Is it because ceremonial, or is it because it should be fabric caparison, not thick barding?I saw one such mural, and there is clearly ceremonial horse decoration.
Gotcha, I think I know something I can use for that.Like Mahdists' dark brown shields from the skin of a bull or hippopotamus.
How do they fight and look? Akin to Ethiopian units (spear, javelin, shortbows, curved daggers, clubs, shotel for late period, lionsmane headgear, shawls) or something unique and distinctive (camel riding, two handed clubs, throwing clubs, slings, longbows, more sudanese style equipments, more tribal equipments, imported equipments?)? AFAIK Afar people have distinctive hairstyle which Attila have a model for.You can add mounted and foot Somalis, foot Afar, foot Oromo
Oh right, for Ethiopian T1 basic spear unit, you're suggesting that a more barechested look just like the hadar and highland angada, but with shorter trousers should be ideal? I can think of bronze armband/bracelet I can use for them, something missing from Ethiopian units right now. One thing I notice is because of the limited knowledge, differentiating units from age-to-age or unit-to-unit are more difficult, so the appearance tend to mix up. Doing so might help differentiate between the T1 Sarawit to the T2 Sewa.