Armor

Armor comes in many different types:

• Padded - Cloth padded with rags, cloth, wool or anything available. Not too good at stopping anything sharp but fairly effective at blunt weapons. It has the the benefit of being cheap and easy to make.
• Leather - Made of leather (surprised?) that has been boiled and shaped. A good example is the brown and green armor worn by Faramir in the Lord of the rings movie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangers_of_Ithilien
• Studded leather - leather armor reinforced with stud or rivets of metal (usually iron).
• Scale mail - This is a scales (usually made of laquared wood, iron, steel, bronze) sewn onto a backing of cloth or leather.
• Ring mail - This is rings of metal sewn onto a backing of leather or cloth. One interesting variation uses coins instead of rings. An exspensive but effective method.
• Chain mail - This is made of rings of metal interwoven to form a fine mesh. Difficult to make but effective. Used for millenia in one form or another. This is the most widely used form of armor. A good balance of protection vs weight and cost.
• Brigantine - Sometimes called a coat of plates. This is made of large, metal plates (usually iron or steel) sewn into cloth. The plates are a lot larger then those used in scale mail. A sort of poor mans plate mail. The most famous example of this in the real world is Wisby armor - recovered from an archeology excavation in the town of the same name. http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/wisby/
• Plate mail - The ultimate in armor. This is the height of the armor making art. It consists of large plates of steel hammered and forged into very large pieces. Very difficult to manufacture and often passed down from father to son. It provides the maximum protect at the cost of being heavy and slowing the wearer down.
• Other - There has always been experimentation in armor making and some cultures have created some unusual armor. For instance the Japanese used a form of armor made of laquared wood. Another is a form of chainmail with large plates of steel protecting the chest and back.

Shields

• Buckler
• Round
• Tower

Random notes

Morphic Armor is a unique form of magical armor created to deal with the unique problems of the animal Keepers.

Magic armor