Blade & Soul - Scarlet Empire (Jin/Yun Outfit) Mod

As some of you may know, my laptop charger blew up on me just last week. Sadly for me, my laptop is a six years old model and the OEM does not manufacture or keep stock for the charger anymore. It took me some time to source for a replacement from a second hand dealer. That is why this post is late.

Hopefully, my laptop does not blow up on me next, else I will probably have to stop this blog and mod-ding until I can afford to get a new one. 😟

Well... That is enough of venting so let us get back into the mod.

Earlier in July, I made and posted the Gon Scarlet Empire after a patron requested for it. I modified the front and tail cloth by trimming and giving them a laced pattern, plus modified the under boob areas to skin color since they follows the correct curvature. But it seems the patron actually only wanted the front and tail cloth removed. 😅

Fortunately my work is not wasted as another patron had asked for that first version for the Jin and Yun race.

Replacing the front and tail cloth can be easily achieved by copying and pasting from the Gon mod. The retexturing of the under boob areas took a little more time because the rugged surface starts and ends at different area for all three races. But since I already know the layout of that area, through the Gon mod, it can be easily adjusted for each race. As such, in this week's mod, we will get to see both the Jin and Yun Scarlet Empire.

Since the outfit is exactly the same for all three races and all the details have already been mentioned in the Gon Scarlet Empire post, we will dive straight into the outfit.

First, let's view the original Jin and Yun Scarlet Empire below, with the Yun version on the left side and Jin on the right side.

Front View - Original Outfit

If we compare the Jin and Yun above to the Gon version earlier, we can see that it has the same appearance for all three races.

Front Close-up View - Original Outfit

Oh! I just realized that I can sort the in-game Tailorshop to show all outfits that cannot be customized, so I used the Scarlet Empire's hair here. The default setting is to show only customizable outfits so I am always missing stuff on the list. 😅

Rear View - Original Outfit

Notice how the Yun version notoriously shows the front and tail cloth cutting into the legs but not so much on the Jin.

Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit

Side View - Original Outfit

The rugged areas on the clothes just below the breast level are slightly shifted for the three races, so the area to be recolored has to be adjusted accordingly. Of course, that also includes the difference in skin tone.

Side Close-up View - Original Outfit

My aim for the Jin and Yun mods is to make replicates of the Gon mod. However, I noticed that the mesh structure of the breasts actually exist, under the cloth, for the Yun outfit. So I initially tried to modified the cloth into a lace layer that reveals the under boobs beneath it. Unfortunately, the entire region directly below the breasts is missing, and that missing region extends all the way to the back. 😧 In the end, I still has to make it similar to the Gon mod.

Let us take a look at the Jin and Yun modified Scarlet Empire, side by side, in the images below.

Front View - Modified Outfit

Although I indicated that the stockings has been recolored to skin, it is actually reflecting a red-orange shine.

Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The front cloth has been trimmed and given a lace texture.

Rear View - Modified Outfit

The same goes for the tail cloth but there are larger holes on it.

Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit

Side View - Modified Outfit

Comparing the top and bottom images, we can see how the cloth has been adjusted at the side of the breasts. This is due to the rugged surfaces that I had mentioned earlier.

Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit

This brings us to the end of this post. Catch the video below to get a better view of the mods. The video is made using the in-game Tailorshop since I am not in a powerful clans, that have lready beaten the new raid dungeon, like the requestors of these mods. And thus, do not have these outfits. 😞

Download Link for Jin
Download Link for Yun

Blade & Soul - Dragon Knight (Yun Outfit) Mod

Soon after I made the Gon Dragon Knight mod, a patron requested for the Yun version; and a little later, another requested for the Jin version. Since the Yun request preceded the Jin one, I decided to do for the Yun first.

With the ending of the recent trove event, the chance to obtain this outfit has also gone 'poof' in the wind... at least for then next few months, until NCWest decides to put it up for sale again in whatever form, such as event outfit or outfit in a chest. 😢

Just as an information for non-players, outfits in Blade & Soul are normally character-bound except for some special ones, for example the Dragon Knight. Such outfits are account-bound and can be sent via mail, using outfit transfer stamp, to other characters in the same account.

Although I got the Dragon Knight on my Jin, I am reluctant to send the outfit with the free outfit transfer stamps, which came with the free premium compensation. If you do not already know it, premium players get twenty outfit transfer stamps for free each month. So with the free premium, I quickly grabbed the stamps and let them stay in the Received Items until I need them in the future.

The free premium came as a compensation for a bug which caused weeklies raid to reset too early, causing some players to loose out on their weekly rewards. By the time of this post, there had been four such compensations (in the form of free weekly chests on the online Hongmoon store). Each of these chest give two days of free premium, so by now, there is a total of eight days.

But the eight days can be 'extended' to sixteen days by logging into the EU server and purchasing the same chests on there. Although the chests remain in the Received Items in the EU server, the premium is shared with the NA server. Therefore, eight days each on NA and EU servers together give a total of sixteen days. I am not sure whether this is intentional or some bug but since it can be done, why not make use of it. 😅 Someone even made a YouTube video on this.

Well, so much for some in-game information. Let's turn our attention back to the outfit and take a look at the original Yun Dragon Knight in the images below.

Front View - Original Outfit

Dragon Knight share the same appearance across all three races.

Front Close-up View - Original Outfit

The same outer armor over the tight inner layer, the thick belt and the spine-like structures that wrap around the legs and run from the waist to ankle.

Rear View - Original Outfit

Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit

Side View - Original Outfit

Side Close-up View - Original Outfit

Since the requester did not specify any detail, I figured that I should do the same mod as the Gon Dragon Knight.

Similar to the Gon mod, I recolored the dark inner layer on the legs, side torso and back into skin tone. Likewise, I made a G-string for the Yun. 😅

Unlike the Gon model, the lower back of the Yun looks much smoother and can be recolored to skin tone too. However, the Yun's butt area has more angular surfaces that disrupt the smoothness. 😰

Let us view the finalized Yun Dragon Knight mod below.

Front View - Modified Outfit

Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit

As seen above, the thighs and knees region have been recolored to skin.

Rear View - Modified Outfit

The same goes for the back and butt region. But notice that unlike the Gon mod, The mid portion of the Yun's lower back can also be recolored to skin.

Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The butt with G-string looks all smooth and great from the direct view, but when viewed from the sides, sharp edges can be seen (warning it cannot be unseen 😧 ).

Side View - Modified Outfit

The sides of the torso have also been recolored to skin as seen in the images above and below.

Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit

Comparing to the Gon mod, the only difference is in the lower back as mentioned above. But prior to the finalized version, I had actually trimmed the armor on the outer thighs, from waist level down to thigh level. Unfortunately, that version reveals even more angular surfaces so I settled for this version. 😥

With this, we have reached the end of this post. Catch the video, which is made in the Monkeystone forest in the Moonwater Plains map, for a better look at the mod.

Just for some fun facts about the Sacred Beast Ogong. I belief Ogong is derived from the Monkey King or Monkey God - Sun Wukong, from the Chinese mythological tale "Journey to The West". The west here refer to the realm where the Buddha resides and not the western part of our world. The party which sets out from China travelled west, through the Silk Road, to seek audience with the Buddha and fetch Buddhist scriptures back to the then Tang Dynasty.

For those who are familiar with Dragon Balls animation and manga series, you will probably know that the young Goku is also a derivation from the Monkey King - Sun Wukong (Goku's name in Chinese comics is actually the same as the Monkey King).

These derivations of Ogong and Goku from Sun Wukong is evident from the fact that they are kind of monkey related (tail in Goku's case and his transformation into a giant monkey at the sight of the moon) and that they all use an extendable magical pole for weapon. They even has the same ability to ride cloud as in Sun Wukong. It is even much more obvious in Ogong's case where he actually wears the same circlet and similar clothing; and had traveled to and messed up the Divine realm - stealing and eating divine peaches.

Sun Wukong is known to be a monkey born from a piece of monkey shaped stone after being extensively exposed to divine energy of Heaven and Earth. So he is also lesser known as the Stone monkey and that is where the forest's name - Monkeystone came from. 😅

And that is not all. If you have ACTUALLY played Blade & Soul right through, including all the mini quests, you will come across a series of mini quests (in Silverfrost Mountains) where you help a monk form a party to battle evil. You helped him recruited Wulong (any Dragon Balls fan recall this name and who owns it? 😆 ) - a pig type NPC and Sally - a fish type NPC. These two NPCs are also derivation from the other two disciples of the monk in "Journey to The West" - Wujin (a.k.a. Zhu Bajie, 猪八戒) and Wuneng (a.k.a. Shaseng, 沙僧). Needless to say, Wujin is a pig type being while Wuneng is a water type being. In the quest series, the last one that you helped the monk recruit is, of course, Ogong. Although in the "Journey to The West" story, Wukong is the first to become the monk's disciple.

Looks like I have drifted off too much, so I will stop here in case I start talking about Dorothy and her friends from Oz. 😅

Download Link

Blade & Soul - Aurora (Yun Outfit) Mod

This week, we have an outfit out of the Sandstorm Temple dungeon in Solak. Needless to say, it is dropped by the final boss - Rukesh, in the hard mode dungeon. The first time I saw this boss, I was thinking "What the heck is that?", and some players might agree with me. 😆

To verbally describe Rukesh's appearance, think of a legless man with a huge genie attached to his back via some cables/lines. Yes, I mean practically a being that looks similar to a genie from Aladdin's lamp. 😅

Seeing a genie appear in Solak is not all surprising since the outfits worn by people of Solak are designed similar to ancient Arabic wear. But to see the genie attached to a legless man is another thing all together. Makes you wonder who is the master of which. 😨

Rukesh was originally a monk from the Ajanara Monastery, but he delved too deep into dark knowledge, which eventually led to his turning into a demon due to an artefact.

Looking back at the outfit, I cannot really tell its name's relation to an actual aurora, which is a natural light display in the upper hemisphere of the Earth's north and south pole, caused by the disturbance in Earth's magnetosphere by solar winds.

If anyone has any good theory as to the outfit's name, please help enlighten us. 😅

The overall design of the outfit is a white piece of mantle worn over an orange colored dress, supplemented by metallic shoulder and leg armor pieces. Let's take a look at the original outfit below.

Front View - Original Outfit 

The base dress has an orange color shine, while the armor pieces are dark colored. The two combination gives a strange overall look.

Front Close-up View - Original Outfit 

Rear View - Original Outfit 

The mantle can be seen covering the entire back and two pieces of cloth, of the same length, runs down from neck.

Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit 

Side View - Original Outfit 

We can see feathers sticking out from between the shoulder guard and bracer.

Side Close-up View - Original Outfit 

The patron who requested for this outfit mod asked for the mantle to be removed. Unfortunately, the mesh for the back of the torso, which is hidden beneath the mantle, does not exist. A total removal of the mantle would leave a missing back. As such, my only option is to trim it.

The mantle can be physically trimmed to the waist level but that will leave a gap between itself and the dress, where the missing back (hole) can be seen. Thus, I only trimmed the mantle up to the skirt level. 😥

Trimming the mantle would complete the request but I also looked at the chest portion. It seems the mesh of the breasts exist under the dress so I can trim, or rather widen, the dove neck to reveal a little more of the breasts. Unfortunately, the mesh of the torso portion immediately below the breasts does not exist, so the trim style is limited only to the top part of the chest region. 😥

After that, I also trimmed the length of the dress by a little and cut two slits into its sides.

Check out the modified outfit in the images below.

Front View - Modified Outfit

The dress can be seen trimmed down to the white lining level.

Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The angle of the 'V' shape on the dove neck has been widened as seen above.

Rear View - Modified Outfit

Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The length of the mantle has been trimmed to be approximately the same as the dress.

Side View - Modified Outfit

The slit on the right side can be seen in the image above and below. I added the inverted 'V' white linings to complete the slits, as it will not look nice with the dress ending with white linings on the front and back but not on the sides.

Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit

This brings us to the end of this post. You can watch the video for a better look at the modified outfit.

I had captured the video in the northern part of the Silverfrost Mountains map because the scenery looks similar to the Earth's north and south pole, where beautiful auroras can be seen.

By the way, the thumbnail of the video has been doctored to include an aurora in the skyline. I have not seen any aurora in Blade & Soul yet. 😅

Download Link

Blade & Soul - Scarlet Empire (Gon Outfit) Mod

With the recent NA server patch on 19 June, a new raid - Scarlet Conservatory a.k.a. Temple of Succession has been released. And with new raid, comes new outfits (hmm.. this sounds like a certain uncle Ben 😅 ). The Scarlet Empire is the outfit dropped by the final boss - Scarlet Empress Tayhu in this new raid. And yet, I have already seen players with this outfit with the full accessories, which means they have beaten the final boss several times. 😲

That it why I am so surprise when a patron asked for this mod. But then again, he/she might be from other regions, where this patch has already been introduced. 😆

Just for some information about the outfit, the Scarlet Empire is worn by Dowager Tayhu, who rules over the Stratus Empire in the absence of an Emperor. It is rumored that she is a divine being who had descended from the Divine Realm to bless the Stratus Empire. However, the truth is that she is in league with the forces of darkness and the one who schemed the assassination of Empress Namsolyn so as the secure her daughter Namsoyoo (or rather her blood), in order to perform the Heaven Mandate ritual.

In addition, she might also have been the culprit that insinuated Prince Sobu to perform the Heaven Mandate ritual that eventually caused his life. On the hand, Mushin's accomplice - Yura also tricked Prince Sogan to perform the same ritual that destroyed him and his sister. And thus, securing the throne for Tayhu's own son - Sobin, who is not of royal bloodline.

It was revealed in the storyline, from the not so distant past, that Tayhu is actually another lackey of Mushin, who is intent on acquiring divine powers to rule over all three realms.

The overall design of the Scarlet Empire is very much oriental (except for the pair of sleeves and leggings) with golden dragon embroidered and a full golden dragon wrapped around the waist. In ancient China history, the golden dragon is the representation of the one and only true Emperor. Anyone who dared to have them embroidered into their clothing could be executed for plotting to usurp the throne. 😨

If the Stratus Empire is modelled after ancient China imperial structure, Dowager Tayhu is basically openly declaring that she is the Emperor. But then, it may not have been modelled after ancient China imperial structure, so the golden dragon would loose its meaning. But interestingly, there is also a Dowager in China history by the name of Cixi who took power, for forty-seven years, after the death of the Emperor. Her action of attending court sessions, from behind a thin veil of curtain, where the Emperor listen and give orders to his subjects pertaining to national/political issues, even give rise to an idiom.

Another earlier example, from ancient China history, would be Empress Wu. But in her case, she had actually ascended the throne, to become the Emperor herself.

Wow! That is a lot of unrelated information. Now, let us return to the outfit. 😆

While the overall design is closer to oriental style, the pair of leggings and sleeves are definitely not so. The pair of sleeves looks much more of western design from 1800s colonial era and oriental style does not adopt leggings.

Front View - Original Outfit

The scarlet part of the outfit's name is clearly represented by the red-yellow color theme. The empire part would be the golden dragon and the fact that it is worn by the Dowager.

Front Close-up View - Original Outfit

The golden dragon can be seen wrapped around the waist, like a belt.

Rear View - Original Outfit

The lower part of the outfit is just a pair of red panties, covered in the front and back by two pieces of cloth, and the pair of dark leggings.

Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit

Side View - Original Outfit

The sides of the outfit gives a full view of the legs.

Side Close-up View - Original Outfit

The Scarlet Empire looks really beautiful but I guess some players may not like the two pieces of cloth dangling at the front and back. As such, I intended to trim both of them, but just trimming them is dull. So, I added lace patterns, which are also quite oriental like, on both.

Next, I recolored the pair of leggings into a translucent layer which reflects colors between red and orange.

Finally, I looked at the chest torso and found that the mesh structure around the breasts are quite smooth, so I recolored the area to skin. Although the area do not fully follow the breasts' curvature, it still looks acceptable.

Unfortunately, I found the back's mesh structure is ragged and cannot be recolored to skin, without causing it to look strange, so I have to leave it as cloth.

Let's take a look at the modified Scarlet Empire below.

Front View - Modified Outfit

Notice the front cloth has been trimmed to minimal length, just enough to block the red panties from the front view. 😅

The pair of leggings is now translucent instead of opaque, reflecting red color at knee level and orange at ankle level.

Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The part of the red clothing covering the under boobs have been modified to skin color, which looks like it has been taken off.

Rear View - Modified Outfit

Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The red colored cloth at the back has also been trimmed and laced.

Side View - Modified Outfit

From the side view, we can see the transition from skin to red cloth just below the strap because the back has ragged surface and thus, unsuitable to be recolored to skin.

Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit

Hmm.. Should I leave the translucent leggings or turn it into skin... 

This brings us to the end of this post. You can get a better look at the mod in the video which I have captured using the in-game Tailorshop again... Because my characters are not in a powerful clan that can beat the new raid boss yet. 😥

Download Link

Blade & Soul - Dragon Knight (Gon Outfit) Mod

If you are a Blade & Soul player and you see the title of this post, you might be envious or jealous, and thought I have been 'whaling' my credit card. But no... I don't have the outfit nor do I have the luxury to swipe card so as to obtain all the new outfits. 😭 I just notice it as a good candidate for mod, similar to the Cutting Edge, so I did the mod.

For the non-players who are wondering what I am bubbling about in the paragraph above, let's just say that this outfit is currently obtainable if one has the ability to swipe in real life or just so very lucky. 

To explain a bit more, the in-game trove event is currently on, where players can 'open' an in-game treasure chest to get a variety of items daily. Initially, the chest has only two spaces that contain two items in which players can choose one of two. But the spaces can be expanded up to seven (by buying in-game expansion tickets) so you can choose one out of seven random items.

The chest is also ranked from one to three stars randomly when opened, with one star giving common items, while three stars chest granting highly desirable items. Outfits appear in the two stars chest. Unfortunately, even a two stars chest is a rare thing and even if so, may not contain any outfit. 😞

The chest can be reset by using a 'key' that can be bought from the online store and that is where rich players (in-game and/or in real life) can take advantage to open the chest indefinitely until they obtain the items they want.

As such, it is not easy to obtain any of the outfits unless you are really lucky or have so much vitamin M in real life that you can simply swipe all those outfits into your wardrobe. 😮

Well, enough about the information. Let us take a look at this shining piece of armor worthy of a knight.

Front View - Original Outfit

The torso portion of the outfit is laden with scale like pieces and claws can be seen on the finger tips and toes.

There is also a spine-like structure that runs from the waist all the way down to the ankles.

But the dead giveaway of a dragon is the helmet, which is not shown here.

Front Close-up View - Original Outfit

The outer metallic layer is worn over a soft inner layer as shown in the images above and below.

Rear View - Original Outfit

Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit

The darker areas are the soft layer while the white shiny areas are the hard armor.

Side View - Original Outfit

There is also a thick metallic belt that wraps around the waist.

Side Close-up View - Original Outfit

This is an outfit with beautiful details and does not seem easily mod-able but the inner layer kind of reminds me of the Cutting Edge outfit. So I wanted to see if I can convert the inner layer to skin layer as I did for the Cutting Edge.

You can decide whether it is successful by comparing the modified outfit below.

Front View - Modified Outfit

Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit

In the two images above, you can see that the sides of the torso and the thighs have been recolored to skin layer.

Rear View - Modified Outfit

The butt! 😍

Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit

The skin layer at the sides of the torso extends to the back but the center portion of the torso is not a smooth surface so I have to keep the metallic look.

If I have recolored the center portion to skin, you will get a jagged skin surface which will look unnatural. 

Fortunately, the butt area is quite smooth so I can borrow the Gon Stinger's butt design and replicate it here. 😅 

Side View - Modified Outfit

Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit

Eagle-eye patrons, may find some unsmooth areas on the skin layer and those are due to the mesh structure. Normally, these areas are not suitable for repainting to skin just like how I kept those armored areas in the outfit. But I find that they are not that jagged so I repaint them anyway. 😥

You can get a better look at the mod in the video below, which is made using the Tailorshop again since I do not have the outfit.  😥

Download Link