I noticed recently that the Cetan Bowman and the Club Warrior had visual updates. Neat!
At least, that’s what I thought until I actually looked at them.
I cannot emphasize enough how inappropriate this design is.
Elk-horn headdresses (or deer horn, not sure which this is, but deer horn headdresses have their own issue) are only used as ####### wear to state one is open for… “fun”.
For the love of all the spirits, this is LITERALLY putting soldiers in lingerie.
On the other hand, if these are deer horn headdresses, that poses its own issue - Deer-horn headdresses are solely worn by women, for much the same reason.
Hehaka (the elk spirit) and Thahcha (the deer spirit) are spirits of sexuality and love. They are not used in battle. One could argue that the headdress would be appropriate for a Medicine Woman, but that’s about as far as you can go with that, as the Deer-horn headdress has slightly different meanings than the straight-up lingerie use of the elk-horn headdress.
Less obtrusively, the coyote-headdress is less bad. The only real notes I can find in talking to people and in the books I have on coyote-headdresses is that someone had one and it was regarded as unusual and one of a kind.
So not really the type of headdress to make for an entire unit.
I know y’all devs put work into this, but please look into history before you just give random things to units.
The units tend to speak female dialects of Lakota in general. If these are deer-horn headdresses, then confirmed, most of the Lakota army consists of trans women.
Wouldn’t be ahistorical, trans women fought in the Lakota military all the time, as did trans men.
Fast moving melee infantry dressed like an animal also very clearly telegraphs that a unit is shock infantry which Club Warriors certainly are not. For that reason alone I’d say they shouldn’t be dressed as an elk. The ###### connotations are just the cherry on top.
The Wakina Rifle is dressed perfectly for that situation. Usage of the club is more indicative of a poorer soldier, so they wouldn’t have a bone pipe breastplate or fancy colors, just a plain outfit.
Since the skin is clearly inappropriate for a Lakota soldier, maybe they could repurpose it for a Wendigo outlaw. These days they’re depicted as an antlered monster, but the origin of the mythology has an obvious basis of starving people resorting to cannibalism in times of famine.
I just saw this, but I’m liking it for the idea for usage for another unit… but not the unit you suggest. Just change the name, traditional culture doesn’t even allow us to say that name aloud.
A lot of things are from specific cultures, but that doesn’t mean they’re not talked about and known in other cultures.
Also worth noting the Lakota are essentially surrounded on all four sides by Algonquin cultures and we made our living through trade. We picked up a lot of things from surrounding cultures.
I don’t know how much you can adjust, but if you gave the Wakina Rifles the bonepipe breastplate that the Rifle Riders have, it’d make them much more realistic. A bonepipe breastplate is a status symbol of wealth, not actual armor. Only the wealthiest would have a gun, so it makes sense that both the Wakina Rifle and the Rifle Rider would wear it.
There’s other methods of displaying wealth that units like the Tashunke Prower, Tokhala Soldier, and the Warchief should use.
