Linen Armor

Game Stats

• Type: Under Armor
• Slashing Resistance:
• Crushing Resistance:
• Impaling Resistance:
• Burn Resistance:

Description 

"Linen armor" is a term used to describe several types of armor made from linen cloth.  Linen armor may be worn alone as a stand-alone garment, as a separate piece beneath another type of armor, or as the backing material that forms the foundation of a single piece of hybrid armor, such as linen armor with scales or studs sewn into it.

Linen armor has an ancient and distinguished pedigree.  It has been worn by fighters from every walk of life, in every time period of recorded history.  It can be constructed in one of two ways.  The older method involves laminating together a dozen or more sheets of linen using glue.  This method is time- and materials-intensive, but produces a surprisingly tough defense.  The newer method of constructing linen armor simply involves quilting together several sheets of linen, with padding in between.  This requires no specialized knowledge of gluemaking and produces a more flexible garment, but the defensive properties of quilted linen are inferior to the traditional laminating method.  In either case, the finished product will be at least half an inch thick, placing a not insubstantial amount of material between an enemy weapon and a warrior's skin.  Either methods can produce armor for any part of the body.

Advantages

Taken on its own merits, the principal advantages of linen armor are that it is comparatively cheap, easy to construct, and lightweight compared to metal armors.  Linen armor can be made into elaborate works of art (indeed, more than one ancient king owned a resplendent suit of linen armor), but in its most basic form it is among the cheapest armors a fighter can buy.  As a foundation layer, linen provides a better defense against bludgeoning attacks than does leather, either because of its padding (in the case of quilted linen) or because it is actually stiffer (in the case of laminated linen).

Disadvantages

Linen armor is generally less comfortable than leather, as it is much like wearing a heavy coat.  It is also more difficult to maintain in wet climate, as excessive moisture may promote mildew and degrade the glue used in laminated linen.  These problems can be avoided by taking care not to leave linen armor wet for too long, but there is no doubt that linen armor is more work to maintain than basic leather (a factor which, in some cultures in the past, has contributed to its status).

Regional Variants

Linen armor is still worn as a stand-alone garment with some frequency in R'hundalla and the Ugarite Valley, and many primitive civilizations still consider ornately worked stand-alone linen armor to be a prestige item for kings and nobles.  In Sevilla and Harkania linen armor survives mostly in the form of padding to be worn beneath other armor, most famously in the "arming doublet" worn under plate armor.

Party Associations

Heroe Adoria, Monica Jasmine, and Gerund Lennaire all wear quilted linen armor.