Scorpio's Synonymous Influences

Deciding on the attire of characters is as important as the narrative behind them, for me, their clothing is an additional layer of context about the character, who they are and where they have come from. When it came to deciding the outfits for Scorpio, I knew there would be a few things that I would need to consider heavily alongside with referencing some of the theories behind her attire that have come from the real world. When I first conceived the idea behind Scorpio, most of the theory behind her design is a mix of ancient Egyptian, African (Somali in particular) and Middle Eastern influences all blended and rolled into one and much of her attire is intentionally designed to carry these influences just as much as her general appearance.

In the first instance, Scorpio is a warrior, a young warrior from the desert, so there would be no suit of armour but i did want her to have something that to her and her tribe serves as armour of some kind while also allowing me to integrate elements into her design as hidden sub layers of context within her dress. Because Scorpio is quite young, agility is one of her means of both attack and defense too, within her narrative I also wanted her armour to contain a hidden reference to the use of children as soldiers. I came across images of a group of child soldiers in Africa where they were given these marker/tokens made from fabric, the idea being that the tokens served as a warning to others that the child had killed in battle, in effect the token marked a battle proficiency and that was something I built into Scorpio's battle-dress. The gold is designed to serve as a direct warning to onlookers of Scorpio's capacity as a warrior, the armbands and anklets in her outfit are cast from the weapons of fallen adversaries, again serving as a warning of her combat capabilities. Scorpio of course is also the chief of her tribe and hence the extensive use of gold to highlight her status as the source of all power of her tribe, this was based heavily upon the Egyptian dynasties and their use of gold adornment to highlight both pharaohs and gods. Scorpio's tightly bound dreads is a slight take on a Somali and Egyptian influence, where once she becomes a warrior she is forbidden by ancient lore to cut it away, unless she falls in battle or is overthrown.

The colour black has a natural synonymous link to death and as the story progresses and shifts, Scorpio's attire shifts, with her carrying the colour of death along with her. When she and Ebrima escape the aftermath of the fall of her tribe, Ebrima is forced to attempt to conceal Scorpio's identity from all eyes and is forced to dispose of both her battle-dress and cut her hair away, not realising quite how important it is to the young warrior. Ebrima's reasoning is simple, in the lands where he has been sent from, limp and lame boys are attired in black rags and left in the street to die, the black rags are an indication for bypassers not to waste food on beings certain to perish. Due to their desperation in the desert, Ebrima cuts away her hair and disguises Scorpio as a limp and lame boy so that at bare minimum they can escape the desert with all but the most prying eyes barely even noticing that the limp boy he carries is actually the Hanukan chief.

When Ebrima travels into the forest to ask of help from the Vishneki tribe, once again Scorpio is clad in black as a note from the Vishneki tribe, believing that firstly she is unlikely to live long beyond their brief encounter and that if she does, she will invariably reign death upon those whom stand in their way. For the Vishneki tribe her black clothing marks her as a child of Yvyushkha, a fallen from grace deity who used their power to lure the loyal to fall from grace and with a lust for death. Once they venture into the lands north of the forests, a new problem arises as the use of the gold from the desert would raise questions, Scorpio sheds her armbands to protect them both from watching eyes, shedding what little of her proud Hanukan heritage remains with them. Ebrima though also wishes for Scorpio to retain as much of her proud heritage as a Hanukan as she can and has her armbands smelted down and forged into a new blade, allowing her to carry what little of Hanuka remains with her.

Scorpio's final look is based upon exploiting the natural association between the her black clothing and death along with little glimmers of the Hanukan heritage that lives on within her. Scorpio's top is embellished with a mix of gold taken from fallen foes, to continue the proud tradition of her attire serving as a forewarning that tangling with the young warrior is a dangerous idea at best for many foes. Within the final outfit are little hints of the very different world that Scorpio finds herself within, the skirt is longer and the top woven from heavier fabric, as life in the far north if noticeably colder than life in the desert or forest, but it still allows her to remain agile.