Cosplay Cataclysm - Crimson Embersilk Battlegear - Part 01

About a year ago, November of 2013, I already started thinking about a costume for Blizzcon 2014.

After King Varian Wrynn, I had a couple of requirements in mind:

• Must be able to Sit Down.
• Not based on a particular NPC
• No big Armor pieces
• Prop would be secondary

I started thinking about a cloth set from the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Expansion, that, from the moment I saw it, thought was very cool.

(I remember worrying that it might be so rare, or hard to get that my Mage might never get it.)

This design had a few different color combinations; red and black, white and gold, white and purple, and grey and black.

I settled on the red set pretty early, even though in-game this particular combination didn't have its own name, I started calling it "Crimson Embersilk Battlegear".

Around this time I also saw a product from ThinkGeek called the Technomancer Digital Wizard Hoodie

And I started to think I could incorporate a light show similar to hoodie into the costume that would stand out nicely in the darkened main hall of Blizzcon.

So I broke the costume down into two projects; the robe (including the giant hat) and the light show. I wanted to be sure the costume itself was good enough that if I couldn't figure out how to do the lights, it would still be perfectly good to wear. I wanted the lights to enhance the costume, I didn't want them to look gaudy or for anyone to think I just slapped LEDs on it because it was a thing to do.