Well, I lol'd. But more on that in a bit.
Firstly, no. It was a possession. But the armor was already a High Master when he migrated, so no big foul there.
Secondly, yes! They do SO much better in desert. Which is why a haunted, necromancer-stuffed forest has turned out....... interesting. But we're doing well, so far, without COMPLETE turtling. But there's a lot of dead hippies hurraycollateral damage with the neighbors.
Now, for the 'lol'.
So, I equip it on a competent hammerer master crossbower, and sent him out. He gunned down pretty much all the wildlife and made quite a few undead into *Masterpiece Pincushions* before he got raped by a zombie giant eagle and killed.
So then I gave it to an unfortunate trapped outside, who adopted the gear and a copper axe successfully, and proceeded to hew through the undead horde in epic proportions, gradually being torn to shreds over the course of two seasons before he finally succumbed to injuries amidst a mountainous pile of ever-ressurecting bodyparts. This epic sacrifice allowed two caravans through (humans and mogun, though technically he died before the Mogun arrived, he'd lead them far enough that the caravans snuck by) allowing me to buy some iron and steel to restart my stalled Layered Steel Weapons Company(c) and Llamelar Arms Defenses(tm).