How do you envision Chaos Dwarf women’s clothing, headgear and trappings of work or ceremony to look like?
Given the Chaos Dwarfs’ various incarnations throughout history, this would obviously be a very mixed one just like Hellcannon crew and big hats represent different aspects of the same society. So the field is wide open for various takes on this, and as always with Chaos Dwarfs: The best thing is that many starkly different styles can be simultaneously true of Dawi Zharr at the same time. E.g. sect practices, isolated stronghold styles, clan traditions or mandates from one’s Sorcerer-Prophet ould make Chaos Dwarfs following different overlords look completely different in dress.
Chaos Dwarfs usually draw upon something like these six sources for inspiration: Ancient Mesopotamian in particular; ancient eastern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern in general (there are a few Bronze Age Mycenaean elements in Perry big hats design incl. the clumsy axe of the plastic CD, and Phrygian hooked hats); old Russian styles or at least onion cupolas; Warhammer Chaos styles in general incl. random madness; spiky heavy metal; and original completely made-up designs. Plus industrial revolution steam machinery. One pivotal design philosophy is always that Dawi Zharr must be way different from their uncorrupted cousins, obvious at a glance.
Curled hair is a must, for the most part. Those curling irons must see a lot of use in the Dark Lands!
Dwarfs in general being a handy, earthy and hard-working sort, one would expect Dawi Zharr womenfolk to don stout working gear for most of the time. For more festival or ceremonial occassions extremely opulent garb would be donned by a lot of women, just like the menfolk often go to war clad in one of the most outlandish and over-the-top decorated types of combat dress you can imagine. Less is more does not exist with big hat styles, as a rule, and not much with heavy metal styles neither. Also, remember that historically masculine and feminine dresses have always differed, especially for those with means.
So, how do you see Chaos Dwarf women dressing as? Note that this can be very many different forms, and drawings or even paintings of your own are most welcome! Different styles of dress, or dresses and equipment for different occasions are all open fields to explore, including feminine wargear. Leather? Metal? Textiles?
Don’t forget a whip hanging from a belt or a sash! And perhaps a pair of trendy spiked manacles and a sharp blade or two for those unruly slaves. These are not shy ladies by any means.
Below are some reference pictures to get the ball rolling.
Here’s a Chaos Dwarf mother I sculpted back in 2011-12. She has acted as army general more than a few times, hard as hell to kill but miscasting catastrophically upon her horde bodyguard:
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Historical Middle Eastern women’s headgear found by Enjoysrandom, with tall hats of particular importance:
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And some ancient Mesopotamian ones:
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A Hittite one, though based on a goddess’ garb:
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Persian women:
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And some Minoan ones (the bared breasts might be an artistic convention to show women in wall paintings, rather than actual dress code, akin to later Greek art having lots of nude men):
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On the fantasy side of things, we have Xena as pointed out by Forgefire:
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Now, what’s the grimdark Warhammer take take on all this?
Well, Assur/Babylon/Hittites heritage is a must, big hats a plus.
Other than that I would say, it depends on their profession/status. If they are part of the fighting army, they should have an armour similar to their brethren. Otherwise (including most priests and spellcasters) cloth.
You can also look for inspiration at dwarven ladies from different miniature companies and convert the style to middle east.
I must say I am rather fond of all the Turkish and Persian headgear
Something about the Assyrian dresses looks highly appropriate as well. The multiple sideways cut and layering of the dresses combined with the tassels hanging I think manages too look both sufficiently complex and ancient. Particularly the creme and white dress in the top left… although I am having difficult imaging what it might look like on a robust dwarfish figure.
I think for the female spell casters a truly large pointy hat would be essential. Classic witch and big hat all in one curly haired package. I’ve got one as a counts as Sayl the faithless.
i think both looks are possible . a typical priestress dresscode for those who evolves in big cities , and probably a xena , warrior , amazons look for the marauders . Caesar wrote a lot about the womens from gaul in Gallic wars , they were crazy Warriors .
I wouldn’t consider Greek/Minos/Crete/European culture for Chaos Dwarfs. Even if you could somehow find non-slave women of the Ancient Middle East with bared breasts, it would look wrong in Chaos Dwarf miniatures, when you can barely see the nose of the male variant.
I tried these two as clerics for my Blood Bowl CHaos Dwarf team, but the first is must too large, the second much too small sadly:
Obviously all your Mesopotamian/Assyrian/Persian ancient styles work really well. I prefer the female hats that look like the top hat style big hat but also like the bun shapes with the lacy headwear.
I would like to think that there could be women of all social status as there culture is still dwarven, and regular dwarfs hold there womenfolk in high regard.
I am sure I read somewhere about chaos dwarf women just not being focused on but still being able to do most roles in society except for being a high priest?
Is there fluff about CD women having beards or not?. Tolkiens’ dwarf women had them so if CDs did as well maybe there are lots out there already. I mean who can tell under that much scale mail. Possibly only certain very lowly or high caste CD women would dress differently?
The bared breasts (if that even was a thing back in real life Minos) are not any of interest to Chaos Dwarfs, but the multi-layered skirts are. It looks ancient and bronze age, and is reminiscent of other mutli-layered skirts, usually with fringes, in use in the Levant and Mesopotamia during these days. Could be a cultural influence from culture centers to the east in the Aegean, since this kind of influence was stronger in bronze age than iron age Greece. Plus bull worship, always a reason to glance at something for CD inspiration. But yes, Aegean bronze age cultures should only be a marginal reference if at all used for inspiration. The main bulk must lie in ancient Mesopotamia.
Warhammer Dwarfs and by extension Chaos Dwarfs have never had bearded women. Unless some CD woman got that particular mutation, of course.
Also, a drawing with two ladies’ hairstyle:
And a female Dwarf anatomy drawing (found a male one, too, but it’s irrelevant to this thread), in case anyone want to sculpt a Dwarf matron from scratch in which case natural posing is always a bonus before clothes come one:
It is not uncommon in the lands of donkeys and goats to be impressed by the physique of a bull. That said, bull centaurs were inspired not by Minos culture but by Assyrian Lamassu:
I would go with the simple being best mantra. A simple long tunic with robes over top. For battle garb, I’d go with the Assyrian chainmail robe, as it is very functional and solves the problem of sculpting legs and armoured trousers, and would allow for some freedom of movement. I might add a breastplate or a cuirass if our lady is expected to wade into the thick of it. Over-the-top headgear is de rigeur in my book (we are talking Chaos Dwarfs here), as well as long curled hair, but no beards so we can tell its a female at a distance.
This is a great thread I am glad I mentioned something to you Admiral. Women are such a topic better than the meat and two veg thread!
Just to add great Chaos Dwarf women references. Ursula Silverbraid is a great example from Reaper Miniatures that I plan to use as a partner to Bezhukk the Immortal.
And Grulka Blackhand from Titan Wargames is my other top pic for Chaos Dwarf women that I don’t own.
I also couldn’t go without mentioning Admirals Priestess and the Russian Alternative fire dwarf female (although she has a beard)
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or wear warrior-style clothes / armour
