Fantasy Armor

In my Lyria storyverse, all her soldiers have adamantium armor that, while always built to fit the person, make it very hard to tell who is male and who is female. Being adamantium, the only two things that can threaten the people inside are anti-magic (adamantium is a magic substance, so anti-magic of sufficient strength can dissolve it), and the laws of physics (especially inertia). For instance, in one scene an enemy with adamantium tanks gets one of their tanks thrown so violently fast and hard by Lyria's pet monster Voluponek, that the crew inside instantly get turned into splatters on the inside walls.

Yup, their armor is even heat-resistant and radiation-resistant. You'd pretty much have to drop a nuke on them to hurt them, and even then, the only reason they'd die would be, again, inertia. (Not all adamantium is of such high quality, but Lyria is especially good at making top-quality adamantium.)

Oh, and I suppose the Vecerti (gods) and some of the stronger Fae races could get through it, too.

That poor woman in the picture linked by "this nonsense" looks like she's freezing!

I only ever give characters skimpy clothing if weather and other circumstances permit, and if their personal preference permits. Only time I ever have warriors going about without armor is if they're gods or somesuch, and don't need it. (Or primitive cultures.) But in the Lyriaverse, even the most powerful Fae and Elves wear armor. Hell, the Asharind Fae have *living* armor that can be either a liquid or a solid, and can shift from one to the other in an instant. A bit like a living non-Newtonian fluid that can predict hits a second or more before they come.

Mind you, the Asharind are powerful enough that they could go naked in Antarctica and not even feel it, but they still wear clothing. Quite apart from anything else, their glamour is such that if they went naked, any mortal that saw them would probably die of his or her head exploding!
The Asharind are also the only Fae species immune to the negative effects of iron and steel, though such was not always the case. Mortal weapons would bounce off their naked skin like twigs off a rock. Still, the Fae still fight amongst themselves, and adamantium and a metal called ilofim (a bit like mithril, but liquid and alive, and not made of silver; it's the stuff their armor is made of) can hurt or even kill them in blade form.

Forgot to mention, once Lyria's warriors put on their helmets, it becomes impossible to tell one gender from another, except in cases where an individual has need of a larger breastplate; even then, it's subtle.

Just as an aside, in her defence Red Sonja's infamous chainmail bikini was never meant as armour. It was something she cobbled together out of scraps so she wouldn't be naked after being [possibly nearly] raped. At least according to the original book. It's been bastardised ever since, and I think the original cover illustration didn't help since it was a lot skimpier than the description of her outfit in the book [all one sentence of it].

...am I the only person who finds the idea of an outfit someone cobbled together after nearly being raped then being turned into cheesecakey fetish bait EXTREMELY creepy? Seriously, your explanation only makes it WORSE!

--Rogan

Granted yes.. it's a bit creepy...now that you point it out.

This discussion reminded me of an episode of Deadliest Warrior which featured Joan of Arc versus William the Conqueror. Some interesting things about plate mail versus chain mail are revealed, beginning from the 34 minute, 40 second mark.