Enchanted Armor, and Overview

This article will attempt to explore the different kinds of enchanted armor, their function, and construction.

Terminology

"Enchanted" vs. "Magic"

• Magic armor is merely made from Magical Materials. It may be stronger, lighter, and tougher for it, but is not inherently enchanted. Such armor is of particular use to a mage or battling sorcerer as the materials can be tapped into as a source of power.

• Enchanted armor has all the same qualities, but has been given specific, permanent effects.

"Common" vs. "Named"

• A "common" effect is one such as the list bellow, which falls into a more generalized classification even if two armors with identical effects were made in entirely different ways. A "named" effect describes something found only on a specific piece or a few specific pieces, and will not be detailed here. The Hakens Guard is an example of a named effect.

Common Effects

Enchanting an object is like painting a portrait, no two artists do it the same, and no enchantment effects the same two people in exactly the same manner. The most complex and expensive magical items are tailored to the specific individual, but as war does give rise to industry, a few common basic effects became the standard during the Mage Wars.

• Unbreakable - typically the first thing applied to most weapons and any armor is the ability to withstand great impacts without being bent or shattered. This consumes a significant portion of the item's capacity and is sometimes only applied to the breastplate. Not that this effect by itself does not in any way protect the wearer from impacts, it only stops the armor itself from bending.

• Untarnishing - a key element in making the item last forever is an effect which stops corrosion. This combined with Unbreaking means the item can be buried for hundreds of years without being destroyed. Untarnishing is relatively simple and consumes only a small amount of capacity, so is usually applied to anything metal.

• Stain Resistance - while this sounds minor, the ability to repel stains is considered a vital, must-have element for any enchanted armor(and a key reason chainmail is so uncommon). This effect is the easiest way to repel Orochi Red and thus protect at least the armor itself from having its enchantments disabled in battle.

• Deflection - very common is an effect which turns arrows and blades away. This cannot necessarily stop all hits(and is useless against blunt weapons), but it certainly makes the wearer more evasive. The stronger this effect is, the more capacity it consumes.

• Force Damping - an effect which dampens the force of blows so that less impact is delivered through the armor to the wearer. A full plate suit with this enchantment would provide proof against explosions as the effect extends slightly beyond the edges of the plates themselves.

• Anti-Magic - marrying this effect with any other effect on the same piece is challenging, as is ensuring it does not cancel out the effects of any other pieces worn. However, when properly executed this reduces the effects of harmful magics directed at the wearer.

• Elemental Counter-Magic - one common way of providing protection without the hassle of generalized anti-magic is the use of Elemental Counter-Magics to negate incoming attacks. This is relatively easy to do and if only one element is used can be made very strong for a small capacity cost. The downside is the lack of Counter-Earth magic and the relatively high price of materials required for such enchantments. If a strong enchantment is applies to different pieces of a suit, a warrior can be made relatively invulnerable to fire, wind, and water magics.

• Feathers - an effect which reduces the weight of the armor, either wholly or only for the individual wearing it. Easier to do that making the wearer stronger to bear the weight, and for a relatively low capacity-cost. As with most of these effects there is no "one" style for it, but the general concept is very widely employed.

• Strength/Stamina Effects - these are considerably less standardized as the other effects on this list, and much harder to make work for everyone who puts on the armor. But magics that make the wearer stronger and less easily tired are very valuable.

Exotic Effects

Most of the abilities beyond this list fall outside of "standard", but these are the more exotic but relatively common effects often found on enchanted armor:

• Magic Absorption - effect that absorbs part or all of harmful spells. Easier to create than anti-magic but at a higher capacity-cost, this is only used when the wearer expects to fight battle mages on a regular basis. Particularly wealthy adventurers might have an entire set of dedicated "wizard-breaking" armor with similar effects.

• Magic Deflection - redirects part or all of incoming spells. Can be done at a lower capacity-cost than absorption, easier to do than anti-magic, but comes at the cost of sending offensive spells in a random direction. This is generally considered useless for any fighter who intends to operate as part of a group and outright forbidden by most organized militias in the Mage Wars. Most fighters actually label the effect as a curse, and as such relatively few deflective armors survived into the Golden Age.

• Reflection - specifically the ability to reflect magic spells back at the caster. Definitely more useful than deflection as in a fight it actively damages the opponent. Reflection effects have the highest known capacity cost and are very rare except for fully-dedicated wizard-breaking armors. These were however popular among Paladins, who often viewed their roles as explicitly stopping magic-users.

• Force Reflection - this effect directs the force of a melee attack back at the opponent. Actually more difficult to create than a magical reflection enchantment, these were none the less sought-after if very rare. Similar named effects are common on the rarest enchanted armors.

Basic Types

Plate armor is the most common for two reasons: it is easiest to enchant metal, and each piece must be enchanted individually. Enchanted leather is also found, though somewhat less frequently, for the same reason. Very rarely will one find enchanted chainmail, but if done correctly it could be extremely powerful due to the cumulative stacking effect of each ring.

On plate armor, nearly every piece will need unbreaking/untarnishing/stain resistance effects just to be useful in combat. These are usually described simply as "The Standard Three" or even STS for short. Depending on the skill of the enchanter, these combined usually take up about 50% of the capacity of a given piece. Antithetically, these effects are typically less costly on smaller pieces, whereas other effects end up being more so.

Breast Plates

Far and away the most common piece of enchanted armor is a breast plate. While a good breastplate would be fitted to the wearer, the resources required to create a permanently-enchanted one guaranteed that they would be re-used. The common practice at the time was to design the plates in such a way that they did not rely on so precise a fit. A very wealthy fighter would certainly have custom-made armor.

Aside from the usual unbreaking/untarnishing/stain resistance effects, breast plates were most likely to carry strong deflection spells. A damaging blow to an arm or a leg might be repaired later by a healer, but hits to the head or torso could be instantly fatal. Deflection and Force Damping are the most commonly-seen effects on breast plates. If there's room, the enchanter will typically add Feathers as well.

Helmets

The single most common effect on a helmet is a very strong force damping spell. The head, more so than any other part of the body, is susceptible to blows. A good damper provides the dual effect of making the wearer more resistant to injury and better able to maintain focus on the battlefield.

A low-end enchanted helmet will typically have STS(it is unclear why the abbreviation is "STS instead of TST, but the term was already standard parlance by the Dynastic Period) with the entire rest of the capacity consumed by force damping. Even more expensive helms will focus on damping often to the exclusion of other beneficial effects.

Additional Enchantments

Aside from the basic enchantment method that consists of casting a permanent spell on an item as it is being forged, additional effects can be added through alchemical and ritual magic, and on larger items by inscribing runes. This means that a very skilled enchanter or group of enchanters can make a powerful piece even with relatively mundane materials. These same methods would be used thousands of years after the Mage Wars to make armor for the Slayer Dragons when only high quality steel and silver were available.

Notable Armors

• The Drakenplate is well-remembered both for its high degree of quality and fearsome appearance.