Before you is a cuirass made of clay and mail. The breast, back, and pauldrons are made of a pinkish, pitted clay, with streaks of what can only be blood running down them. Along the sides, and holding the armor together is half-rusted chain mail, the kind that comes when you get blood on steel and let it sit. Its appearance belies how effective it is in battle, stopping even the club of an ogre with little more than a crack.
This is the armor that has allowed the Samahen armies to conquer your homeland, and the homes of many before you. And yet as you deal it and the corpse it covers a swift blow, the armor cracks and beneath another blow you see through to the steel wiring that helps to hold the armor together. Just like when your brother tried wearing it into battle and it shattered beneath the first sword blow of the opposing armies.
The foreign priests say that their god would never help heathens, and that’s why the armor failed when he needed it. Only his children are protected by the blood of sinners spilt, and only the Hithich know the prayers that draw his singular gaze to their aid. But even now, as you sit there toying with the wires you know that his gaze will only show them his blind eye, and you only hope to be there when it does.
But soon the guards come for you again, their morning prayers over. They laugh at you and say that soon enough you’ll be seeing more armor than you’d ever wished. They say that you’re going to be making armor and breaking your back in a quarry. You ignore them and start walking, their armor protects them for now.
The Facts as I Know Them or Disambiguation
1. The armor is made out of clay, and when I pictured it in my head I thought of it as being wetted (if that’s the right term) with the blood of either dead prisoners at the ‘prison’ or from sacrifical animals.
2. Before a big battle the squad priest would sacrific a small animal, or if one was avalible, a heathen. The blood would then be sprinkled over the armor and warriors. (You didn’t hear this from me, but I think that their god is infact a demon; but don’t quote me on that.) This is what I’ve come up with so far.
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You have been born into a rebellious world. The whole of history is treason; your blood was spilt before you were even born; the various creeds are but an infidelity to the Truth; and Man’s laws are but treason to his Maker. -Passage from the Samahhi