Written by: Dark Starr
Images by: Their respective owners
As this issue delves deeply into the culture of the Alar people, it seemed only appropriate that the fashion review covered them as well.
As was discussed in the Cultures of Gor article, the Alar people are modeled much after the ancient Germanic peoples such as the Visigoth, the Hun, the Franks and other similar races.
You want to look appropriately like the Alar, then a few key points to re-stress: they were a broad stocky race of people on the short side, men and women alike. Women were large, but as we are told they are shorter than other races, we are led to believe this meant large as in stockiness, thickness of build, not vertically.
Predominantly blond haired and blue eyed, both men and women braided their hair though there was no mention of hair being worn up or down by women. I suppose it would be a safe bet to assume women proudly wore their hair down and flowing like the ancient Germanics or Celt’s. Men, do not forget the facial scars received at birth, always worn with pride as a right of passage.
Do not plan to be a slave of the Alar, your life span will be too short to develop any good role play options as the free women killed slaves in very short order, and the men did not do anything to stop it as far as we can tell. This means … Alar slaves were extremely rare to non-existent. No slave clothing review available as a result.
Ok, but what about their clothing. Well, the books did not go into detail on clothing so again, we need to draw from ancient Earth histories of the aforementioned cultures. As the Alar were created from a number of races, we’ll only be reviewing a few here. It is not a stretch to assume that the Alar fashion statement was a combination of these various cultures though important to remember is Gorean’s did not have metal or chainmail armor of any kind.
The Visigoth
One of two branches of the Goths (Ostrogoths being the other), the Visigoths were barbarians who both fought against and for the Roman Empire. Their attire appeared rather Roman, not too surprising as the Goths were visitors and invaders of Rome, not to mention Rome was one of the primary cultures with which the Visigoth’s would trade.
The Huns & Mongols
Attire of the Huns & Mongols was more asian inspired as their culture was more closely related, slanted eyes and all. Every day wear being more understated, animal skins, browns and the like and considering keeping warm in the colder areas of their conquest, rather covering for men and women. Though, there is evidence of bare chested men in loincloth like attire. Formal events would have seen more colorful and jewel adorned attire, at least for those who could afford it such as Atilla and his family.
The Franks
When researching the ancient Franks, the Anglo Saxons come up in the same breath.
Nordics
In Viking times, women would have been cloaked in colored silk gowns adorned with metallic breast coverings and long trains. Apparently women’s clothing prior to Christianity would have been considered sexy as compared to that of clothing after Christianity’s dominance took hold where clothes became much more covering and nun-like or austere (not unlike what we think of with Gorean women’s clothing).
We could review even more cultures and keep going, but this is a good basis to start when building your Alar characters. Whenever in doubt and you cannot find the answer in the books, consult ancient Earth history wherein lies the basis of all the Gorean cultures.
Happy role play.
Reproduced with permission from Home Stone Magazine.
Past issues are not currently available to view online as
they were printed as the publication has been out of print since 2010.
