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Weapons
SHORT SWORD: The common Gorean shortsword, designed to be used in conjunction with the round battle shield favored by Gorean warriors, is described as a leaf-shaped, double-edged blade with a short singlehanded grip. The grip is typically either of polished ka-la-na or temwood, either unadorned or wrapped in leather, cloth or cord. The blade of this weapon is approximately twenty inches in length, and it is worn either in a belt scabbard on the left hip or alternately in the same scabbard, slung over the left shoulder for travel. "I had again my sword, that
wine-tempered blade of fine, double-edged Gorean steel, carried even at
the siege of Ar, so long ago, with its scabbard..."
LONG SWORD
"He wore beneath his cloak
yellow wool, and a great belt of glistening black, with a gold buckle,
to which was attached a scabbard of oiled, black leather; in this scabbard
was a sword, a sword of Torvaldsland, a long sword, with a jeweled pommel,
with double guard."
SCIMITAR: A long curved sword, used either one-handed or with two-hands, depending upon the situation. It has a wickedly curved, single-edged blade, honed to razor-sharpness, which will easily part silk dropped upon its edge. Even a light stroke of a Tahari scimitar will pass effortlessly through the flesh, leaving a carved mark 1/4" inch deep in the bone beneath. The overall blade length is perhaps thirty or more inches, with an 8" inch long "false-edge" across the back of the tip, for backhanded slashes. Used one handed it is incredibly deadly; used two-handed upon the ground it is equally terrifying.
"I was most fond perhaps,
of the balanced saddle knife, the quiva; it is about a foot in length,
double edged; it tapers to a daggerlike point..." "...the quiva itself is
regarded, on the whole, as more of a missile weapon than a hand knife..." "Most quivas, incidentally,
are wrought in the smithies of Ar." "...in the saddle itself,
on the right side, indicating the rider must be right-handed, were the
seven sheaths for the almost legendary quivas, the balanced saddleknives
of the prairie.
GOREAN SPEAR
"The tarnsman commonly carries,
strapped to the saddle, a Gorean spear, a fearsome weapon, but primarily
a missile weapon, and one more adopted to infantry." "The spear was a typical
Gorean spear, about seven feet in height, heavy, stout, with a tapering
bronze head some eighteen inches in length. It is a terrible weapon and,
abetted by the somewhat lighter gravity of Gor, when cast with considerable
force, can pierce a shield at close quarters or bury its head a foot deep
in solid wood. With this weapon groups of men hunt even the larl in its
native haunts in the Voltai Range, that incredible pantherlike carnivore
which may stand six to eight feet high at the shoulder."
TRIDENT
"I could use some paga,"
said he. He had purchased the net in the morning with a trident, the traditional
weapons of the fisherman of the western shore and the western islands."
GREAT BOW "And there was, too, the
great bow, of yellow, supple Ka-la-na, tipped with notched bosk horn,
with its cord of hemp, whipped with silk, and the roll of sheaf and flight
arrows. I counted the arrows. There were seventy arrows, fifty of which
were sheaf arrows, twenty flight arrows." "The bow is not commonly
favored by Gorean warriors, but all must respect it. It is the height
of a tall man; its back, away from the bowman, is flat; its belly, facing
the bowman, is half-rounded; it is something like an inch and a half wide
and an inch and a quarter thick at the center; it has considerable force
and requires considerable strength to draw; many men, incidentally, even
some warriors, cannot draw the bow; nine of its arrows can be fired aloft
before the first falls again to the earth; at point-blank range it can
be fired completely through a four-inch beam; at two hundred yards it
can pin a man to a wall; at four hundred yards it can kill the huge, shambling
bosk; its rate of fire is nineteen arrows in a Gorean Ehn, about eighty
Earth seconds; and a skilled bowman, but not an extraordinary one, is
expected to be able to place these nineteen arrows in one Ehn into a target,
the size of a man, each a hit, at a range of some two hundred and fifty
yards. Yet, as a weapon, it has serious disadvantages, and on Gor the
crossbow, inferior in accuracy, range and rate of fire, with its heavy
cable and its leaves of steel, tends to be generally favored. The long
bow cannot well be used except in a standing, or at least kneeling, position,
thus making more of a target of the archer; the long bow is difficult
to use from the saddle; it is impractical in close quarters, as in defensive
warfare or in fighting from room to room; and it cannot be kept set, loaded
like a firearm, as can the crossbow..."
CROSSBOW "Not hurrying I strung the
bow. It is small, double curved, about four feet in length, built up of
layers of bosk horn, bound and reinforced with metal and leather; it is
banded with metal at seven points, including the grip, metal obtained
from Turia in half inch rolled strips; the leather is applied diagonally,
in two inch strips, except that, horizontally, it covers the entire grip;
the bow lacks the range of both the longbow and the crossbow, but, at
close range, firing rapidly, it can be a devastating weapon; its mall
size, like the crossbow, permits it to clear the saddle, shifting from
the left to the right, or to the rear, with equal ease, this providing
an advantage lacked by the more powerful but larger longbow; but, like
the longbow, and unlike the crossbow, which requires strength and time
to reset, it is capable of a considerable volume of fire; a Tuchuk warrior
can, in swirling combat, from the saddle of the running kaiila, accurately
fire twenty arrows, drawn to the point, in half a Ehn." "...the crossbow is the
assassin's weapon, par excellence; further, it might be mentioned that,
although it takes longer to set the crossbow, a weaker man, with, say,
his belt claw or his winding gear, can certainly manage to do so; accordingly,
for every man capable of drawing a warrior's long bow there will be an
indefinite number who can use the crossbow; lastly, at shorter distances,
the crossbow requires much less skill for accuracy than the long bow."
HORN BOW "I learned as well the rope
and bow. The bow, of course, small, for use from the saddle, lacks the
range and power of the Gorean longbow or crossbow; still, at close range,
with considerable force, firing rapidly, arrow after arrow, it is a fearsome
weapon." "His lance remained on his
back, but he carried in his right hand the small, powerful horn bow of
the Wagon Peoples an attached to his saddle was a lacquered, narrow, rectangular
quiver containing as many as forty arrows."
ARROWS: SHEAF AND FLIGHT "The Gorean sheaf arrow
is slightly over a yard long, the flight arrow is about forty inches in
length. Both are metal piled and fletched with three half-feathers, from
the wings of the Vosk gulls. Mixed in with the arrows were the leather
tab, with its two openings for the right forefinger and the middle finger,
and the leather bracer, to shield the left forearm from the flashing string."
BOLA "Slowly, singing in a guttural
chant, a Tuchuk warrior song, he began to swing the bola. It consists
of three long straps of leather, each about five feet long, each terminating
in a leather sack, which contains, sewn inside, a heavy, round metal weight.
It was probably developed for hunting the tumit, a huge, flightless carnivorous
bird of the plains, but the Wagon Peoples use it also, and well, as a
weapon of war. Thrown to low the long straps, with their approximate ten-foot
sweep, almost impossible to evade, strike the victim and the weighted
balls, as soon as resistance is met, whip about the victim, tangling and
tightening the straps. Sometimes legs are broken. It is often difficult
to release the straps, so snarled do they become. Thrown high the Gorean
bola can lock a man's arms to his sides; thrown to the throat it can strangle
him; thrown to the head, a difficult cast, the whipping weights can crush
a skull. One entangles the victim with the bola, leaps from one's mount
and with the quiva cuts his throat."
KAIILA LANCE
"Ah, yes, weapons,"
Kamchak was saying, "what shall it be the kaiila lance, a whip and
bladed bole perhaps the quiva?" "His lance had a rider hood
under the point, with which he might dismount opponents." "The lances of the Wagon
Peoples are not couched. They are carried in the right fist, easily, and
are flexible and light, used for thrusting, not the battering-ram effect
of the heavy lances of Europe's High Middle Ages. Needless to say, they
an be almost as swift and delicate in their address as a saber. The lances
are black, cut from the poles of young tem trees. They may be bent almost
double, like finely tempered steel, before they break. A loose loop of
boskhide, wound twice about the right fist, helps to retain the weapon
in hand-to-hand combat. It is seldom thrown.
THARLARION LANCE "In a minute the rider appeared
in view - a fine, bearded warrior with a golden helmet and a tharlarion
lance."
ROPE
"On the saddle there also
hung, on one side, a coiled rope of braided boskhide..."
COMMON HELMETS "Above the shield was a
suspended helmet, again reminiscent of a Greek helmet, perhaps of the
Homeric period. It had a somewhat 'Y'-shaped slot for the eyes, nose,
and mouth in the nearly solid metal." "...and the simple helmet,
innocent of insignia, with empty crest plate, of curved iron with its
"Y"-like opening, and cushioned with rolls of leather.
NORTHERN HELMETS "The helmets of the north
are commonly conical, with a nose-guard, that can slip up and down. At
the neck and sides, attached by rings, usually hangs a mantle of linked
chain. The helmet of Thorgard him-self, however, covered his neck and
the sides of his face. It was horned."
HELMET OF THE WAGON PEOPLE "...he wore a conical, fur-rimmed
iron helmet, a net of colored chains depending from the helmet protecting
his face, leaving only holes for the eyes."
CAPTAIN'S HELMET "To be sure, carved in wood,
high on the chair, was the helmet with crest of sleen-fur, the mark of
the captain,..." ASSASSIN'S HELMET "All were silent. I wore
the garb of the Caste of Assassins, and on the left temple of the black
helmet was the golden slash of the messenger."
SHIELDS
"...and the rounded shield
of layered boskhide, with its double sling, riveted with pegs of iron
and bound with hoops of brass..." "The round shield, concentric
overlapping layers of hardened leather riveted together and bound with
hoops of brass, fitted with the double sling for carrying on the left
arm, was similarly unmarked. Normally the Gorean shield is painted boldly
and has infixed in it some device for identifying the bearer's city."
TURIAN SHIELD "The morning sun flashed
from their helmets, their long tharlarion lances, the metal embossments
on their oval shields, unlike the rounded shields of most Gorean cities." |