Post Gene War Armor

The native animals of Underhill were hard to kill in the first place. After the Gene Wars, when so many of both the native and imported, modified animals were affected by the bombs, everything became that much harder to kill. In a number of cases, the animals had defenses designed to protect them from the other animals and plants that might try to eat them. From hard carapaces, to thick scales, to nearly impenetrable hides, there were very few weak spots. And many of those natural weak spots vanished with the arrival of the Lay Line supported magic.

As those who remained on the planet struggled to survive, they defended against, and hunted, these altered creatures. New weak spots were found. New methods developed. And, difficult though it sometimes was to pry their way to the soft innards of a beast, new defenses of their own were made.

People took the hides, scales, and shells of the animals and created armor of their own. In some cases, the defensive properties of the materials remained. A coat of taur hide, for example, was impervious to almost anything. Reinforced by a thin layer of Dwarven nano-metal, now called living metal, and it was the next thing to bullet-proof.

Hunting, once done as a desperate means of replenishing food supplies and attempting to deter predators, became a thing done for other reasons as well. The special armors were valued, as much for their defensive properties as for the rarity with which they could be obtained. Not everyone who went out looking to make a taur-hide coat came back with success. In fact, most didn't come back at all. Because even half-mad as most taurs were, many retained enough shreds of humanity to know they were being hunted. And to fight back. Which, of course, made armor fashioned from their hide even more valuable.