I am in the process of preparing my groups next campaign, and I am working it towards being centered around Candlekeep as a whole. I am utilizing as much "official" lore as possible, both from the Candlekeep Mysteries book as well as various literatures on the dmsguild page (Elminster's Candlekeep Companion, for instance), as well as the usual wikipages.
One thing that bothers me, is that I have a hard time finding out how most of them look alike. In essence, what colors that define the monks of Candlekeep?
The official crest of Candlekeep is red and gold, but none of the monks seems to wear these colors. Unless this is actually the usual attire? Although I am sure this is not due to lore - The crest colors was used when the D&D Beyond comic writer Luke made a candlekeep related picture:
Reading into the Candlekeep Mysteries AND the Candlekeep Companion, it mentions that "five purple-robed monks stand at the gate" and on the wiki page of the Avowed (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Avowed) the Organization structure mention that the lowest ranked avowed, Acolyte, wear black robes and that "Four Watchers each led a group of one dozen armed monks. They wore plain brown robes."
It has also been mentioned in a few sources that the Keeper of Tomes (the leader of the Avowed) is the only member in the keep that wears a white robe.
So yeah, I guess it could be different robes on all ranks, but these are findings that doesn't correlate with eachother on various sources. I know I can just "decide" how it should look in my own campaign, but I really want it to be as close to lore as possible when I describe this to my players.
In the classic Baldur's Gate game, most of the monks wore green robes for some reason, except Gorion and the Keeper of Tomes...
So, does anyone has any sources or ideas on how to do this? I was about to go all purple-robed on everybody. Red and gold feels to much alike the Red Wizards of Thay. Maybe the answer to this is to make it different robes on different ranks?
Well obviously, but it really feels they would have some sort of definite color that either identifiies them as Avowed (since most seekers would need to know who to ask) or at least clothes/robes with colors that define their ranks...
So how do we portray their different ranks? Or even distinguish Avowed monks within Candlekeep from regular visitors/seekers?
Let's keep in mind that Candlekeep is largely an academic/scholarly institution, not a battlefield, so the need for uniforms isn't really all that necessary. If you're looking for someone in a particular wing or area or Candlekeep, you go there and say to someone idle, "excuse me, I'm looking for [Name], could you spare a moment to show me to them?"
I wouldn't see "uniform" robes necessary among Candlekeep's folks unless they are assigned a duty that could get tactical (like gate watchers) or in an early stage of their time at Candlekeep so wear a common "trainee, don't ask me questions, as I'm new here" uniform.
Beyond that, academic regalia IRL, the fancy robes not the cap and gown of undergrads, is usually more to do with where you've attained your past degrees as opposed to where you work (that's why at a school's academic convovation and other formal cap and gown ceremonies a lot of the faculty wear all sorts of different robes, they wear the colors of the school they got their highest degree at, not where they teach, with some exceptions for executive officers). So what I'd do if you want, is to grant the various Avowed license for their own style, maybe some wear the same colors to show their affiliation with other institutions of learning or arcane associations.
My answer's probably not what you're looking for; but at least that's how I run it. In my Candlekeep, you're not going to know who someone important is by the way they dress, but the way others may defer to the person. Some folks may have multiple literal feathers in their cap and want to flaunt it, other prefer to dress more modestly, and still others may dress more functionally looking like they're ready to jump off to far flung places as soon as they can reconcile the discrepancies between the two atlases they're consulting.
Greetings fellow adventurer's!
I am in the process of preparing my groups next campaign, and I am working it towards being centered around Candlekeep as a whole. I am utilizing as much "official" lore as possible, both from the Candlekeep Mysteries book as well as various literatures on the dmsguild page (Elminster's Candlekeep Companion, for instance), as well as the usual wikipages.
One thing that bothers me, is that I have a hard time finding out how most of them look alike. In essence, what colors that define the monks of Candlekeep?
The official crest of Candlekeep is red and gold, but none of the monks seems to wear these colors. Unless this is actually the usual attire?
Although I am sure this is not due to lore - The crest colors was used when the D&D Beyond comic writer Luke made a candlekeep related picture:
Reading into the Candlekeep Mysteries AND the Candlekeep Companion, it mentions that "five purple-robed monks stand at the gate" and on the wiki page of the Avowed (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Avowed) the Organization structure mention that the lowest ranked avowed, Acolyte, wear black robes and that "Four Watchers each led a group of one dozen armed monks. They wore plain brown robes."
It has also been mentioned in a few sources that the Keeper of Tomes (the leader of the Avowed) is the only member in the keep that wears a white robe.
So yeah, I guess it could be different robes on all ranks, but these are findings that doesn't correlate with eachother on various sources.
I know I can just "decide" how it should look in my own campaign, but I really want it to be as close to lore as possible when I describe this to my players.
In the classic Baldur's Gate game, most of the monks wore green robes for some reason, except Gorion and the Keeper of Tomes...
So, does anyone has any sources or ideas on how to do this? I was about to go all purple-robed on everybody. Red and gold feels to much alike the Red Wizards of Thay.
Maybe the answer to this is to make it different robes on different ranks?
Whatever is comfortable to the Avowed. Most likley will be a robe of some sort.
Well obviously, but it really feels they would have some sort of definite color that either identifiies them as Avowed (since most seekers would need to know who to ask) or at least clothes/robes with colors that define their ranks...
So how do we portray their different ranks? Or even distinguish Avowed monks within Candlekeep from regular visitors/seekers?
Let's keep in mind that Candlekeep is largely an academic/scholarly institution, not a battlefield, so the need for uniforms isn't really all that necessary. If you're looking for someone in a particular wing or area or Candlekeep, you go there and say to someone idle, "excuse me, I'm looking for [Name], could you spare a moment to show me to them?"
I wouldn't see "uniform" robes necessary among Candlekeep's folks unless they are assigned a duty that could get tactical (like gate watchers) or in an early stage of their time at Candlekeep so wear a common "trainee, don't ask me questions, as I'm new here" uniform.
Beyond that, academic regalia IRL, the fancy robes not the cap and gown of undergrads, is usually more to do with where you've attained your past degrees as opposed to where you work (that's why at a school's academic convovation and other formal cap and gown ceremonies a lot of the faculty wear all sorts of different robes, they wear the colors of the school they got their highest degree at, not where they teach, with some exceptions for executive officers). So what I'd do if you want, is to grant the various Avowed license for their own style, maybe some wear the same colors to show their affiliation with other institutions of learning or arcane associations.
My answer's probably not what you're looking for; but at least that's how I run it. In my Candlekeep, you're not going to know who someone important is by the way they dress, but the way others may defer to the person. Some folks may have multiple literal feathers in their cap and want to flaunt it, other prefer to dress more modestly, and still others may dress more functionally looking like they're ready to jump off to far flung places as soon as they can reconcile the discrepancies between the two atlases they're consulting.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.