A question about arena clothing (not modding related)

[Corbul]

So I've been digging through itemlists and came across five instances of tournament armours and helmets - red, green, blue, yellow, and white. The way I understand it, they're supposed to represent the original five factions that were supposed to take part in tourneys.
What I don't understand is:

• Why do the gear colours not match the factions they're supposed to represent, namely the Khergits? Their colour is purple, but the coloured gear that's supposed to represent them is yellow (or if we take the classic M&B colours - white).
• There are five faction gears, six factions (Sarranids in Warband), but only four teams participate in tourneys - white gear is not used, and there is no sixth gear set.

At the same time, the game also has four sets of 'Tourney' gear: red (styled after Swadian knight), green (green+red hood and leather vest), golden (yellow hood and some kind of yellow aketon), and blue (stylized after Nordic warrior). These are both inaccessible through normal means, nor are used by any of the NPCs.
So here's another couple of questions:

• Were these featured in an older version of M&B, back when there were only four factions, or were they meant to appear in a future version that was abandoned in favour of the DLCs and/ or Bannerlord, so we ended up with just these four sets?
• The proportions on these armours are a bit off, but they're perfectly useable and there' no clipping issues, as far as I can tell. So, why weren't they used in arenas, or at least available normally (well, the hoods are)?

 

[Ghost of Razgriz]

It's been a while since I played, so I might be remembering this wrong.

It's actually not to represent each faction, but to represent the team you're on.  Up to four teams are allowed to fight in the tournament at a time (red, green, blue, yellow).  If everyone was wearing...let's say blue, how are you supposed to know which unit is on who's team?  As you mentioned, white isn't being used since it was dummied out in Warband.  Most likely was that they probably tried to represent them as faction colors, but it didn't work out since a player couldn't tell who's on who's team, so they favored four colors to be able to represent the four participating teams.  If there were tournaments back in the original M&B, that's probably where the white one would come into play since, as you mentioned, classic M&B's Khergits was white.

I'd have to do some digging to see exactly what you're saying on the second part about each of the four representative gears, but I'm kind of not in much of a mood to try anything right now (nor do I have anything open atm).  If I find anything later, I'll try to update on it (assuming I remember to check on things this time...).

 

[Corbul]

It's actually not to represent each faction, but to represent the team you're on.  Up to four teams are allowed to fight in the tournament at a time (red, green, blue, yellow).  If everyone was wearing...let's say blue, how are you supposed to know which unit is on who's team?  As you mentioned, white isn't being used since it was dummied out in Warband.  Most likely was that they probably tried to represent them as faction colors, but it didn't work out since a player couldn't tell who's on who's team, so they favored four colors to be able to represent the four participating teams.  If there were tournaments back in the original M&B, that's probably where the white one would come into play since, as you mentioned, classic M&B's Khergits was white.

I know they're supposed to represent just the different teams, but as an in-universe explanation, the team-gears representing the nations would make sense, no?
I actually don't know why white arena gear isn't used. Was it really 'dummied out' in Warband? Why? Having five teams, each with its own colour, wouldn't make it difficult to tell them apart, and Star Wars Conquest (that uses five teams with appropriate native-colour textured armours proves this). After all, colours are assigned to teams, not individual fighters. If each fighter on each team had their own colour, then it would have been confusing.
I have yet to verify if the original M&B had tourneys. I remember that the Nords were dirty-yellow, the Vaegirs were emerald-green, Swadia was the same puke-orange, and the Rhodoks were aqua-blue. I don't remember the Khergits' color, so I'll have to check that also.

Anyway, thanks for replying. It's good to have discussions.

EDIT: Yup, just checked it. Khergits are purple, the other factions are as listed above.
Yes, there are tournaments in M&B Classic, and standard color-coded tunics/ armours are used.
The armours known in Warband as 'Tourney' are actually just recycled models from M&B Classic where they're actually regular armours and helmets.
The more you know.