Shell armor
- This article is about the armor made from mollusk shells. For the armor made from gun casings, see casing armor.
Shell armor is armor made from wired-together seashells. It is fairly common on Nuclearth, where the existence of certain mutated mollusks makes available shells that are hard enough to provide significant protection. Shell armor is strong but light and flexible, and is good at deflecting sharp weapons and projectiles. Its flexibility, however, makes it somewhat less useful against blunt blows, which also have a tendency to damage the armor. Still, overall, shell armor is a very useful and effective form of armor, which would no doubt be much more popular were it not for its high price.
Depending on the shells used and the details of its manufacture, a suit of shell armor can weigh between about twelve to fifty kilograms. Most suits are near the low end of the range (the average is about sixteen kilograms); the upper range is mostly confined to very thick three-ply armor.
Manufacture
The expense of shell armor comes from the difficulty of its manufacture. The first step in creating a suit of shell armor is to collect the shells. The most common type used for shell armor is the scallop-like wonder clam, Crataerinus spp., but other similar species are often used, including the arrectus, Arrectus adamas, and the steel shell, Durichelys adamanteus. Occasionally shell armor is made from hard-shelled univalves such as the bullet whelk Aeneator sagittula, the firmet, Cos spp., and the diamond clam, Craterites spp..
Most of these species are harvested by residents of floating cities, though the arrectus and the firmet occur close enough to the shore that the inhabitants of seacoast towns can also gather them. In any case, while some of these species are more difficult to come by than others, it is wiring them together into a full suit that is perhaps hardest part of the process. The manufacture of shell armor is a process closely guarded by a few small individuals, families, and communities, though in practice the secret is not quite as closely guarded as they claim. It has become more or less common knowledge that creating the holes in the shells is done by chemical means rather than mechanical, to avoid their shattering in the process; the exact mix of chemicals is less well known, and may vary between manufacturers, but there are many who have rediscovered a reactant that works and got together the means of starting a shell armor manufactory of their own. In fact, the secret seems to have been exposed enough that some of shell armor creators are seriously considering drastic measures to try to stop it from spreading further. It may be too late by now to get the cat back into the bag, but some of them are nonetheless willing to try, even if it means resorting to sabotage and even to murder.
Even with a suitable chemical composition to etch holes in the shells, the perforated shells must still be wired together. This in itself is a difficult process, albeit one harder to keep proprietary. The amount of work necessary to stitch the wire through all the shells to put them all together into a full suit is complex and onerous. Furthermore, the ability to wire all the shells together into a smooth and well-fitted suit of armor is a difficult process that requires skill and practice, so even many who have found a suitable chemical mix to puncture the shells have still failed to create good enough suits to make a living at it.
Occurrence
Most of the manufacturers of shell armor are in Atlantis and along the west coasts of South America and Africa, but they export their armor, through intermediary traders, all over the world. While it can be found almost anywhere, though, shell armor is particularly popular along the Pacific coast of Asia, as well as in Australia and Atlantis. It can also be found fairly commonly in western Europe and in Africa; it is rarer in North America, in eastern Europe and western Asia, and, except among the elite, in South America.
Variations
Not all shell armor is the same. Even aside from the shells it is made of, there are differences in its manufacture that can significantly change its appearance and utility. Most shell armor comprises only a single layer of shells, but some suits have two or even three layers for added protection, at the cost of greater weight and unwieldiness. Shell armor also varies in how rigidly it's wired together; more rigid suits provide better protection against blunt trauma, but at the cost of decreased flexibility and mobility.
Other differences in shell armor are purely cosmetic. The shells may be kept their natural color, or dyed in various patterns. They may be made of utilitarian, uniform layers of nearly identical shells, or composed of different kinds of shells to make up various patterns and designs. One popular feature is to add outward-pointing whelks to give the armor spikes that are more decorative than functional. Sometimes the armor is decorated with other, less hard shells that don't add to their protective qualities but can make for gaudy ornamentation; because of the ease with which these fragile shells could be smashed in a fight, such suits of armor are usually ceremonial and not intended for use in actual combat.
Suits of armor can be purchased pre-made, but fitted suits may be more comfortable, and provide slightly better protection.
Trade
Except perhaps in Atlantis, for the most part shell armor is not purchased directly from the manufacturer, but through traders that carry it all over the world. This may include a significant mark-up; while a manufacturer typically charges around the equivalent of four hundred dollars for a simple wonder clam suit, up to as much as ten thousand for a custom-made, highly ornamented, fitted suit of diamond clam shells; trader may charge double or triple that to provide for their own profit margins. Still, this is usually cheaper than actually traveling to the manufacturers' shops. For custom orders, the traders will generally charge at least half the amount in advance, and then communicate the order to the manufacturer on their next visit there, and pick up the finished suit the next time after that. Depending on how long the trader takes to complete his circuit, then, a custom order may not arrive for as long as a year or two.
Sometimes, more communication with the manufacturers is necessary. To create a fitted suit, a manufacturer needs the customer's measurements. Here, too, however, the trader can act as an intermediary; most traders dealing in shell armor have developed the skills of taking a customer's measurements themselves, which they can later relay to the manufacturer.
Maintenance and repair
Shell armor suits require some maintenance to keep them in good condition. The shells themselves don't need much looking after beyond the occasional dusting or light wash, but periodic oiling may be necessary to prevent the wires from corroding. Dyed suits require a bit more attention; the dyes may fade if not kept under the right conditions.
The same skills are necessary to repair shell armor as to create it, so damaged shell armor can only be repaired by the manufacturers. Here too, however, the traders play a part; a trader in shell armor will also be willing to convey a broken or battered suit to the manufacturer for repair, along with part of the cost of repair (usually around half, but the details vary); the customer will be expected to pay the rest of the cost upon the receipt of the restored suit. The price, of course, will depend on how badly broken the suit is; in the case of a suit that's in particularly deplorable shape, it may cost more to repair the suit than to buy a new one... though some people may still want to repair their old suits for sentimental reasons.