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not to be gay but oh my gods. oh my fucking gods oh fuck

Definitely to be gay but oh my gods. oh my fucking gods oh fuck

G a y

She’s not even wearing sabatons.  She could be so much louder.

This what proper female armour looks like. It’s armour, and there’s a female wearing it. Rather fetchingly, at that.

You’ll not find a “female” fighter plane specially made for female fighter pilots, and though you can find a “Female” tank, you’ll have to go back to World War One and you’ll still not find any female occupants.

Even the Mk IV in the popular but daft (or daft but popular) “Girls und Panzer” anime is a Male with cannon, rather than an all-machine-gun Female.

Outside of a gaming manual full plate harness isn’t called “plate mail”, either. There’s a thing called “platED mail” but it’s very different.

Here’s another video, mostly focussed on mobility but with plenty of audible info on noise.

In short, any game disadvantage on being stealthy in full plate is probably far more generous than it could be.

Mail over padding is another matter. It doesn’t jingle like spurs or loose chains, but makes a rustling or rattling noise. Another layer of fabric over the top would deaden even that sound. You might get the occasional rasp or click as unsecured rings moved against each other, but nothing more.

Though a “brigandine" is fabric-sandwich armour, it uses small squares or discs instead of mail, and the rivets which hold them in place are often arranged in patterns and even gilded, as a decorative feature. Here’s a historical original finished in what was once wine-red velvet, and a modern repro.

An Elizabethan “jack(et) of plates” was constructed more or less the same way though with stout cords, not rivets. Finished with an overlay of figured silk or velvet, the resulting doublet was less obviously armour than a brigandine; more a John Wick ballistic suit than a stab vest. Sleeves were laced on separately. Neither brigandines nor jacks-of-plates would make any sound at all.

The brocaded corset alongside is a picture I saw years ago and pinched “for later”. It appeared eventually in the e-book revision of “The Horse Lord”.

“Nothing about her invited questions, although her daytime wear invited admiration from a safe distance. It resembled hunting costume of doeskin boots and breeches, a russet leather jerkin and a white linen shirt; with a lady’s riding-mantle flung casually over all, it looked feminine enough.

The details were rather less so. Whorls of gold embroidery decorating the jerkin were wire, not thread, and one of its three purses, with thick braided cords wrapped around the fastening, was heavy enough make the entire belt sag. Aldric knew a sling and a pouch of lead slugs when he saw them, just as he recognised the dry click and rustle of metal where none was visible.

At a guess the jerkin was like his own riding-coat, with scales or mail concealed between leather and lining and held in place by that sturdy ornamental wire.”

And thoroughly stealthy in both the visual and audible sense.

:)