Some members of the Ost Noir at CoM 2012

Some members of the Ost Noir at CoM 2012

With 6000 players and 1500 NPCs, Conquest of Mythodea is the largest larp event in the world, held every August in Brokeloh, Germany. It features several hundred Francophones who usually refer to the event as «Conquest» (with a nasal «con»). In this classic fantasy environment, the continent of Mythodea attracts settlers from all over the world/multiverse: mostly humans but also D&D-style drows, Tolkien-style Uruk-hai, WTF-style garden gnomes etc. From Undead Flesh NPCs to Sigmarites character groups, one of the main visual inspirations is Games Workshop’s Warhammer Battle/ Fantasy Roleplay setting. Over the past years, a few French-speaking Swiss larpers have created the Ost Noir, a group of former mercenaries who retired to open a pleasure house and worship Slaanesh. In the world of Warhammer, Slaanesh is the Chaos god of pain and pleasure, spreading corruption using the local equivalent of the seven deadly sins. Building upon both in-game and out-of-game connections my character Sornob, a hobgoblin mercenary with a penchant for explosive alchemy, decided to join the group. Slaaneshi fashion being heavily inspired by BDSM imagery, I adapted Sornob’s looks to reflect his newfound faith.

 

Inspiration & specs

Sornob in 2011,already with a large belt.

Sornob in 2011, as part of the Tonneau Joyeux mercenary group

The first goal was to limit spending by reusing existing equipment. With its contorted and pointy bits, Sornob’s armor (made by Prince Armory in 2011) still worked. It could however use a bit of sexifying as Slaanesh plays with both male and female aspects of seduction. Plus due to a previous failed project requirements, the breast plate had an empty spot on the belly that needed to be filled. Therefore, a corset/cincher belt type thing could both provide leather coverage and make the character more genderqueer (whatever gender hobgoblins normally align is beyond me, but I assumed Sornob was male).

Graphic inspiration for male corsets was gathered through our good friend Google, which led to mostly gay and BDSM websites, another interesting experience after MatB’s transvestite excursions. Comfort was key, meaning I refused any actual boning pressing on my guts: CoM is a long and physical experience, and I needed all the breathing capacity I could get. Height was constrained between the bottom of my existing armor and not having leather pushing on my genitals when sitting down.

Design had to be simple enough that I could do the crafting, not use too much leather, and be instantly recognizable as something chaotic and Slaaneshi in particular. I wanted a chaos star pattern, using at least one of the arrowed branches at a strap. Overall, the straps had to work so that I could put the damn thing on myself: while I did want some chain lacing to make it all sexy/badass, the lacing would be fake. I wouldn’t have a lady in waiting or a squire to dress me up in the morning. And I had already done the actual chain lacing thing for my steampunk character’s boots and that was a real pain in every meaning of the word.

 

Where it all began: the GN'Idée 2013 leathercrafting workshop

Where it all began: the GN’Idée 2013 leathercrafting workshop

Masters and an apprentice

My first attempt at working with leather was a Slaaneshi iphone pouch. During GN’Idée 2013, my Swiss larp con, Marc and Ken from local larp group l’Hydre taught a few of us how to make a really cool leather pouches. I was astonished of the final result which motivated to me to try something larger. As the only reason the pouch got done was that I was helped step by step, I needed a similar mentor for the corset. Leeloo, a larper who had already created her own bits of leather armor kindly agreed to teach me. In exchange, I taught her how to make latex branding scars using the Ost Noir logo. Without her teaching, ideas and guidance, the corset just would have never happened.

We spent quite a bit of time testing heavy paper versions, drafting and redrafting. This was a long process of trial and error. Leeloo was smart to mention it didn’t need to be the full star, and I didn’t want an arrow pointing straight at my crotch, so asymmetrical it was. There could even be in-game reasons for missing bits, as Slaanesh is opposed to the destructive god of Chaos Khorne.

 

The final chaos star pattern, working out those angles so that it looked good once curved was tricky. Note color tests.

The final chaos star pattern, working out those angles so that it looked good once curved was tricky. Note color tests.

Realization

Compared to other materials, working with large amounts of leather is actually a bit stressful. First it’s expensive, but also easily marked by stray hard materials like… your finger nails. And once something is marked, it stays marked. But the smell and touch do make up for a lot of the inconvenience. Cardboard patterns were applied to the skin, shapes cut and the edges trimmed. «Carving» the details like parallel lines especially was difficult: I didn’t want to have to do too much carving, but finding the right balance between clean geometry to make the thing look professional and at the same time not too clean and cosplayish was hard. Again, Leeloo was great, both for overall taste, practical advice, and sometimes doing the actual things herself. Straps were done as a last minute thing, and learning how to properly hammer rivets was particularly annoying, from picking the right length relative to leather thickness, to lacking an anvil and using my balcony floor instead, late at night.

 

Thirty-seven pieces of flair

To match the ipod pouch and the groups’ colors, the corset was tinted in black with purple bits. Leder Louis’ purple was perfect: not pinkish, and not blue either like some of these cell phone pictures look. The back piece was full purple, hammering texture on it was fun, and the effect was badass, I would have love to do more similar work on other parts of the corset but there was just no time.

On top of the purple accents and arrows, I wanted something a bit «out there». If the chain and leather provided the badass BDSM nod, Slaaneshi imagery can also be rather garish. And what is more fabulous than rhinestones? We found some of just the right colors, which were unfortunately a bit sticking out from the leather. I knew they would get ripped off by the end of the larp (and they were) but I had no time to cut little niches for them in the leather. They were hastily hammered in place like the others rivets.

Pieces cut, testing location of chain and rhinestones.

Pieces cut, testing location of chain and rhinestones.

Front side before the addition of straps.

Front side before the addition of straps.

Texture and color don't really come out correctly, but you get the idea.

Texture and color don’t really come out correctly, but you get the idea.

 

I finally found the perfect buckles for the straps (not too shiny) at a small shoe repair shop in my neighborhood. Chain, as usual, came from a local hardware store, but self-serve this time so I didn’t have to explain anything.

To make everything stick together, contact glue was this year’s real eye-opener. I had tried it in the past and never respected the drying times, so it never really worked. This time I did and it’s my new best friend: not too hard to use once you plan well where you’ll stick things and so flexible it’s ideal for stuff you’ll wear. The only corset parts that fully survived CoM overall were the ones that got both contact glue and rivets.

 

Field testing

Brokeloh has the worst possible summer weather from a larp logistics point of view. The days can get *really hot*, nights are usually really cold, and it can rain at random times, not just heavy and short summer showers but also cold foggy drizzle for hours. This year was no exception, and we probably broke heat record highs. The result is I sweated like never before in that corset, and even gladly took a fully dressed shower when the firemen came to cool us down with their fire hose.

 

The corset integrated with the rest of the armor, note cell phone pouch on the belt. Yes,it was hot in this costume.

The corset integrated with the rest of the costume, note cell phone pouch on the belt. Yes,it was hot in this costume.

The sweat had two interesting effects: the first one was to make the leather much more pliable than I ever dared try during the crafting process. I did wet the unfinished corset and bandaged it to fit my body, but it was nothing compared to the liters of sweat that seeped through that thing over four days of larping. The sweat made the overall shape change a bit, not-so-flatteringly fitting my belly, and it signficantly darkened the purple. Not for the worse, I just find it a bit dubious when it comes to hygiene, even though I always wore it with fabric garments underneath.

 

The corset survived the fights surprizingly well: I fell several times with it, including a couple back rolls, one on a fellow player, and neither corset nor player broke. I did lose rhinestones, and a strap that was not riveted but only glued gave way before the end of the larp. But overall what damaged it the most was transportation, especially shoving it in a vehicle after being tired from larp and wanting to go home fast.

 

The corset today, will need serious re-studding next time I play Sornob. Note how dark the purple got.

The corset today, will need serious re-studding next time I play Sornob. Note how dark the purple got.

Overall, wearing it was comfy and it definitely met the sexy-androgynous-disturbing requirements. When I started swinging my hips, MatB-workshop-style, it did accent my butt and scare a few Germans away, which was part of the goal (more on this in part 3).

 

Conclusion

It took quite a bit of time, a *lot* of help from Leeloo, and it cost me about 200 euros in material and tools (I do have a fair bit of those leftover). It was a fun experience, I’m glad I gained new skills, but when I see the beauty and price of some professionnally made leather pieces, I think I’ll ask an artisan next time. Or at least I won’t work on several new things at the same time. That’s right the prop that caused the biggest reaction this year was my other crafting project: Sornob’s boobs.

My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely hobgoblin lumps (Photo by Jann Lechauve)

My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely hobgoblin lumps (Photo by Jann Lechauve)

 

 

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One Response to Slaaneshifying Sornob: a corset for Conquest ( Mythodea 2013 recap, part 1 of 3 )

  1. […] overextended myself in 2013. I had realized it even before my Conquest of Mythodea crafting marathon, but when I wrote this post, little did I know that things would only get worse. Two of the members […]

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