** Defenders of the Stone of Tear **

Jordan does not clearly differentiate between common Tairen soldiers and the Defenders of the Stone of Tear, until RJWoT:

"Regular soldiers are uniformed with brilliant red coats with wide sleeves ending in narrow white cuffs. A gleaming breastplate is worn over the coat so as to let the sleeves show clearly. Their breeches are of the same tight cut as that of the lords, though not quite so brightly colored, and are worn tucked into knee-high boots ... The soldiers of a particular lord wear that lord's colors on their puffy sleeves." <RJWoT: 30, 284, The Other Nations>.

TPoD provides the most comprehensive picture of the Defenders of the Stone yet:

"The uniform of the Defenders consists of a black coat with padded sleeves striped black-and-gold with black cuffs, a burnished breastplate, and a rimmed helmet with a faceguard of steel bars. The Captain of the Stone wears three short white plumes on his helmet, and on the cuffs of his coat three intertwined golden braids on a white band. Captains wear two white plumes and a single line of golden braid on white cuffs, lieutenants one white plume and a single line of black braid on white cuffs and under-lieutenants one short black plume and plain white cuffs. Bannermen have gold-colored cuffs on their coats, and squadmen have cuffs striped black-and-gold." <TPoD: 597, Glossary; see also RJWoT: 30, 284, The Other Nations>

Their breeches, like their plump, puffy sleeves, are also black-and-gold <TSR: 10, 190, The Stone Stands> At their waists are swords <TDR: 54, 630, Into the Stone>, though the spear is the main weapon used against Trollocs invading the Stone <TSR: 10, 188-191, The Stone Stands>. Gleaming breastplates are matched with backplates. Gauntlets are part of the uniform, at least for officers in the field <TFoH: 30, 496, A Wager>.

All Tairens apparently wear the "... rimmed, round helmets with a ridge over the top ..." <TDR: 50, 590, The Hammer; also LoC: 4, 97, A Sense of Humor>, presumably modelled on the morion and comb morion popular in 16th century Europe, and typically associated with the Conquistadores. Both rim and ridge are conspicuously absent in most descriptions, making a simple morion with smaller rim and ridge more likely than a full comb morion.

Interestingly, TPoD is the first book to mention the barred face-guard (and only does so in the glossary on p. 597), despite numerous descriptions of the Tairen helmet elsewhere; if present, then the Tairen on the TPoD cover, as shown above, is accurate indeed.