Narya Tyranith
“You’d ask me to stay? Here, of all places? Our temple was nothing but a farce. It was never about worship, never about faith. You may be at peace with what we did, but I can’t… I can’t forget their faces. Their screams. Our gods weren’t worth that. Nothing was worth that. And I will not be part of it any longer.”
The motivation to finally dive into a D&D project came in the form of an invitation from Arda Wigs to model one of their newly-released 2019 styles. The photoshoot was to have a fantasy/elven theme, so it was the perfect excuse to bring my own elven character to life! I selected the Whitney in Pumpkin, which I felt would work perfectly for a phoenix-themed elf. I did no additional styling to the wig so that it could be displayed in its “out of the bag” state, although I did find a lovely gold leaf headband to accent it and allow my elf ears to peak through the curls.
Narya’s key component of her outfit is her scarf, which is comprised of an infinity cowl and several tabard “feathers” extending from the back hem. The scarf is made from silk taffeta, and each of the tabards is adorned with appliqué, beadwork, and acrylic feather accents.
I used a linen fabric for Narya’s dress that had gold metallic threads woven along the grain. It was lined with red satin leftover from Sakura’s wedding uchikake, and I used an ornate trim I found at JoAnn’s to decorate the sleeves and lower hem of the dress. I added faux suede lacing to the front, along with some additional buttons.
The waist corset was made from suede and lined with printed batik. Each seam was reinforced with steel spiral boning. It laces in the front with satin ribbon woven through grommets.
For my skirt, I used Simplicity 5359. The main panels were made from brocade, while the contrast panels used the same suede as the waist corset. It was lined with the same printed batik that I used for the corset. The lower hem was adorned with belly dancer coin trim, which provides an obnoxious jingling noise with every movement. As a monk, I wanted to leave the front of the skirt open so that she’d have more freedom of movement for kicking.
As far as accessories are concerned, I found a brown leather belt at Target, a glass potion bottle on Amazon, and her signature instrument: an Armenian duduk. (If you’re curious as to what that instrument sounds like, you may recognize it from A Narnian Lullaby.)
It was so much fun to work on a project with total creative freedom! I enjoy the challenge of recreating an existing character, but it was nice to balance it out with the opportunity to design my own character and translate that design to the real world. I’m looking forward to bringing more of my D&D characters to life in the future!
(Featured photo by World of Gwendana.)