Why is skimpy armor so popular?

[niceguy]

The most jarring about these mods are that they really do not fit Skyrims climate but there are mods to fix that of course. Then we have the problem of realism, personally I would like rules for unarmored fighting to go with them rather then have outfits that cover only a fraction of the body and some how counts as full plate.

 

So in the real world then? In ancient times empires where built with unarmored warriors carrying only a light shield for defense. Revealing clothing have existed for real all over the world, it is mostly a question of cultural imperialism that made most of it go away but it still exist in some places. One of the reasons the British was so pro the Islamic culture in India when they incorporated it in their empire was that the local Hindu one includes way to much skimpiness for their liking, especially with things like art in the temples. They also suppressed these things when relating to ancient Egypt culture. Just look at some ancient Egyptian murals and you will see some bare breasted women and naked dance girls and so on. These things existed in Europe as well, it was pretty much with the spread of Christianity that it was stomped out. And here in Sweden, topless women was a common sight at the beaches in the eighties, and that was the normal beaches, not just the nude beaches.

 

I recently saw a TV series about how people dress and used makeup all over the world. One of the episodes was about a people in the amazonian jungle that pretty much just used a girdle for "clothing", (no it was not that kind of program, they used discretion shots) but yes, they wore a belt and no actual clothing, men and women alike. Going with just a skirt and no top are rather common in some other places. The really odd thing with skimpy mods is that they more often are "bottomless" then "topless" and only for the ladies.

 

So, yes skimpy mods are popular but they actually have potential to be realistic, IN the right cultural environment and context. Why skimpy mods often over do it, the real world are rather prudish sometimes. Personally I would love a sort of "bronze age" world to go with a warm climate mod.