Shield
A piece of personal armour held in the hand, used to intercept attacks.
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles such as arrows. They function as means of active blocks, as well as to provide passive protection by closing one or more lines of engagement during combat.
Quick Facts
- Type
- Protective power-up; one-hit absorption
- Function
- Grants one free hit before being consumed
- Collection method
- Picked up by touching it while traversing a level
- Persistence
- Single-use; lost after absorbing one hit
- Appears in
- Multiple Rayman titles (Rayman Legends and others)
- Visual design
- Glowing translucent shield or orb, typically blue-white in tone
Lore & Background
Shields vary greatly in size and shape, ranging from large panels that protect the user's whole body to small models (such as the buckler) that were intended for hand-to-hand-combat use. Shields also vary a great deal in thickness; whereas some shields were made of relatively deep, absorbent, wooden planking to protect soldiers from the impact of spears and crossbow bolts, others were thinner and lighter and designed mainly for deflecting blade strikes. Finally, shields vary greatly in shape, ranging in roundness to angularity, proportional length and width, symmetry and edge pattern; different shapes provide more optimal protection for infantry or cavalry, enhance portability, provide secondary uses such as ship protection or as a weapon and so on.
Reader's Guide
In prehistory and during the era of the earliest civilisations, shields were made of wood, animal hide, woven reeds or wicker. In classical antiquity, the Barbarian Invasions and the Middle Ages, they were normally constructed of poplar tree, lime or another split-resistant timber, covered in some instances with a material such as leather or rawhide and often reinforced with a metal boss, rim or banding. They were carried by foot soldiers, knights and cavalry. Depending on time and place, shields could be round, oval, square, rectangular, triangular, bilabial or scalloped. Sometimes they took on the form of kites or flatirons, or had rounded tops on a rectangular base with perhaps an eye-hole, to look through when used with combat. The shield was held by a central grip or by straps with some going over or around the user's arm and one or more being held by the hand.
Did You Know?
- The oldest surviving shields date to sometime in the Bronze Age.
- The Mycenaean Greeks used two types of shields: the 'figure-of-eight' shield and a rectangular 'tower' shield.
- The heavily armored Roman legionaries carried large shields called scuta.
- The Normans introduced the kite shield around the 10th century.
- In the 18th century, Scottish Highland fighters used small shields known as targes.
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