Arms and Armor
02 Mar 2012 5 Comments
in Writing Tags: fantasy, reading, weapons, writing
As a fantasy author and reader, I need a passing familiarity with arms and armor. I am typically not someone who dwells on clothing, which extends to and includes armor, so my acquaintance with greaves and hauberks and plate and scale mail is mostly from my reading.
I am growing fond of weaponry, though. Again, the original knowledge came from reading fantasy. I often use context clues when I don’t know what something is, but I will also look things up from time to time.
Today I wanted to share with you just a couple of my favorite terms. Some of them are actually favorite pieces, others are just fun words. I’ll restrict myself to personal weaponry - as much as I like siege engines, we’ll save them for another day. Many of these I’d like to handle and/or use at some point, just for the experience, but that seems relatively unlikely.
Flail – this should come as no surprise to the people who know me or who have read this blog. A flail is that lovely weapon which consists of a metal ball (or two) on a chain, attached to a reinforced club. This is not a mace! Maces are simply metal-reinforced clubs; if there’s a chain involved, it becomes a flail!
Crossbow and Windlass - Ah, the crossbow. One of these days I am going to fire one! It is powerful enough (usually) to puncture armor. It takes so much power to pull the string into place that they are often reloaded using a type of crank called a windlass.
Gambeson – this looks like a quilted shirt. It’s worn under armor, be it plate or chain, as a protective layer (and padding)!
Vambrace - armor for your arms! Vambraces cover the forearms, usually from wrists to elbows. You’ll sometimes see authors who put fighters in vambraces without other armor, to add extra protection for unexpected fighting.
Anybody else want to share their favorite fantasy arms and armor?
