It’s been faaaar too long since I did a “kitting up” photoset, so I thought I’d do another one of my heavy Chesterwick kit, which I wear for Swordcraft on Fridays when I’m not being an archer and wearing a dress. This kit puts me on maximum hitpoints (15) at Swordcraft and is all 100% functional stainless steel stuff I also use for other medieval activities – which means it’s not exactly light. It’s inspired by what a 14th century knight would wear, although I’ve taken a fair amount of creative liberty.
Here’s a breakdown of each layer, generously photographed by my friend @andrethesmall (and please ignore my funny faces, it’s been a long week):
1. Underwear! Medieval linen braies with an undertunic tucked into them. I’m also wearing workout pants underneath because it’s currently winter and I’m a lizard. In the summer I skip that layer. All of my medieval underwear is from Historic Enterprises. Unfortunately, they don’t really cater too much to women for this stuff (given that it is men’s clothing!), but I find I can fit most of it, although it’s not the most ideal fit, especially with the hose.
2. Hose! I love hose, I think they’re amazing and silly. I usually go for parti-coloured – I have three different colours to choose from (yellow, blue, green), so I just mix and match each week depending on what I feel like. I wear thick socks underneath to pad them out a little bit – since they’re made for men’s feet they’re a bit big on me.
3. Shoes, pourpoint, leg harness. The shoes are a new model from ArmStreet that I’m currently testing out for durability. They look medieval but have modern comfort, and feel great under armour! The pourpoint (tight vest) is what keeps up my leg harness (leg armour). Most of the weight of my leg harness is distributed across my hips, with very little actually pulling on my shoulders. If you look closely, you can see lots of vertical stitch marks in the pourpoint – that’s where I’ve taken it in time and time again as it’s really old and the linen keeps stetching! It’s really important for a pourpoint to be super tight to ensure an ideal distribution of weight. My leg harness is the same I’ve had for a few years now, from ArmStreet.
4. Gambeson! Mine is a bit beaten up and needs some new buckles. A gambeson is a padded layer that just adds a little bit of cushioning from armor.
5. Armour. I’m wearing bracers, elbow cops and 14th century inspired shoulders, all of which is fringed with green suede dagging. I opted not to wear my upper cannons tonight (which would completely cover my upper arms).
6. Cotte d’armes, a wool garment in the colours of my warband that hides my beaten up gambeson. It has yellow wool dagging on it to make it a bit fancier and set me apart from other members of the warband who wear a similar, unadorned item.
7. Breastplate. Enough said.
8. Hood, because it’s cold out and my helmet doesn’t currently have an aventail to cover my neck.
9. A helmet to top it all off. It has a faceplate but I opt not to wear it at Swordcraft since I usually need to be able to communicate with people and I find I have to yell waaaay too loud with it on.
10. A photo taken by Tony Delov at the game, with my current halberd.
Please let me know if you have any questions, happy to answer!
Another great combination of great example of practical armor and explanation of how you get all the pieces on by @sunandsword – complete with old school underwear.
Once again, if you’re interested in how wearing armor while female looks and works, we highly recommend looking for a local larp group – they might even be able to talk to you about what olde undies looked like.
Also super great to point out that there’s plenty of room for creative license while keeping things very plausible. (It’s also always worth remembering that actual historical accuracy only refers to the small sample of things we can definitely confirm, a lot of history is speculation based off limited evidence)
– wincenworks
h/t: @ravenhull
Ah, one of our favorite repeat offenders… Seriously, though, what am I even looking at?? Is this a Red Bull ad?
So I looked up this character and the wiki page had this to say:
Only the most elite knights of the continent of Hiquba are permitted to join the Starka Temple Knights. It is considered the highest honor to join their ranks… At the grand induction ceremony in their hallowed temple, their captain Fortunata looks on forlornly. Her heart grieves at the thought of how few will live to see the end of the next war.
I have a few questions: If these soldiers are the most elite, why will so many of them die? How do they replenish their ranks? Why does the captain worry about her fully-armored soldiers dying, and not herself, who appears to be wearing a Victora’s Secret armor lingerie? Did her left foot step into a wormhole, and is that why it’s disappeared? …What’s with the cherubs…??
Her evolved armor looks a lot better, though she still forgot her pants at home, and I don’t even want to theorize on what’s happening with her breasts…
But with the improved armor comes a worse lore entry:
Fortunata leads her fresh recruits to subjugate the
ogredemonic brutes that have crossed into their borders. The unfortunate young soldiers, lacking in the strict training characteristics of the Starka Temple Knights, serve as little more than human shields. Despite this handicap, Fortunata exhibits superb technique and strength, slaying the horde with ease. She is more than willing to prove how she earned her lofty position.
What???? This lady is awful at her job, how has she not been fired? Or jailed?? She’s just leading fresh recruits to die to demons when she supposedly has an army of professionals! Is this an insurance scam? Why is she leading recruits when she’s supposed to be commanding the elites? No wonder that cherub is glaring at her!
Get her, cherub!! #TheTruthAboutFortunata2k17
-Icy
Generally we try to avoid negatively highlighting indie games for a variety of factors.
- They’re more likely to be conforming to market expectations set by big companies than to influence the trend of the market in general
- They’re often being made as a singular creative vision rather than for-profit focus of making a marketable product
- Since they’re not working for profit and raising capital, indies often can’t afford to make their own assets and just have to use whatever’s available
- They’re often made by people still working out how they want to make games, and so commit all kinds of beginner mistakes
With the exception of a few games that get wide spread attention due to hilarious juxtaposition between what they promise and what look to they deliver (eg Haydee and Axe Princess) we tend to leave them alone.
So why am I bingo’ing The King’s Heroes? Because, well while Aldorlea Games claims indie status, it’s a bit confusing if you look at their Steam listing sorted by date (showing the oldest here)
They’re less of an Indie studio and more of a shovelware factory, and while this game does pretend (kind of) to have some male empowerment it also makes the ratio pretty obvious:
– wincenworks