Couple things with that last post, Volt. The first is the shield, I am not a fan of people adding things to their inventory without GM say so. I'd prefer that you waited until Soul or I describe loot and inventory in an area before making changes to your equipment. The reason being is simple, it's a slippery slope where it sets a precedent where people start feeling that they can do the same. We were already linent with the swords in Chorrol, and we established thay dwemer stuff is high-tier equipment, so randomly deciding you want new stuff, especially of that caliber and just justifying it in a time skip isn't cool. I don't want this to turn into 'And Blade killed a guy in power armour and took it for himself' or whatever. Your character is already strong, which brings me to point two.
We get that Blade is tough, but in just about every encounter he's basically unstoppable, takes no injuries, and makes everyone he fights look like a bunch of weak, half-wit Redshirts. He's not going to step into a tournament with a bunch of Alik'r warriors and other veteran fighters who have fought the dwemer more than he has and come out on top and have them just get walked all over. It doesn't make for fun reading, especially with for how bored he seems by everything because apparently he's incapable of sustaining injury. Remember in the OOC where I wrote that the goal was believable characters with lots of development and not unstoppable badasses? Blade hasn't changed, at all, since the game started and he can pretty much be defined by 'apathic badass who is unphased by everything who is emotionally static and is only driven by fighting. ' I get he's a gladiator and that's the only life he knows, but he's still a person.
Final point, the Hammerfell equipment is necessary for the Helgathe arc because it's the dwemer capital in the province and as such is the most secure. The guards aren't going to let strangely clothed, heavily armed and armoured people walk the streets unchallenged, especially since they know about the Heroes of Tamriel after Chorrol and there's uprisings in other cities. Even if that were socially acceptable, the dwemer are not going to see him with dwemer gear and think, 'he has good taste!' They're going to think, rightfully, he killed somebody for it.