Weapons

### Swords

* **Scimitar**: Haledrian warriors favor this long curved sword. It is a type of sword with no guard and a curved blade resembling a scythe.
* **Shortsword**: Shorter than a longsword but longer and heavier than a dagger, the shortsword is a one-handed blade generally meant for thrusting.
* **Falchion**: A short, cleaver-like sword used for hacking.
* **Rapier**:  With their slender, sharply pointed blades, rapiers have traditionally been used for thrusting attacks.
* **Longsword**: A common weapon of knights throughout the known world, these one-handed blades are also known as broadswords or simply "swords." The blades are about three feet in length, double-edged, and mounted on a hilt with a heavy pommel and a sizable cross-guard.
* **Hand-and-a-Half Sword**: Neither a longsword nor a greatsword, this sword has a longer blade and a more elongated grip than a longsword. However, the longer hilt is not as large as that of a greatsword and it is meant for the off-hand to provide a bit more leverage.
* **Greatsword**: The greatsword requires two hands to use. It is the largest type of sword.

### Axes and Clubs

* **Battle-axe**: A broad-headed axe, used to cleave through armor and shields. It can be wielded in one hand, and some battle-axes are double-bladed.
* **Hand Axe**: A warrior’s version of a hatchet, smaller than a battle-axe and balanced to be thrown. These short-hafted axes are used by the ironmen to dance the finger dance.
* **Longaxe**: A long-hafted version of the battle-axe. The longaxe is light enough to be wielded by one hand. A longaxe may have a double-bladed axe head or it may have a spike on one side. It is likely that some longaxes are large enough to require two hands.
* **Woodsman’s Axe**: A woodsman’s tool for chopping and splitting wood, this axe can easily turn into a deadly weapon. Normally used by smallfolk and brigands, it is single-bladed and smaller than its martial cousin, the battle-axe.
* **Club/Cudgel**: A short club fashioned of hard wood or sometimes metal. It can be adorned with metal or wooden spikes.
* **Mace**: A blunt crushing weapon designed to smash armor, a mace consists of a heavy head of stone or metal set upon a wooden or metal shaft. The head is often flanged or knobbed to better penetrate armor.

### Spears

* **Spear**: A simple weapon used for hunting and combat, comprising a wooden shaft up to 10 feet long tipped with a relatively small head of iron or steel. It can be used for individual combat.
* **Pike**: A pike is a longer spear, normally 10-15 feet long. This weapon is primarily used by large bodies of infantry operating together either to push through or over opposing infantry or hold off cavalry.
* **Spear, Boar**: A short version of the spear, the boar spear features a large blade and has a cross-piece just behind the head to prevent it from penetrating too deeply. Sometimes favored by infantry officers it is as the name indicates primarily a hunting weapon.
* **Spear,** **Frog**: A weapon used by the Crannogmen, these small spears end in three prongs and are primarily used for hunting frogs and other small prey in the Neck, but they can just as easily be adapted to fight men. Frog spears can also be thrown.
* **Flail**: A military cousin to the farmer’s tool, a warrior’s flail is a length of chain attached to a rod. At the end of the chain is a heavy metal head, either blunt like a mace or spiked like a morning star.
* **Morningstar**: Cousin to the flail and ball and chain, a morningstar is a length of chain connected to a rod at one end and bears a spiked ball at the other.

### Polearms

* **Halberd**: The halberd has a heavy, cleaver-like blade at the top of a long shaft. It usually has a spike at the top of the shaft and a thorn or a hook opposite to the blade.
* **Poleaxe**: A Poleaxe has an axehead opposite to a hammer or a spike, mounted on a shaft. The shaft usually has a spike on both ends.

### Ranged Weapons

* **Bow**: Bows in the Whispy Woods are made from wood, though bows from more exotic lands may be made from laminated horn or bone. Bows are difficult to use while mounted and cannot normally be used with any accuracy if the mount is moving.
* **Longbow**: The longbow is cut from a single piece of wood approximately six feet long, and when drawn back to the chin or ear will have a draw-weight of upwards of a hundred pounds, sufficient to carry a shaft two-hundred yards or so, even to drive one through plate armor at very close range. Longbows will be used by most armies (and indeed unless someone is specifically mentioned as carrying a crossbow it can be safely assumed that all archers are longbowmen).
* **Bow, Double-Curved or Recurved**: This small bow is double-curved and made from laminated horn, wood, or bone (it is also called a "Composite Bow"). Recurved bows are mostly favoured in Haled, but they can be found in many places throughout the world. The Westerlings especially favor them, alongside the Haledrians. Recurved bows can be fired from horseback (primarily to lay an arrow storm, rather than pick individuals), and can achieve draw-weights comparable to longbows.
* **Crossbow**: Crossbows are shorter bows that shoot bolts or quarrels. There is a stock attached to the bow with a mechanical assist to draw the bowstring. Due to its shorter draw, the crossbow requires a higher draw weight to give the same amount of energy as a conventional bow. The drawing mechanism can be a stirrup with a winch or a crank. The Free Cities produce ungainly crossbows capable of firing three quarrels at a time.

### Miscellaneous

* **Dagger**: A long knife used to stab and pierce, often carried as a tool as much as a weapon.

* **Dirk**: A dagger designed for combat with a straight, narrow blade, often used in the off-hand to complement a primary weapon.
* **Net**: Made of strong rope, a net is typically a tool to catch fish or birds. Some people have adapted them for fighting, such as the huntsfolk of Rhund, who use them to ensnare opponents or entangle weapons.
* **Peasant Tool**: Peasants rarely could afford traditional weapons and generally fought with what was at hand: sticks, clubs, tools or their bare hands, those weapons are of poor quality.
* **Lance, War**: A weapon of knights and heavy cavalry, lances are normally 8-10 feet long, made of turned ash, and banded to prevent splitting. The lance is tipped with a sharpened steel point and is normally used for a single charge before becoming too unwieldy in close combat.
* **Lance, Sport**: Sporting lances are longer and more fragile than their battlefield cousins. Their tips are blunted to better unhorse an opponent without causing serious harm, and they are unbanded, meaning that they will often break upon impact. A sporting lance is normally 12-14 feet long and may be made from a prettier wood.

### Shields

The Whispy Woods has a varied collection of shields, from simple wooden shields, which are light, easy to use but don't provide much protection, to heavy triangular shields, almost four feet tall, made of steel and studded with iron. Stretching layers of hardened leather over the shields and adding metal thin strips for reinforcements improve durability and protection, without adding much weight.

### Siege Weapons

Besieging armies use a wide variety of siege engines such as: scaling ladders, battering rams on wheels, wheeled siege towers covered in rawhide and various types of catapults, trebuchets, mangonels, spitfires, and scorpions. Some are mounted on warships.

* **Catapult**: Catapults can hurl objects at a great distance.
* **Ballista**: Ballistae resembled crossbows, but were much bigger.
* **Trebuchet**: A larger type of catapult that could fire bigger projectiles at a longer range.