Policy-7

In the west, the forges had run out of black lacing from our previous supplier. Unable to replenish it or find a suitable substitute they asked Derath if they could use their excess green lacing to finish the armor. They were given permission and the final armor came out with new placements for green lacing.

We would like to make this new allowance legal empire wide for all Vanguards. At the bottom of this section will be an image we will use in our law and concept to illustrate allowances.

Cadrick's ArmorProposed changesDecoration examples

#### **Public weapon and armor allowances for otherwise banned items**

*(Proposed by Torrens and Derath)*

Both a strength and weakness of the empire is its tendency to isolate from Lothtarian groups and games. In isolation we thankfully avoid a lot of the issues that plague these communities, but we also lack exposure to how some of their load-outs work. This lack of exposure often leads to problems combating Lothtarian fighters.

As such we often have examples floating around where we encourage people to experiment to get a better idea of what their enemies will employ against them. This is most evident with flails at practice and the forced requirement of gen-8 weaponry in all rank testing. Verdite's official policy is you can't say you're good/above average/elite if you can't beat Lothtarians.

We already allow Lothtarian weaponry and shields at practice, but we have no examples of armor. In this proposal we hope to give allowances to our forge to create leather chest armor for public use.

A major reason for a ban on leather armor has been founded into two categories:

* It shouldn't be as strong as steel
* It's not historically accurate or even practical (at least in the way you see it represented in LARP communities)
	+ *(Fun interesting side-note about the leather armor isn't real debate. The Japanese were one of the only real examples of common-use leather armor. However it is fair to note that it wasn't like the armor you see at LARP events. Japanese leather armor was always in the form of **VERY** thick rawhide scales!)*

Both concerns are still valid to this day, but local armor-tier policies fix our largest concerns of it being the replacement for steel armor and general go-to of the foam-fighting communities.

Allowing our forges to produce a leather samurai suit has a few advantages:

* Giving us exposure to how leather armored opponents can fight
	+ The major intent is to have you wear the armor yourself and feel how it affects your stamina, range of motion, etc.

* Giving the general public a chance to experience samurai armor.
	+ Leather is much more forgiving for sizing and will fit a larger group of people. This could act as an easy way to expose people to armor before they consider buying some and/or wasting the forge's time.

* Leather armor is harder to neglect into a state of disrepair. Public items are always treated much more poorly than personally owned items. It would be very low maintenance.

Like flails, coreless shields, and other banned equipment. Our forges would not produce leather chest-armor for member use in war. (Due to the extreme costs of leather versus steel, it is unlikely the armor would be ordered even by auxiliary members.)

**Recap of policy allowances:**

* Allow forges to create full-suit samurai armor constructed out of leather

* Leather torso armor would still be regulated to practice and must follow the uniform standards and armor tier laws of the empire
* This policy would also apply to any banned equipment for training exposure.
* It is very important to note that this policy does infringe on a long-standing standard within the Empire and old-Antioch. As such administration would only feel comfortable with allowing this policy on an experimental basis. And fully holds the right to pull the policy if they feel it isn't accomplishing what we want.

*Example Gallery:*

Leather SamuraiLeather Samurai ArmorLeather samuraiLeather example
#### **Adding ceremonial garb to administrative command staff**

*(Proposed by Lachlan)*

Administrative Command Staff are often the Verditians who organize and facilitate Verdish Holidays and special events within the empire. What we're promoting is a fun idea to allow our administrators to wear formal garb while presenting at empire holidays (such as the annual summit, Kelmsmas, and Batman movie nights!)

In the interest of maintaining army and war uniform, these formal attires would never be allowed during practice, wars, or public presentations/recruiting events.

#### **Adding Samurai armor fabric decorations to the High Priest of Kelm**

*(Proposed by Shadow Council)*

One major benefit of being a tier-2 command staff member is the allowance for special unique garb policies. The HPoK is the only tier-2+ position that does not have special armor allowances. What this law allows is for decorative foundation fabric in samurai armors for the HPoK.

Special Red decorated fabric used by LachlanGreat example of a potential decorative fabric