Hideous (armor quality)

Hideous was a quality that could be applied to armor or a shield that made the wearer more fearsome.

Description
A hideous armor or shield used a lot of gruesome-looking decoration like scalps, bones, skulls, dried viscera, etc. They gave off a smell of rancid meat and had illusory flies audibly buzzing around the decorations.

Powers
A hideous armor or shield made a person more competent at intimidating others. This property grew in intensity with the amount of money and personal essence that the creator was willing to spend on the armor.

However, this fearsome nature had a cost in the form of deteriorated diplomatic abilities.

Creating a hideous armor or shield required the caster to be good at intimidation him- or herself, but no specific spell. It did not even require better skill at spellcasting to create a better suit, only the willingness to spend material wealth and the crafter's personal essence.