#high guarda

[confusedartblog]

Learned the other day that one of the purposes of kohl is to protect the eyes from the sun and then I couldn’t stop thinking about High Guarda troops training in Alexandria all using kohl and then naturally I had to draw Glain with some smudged ass eyeliner. Might get to Jess or Santi some day.

[confusedartblog]

“Okay its the moment we’ve all been waiting for (just kidding its just me)

High Guarda Uniform Visual Reference Sheet!

It says on there but I know my handwriting can be illegible at best, so it was based on a combination of Greek and Roman style linothorakes- Jess mentions several times that the armor is flexible, which led me to the conclusion of a linothorax. A linothorax is armor made of sheets of linen laminated together- its sturdy as all hell, but still light, flexible, and not as hot as metal armor. Also considerably cheaper. And who wants to fight in plate armor anyway?

I had thought that instead of the traditional laces up the side, it would have a tightening system to a BOA, any snowboarders out there will recognize this as the way most board boots lace up. If you don’t know what it is you can look it up, they’re super cool, but basically its a cable that goes into a device that twists and then snaps in place to tighten, and pulls out to release. I thought this would make kitting up easy and fast, same with getting injured soldiers out of armor. Also worth noting is that the shoulder flaps snap in place instead of tie, and a heavy cloak for cold weather can be fastened in the same place. A linothorax wouldn’t be bulletproof by a long shot, but as weapon technology improved so would armor, so I would imagine by now it has some sort of extra layer to make it more resistant to whatever ammunition is used against it.

I know this isn’t super in depth and I apologize to any fellow linothorax enjoyers who might stumble across this, I know it’s more complicated, but this gets the job done.

I also know it’s not “built into the uniform” as is implied several times, but I couldn’t quite get a hold on what that would look like, and figured if everything else has Greek and Roman influences, the armor should too. Also I’m currently reading Reconstructing Ancient Linen Body Armor: Unraveling the Linothorax Mystery and simply couldn’t help myself- great read if anyone is interested