The Gilded Ones

An important motif, or trope, in the early roots of fantasy—medieval romance—is the arming sequence. A couple examples include the Roman de Silence: a poem about a cross-dressed woman becoming a knight who saves the king with a Moorish sword, and the Amazon warrior Camille being outfitted for battle in the Roman d’Eneas. The arming sequence usually includes a long description of separate pieces of armor as well as weapons. When Deka goes on her first raid, she is given heavy leather armor without much fanfare or description.

However, Deka receives a more formal arming sequence after Calderis makes golden armor out of her blood. Deka’s narration includes:

All the girls leaving today gleam from head to toe in golden armor. Mine has scales to mimic Ixa’s drakos form and jagged spikes all down the back. It’s strangely light and cool, considering that it covers every part of me but my eyes. It vibrates subtly whenever I near it, as does all the other infernal armor (320).

The armor upgrade also coincides with Deka’s growing magical powers. This technique of giving characters better armor as they level up, so to speak, comes from not only the Middle Ages’ tales of Arthur and his knights, but also Dungeons & Dragons, the tabletop roleplaying game.