Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-85.165.222.20-20130428154332/@comment-203.206.28.38-20130921033526

After looking at the (female) telvani robe in dragonborn it shows that character deformeties can be created by armor. from this i believe that it is armor that creates the chest hole in briarhearts, further evidence being that his chest color is different to the rest of his body.

This also explains why you cannot loot forsworn armor from briarhearts. they dont want us running round with holes in our chests, that and there is no female version (ever seen a female briarheart?).

Lore wise: they look different because of the partial undeath the hagravens used to make them