Elfmom's Sketchbook

I actually think the wolfriders probably DID already have the concept of "underwear", made out of the same leather as the rest of their clothing (which was supposed to be extremely finely tanned -- Moonshade was said to be able to create tanned leathers as soft as flower petals -- see the OQ).

There's some artistic evidence for this within the comics drawn by Wendy.

First: Cutter's default outfit has always had those flaps in front and back. Those aren't just decorative. They're the flaps of his underwear, a loincloth. He can take off his pants, and ONLY be wearing the loincloth. He's depicted this way on the cover of the "Gatherum II" (the picture of him and Skywise having a "who can knock who off the log" contest in the water, where Skywise can be seen wearing a different style of loincloth "underwear").

Second: Rain the Healer was depicted (in the OQ and in the Hidden Years story about Skywise's birth) as wearing only a loin-cloth type of thing (with very long flaps), along with thigh-high boots.

Third: in SABM, there is a brief shot where we, in effect, get to see Dewshine's underwear... and a good thing it's there, too! It's drawn in a way that makes it look like leather, not cloth.


The reason I think the wolfriders must have always had it, though, is due to the fact that they ride wolves... and while wolves have nice fur covering their rather bony backbones (remember, a wolf's back isn't comfortably broad the way a horse's is), would you want to be riding on a wolf's back with NOTHING between you and its fur? One word: chafing. Especially if you're a guy, with dangly bits.

But characters like Strongbow and Dewshine were depicted in the OQ, long before meeting the Sun Folk, as wearing those "mini-skirt" type tops (in Strongbow's case, we could give it the more "manly" name of tunic or kilt), and no pants. For the sake of their private parts, I sure hope they were wearing something protective!