Well, despite being inspired by a certain time period it does not mean that the game will incorporate the same methodology, customs and culture that was present in our own history. Obviously the game will have new beings and creatures that do not exist on Earth and the events which occur will also vary greatly from our own history. Customs, culture and methodology in Sui Generis should reflect the game's setting, not a time period in our own history.
If you let a culture inspire you, simply taking one thing won't do it. The very essence of it's culture is in a piece of art, for example, medieval armour, culture and customs dicated how it ended up looking and working.
Just taking, as example, that piece of armour and ignore the ENTIRE culture built around it is horrible, and destroys the piece, unless it's supposed to be that mystical artifact made by that alien race.
If you let a culture inspire you, you don't just pick a few toppings and eat them, you need the base to really enjoy and experience it.
That is why I, going by their choice of armour and enviroment design, assume, that their world is based heavily on Western Europe of the medieval periods. I'm not going to back down on this opinion. I'm not a dev, I don't get to make the decision.
But I certainly have the right of opposing the overused idea of "muddyevil" design, blending many cultures into an unrecognisable pot of horseshite, doing justice to none.
If that creature is intelligent enough to craft and adorn armor then I'm assuming clothing would be a trivial thing.
If "primitive" Native Americans can discover a way to make leather soft and usable as clothing then who is to say that people in Sui Generis did not discover a method as well? Why must they use tanning methods that some Europeans did? This is being too restrictive by basing the game off of our own history instead of the history and lore of Sui Generis.
One word:
Infrastructure.
Native Americans had to discover that way of tanning leather since they did not have the infrastructure required for making clothes out of fabric. Native Americans don't live in cities, and don't have to make leather for hundreds or thousands of citizens.
The Native American art of tanning leather is an entirely different method of tanning, and one that was'nt used in the style of fashions depicted in the setting, too. Europe used it in the ice and bronze ages, we moved on to vegetable tanning because it is more suited to production on a larger scale - the "old" way of tanning is NOT suited to production on a larger scale AT ALL.
Many don't realise just HOW IMPORTANT infrastructure and economy is - We created civilisation, not because were more intelligent, but we had infrastructure. I laugh at Skyrim's "realistic" smithing, not just for the "ping ping" of a hammer and a sword appears.
Do you know how much work is involved in making just ONE sword?
Here, have a read:
So, a -small- workshop might be 1 lone master smith, 5 journeymen, 15 apprentices. plus a secretary who deals with paperwork. But behind them, there's 5 farmers raising cattle, and a huntsman catching deer, a tannery of 4 people producing the leather. And there's a steel finery of 4 people, who are supplied with iron from the foundry with its 6 people, which is supplied with charcoal by 8 people, and iron from a mine with 20 people, plus 2 barge-masters shipping the stuff around between the places....
So that one workshop of 21 people needs 50 more to operate at all. One swordsmith? He needs that 50 people too. The blacksmith making horse-shoes and hinges in the village? He needs 30 people up in the mountains to get the iron. And chances are, he does'nt know how to use steel, because he's not part of the cutler's guild.
This is only a small, tiny fragment of great economy and infrastructure required to make a small piece of iron.
I'm sorry, but Native Americans didn't have that infrastructure. That is why they used that leather.
Nor does the ogre, so I assume he just scraps together pieces of his victims equipment.
If they had a full infrastructure to support it, cloth would be the preferred choice, simply for it's materials abilties. It keeps you warm when it's cold, doesn't boil you when it's hot (like leather), you can repair it easily, you can dye it more easily, it's extremely flexible, etc, etc, etc. .
Infrastructure. The lack of that is the only sensible explanation for any human-like society to use leather above cloth for clothing of the body.
Oh I have many more pages I could write on the subject, but this is your chance to tell me that you don't want to hear it. I will always be in favour of a logical and realistic world, based on all that we've learned in history, which includes all these factors, and argue as such. That will never change.
If this -weren't- a game that is heavily inspired by the real world, I wouldn't argue. But it is. This is not sci-fi, this is not run of the mill fantasy, this is SUI GENERIS.