(Firelock Fantasy) Lupar retainer helmet study

Late-night (early-morning) doodling based on the plate-armored clan retainer I drew a little while ago.

To wear a set of full plate armor a retainer has to sacrifice a lot of cultural capital in his appearance. He shaves his pelt short and cuts the braids that display his social rank and achievements, rendering him equal in appearance to a mere thrall; his cropped ears, however, ensure he is never mistaken for such a lowly person by anyone but a short-lived fool.

Over this he wears a padded coif. Dangling straps at various points on the coif permit him to tie-secure his articulated gorget and the helmet proper to his head. His ears go inside the hollow horns of the helmet. Completing the ensemble is a bevor that is fixed securely to the helmet's cheeks and nose and to the gorget, fully enclosing the retainer's head.

The helmet, as with the rest of the retainer's armor, is inspired by foreign example: the Black Fangs of Santagria being the earliest model for envious retainers. Many earlier helmets have a "muzzle" bevor in the Fangs' style that restricts jaw movement and prevents the wearer from speaking, but which also presents a menacing silhouette. For the Fangs, who fight in a conditioned war-trance and who don't speak under armor to begin with, that is no issue; but for retainers it proved intolerable in the long run. Newer helmets feature a deeper bevor with space for jaw movement inside.

The attachment styles of the bevor vary. Some are fixed with studs; others with clasps or buckles; and some with cords that run through eye-bolts on the helmet cheeks (akin to some real-life bascinets). In any case it is either attached or not; there is no "opened" status. The system could possibly fit a set of collapsing slats, like a falling buffe, but I didn't get around to drawing that. Something about having to very deliberately remove one's bevor to expose their jaws also appeals from a thematic standpoint.

In order to recoup some of the social status in their appearance, retainers decorate their helmets with surrogate "braids" made of hanging chains. While they might own fine clothing for formal meals or other special social events, their armor is really their day-to-day clothing: wearing it constantly helps train the body and also advertise one's place and wealth. Most bevors thus have some kind of painted snarling mouth so that the retainer will have a "face" in daily life. For these I took inspiration from WW2-era sharkmouth paint schemes on aircraft. This (and the striped coif) are deliberate call-forwards to 198X, where they're worn by various luparic troops.

The horns are another element taken from the Black Fangs. I've had a project on the backburner for a while illustrating Santagrine troops in action against the bukoloi, a race of isolationist bull-men from a primitive (bronze-clad) island. They won that war, and integrated the symbols of their defeated foe into their janissaries.

This Black Fang (drawn quite a while ago, now) wears a helmet with bound horns and a bukoloi sun-disk, overwritten with Santagrine heraldry.

Naturally, the Ebon Forest's clan retainers copied this along with much of the panoply, but the symbology was somewhat lost along the way. They have come instead to symbolize the stubbornness and resilience of a band of retainers; anything from bull and goat horns to real boar tusks may be mounted to a helmet. All of these have a secondary role as goring or headbutting weapons in close combat.