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My people live in a tidally locked planet with very strong winds from the night side to the day side. Normally these winds are 50-70 km/h (around 30-45 mph) but they can easily reach 100-120 km/h (around 60-75 mph). I know that winds can be much faster in tidally locked planets, but it has to be an inhabitable planet.

They have a Bronze Age-like technology with a strong, well-organized feudal power. The materials available are from animal origin (mostly wool, leather and bone). They live in houses dug in the sheltered side of hills and mountains, in a tundra ecosystem with little vegetation and few geological features. They do not have magic of any kind.

What kind of clothes would they wear to travel between locations? Tight clothes so they can walk in the wind? Or baggy clothes that could take advantage of the wind and help them move, like ship sails?

I would like to hear your answers, and please tell me if something is not clear. Thank you!

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Normally these winds are 50-70 km/h (around 30-45 mph) but they can easily reach 100-120 km/h (around 60-75 mph).

I live in exactly such a place - you could have taken these numbers from my monthly weather report. It is also moderately cold.

The wind is exciting the first few times, but it's honestly not such a big deal. A simple leather motorcycle jacket works very well to break the wind. Canvas "work" pants with tightly woven fibers also work well. Loose fiber cloth (so basically any generic "normal" clothing) is pretty bad - the wind cuts right through, and no amount of layering helps.

In your example of a bronze age culture, their best bet would be leather. I'm not sure how tightly fabrics were woven historically - but I assume sailmaking would have developed the technology for it. A single layer of that would be good enough in the conditions you describe - probably something that's almost the thickness of your average pair of jeans (so not super thin like a silk blouse). But you don't need to go overboard with super thick fabric.

Among people in such a place, hat strings would almost certainly be very popular :). Also, after a quarter hour or more, the wind can really dry out hair, eyes, lips, nose and the rest of your face. It's not exactly a hazard (unless you're a beauty model) but it is an inconvenience. So various masks, gloves and visors would be popular accessories (also helps with snow and dust). Or perhaps they like to use creams, oils and waxes to protect their skin. One imagines that royalty might travel in covered palanquins, and lack of wind-dried skin might mark one as upper class, similar to lack of suntan in some cultures.

Something I notice is that once you bundle up in some kind of tight overwear (leather or canvas), even if it's not very warm, you suddenly feel warmer because a significant wind chill factor has been eliminated. I'd say the wind can easily make it feel 5-15C colder. So when you put on the jacket it suddenly becomes much warmer. This is where zippered vents are really nice. I don't think historically such things were common, but perhaps in your case people would have all sorts of slits on their outerwear that are fastened by buttons or laces, and can be partially opened to cool off.

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome Haterind, nice first post. Please take our tour and refer to the help center as and when for guidance. Enjoy the site. $\endgroup$ May 18, 2022 at 2:02
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    $\begingroup$ in the bronze age i think all clothes was held together with laces (think shoes not dainties) or pins $\endgroup$
    – WendyG
    May 18, 2022 at 9:31
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Clothing will be heavy duty

  1. Slightly Loose: While you don't want your closes to be too loose since you want to minimize how much that wind will knock you around, some looseness will be good. Being a windy tundra, you will need a air gaps in your cloths to help insulate you from the cold.
  2. Water tight: Those fast winds will be able whisk moisture away from your body cooling you down much faster than a normal tundra. Even if this is were not a particularly cold planet, hypothermia could be a real problem if you get caught wet out in those kinds of winds. But on a colder world, even more so. So clothes that are thick and don't breath too much could be advantageous.
  3. Protection: Those winds are fast enough to send sand and debris flying. Your clothing will need to protect against the abrasion of a constant bombardment of sand, sticks, ice, etc. Getting knocked over and even dragged along the ground during a strong gust may be a very real concern as well.

You would in most places see thick layers of furs like those used by the Inuits since staying warm will be your biggest goal, and all other goals would be secondarily achieved.

However, no planet has just one climate. People living closer to the sub-stellar point will enjoy much more warmth than those living under less direct sunlight; so, this region may not be a tundra at all (just very windy). These people will likely still opt for full body clothing to protect themselves from the harsh winds, but thinner so they don't overheat. They will likely see going out for a walk in the open as a something that needs safety gear, like we do with bicycles and motorcycles, so I'd expect at least parts of their body to be protected by leather or rawhide protection.

Bone or tusk helmets (like those used in the Mycenean Greek period) or maybe turbans may also be a common precaution against being stuck in the head or knocked down. Also, if they can find a way to protect their face and eyes, that would be expected too.

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Let's start with the nature of the winds themselves. Yes, they'd be faster, and we can ignore that, but there are a few useful bits you could get fun ideas from. They just figured out that Venus's winds are so strong that they actually abrade the planet to counteract tidal locking. This is why it has negative rotation and a day longer than its year. The motion of the planet, plowing headlong through the solar wind, created a slight bias that induced a single planet-wide hurricane where the winds circle the planet every four days.

Ok, enough fun facts. Even if it doesn't make the planet rotate, it would create a reliable east-west bias of the winds, which would impact both architecture and transportation.

I would guess that wind power was the target of most of their transportation needs. They would have figured out tacking shortly after they figured out cloth, so they'd have windward roads that went straight and widdershins roads that zig-zagged. Boogie boards would be their equivalent of walking sticks.

Thus, their clothing would likely be adjustable so it could be tied back when traveling into the wind and let loose when they were making use of it for propulsion. The looseness of the clothing wouldn't be as important as the stiffness. You don't want clothing that flaps because that induces drag in random directions and will eventually damage the cloth.

Also, fur would be abraded off of the outside over time, so you'd want the fur on the inside for most purposes. This makes it harder to be heavily insulated due to mobility issues. Smooth, stiff surfaces would dominate.

Goggles would be non-optional, as would cloth over the mouth and nose. This is another area where they would see advanced innovation. Hats would be non-existent because you don't need them indoors, and you can't keep them on your head outdoors. So tight-fitting hoods, head-wraps, skull caps and helmets would be common.

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    $\begingroup$ Have you ever walked or even run in such windy conditions? You really don’t need (or want) your clothing to be any baggier, even when going with the wind. Nice idea with the land sailing vehicles though, those could probably work if the ground is smooth and hard enough. $\endgroup$
    – Michael
    May 18, 2022 at 4:59
  • $\begingroup$ You're right, which is why I suggested they be able to tie the cloth back. Reducing your cross-section is important. $\endgroup$ May 18, 2022 at 19:52
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The flora and fauna of such a world would evolve to adjust itself to the conditions you describe. If your People did not evolve in the same environment they would, as did we, harvest the local resources to allow themselves to live on this world. Else you may need to think of a reason why they are not naturally equipped to.

I can imagine creatures like turtles with gripping feet that hug the terrain and shells that allow the wind to flow over their hard domes. Perhaps mammoth like animals with soft dense fur beneath but coarse thick fur on the outside. Plants, with heavy leaves and thick skin more rubber like but slick that let the wind channel over them, or large petals that grow on one side shielding the more delicate parts on the leeward side but still exposed to the sun. Insects that weave protective nests resembling silk.

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Baggy clothes bound tight.

They wear baggy clothing that's wrapped tight around them and bound with cords. This has the benefit creating extra layers of insulation while reducing drag from the wind, and prevents the need for specially tailored, tight-fitting clothing for each different body—especially helpful for growing kids.

Moving downwind.

In the event they need to move downwind quickly, especially in emergencies, they release the cords and let their clothing catch the wind. For less experienced people, they slide along the ice and tundra—some on small bone sleds they carry for that purpose. More experienced people can stay upright, crossing large distances quickly in leaps and bounds.

This is known as running the wind.

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No clothes.

Clothes slow them down. They need to move fast. No shoes either. They tie their hair back.

From the movie "The Fast Runner"

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/atanarjuat/

fast runner

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    $\begingroup$ The OP mentioned "in a tundra ecosystem" $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    May 17, 2022 at 18:54
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    $\begingroup$ @Nosajimiki - even better, because now I have an appropriate image from "The Fast Runner" and modify the text. Now everyone can be happy! $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    May 17, 2022 at 19:33
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    $\begingroup$ And if you run with the wind instead of against it you gain a boost. The only cloth such people need is not to cover their bodies, but to use as a makeshift sail! $\endgroup$ May 17, 2022 at 19:57
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    $\begingroup$ @TheSquare-CubeLaw Arrr that's me main mast! Shiver me timber! $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    May 17, 2022 at 21:11

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