I don't even think a full suit of plate mail would weigh 260 pounds, even a tower shield that a man could hide behind as well as his entire company in a straight line behind him wouldn't weight that much.

Unless it was forged out of lead...

Crafted almost entirely from platinum, this suit of fullplate has been
designed expressly to fit the body of a loboshigaru warrior. Dozens of
carefully shaped plates overlap each other, angled to deflect strikes
away from the body. The plates have been secured to each other and
placed over a layer of thick chain mail, which is worn on top of a thick
layer of cloth. A simple extension of the chain mail allows the wearer's
mail to also gain some protection from the armour, while remaining
relatively comfortable.
It has 42 months of usefulness left.
It weighs about 180 pounds.

Nope. Much heavier than fullplate. And the shield was made out of 20 iron and 15 silver

Most full plate took several people to help the knight in and out of, and if a knight was knocked off of their horse, they were almost certainly screwed. Mounted Cavalry > Knight in Fullplate.

Common misperception from mark twain Shaddus

I don't read Mark Twain.

Influences from popular culture transcend their medium and insert themselves into the zeitgeist, where they can be accessed without ever knowing about the origin.

^ Win.

Will burried items decay more rapidly than ones left to sit upon the ground?

When did I turn into a Lusternia Lawyer?

Must you administer reagents during the youth period, or can you save them until adulthood?

Do shields help with bashing - do they reduce damage done by denizens?

Apparently, no.

I am told no.

You can wait as long as you like to give your beast reagents. If you just want to raise them in a certain way and then sell them, all you have to do is watch their diet.

What does Treebane actually do?

Keeps your enemies out of the trees.

In addition to removing you from tree elevation, it should break legs if you lack a levitate enchantment or it gets stripped.

It breaks legs and arms even if you do have a levitate enchantment.

The thing you described is just regular wind (or hexagram, or geyser, or shake.)

Treebane is an affliction that lasts about 20 seconds, curable by focus spirit, that throws you from tree to ground elevation on a four second tick and breaks 1-2 limbs (arms or legs) in the process.

I've been told they help to some degree after trueshield.

I think Ceren said it, and since I'm pretty sure Ceren is some sort of know it all program the admin coded into Lusternia, I tend to just believe him.

Ceren = Shiri+?