Or click right http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQcDDuo7N_L1UWgyfti1lRNbfsNKNVtd_y1wGJNgBzXI9IVg0CVgFH0v1T1JA

When I hear professional soldiers complaining about the weight of their imperial leather armor, I wonder why thieves would wear armor that is heavier than leather. I have seen thieves in glass and elven armor. I don't think Bethsaida thought the process through when designing the armor and its accessories (bracers, boots, gauntlets, helmets).

If this was the real world, thieves wouldn't wear armor. They would wear normal clothing, and would cover their faces with what is available. Thieves rely on speed and maneuverability. Armor reduces both of these traits considerably.

The Forsworn are restricted to the Reach, their ancestral homeland. Their homeland doesn't experience the same climate conditions as the more northern holds, and may have a more temperate climate. I think the conception of females wearing a "bikini"-type armor is based more on 21st sensibilities, then on any historical basis. In the ancient world, females wore a "bikini" for athletic exercise and for acrobatics. I haven't been able to determine what Celtic women wore in combat - all searches lead to modern speculation and male fantasies.

For me, the most ridiculous fashion statement in Skyrim is the infinite supply of undergarments that the player's character carries around.

For the record, the Forsworn armor really might not be that inaccurate, using the history of our World's "Nord's" as a comparison.

From Julius Caesar's Gallic War Commentaries:

In one section he describes the "Germans" (which to Romans, meant anyone from across the Rhine or Danube, and were primarily tribes of Scandanavian descent... the same group of people we'll identify as "Vikings" in a few centuries:

To be fair, Caesers Commentaries also contains a lot of bull. It's anyones guess what is true or exaggerated.

Ciceros outfit, on an orc, yeah it looks RIDICULOUS, lmao.

I don't think any outfit is particularly "ridiculous" but all the boobs-ahoy metal armors for females are certainly a bit unusual.
Female warrios were incredibly rare in all parts of the ancient world... Even then it was mostly just men's FemDom fantasies, as with the Greeks' Amazon legend. However, if there were any, they probably wore the same stuff as men did.

Elven, Dwarven, Glass, Ebony, Daedric, Steel, Dark Brotherhood.

All completely ridiculous.

Seriously? Dwarven you are supposed to look like a tank, and you do, and steel is some of the best looking in the whole game! Although Banded Iron is pretty bad ass.

Yes, to be fair, like damn near everything the Romans wrote, there was exaggeration and an element of propaganda to Caesar's journals and they must certainly be taken with a grain of salt.

But, as far as historical descriptions of turn-of-the-millenium tribal warriors go... it's about as good a source as I'm aware of. I don't know of any who say they didn't run around in the cold almost naked.

I don't get the Forsworn hate. I think it looks superb! It's very "barbaric-wilderness".

Very amazonian.

I think the Ebony looks really well done, except for the helm.

the helmet seems to extend the neck, >_<.

Yeah, the steel plate armor is more flattering to women though,


Why bad though? I would have said that women might actually find it more comfortable to have a briastplate that actually fit their curves, but in truth that would likely only be necessary for the bustiest women. Soldiers wore padded clothing beneath all forms of armor, whether plate or mail or what have you, so really they wouldn't need special accomodation for the boobs.

That said, the U.S. Army has worked on reshaping the hard plate that goes in body armor to better accomodate women's figure. It might not make much difference for smaller-chested women, but some women do apparently find the body armor uncomfortable in the chest. There's only a kevlar pad, the cloth of the plate carrier itself, and their shirt beneath the hard plate, so it's not as well padded as what a knight in 1066 might have worn beneath his mail shirt or briastplate.


See, here's the thing. I thought like that at first, because I really like the lower-end armors like iron, leather, steel, etc. But look at it this way - your average person has some very practical, real-world armor in this game. The guards are all wearing mail shirts with some leather fringes, I think, along with a fully-enclosing helmet. Iron armor is common. Move up the list a bit, and you find steel plate. Still very real-world, but more ornate, as though someone with means had it made for them.

Now, move up a bit more. Now you've got Elven and Dwarven armor. These look exotic to indicate they come from non-human societies, and so are somewhat flashier. Then you get to the highest-end armors - glass, ebony, daedric, and dragon scale/plate. These are the ultra-rare armors, the ones worn by legendary heroes. They stand out. Glass and Ebony involve rare ores, not commonly found and often located in hard-to-find places guarded by dangerous creatures. Daedric not only requires ebony, but the heart of a demon. So yeah, that one looks like something Sauron would wear, and sensibly so. It's the right armor for a thoroughly evil warrior-mage who wants to - dare I say it? - RULE THE WORLD!!! MUWAHH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! And for the dragon armors, of course, you have to kill a dragon. So again, they look very unusual, rather than something you'd see in our own history.

Although I ordinarily argue the point that fantasy should be grounded in the legend and myth of our own world, and the architecture should reflect the past of our own world to achieve the right level of verisimilitude, we have to remember that fantasy still derives from the legend of our world. It has to have the right degree of otherworldliness, with a basis in the common.


I tend not to think the non-human races as reflecting any cultures of our own Earth. The Nords are the Norse, the Imperials are the Romans, the Bretons are the pre-Saxon Britons, or the Gauls, or some other Celtic group, and the Redguards are North Africans. None of the elven or beast-folk races fit with real-world human cultures.


See my above comments.





There have been multiple threads where this sort of thing gets discussed. I had one person imply I was an unrepentant sixist because I said that while female heroes are one thing - heroes are by definition people that don't fit into the averages of society - I found it highly implausible that the guards in every hold seem evenly mixed between men and women.

Overall, I don't have a problem with the Forsworn armor because the women don't really seem much more exposed than the men. The difference is largely negligible.

The helm looks fine to me, it's just that I (usually) prefer helmets that show the face. Except for that, it seems fine to me.

There are a few armor sets with the guys are almost shirt less.

many people over the years have written about the absurdity of female briast forming armor.

I was just expecting a more exotic helm, ebony being the dunmer armor.

Forsworn fur bikini....lost it's usefulness and credibility because Lydia won't wear it.

lol

I wonder how many people have tried, over and over, to get Lydia into the Forsworn bikini? "Please, Lydia, I'll give you a magic ebony sword and a sack of diamonds, just pleeeeeeeease put the bikini on."

Hell, you'd think at least if you married her she'd put it on for happy happy married people fun time...

This is a good-natured thread. The silliness of some of the outfits doesn't detract from the game's goodness.

Dark Brotherhood Male armor and Ebony Helm come to mind as the worst.

I imagine the foresworn "armor" would be more like our native american. Women would be wearing more "leather robe" type garments, not bikini types.

I imagine most armors in Skyrim would not be very useful. Armor was made to deflect blows or absorb them. The heavy armors in Skyrim would be doing a lot more absorbing than deflecting.

I also imagine most women in skyrim would be extremely flat chested, since the wealthy where the only ones that wouldn't be extremely underweight. No implants back then boys...

But hey, flat chested women don't sell games...

You'd have to be really trying to find the briast size in Skyrim offensive.