Plate Armor

The last major military advancement that found wide spread interest in the Old Empire, but the old empire was unable to utilize this technology fully before its downfall. Some of the other races have technically possessed this technology for some time, it just has found limited or little use within human society. The Dwarves especially have had their own secretive designs that they have kept under wraps for centuries. The elves as well have crafted some exotic looking plate armor over the ages, but never refined the process down into something the average soldier could utilize successfully.
In recent years however the knowledge was flushed out by old imperial smiths, and they began to issue partial plate armor suits to troops. Usually consisting of just grieves, shoulder guards, and a chest piece, these simplified suits increased the lethality of the sergeants in the old empire forces dramatically. Rumor had it that units of heavy foot soldiers were being created near the capital of the old empire, but if any were assembled they never made it to the edge of the empire where Ethilia is located.
Ethilia itself had much of its forces upgraded to the partial armor suits before the old empire withdrew from the neighboring region. During the nearly 30 years that followed Ethilia had no way to reproduce the suits, and saw their supply of suits dwindle as troops vanished or suits became too damaged to be of use. Only nine full suits of plate armor were provided to Ethilian noblemen as gifts before the empire withdrew. Afterwards three more were gifted to Ethilian noblemen who had continued to aid the empire even as it withdrew farther and farther and eventually collapsed. These suits made the noblemen of land nearly impervious to attack, it is believed that they were heavily imbued with magic, but none of the suits have been available to study.