We had
so much trouble with this.
So the Empyreans are basically the praetorian guard of the Empire; special zealot-soldiers who serve as bodyguards and heavy hitters for nobles, the priesthood, and the Empress.
We have their ceremonial armor already in game;
...but it doesn't look, yknow, very modern-military? It looks like it's trading off points for aesthetics.
These aren't really field troops; they're not in camo. And we're also kinda married to an empyreal purple color scheme, at this point. And we want them to be a little inhuman; to strike fear.
So we made moodboards and got designin'.
We knew we needed it to have an underarmor layer, because we'd already shown Angel wearing this in
Wallis Part One. We decided to have that contrast with the tougher plate overlay.
The helmet, specifically, was an absolute slog.
But eventually it all started coming together;
And we eventually ended up with something we like.