Beetled garments
The beetled garments are part of the culture I created around my DnD character Gram Crackers, a goblin druïd. Her tribe lives in symbiosis with a massive white beetle that is treated as their protective god. As such, beetles are a significant part of their everyday culture.
The Kakkle swamp goblins of Grolkeehee have mastered the craft of making beetled robes. They gather the delicate elytra of beetles and sew them on to their best clothes. A true master can make even embroideries with gems look dull in comparison.
Manufacturing process
Every year during summer the beetle population of the Grolkeehee swamp islands explodes. The beetles lead short lives and the surroundings will be littered with dead beetles for months. During this timespan, the Kakkle goblins will go out to gather as many corpses of their preferred beetle as possible. These will be cleaned and processed until only the shiny clean elytra (wing shells) are left.
After cleaning, a goblin will spend days sewing every elytra onto their garment of choice with a very fine needle made of bone. The patterns will often become more and more complicated as the goblin adds to it with each passing year.
Then the wing shells are steamed in small batches to soften them up* so they can be cut in the desired shape and pierced without breaking.
*Note: elytra are made of the same material as nails, who knew?
This principle is why the tribe doesn't care too much if a goblin is too impatient to wait and takes steps to more efficiently harvest their desired beetle. That is, as long as these actions don't interfere with the balance of the swamp's ecosystem and that goblin is the only one to face the beetle gods potential wrath.
These fabrics will often be of a solid colour or have very subtle colour variations in order to let the beetle-work stand out and speak for itself.
After cleaning, a goblin will spend days sewing every elytra onto their garment of choice with a very fine needle made of bone. The patterns will often become more and more complicated as the goblin adds to it with each passing year.
Materials
Every piece is unique, as every goblin has different preferences for beetles, fabrics, colours and patterns.Some goblins will choose to use the elytra of large black beetles while others prefer the appearance of the tiny gem beetles that shimmer brightly under the light. Goblins with little skill will often choose for a more common beetle that is easy to find so they can afford to make mistakes and start over. Lucky for them, the rarity of the beetle does not seem to factor into how the others perceive them.
However, goblins like shiny things and thus the beetles that shimmer and glimmer are far more popular than those with dull exteriors.
However, goblins like shiny things and thus the beetles that shimmer and glimmer are far more popular than those with dull exteriors.
Gathering
Most of the goblins will wait patiently to gather the beetles they want after it has done its thing and died. The Kakkle tribe lives in symbiosis with their surroundings and uphold the principle of 'nature is ruthless, cruel and beautiful'.Elytra processing
After gathering the desired beetles the goblins will carefully remove the elytra from the corpses, clean them and leave them out to dry for a few days in order to remove any undesired beetle parts, such as the wings.Then the wing shells are steamed in small batches to soften them up* so they can be cut in the desired shape and pierced without breaking.
Underlying fabric
There are no rules for what the underlying garment and embroidery thread should be made of. Even though the goblins will always use the finest materials they can acquire, the fabric and thread can still range from coarse linen to smooth silk. They may even use thick wool that is far too warm for the climate if it is the best they can find.These fabrics will often be of a solid colour or have very subtle colour variations in order to let the beetle-work stand out and speak for itself.
Significance
The cultural significance of the beetled garments is immense. A goblin may spend their entire, often short, reckless lives working on gathering the elytra and sewing them onto their chosen garment their entire life. It is a time-consuming job but the garments are important in both life and death.
A goblin who has more than one garment is either old by goblin standards or is of high status and has a lot of free time to work on the garments. The amount of Elytra used has a similar indication.
The base fabrics used underneath, as said previously, will always be the best quality that the goblin could get. Naturally, this is heavily influenced by the goblins social status within the tribe. Low ranking goblins most often use coarse linen fabrics and sometimes leather, which is difficult to work with. In contrast, the goblins of high status often have garments with a silk fabric base or wool from the mainland. Due to the garment's function in the showing of their social status, skill and age the goblins wear their pieces as often as possible while taking good care of it. For a goblin working in the field, this often means that they'll only wear it on special occasions or around the house so it doesn't get damaged. The spiritual leader, on the other hand, would wear their pieces nearly every day while outside because there's less possibility for them to get their garments damaged.
The Kakkle tribe is an avid believer of reïncarnation similar to Buddhism. The goblins believe that the beetled garments can be used to pay off debts your soul may need to pay so your next life will be a bit better than it should be.
Of course, such a deal would only work if enough time and effort are put into the garments and it is their own soul. This is why the goblins spend years on one single piece and it is incredibly uncommon to have someone else make the garments for you. Even if it isn't forbidden to have someone else do the beetling, it is frowned upon. Asking a Kakkle goblin to sell their garment is perceived as an immense insult.
Status, skill and age
The quality of the wing shells and the intricacy of the patterns are a dead give away of the goblins skills and concentration.
The elytra are extremely fragile and must first be treated before being stitched on with a fine needle. It is a job that requires immense amounts of time, patience, precision and nimble hands to display its full beauty. Otherwise, the wing shells that had been gathered with much effort will crack or begin to decay.
Properly making a single garment may take years. This is why many goblins of the lower classes choose to spend what little time they have on a single garment with intricate patterns made with the elytra rather than the amount.
The elytra are extremely fragile and must first be treated before being stitched on with a fine needle. It is a job that requires immense amounts of time, patience, precision and nimble hands to display its full beauty. Otherwise, the wing shells that had been gathered with much effort will crack or begin to decay.
Properly making a single garment may take years. This is why many goblins of the lower classes choose to spend what little time they have on a single garment with intricate patterns made with the elytra rather than the amount.
by MPoel
The base fabrics used underneath, as said previously, will always be the best quality that the goblin could get. Naturally, this is heavily influenced by the goblins social status within the tribe. Low ranking goblins most often use coarse linen fabrics and sometimes leather, which is difficult to work with. In contrast, the goblins of high status often have garments with a silk fabric base or wool from the mainland. Due to the garment's function in the showing of their social status, skill and age the goblins wear their pieces as often as possible while taking good care of it. For a goblin working in the field, this often means that they'll only wear it on special occasions or around the house so it doesn't get damaged. The spiritual leader, on the other hand, would wear their pieces nearly every day while outside because there's less possibility for them to get their garments damaged.
Burial clothes
When a goblin of the Kakkle tribe dies they will be wrapped up in their beetled garments and buried with it. The reason for this was a mystery for ages until a curious traveller actually bothered to ask. The second function, and maybe the most important one to the goblins, is that of a duplicate soul. The saying of "putting your heart and soul into something" is taken very literally.The Kakkle tribe is an avid believer of reïncarnation similar to Buddhism. The goblins believe that the beetled garments can be used to pay off debts your soul may need to pay so your next life will be a bit better than it should be.
Of course, such a deal would only work if enough time and effort are put into the garments and it is their own soul. This is why the goblins spend years on one single piece and it is incredibly uncommon to have someone else make the garments for you. Even if it isn't forbidden to have someone else do the beetling, it is frowned upon. Asking a Kakkle goblin to sell their garment is perceived as an immense insult.
The goblin that ferried along to the mainland has a simple blue robe embroidered with beetle shells that shimmer in more colours than opals. All delicately stitched in swirling patterns with not a single one cracked. I wonder how much they would sell it for.
by MPoel
Item type
Clothing / Accessory
Raw materials & Components
- The finest fabric garment available
- A fine thread, preferably high quality
- An ultra-thin bone needle
- Lots of Elytra from your favourite beetle
Fine bone needle
A thin needle carved from bone that has an extraordinarily sharp tip. It is made for the explicit purpose of poking holes in the wing shells of beetles for embroidery. The especially old and valuable versions that are passed down as family heirlooms are decorated with detailed engravings. These engravings often depicted local fauna or beetles.
by MPoel
World: brass_phoenix
Art: MPoel
CSS: brass_phoenix A nice and short article over real-world beetle-embroidery Here en Here.
Nice article, I like that you've used inspiration from a little-known real world technique. It's also nice that your goblins are not killing the beetle directly but wait for them to die naturally. Although I have to wonder if anyone ever becomes impatient… What if they find a rare beetle and just want "accelerate" the natural process? How is the killing of beetles perceived if they have a beetle as a god? Since the robe is so important for their culture, do they even have anyone else make a nice robe for them so that they can pretend to have that kind of skills? You say that it is rather taboo, but hasn't anyone still tried to do it? What about asking a friend for a little help here and there? Would that be ok? Do the goblins use those beetle robes for everyday life or just for special occasions? Do they have more than one robe or do they prefer to focus on making one magnificent one? Small remark: you could also use a tooltip for your note if you want.
Okay, I am going to adjust the article because I realised I forgot to elaborate on multiple things.
In the meantime, here are my answers in order: They are firm believers of the balance of nature in the 'nature is cruel, ruthless and beautiful.' This basically means they don't care how you get the shells as long as it doesn't damage the balance of the swamp's ecosystem. And you alone face the potential wrath of the beetle god. The tribe itself is fairly small so trickery would easily be discovered, not that it is forbidden. But the secondary function of the clothes is to be a 'secondary soul. If someone else made it for you it would lose that function and typically a goblin would spend their entire short and reckless life to complete one single garment. This is why asking to buy such a piece from a goblin is considered an insult because you are essentially asking them to sell their soul to you. They take the phrase 'putting your heart and soul into something' very seriously. How often they wear the robes depends very much on the status of the goblin. Workers in the field would only wear their piece on special occasions while the higher ranking goblins would wear them much more often because there's less danger of damaging their clothes in day-to-day life.
Some goblins have more than one piece of beetled clothing. But like I implied earlier goblins don't typically live long lives (DnD 5e-This is mostly because they are reckless and impulsive) and beetling a robe takes a long time. If a goblin has more than one garment it either means they are old by goblin standards or/and high status with a lot of free time (my character is both).