The Jadefang corsairs are loud, both in personality and in dress. Those who make their living on the high seas tend towards brighter colors and flashier outfits, while those who prefer to hunt beasts or treasure on land tend towards rougher, more durable clothing in subdued colors. They always make sure to keep their outfits practical in cut, so that they can climb the rigging or take on a boarding party at a moment’s notice, but even the most practical Corsairs will adorn themselves in as much gaudy wealth as they can afford if they aren’t actively expecting to go hunting or enter combat.
Piratical, Adventurous, Flamboyant, Nautical, Colorful, Flowing, Rugged, Tropical, Practical, Ostentatious, Daring
Pirate outfits from both popular media and historical accounts, but adjusted to be pre-Renaissance in feel and general design.
https://www.pinterest.com/veilguardlarp/jadefang-alliance/ (a Pinterest board for garb and aesthetic inspiration.)
The Corsairs favor bright and bold colors. Red, green, and black are particular favorites, though they happily throw in gold, purple, and blue if they find something they like the look of.
The Archipelago produces a number of vibrant dyes in these colors, and is the source for much of the purple dye used across the Continent. The vibrancy of color in the various pieces of a Corsair’s outfit is a sign of wealth.
The Archipelago has relatively few good sources of fibers to make into cloth. Cotton plantations exist on the larger islands, and sheep are raised on the more tamed islands, making cotton and wool the primary materials used for clothing amongst the Corsairs, but they’re not produced in sufficient quantities to make them particularly cheap. However, with hides being produced as a frequent byproduct of hunting and fishing, leather is often incorporated into clothing.
Aside from cotton, wool, and leather, fabrics such as linen and silk are imported from other nations, and are prized as indicators of wealth and status.
Furs are commonly available in the Archipelago, but they are rarely used as anything other than decorative trim — the climate is far too warm for them to be used as an insulating part of clothing.
The “standard outfit” of a corsair starts with a cotton shirt or short tunic, usually in a bright color (though a white or natural color is acceptable), worn over a pair of shorts, pants, or trousers.
Additional layers such as a jerkin, sea coat, or jacket are worn when the climate permits, preferably in vibrant colors that contrast with the other shades in the outfit without clashing.
A colorful cloth can be worn wrapped around the head, preferably a thin fabric to prevent overheating. With or without a headwrap, though, hats are very common amongst Corsairs, usually with gaudy decoration and fanciful feathers attached. Tricorn hats are favored, but any hat that seems appropriate for a pirate would work as well.
A long, colorful sash around the waist, with its tails falling down to at least the knee, is the defining piece of garb for a Corsair — please wear one, preferably in a bright and vivid color, so that other players can identify your character as a member of the Alliance. The sash usually goes under a belt, which can be either a modern-ish pirate belt or a more typical medieval ring belt.
Boots are the typical footwear for Corsairs, though sandals also fit if you’re going for a “shore leave” look instead of an “about to board an enemy ship” aesthetic.
Jade, malachite, and jadeite are particularly prized gemstones on land. Aventurine, bloodstone, and tigerseye are the gems of choice for seafaring Corsairs, due to their greater resistance to water and corrosion. However, Corsairs aren’t picky about what kind of shinies they adorn themselves with, and will happily cover themselves in anything precious and eye-catching. The Archipelago has a handful of ruby and sapphire mines, and the namesake jade is found in a large number of veins throughout the region. Other gems are valued highly, as much for the cost of importing them as for their beauty.
Gold is by far preferred for the setting of jewelry, though brass is a common substitute and often chosen by those who are more focused on durability over sheer trade value.
Corsairs favor necklaces and rings over other types of jewelry, though they’re not terribly discriminating if the piece is shiny and gaudy enough. A piece that has some kind of connection to ships, the sea, or the jungles of the Archipelago is usually valued over other, more generic pieces, but again — Corsairs aren’t generally that picky about what kind of shinies they wear.
Jadefang camps tend to be colorful, adorned with vibrant fabrics and the flags of the Crews dwelling there. Nautical motifs and accessories and the trophies and treasures of past adventures are often used as decoration. Large stocks of alcohol for use in the giving of Grog to guests are usually stored somewhere, and a particularly wealthy Captain might well have a set of fancy drinking vessels to serve guests with.
When they choose to wear armor, corsairs tend to prefer light leather or heavy hide armors over metal ones, though their general attitude of “it looks good on me, so I’m going to wear it” means that you can frequently run into a corsair wearing a particularly nice-looking suit of armor stolen from another culture. (They still tend to shy away from Heavy armor, or even particularly heavy Medium armor, simply out of a deep-seated cultural fear of being knocked overboard while wearing 50+ pounds of metal.)
Armor crafted in the Archipelago tends to be made out of monster hides, either that of sea serpents or of the megafauna that roam the jungles of the isles, such as rhinoceros or grimhorn buffalo. Nautical motifs, star signs, and stylized beasts or sea monsters are frequently embossed into the leather or hide.
The style of armor varies extremely. A simple hide breastplate, vambraces, greaves, and helmet are the “standard” style, but the Vauldan influence from the Occupation has led to the popularity of hide or leather lorica, and the Corsairs aren't shy about copying other styles of armor if they like the look.
The preferred weapons amongst Corsairs are one-handed swords and axes, long hunting spears, bows and crossbows, and thrown weapons. The close confines below decks and the presence of spars and lines above decks make large weapons more a hindrance than a help, so most Corsairs and Swashbucklers train with smaller melee weapons, particularly the cutlass, rapier, and boarding axe. Cazadores train with spears to hunt their prey more effectively without letting them within mauling distance.
Bows and crossbows are seen as perfectly valid weapons in terms of military effectiveness, though no self-respecting Swashbuckler would be caught dead shooting someone from afar when they could win glory in a melee duel.
A rack of thrown weapons is often kept in a bandolier, ready to be used as either a distraction or to bring down a particularly dangerous opponent from outside their reach while they’re distracted by an ally.
Shields see only limited use in Corsair military doctrine. While many Swashbucklers carry bucklers or small shields to protect them in duels, most Corsairs choose to either stay out of the fray and use ranged weapons or dive into melee wielding a weapon in each hand.
Corsairs who use magic in battle almost always equip themselves with buckler, rod, and mage armor, decorating them with star signs, totems from great beasts of the jungles and seas, and the emblem of their Crew.
A Captain often denotes their status with a particularly flamboyant hat and coat, often with gold trim.
Swashbucklers take “trophies” of the sashes of other Corsairs, snipping off a length of fabric and working it into their own. Truly accomplished duelists will have sashes where none of the original fabric is visible. They often wear more red than most Corsairs, reveling in the presence of death, whether their own or others’.
Hunters and Cazadores wear more muted colors, often wearing outfits in dark greens, browns, greys, and blacks. They are more likely than other Corsairs to wear talismans from the beasts they’ve hunted as trophies incorporated into their clothing, jewelry, and armor.
Portsmiths tend to wear purple and gold more than the average Corsair, though they’re careful to never wear such colors in the Vauldan style, lest their allegiances be questioned. They like to put more emphasis on the craftsmanship of their clothing and jewelry, rather than the vibrancy of the color or richness of the materials. Finely-carved and -polished stone is used in jewelry rather than colorful gems, for instance, or fine embroidery on an otherwise plain brown linen tunic rather than fancifully-colored silk or fine cotton.
Greensingers incorporate blue into their outfits more than most Corsairs, often blending greens and blues into a nautical color scheme. They wear purple headscarves with streaks or embroidery of white or silver to represent St. Elmo’s Fire, and jewelry with green stones in it to represent the flash of green light at sunset; both are signs sacred to the more nautical aspects of Druathos.
Locker Priests often wear a frayed and sun-bleached black or navy blue sea coat, with necklaces of barnacles, sea shells, and finger bones. Their aesthetic often resembles a drowned sailor, with artistically weathered and faux-salt encrusted garments.
Divers are one of the few groups of Corsairs who regularly wear heavy armor, often depending on it to survive the deadly traps and monsters that they encounter within Amethran ruins. They also tend to prefer picks and axes over swords, as those weapons are slightly more effective against the monsters within the ruins.
No Jack Sparrow cosplays. This isn’t Pirates of the Caribbean, your character should be based on something other than a movie character, and we absolutely cannot afford to have the Big Mouse sue us for copyright infringement.
No steampunk or Victorian garb, or Caribbean cultural appropriation. The Archipelago is not England or Spain, it is a fantasy culture that grew to resemble something similar to the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. If you’ve got Caribbean ancestry, feel free to wear something representing your ancestral culture, but try to stay close to the brief in clothing and color scheme.
No pistols, rifles, or muskets. Gunpowder doesn’t exist in the world of Veilguard. Use a crossbow to replicate the shoot-y part of being a pirate, or thrown weapons if you want a ranged weapon to stuff into your bandolier.
No cravats or neckties. The Jadefang aesthetic can sometimes resemble the Sunderwyl aesthetic, so wearing one of their signature accessories could cause confusion about which nation you belong to.