SARDAUKAR - DUNE

My art direction of the Sardaukar, the Emperor's Blades from DUNE, inspired by Villeneuve's movie aesthetics for the visuals and by the Herbert's writing for the design itself.
I tried to translate their fast ninja fighting style as described in the book, by adding all manners of spikes and hooks on the armor. Those would slowly penetrate the shield during a grapple / choke and poisoned the opponent quickly. They could be retractable and springing in also once inside the shield.
In the psychological warfare dept, and to add a unique and memorable feature especially for the face mask, I thought a sort of Rorsharch moving pattern would be of great effect to make them look crazy and terrifying with proper lighting etc, but also it makes sense as a tactical advantage by confusing the opponent in reading the movements and attacks.