Nieldic Armor

The Nielda don't do heavy armor.  Just wanted to start with that.  Plate is unheard of, only a few use it and they're all huge(which for a Nielda is around 7'6"- 8'+, 3-4 hundred pounds of muscle, and broad). 

For most Nielda sturdy leather is standard.  Generally just a single layer of leather is as much as they'll have.  A full suit of armor will be greaves, legguards, bracers/gauntlets, a breastplate, and a helmet.  Upper arms might get a bt of armor, but it's rarely actually worn because of the inconvenience of putting it on. 
Later generations will use what is known as 'tech-plate'.  Tech-plate is a layer of lightweight alloys over a set of electronics that increase speed and strength, as well as producing an energy dispersing shield.  While it includes all of the same armor pieces as the older leather sets, it tends to be worn as a complete set because of self sealing pieces.  It also physically covers more than the leather did.  However, tech plate is used only by the military, who gets it dirt cheap.  The only downside to tech plate is that the alloys inhibit magic usage, making it a liability to mages. 

For those who have money on the other hand, there's composite leather and steelsil. 
Steelsil is a product of magical tampering with spiders.  A long time ago, a mage realized that spider webs had greater tensile strength than iron.  So he developed a method by which to harvest great quantities of spider web and made clothing out of it.  It didn't work quite how he expected, and died as a result. 
Another mage took up where he left off and began working on breeding spiders to produce large quantities of the strongest spider web.  At a certain point, he managed to make it good enough and cheap enough to sell it as 'spider silk'.  The clothing made of it remains much beloved by the nobility for its ability to hold enchantements and dyes.
A third mage took up from there.  Using alchemy, enchantments, and the bones of several enemies, he transmuted the properties of Kraj into the spider silk.  The result was steelsil, fundamentally the mithril of the Nieldic world.  Light as silk(and as open to enchantments and dye), and strong as kraj; making it capable of withstanding direct hits from energy weapons, spells, and swords.  Steelsil is much beloved by mages, and is surprisingly affordable to those able to provide the kraj. 

Composite leather combines all the strength of steelsil, with the padding of leather.  It's made by compacting several layers of leather around and between layers of steelsil.  It's the prefered armor of the nobility, as it allows them to fight in melee with greatly reduced threat of injury and no inhibition to magical ability. 

Axes of Alicea.

This is a sketch of Alicea's axe(one of them, they are identical). It's a typical Howling Axe clan stye, and motif. The motif being that of a howling wolf, thus the clan's name. They are named 'Onkai(fury)' and 'Welvae(wind)'; Which one is left and which is right never could be told as most Nielda are somewhat ambidexterous.

Alicea crafted her axes from the finest available materials, Ga-Vok steel and imported wood. It's one of the few weapons in the Daniellandish collction at the imperial reliquary not made of Kraj. It is also one of the few examples of Traditional Ga-Vok blacksmithing still surviving today.

The Axes are not of exceedingly high quality, Alicea forged them herself and she was not an experenced blacksmith. The enchantments however are on par with those of the seven black blades of Anatolia. They enhance the speed, strength, and reflexes of their wielder to levels not normally possible even by magic, this in part due to their being a pair. To wield one would make you quite formidable in and of itself, but with both in hand a properly trained warrior can easily reach heroic levels.

Alicea wielded these axes for the entirety of her life, and they were never far from her side. No other warrior would wield them again. She left them, along with several hundred other artifacts and ten king's ransoms in silver(A king's ransom having been established in 853BU as about five times the GDP), to the empire with instructions to establish a pubic reliquary. That reliquary would become known as the Imperial Reliquary, and most of the Nielda's greatest treasures have been displayed there at some point. The Gascan branch of the Reliquary is named in her honor.

Historical note

Though they could not have known it at the time; this was the first true battle involving an organized Nieldic force since 'The Second Battle of Stonehold' in which the Junlaerd defeated the last of the princes of Stone.

It is of intrest to the noticeably superstitious Nieldic historians that the sword used by Kiera to kill the seer Narle had also been present at the battle of stonehold.
It was being used by a courtier who fell in the defense of the Stonehold. The sword was of exceptional quality, and was taken from the field by one of the Junlaerd's retainers to replace a lesser sword that had been destroyes in the battle. The sword had been well cared for by the retainer's daughter before her eventual sacrifice to the Junlaerd. The sword was then passed on to a rather homely sister who hid the sword in an attic to spite her sister's memory. The sword would eventaully be discovered some nine hundred years later by the room's new occupant, a young advisor to the emperor. This advisor went on to have the sword refurbished and used it to create an image of traditionality and service to his emperor that would ultimately land him the rank of lord. Having obtained the highest possible position within the empire he put the sword aside and eventually gifted it to his daughter in a ceremony making her his heir.

The fact that the sword could be used in combat never occured to Lathorian, but Kiera wove a few enchantments into it and used it quite advantageously.



The battle of Marcheton also marked the first true battle of the Ga-Vok wars. Though a rather minor engagement; It would be considered the first step to a larger war. Historians debate exactly what Kiera said, but generally agree that she could have said anything and her men would have gladly ripped apart the Ga-Vok forces.

What they do not debate is the fate or nature of the experienced Ga-Vok warriors. Nearly a hundred warriors escaped the battle before the death of Narle; though their were no official reports. These warriors were punished by the Alpha on returning to Decidua. They were sent into exile with their whole clan, never to return to Decidua. They would however, continue to serve the Ga-Vok confederacy as warriors; where specificlly ordered. However, their lack of reliability or motivation would see them repeatedly abused by their commanders. What they traded favor with their commanders for, was unmatched prowess in battle. To his day the 'Howling Axe' clan is revered across the universe for their skill in battle, and many consider them to be the Ga-Vok equivalent to the imperial guards of the Daniellandish empire.
Needless to say, you'll see them again.

brief interlude

I'll get back to chapter nine over the weekend, possibly even tomorrow. But for now I've had a wonderful idea and need to record it.

As a warning, I'm no artist. But sometimes I feel the need to make something; a tabard, ship, or weapon usually; visually, so that others can understand what I'm saying a bit better.


no color, but it would be leather on the lower white sections(dark brown), dark red(also leather) in black section, and metalic grey on the upper white sections, the light grey sections would be the color of whatever the wielder's clothing was.
it would be gemmed in the middle of the red(black) section; I have yet to decide what sort of gem, but a large emerald or saphire seems likely.
Stay with me here, I know this is complicated and rather silly.
The leather section is a glove, and the blades(metal sections) fold back.

The practicality of this weapon is quite questionable. It lacks the stable design of a Katar, and the deftness of a knife. However, like many of the weapons you will encounter in the Nieldic universe; this one is heavily enchanted. And it falls under the category of weapons that I refer to as 'artist's weapons'; things like nunchuks, double bladed swords, or anything attached to the end of a chain with no handle. These are the sorts of weapons that take years to become proficent with and are really more of a novelty than an actual weapon for the most part.
Magic users, however,love power. And novelties like this one usually have it.
This particular weapon belonged to an Nielda, A member of the Ukown Guild(Obi-Wan's warning about Mos-Eisley; only with more magic and considerably more organization) before the Ga-Vok wars. It's called 'zink's cleiden; or 'death's hand'. Not the most original name but the man who was best known for wielding it was not about to be overshadowed by a mere weapon.


I look horribly distracted, and just outright horrible in this picture. It's hard to look good while you operate a laptop's camera.