Description
Adds Chinese and Korean armours to the game, as well as some roleplay outfits from China and Japan.
Sino-Korean Brigandine
Brigandine armour became widespread in China and Korea during the Ming and Joseon dynasty periods. These armours were made of silk and fur, with steel plates underneath. The metal studs on the armour were contact points for the plates. This kind of armour in real life provided excellent slash and arrow protection, but were vulnerable to stabbing. The armour depicted in the mod were typically worn by officers.
Chinese Scale
This kind of armour took off during the Song Dynasty and continued to be widely used in China during the Ming Dynasty. The helmets of these kinds of armours typically had some sort of wings or fins at the sides and had flaps coming out of them to protect the neck. This armour was effective at blocking all sorts of attacks and deflecting arrows, but the gaps between the scales could be easily exploited by an experienced fighter. The armour depicted was typically worn by commanders.
Chinese Light Armour
Basic armour from the Song Dynasty worn by the common footman. This armour was lamellar, which was the absolute best at deflecting arrows (could even deflect some arrows at near point blank!), which was essential for East Asian warfare, where bows and crossbows dominated the field. The hat on the right of the picture is an iconic hat worn by swordsmen of the Song army, which would later evolve into the bingli, worn during the Ming and Qing dynasties and the beonggeoji in Joseon Korea.
Chinese Heavy Armour
Heavier armour worn by more elite spearmen and crossbowmen during the Song Dynasty. Yet again, lamellar. The armour depicted here includes arm protection and a longer skirt for improved leg protection. It also features flaps on the helmet to produce better head and neck protection.
Chinese Heavy Cavalry Armour (Helmet up vs Helmet down)
Shown here is armour worn by Song Dynasty heavy cavalry. What's unique about this kind of armour is how the lamellar scales on the helmet may be folded up to provide better visibility and breathablity outside of combat and down for better protection during combat. This type of armour is commonly mistaken to be Mongolian. While the Mongols may have adopted this kind of armour, it was inspired from China.
Bureaucrat outfits
Yuanlingpao robes with zhanjiao futou hats, a very iconic outfit for officials during the Song Dynasty. The hat in particular has a strong association with the Song Dynasty, with two long, flat flaps that could extend a metre each. It was rumoured that this kind of hat was adopted during the reign of Emperor Taizu of Song, after he noticed that his officials would constantly whisper to each other in his court instead of taking the court seriously so, he adopted these hats to force the officials to distance, and the whispering stopped. These outfits are for roleplay only and provide almost no armour points.
Japanese aristocracy
Sokutai robes with kanmuri hats. Worn since the Heian period, these outfits were worn by the nobiliy, samurai, shogun, and the Japanese imperial court and the Emperor, who still continue to wear these to this day. These outfits are unique in that they were developed independently from China, and are purely Japanese. Yet again, more roleplay outfits that aren't meant for combat.
Emperor's outfit
The mianfu is the ceremonial outfit of the Chinese Emperor, and the highest ranking of all of the Emperor's formal outfits. This kind of outfit originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty, and served as the Emperor's coronation outfit for 1700 years until it was phased out by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The crown, the Mianguan, was the most expensive type of Chinese hat, adorned with chains and jewels. This outfit was meant for the most sacred of occassions. This is another roleplay outfit, and the only uncraftable outfit this mod offers.
Chinese peasant outfit
A simple green hanfu with a straw hat. The hat in particular provided excellent sun protection thanks to its large surface area, which was a must-have for anyone spending long periods outside farming rice in Asia (which was just about everyone except the aristocracy), which gets more sun than many places on Earth.
