That Damn Role Player

Since there was such an interest in my last blog post on rp clothes, I had made a promise to expand it to other races. Here is the first of those. Please note, currently I am only working on females since that is what I play primarily. If there is additional interest, I will expand it to include males.

Fashion for Tauren

I have found that one of the hardest races to find really good rp clothes for are the Tauren. First off there is the culture of the race. They could be referred to as a “primitive” culture. They are very close to the Earthmother, bonded to the land and to their society. They are tribal and were, for many generations, a nomadic people. From the lore and the settings of their villages, they are based loosely on a Native American theme.

Now most of the clothing in game has a decided “human” look to it. The robes, the shirts, etc look nothing like what you think to see from a primitive, nomadic, tribal culture.

Here is an example; the Spider Web Robe. Now while this robe looks great on just about any other race, in my opinion it just doesn’t seem “right” on a Tauren. And while this is not the worst one, it is far from the best.

Spider Web Robe

Structure of the character model affects how different things look as well. The Tauren female model has an extremely long waist. When you put them in most robes, it tends to stretch the graphic and contributes to not looking right. In my opinion, the best looking rp clothes for Tauren females are anything that exposes the waist. Skirts or leggings that sit on the hips, or robes that have the appearance of being two piece.

Below are some of the robes that present the appearance of being two piece. They are the Beaded Robe, the Barbaric Cloth Robe and the Ancestral Robe, respectively.

Beaded Robe

Barbaric Cloth Robe

Ancestral Robe

Not all robes have to have the open waist to look good, though. There are some that look good and are a single piece in appearance. It all depends entirely on the style of the robe. I recommend trying everything on before buying it. The dressing room is a great thing!

Acolyte Robe

Neophyte Robe

Open sided robes also look good on the Tauren female models. The one I am speaking of specifically is the Vital Raiment or Nightsky robes. There are several robes in game that share this particular model. The design of the robe is vertical so it goes along well with the long waist of the Tauren and doesn’t look too human.

Vital Raiment

 I have talked in my previous post about combining pieces as well. This is true with Tauren as well. There are a number of pieces that can be combined to give different looks, depending on what you are after. I tend to dress my adult Tauress in lots of skirts, however she does have a few outfits for other occasions such as relaxation, fishing, swimming or physical labor (such as hauling wood or something along those lines. Not combat.).

Surveyors Tunic and Cadaverous Leggings	Surveyors Tunic and Kilt of the Night Strider	Surveyors Tunic and Mistspray Kilt
Steel-banded Hauberk and Outrider Leggings	Deckhand's Shirt and Grizzly Pants	Tauren Default "Bra" and Ancestral Woolies

On the top row of the above examples you can see the same tunic paired with three different legs. If bag space is at a premium, I highly recommend items that mix and match as much as possible. Especially when using two piece sets. Three outfits could take up six slots or four if matched up right.

The bottom row would be working/relaxing clothes. Since Tauren are furred, there would be likely less of a taboo about exposed body, though one would presume since they wear clothes, including underthings, there would be some. However if considering something like swimming, since the fur itself would hold a great deal of water, less clothing to contribute to the added weight would be desirable. So for my Tauress, her newest swimming outfit is simply the Ancestral Woolies paired with the “bra” on the model.

When playing a Tauren, many times fur color will have a lot to do with how things look on the character. My Tauress is black so there are a number of things I have had to disregard as outfits for mine because they blend in too much with the black fur. A good example, though I don’t have a picture, is the Lovely Black Dress. Personally I don’t like the way any of the Lovely dresses look on Tauren, but particularly the black one on Ebonywind all but disappears against her fur. The favorite set of armor I have for her is a red set that stands out nicely against her fur. It involved the Ravager Armor, Scarlet Leggings and Belt, Khan’s gloves and a pair of red boots that I cannot remember the name of right now. I’ll have to look again later.

Ravager Armor and Scarlet Leggings

As with any race, there are options for Tauren that look great if you dig around and use your imagination. Even if you pick up a piece of gray junk, try it on in the dressing room. You may be surprised by what you find! After all, anything has to be better than looking like you were thrown up on by a Crayola set!

Crayola Vomit!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Role Play.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.