Linowan Concept Test

The Linowan people have reddish-brown skin and straight black hair with green highlights. They make their clothing from animal skins, bark cloth and wool from wild sheep and goats. While both men and women wear the same simple tunics and trousers, or robes for formal occasions, custom differentiates them by their ornaments: men wear whalebone and mother-of-pearl, with sharks’ teeth and scales embroidered onto their clothing; women bedeck themselves with beads of carved wood, horn and ivory. Linowan territory holds few deposits of metal or jade (at least, they don’t know of any). As a result, the Linowan must import jewelry made from metal or gems, and only the nobles sport such fi nery. A Linowan commoner who wears metal is viewed as infringing on the privileges of nobility and may well be whipped for the crime. Linowan tolerate foreigners who wear metal ornaments, though they appreciate the courtesy of foreigners who choose not to wear metal. The Linowan also must import glass beads (chiefl y from the Scavenger Lands), but their low price puts them within the reach of most people. The Linowan make ceramic beads themselves. Men and women alike adorn themselves with such beadwork. The Linowan also ornament their clothing by weaving in feathers or dyed porcupine quills, with men and women wearing different designs. When they go raiding, Linowan warriors adorn their buff jackets with their ornaments and paint their faces in bright colors. Linowan raiders on Haltan territory, however, dress in mottled green and brown and paint their faces to blend in with the Haltan forests. On cer- emonial occasions, nobles wear mantles embroidered with the crest of their boat clan. The Queen herself wears a simple crown of carved wood that goes back to the earliest days of Linowan. Legend says the crown came from Jorst’s feasting hall, and that Queen Bendaris received it from the god’s own hand.