear a dome-topped hat with a downturned brim of sensible width, usually made of a heavy felt or similarly hardwearing material. These are called pratiques, and they’re usually undecorated.
Particularly rustic Arumite peasants in the deep forests and hilly interior wear a tall, pointed, even conical hat, with only a little upturned brim, if one at all. Rarely a proper stiff cone, it’s usually more of a suggestion of the shape. This hat is called an eleveur, and, once thoroughly banned from the city of Chelborc for their rustic character, they are now seen bobbing about the halls of the Nova Senate on Defiant heads. The eleveur is subject to wide mockery outside of Arumell, and defensiveness within it - out in Defiance and Draad, masked theatre troupes love to equip themselves with these, do their worst Arumite accent, and complain ‘ow saam-one ‘as go’tten into ze turneeps agayne!
Along the western side of Arumell, the hats become increasing Kelkoran as you approach the border.
THE HEPTARCHY OF MAGNOS
No taxonomy can quite capture the sheer evolutionary variety of the Magnite rain-hat - the most common one is wide, and flexible enough to be rolled up, but stiff straw constructions, resilient wide oiled caps, voluminous hoods, and the like, are often seen. In Kelika, some people wear sort of hooded rain-mantle with a peak, which is pushing the definition of hat, but, hey.
Any of the above may accompany the so-called Magnite cap, or headbag, a very simple ear-covering, tight-fitting hood with a pair of tassels to tie it off round the chin. This has a mien of modesty and earnest peasantry. Such a hood is not common among (what remains of) the Magnite nobility, who would prefer to wear hats in the style of their Zzargovi neighbours.
As for the Heptarchs, it is reported by some that they wear disturbing masks, or veils that shimmer like metal. Or a combination of the above. Or just a Dradian broad-brim, the boring bastards...
Of course, in Ayfen, where conditions are wintry year round, the hats are usually fur, or fur-lined hoods, much more like their Zzargovi neighbours.
THE BARONY OF ZZARGOD
Wrapped chaperons are the common headwear of the nobility of Inner Zzargod, or Ramuth as they call it. These are imitated within economic means by the common people, in the form of long-tailed hoods with chin-tassels.
In Outer Zzargod, under the cold northeast wind that always blows, a fur hat is preferred for the colder parts of the year. There are seemingly endless variations of the Zzargovi fur hat - earflaps, high crowns, low crowns, buttons to connect to your high collar, face-protectors, and the like. Meanwhile, the warmer parts of the year, an Outer Zzargovi might go for a chaperone or tailed hood, as appropriate to social class, or a Magnite rain-hat, or even, if they are a Baronial Secretary, or wish they were one, a Dradian broad-brim.
There are two kinds of nomad in Zzargod, the “dusk” nomads and the “grey”, and the only thing they have in common aside from their lifestyle are their hats. A “nomad hat” has a tough cylindrical crown, a stiff, thick brim, and (at the wearer’s discretion) a cloth “tail” attached within the brim to protect the neck. Dusk nomads tend to wear theirs with decorative pins and plumes. In the cities of Zzargod, they say the only decoration the grey nomads put on their hats are small blades sewn into the brims, for use in scuffles.
THE KELKORA REMNANT
Due to the variety of extant microcultures within the Kelkora Remnant, there is an equal, equivalent variety of extant micro-hat-cultures. The - the hats aren’t micro. To be clear. Unless otherwise specified. To cover all these hats would be the work of a milliners’ lifetime, and it has been. Here are some notable trends, though.
In the wide mountainous expanse of northern Kelkora, wide patterned headbands are the most common headgear, tied low behind the head. The style in which one wears them can convey a lot, as can how they are decorated. These headbands have (in reference to the martial reputation of the northerners) become standard headgear for the average Kelkoran soldier.
Along with the wide headband, the iconic cross-Kelkoran hats are: A cone-topped rain-hat with a slightly upturned brim (most Kelkorans consider these practical, but old-fashioned and embarrassing), a fur-lined winter hat with various decorations, and an ornamented headband with a tall upstanding section in front of or behind the head, worn by nobles. These have as many different names as there are towns in Kelkora.
In and around the old capital, Okiri, the current fashion is for a scarf worn tied up on the head, sort of like a chaperon. For the serious sort, plain cloth and without any “tails”, for the lighthearted, they are tailed and patterned. This only came in a few years ago, but Defiant soldiers are posing for portraits wearing them - with the captured broad-brims of Royal captains held in their hands. The Governor’s staff have learned to avoid anyone wearing a “tiger-striped” headscarf.
In Neydes, on the Arumite border, a Kelkoran cousin of the eleveur occupies heads, consisting of a shorter, woolier cone, along with a hat not dissimilar to the pratique, save its flat top.
In Udo (whose sub-culture is even more distinct from the rest of Kelkora’s), the most favourite festival headgear is a crown of living flowers or leaves, but when such a thing is unavailable, a “hat of petals”, made of many small cloth petals stitched to form a sort of shaggy lamellar cap, is resorted to. Many other Kelkorans find these things incredibly goofy, and even in Udo they go in and out of fashion regularly.
In Sillai, they wear a little brimless hat with a stiff band and a soft top. Usually brightly patterned. Creep south from there, into the area around Ythak, and the soft top becomes longer, flopping over to the side. South from there, in the lands called Uloriak, the cap’s soft top is even more capacious, and is worn off to the side of the head. Uloriak hats can be taken off and used as an excellent bag.
And in the old, sleepy town of Surek, anyone of high society wears a small, dome-shaped hat on the top of their head, kept in place with long strings and decorated with lake pearls. I suppose you could refer to it as a micro-hat.
THE ROYAL DEMENSE
In Aktia, northwest of the capital, the hats are black broad-brims, like the pre-revolutionary Arumites - for now, anyway. The monstrous eleveur, top-cone and dirty with potato mud, slouches inexorably towards Vanborc.
In Adria, northeast of the capital, the hats are exactly Dradian, aside from the towering cylindrical hats worn by village headmen, old-fashioned nobles, and local brigadiers, majors and generals of the army. These are sometimes decorated with circular gold medallions, or many hanging silver pieces - if you don’t know a silversmith, you can make do with silver talents with a hole put through them.
In Sana, south of the capital, the hats are a mix of Sarali and Seriasi. You might see a couvre-chef under a plumed broad-brim, or a frightening hybrid of the Idári cap and the jeździec referred to as a “Sana courier”.
In the capital itself, by a rule of manners, nobody covers their head - the only thing on anybody’s head is the crown, and only on one head does that crown rest.
EXILES
When one is Exiled from the World Above, one is always deprived of one’s hat.
