A little guide to creating a character from the Empire

 

So you've decided to join the Empire
Good luck with that buddy hope you like rat people

Congratulations new citizen welcome to the Empire! We are happy to have you in our ranks to fight off the impending doom coming from all directions...but before that you need kit! I'm new to this blogging thing so I'm going to write a little guide on how to get your Empire kit started as a little practice.

Research

Seriously you can go down a whole rabbit hole of Empire lore, the best way to familiarise yourself with the world is to read the official army book (There are tonnes of PDFs online) or buy it like a good Samaritan, after that you can get more in-depth detail on specific things by going on the unofficial Warhammer wiki website: https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Warhammer_Wiki. Ideally you would already know what province you're a part of as well as what sort of character you want to play; this guide will be focusing mostly on State troopers as they're the most common. 

Now you need inspiration for what your character will look like and luckily you have wealth of resources to choose from! Here are a few:

Warhammer miniatures:

These are wonderful for colour references, simplified looks and you can see them from multiple angles! Even with a simple google or look on pinterest you will come across a wealth of well painted models that are great to reference (especially shield and banner designs, it's crazy what people have done with these little dudes)

What to google: warhammer empire miniture/state troop/whatever your province is

Good books: Warhammer fantasy: The Empire

Army books/Art

I am a huge fan of the Warhammer fantasy art style! There is a tonne of detail in these pictures so they're worth a close look. Go to the bottom of this post for links to my pinterest boards which have a lot of this art as well as concept art!

What to google: Warhammer empire official

 art/army book art 

Good books: Warhammer fantasy: The Empire, Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire

Historical references 

The Empire is pretty much a fantasy version of real world mercenaries from 16th century Germany called Landsknechts and you no doubt see that word pop up the more you look into Empire garb. Honestly I will probably make a whole separate post on the differences and similarities between the Empire and landsknecht fashion but for now I will say that this is a really really good place to look if you want to make something really individual or want to challenge yourself.

I've also noticed that a lot of people have used the empire as a gateway to doing German re-enactment so consider this a warning.

What to google: Landsknecht, landsknecht woodcut, 16th century German fashion

Good books: The first book of fashion, Landsknecht woodcuts, Landsknechts on campaign

Other LARPers 

Now I'm not the biggest fan of looking at others when I'm researching for outfit ideas because it is important not to copy other peoples designs, but it is good for getting inspired and excited for when you make your own! I encourage you to speak with more experienced people in your community if you're seeking advice on how to build elements of your costume

As a bonus here is a link to my pinterest where I collect a lot of my reference pictures:

Empire stuff: https://pin.it/4c6nPfs 

Landsknecht stuff: https://pin.it/3EpIJOC 

This concludes this guide so good luck with your research and stay tuned because my next posts will be about how to build outfits!