Another 5 Odd Historical Blades That Look Like Fantasy 

"That looks quite unusual, probably ceremonial." -Every confused archeologist ever

The spiked bronze sword looks like the handle was perhaps supposed to be wrapped with a rope or cord, that just did not survive the march of time.

The first bronze sword of China we call it 三叉格(three prongs guard) it’s from 滇(Dian is the old name of Yunnan province). It’s a combat sword the small spikes on the handle is for rapping fabric so that the material can attach better and makes the handle grips better, this kind of sword discovered with bronze blade is mainly between warring states and steels are during Han dynasty. The second crystal sword is a ceremonial sword, that kind of pattern on the handle we call it 蟠螭紋(pán chī pattern) it’s mainly used during Zhou dynasty on kings and emperors 袞服(ceremony hanfu robes).

That cheese-grater handle looks like it’s maybe to hold the actual material you’re supposed to hold on to, like it grips leather to the hilt

"The longer it is, the more it gets in the way." - Skallagrim

That coral inlaid pistol is insanely beautiful.

Red coral blades are the medieval equivalent of designer jeans with embroidered dragon pockets circa 2009. Great video!👍

The reason as to why the British (and French to some extent) adopted the Yatağan is because it curves away from the muskets , you know they're muzzleloaders and the bayonet has to curve away from the gun anyway if you don't want to stab your hand into the bayonet while loading the gun

Skall, thanks for bringing me more D&D content for my players

Fun fact: coral weapons in Final Fantasy games are usually lightning-aligned in some way, because many red coral formations look like little lightning bolts.

"It could just be a cerimonial sword" Metatron would like a word with you

The worst part about the Coral sword, is that there was totally a way to make a weapon that is both a beautifully ceremonial piece and entirely functional, by simply using the coral to adorn the hilt rather than as the hilt itself. I can easily imagine it too. A wooden hilt with two pieces of coral on either side of the handle, and the more naturally formed coral as a pummel (This would certainly effect function yes, but the sword would be usable and if it was done right the effects would be minor) gold trim disguising any seems where coral met wood or metal. For the cross guard you would have a metal crossguard backed by the more naturally formed coral. A skilled craftsmen might even be able to make it appear as if the coral was all one or two big pieces simply adorned with gold. Now I wanna do a mock up.

Skall: This weapon is unrealistic Real weapons:

So that's where Zod's horsekiller sword comes from.

To the sacrificing blades in Nepal: there is also a quite over-sized kukuri/kukri that is a real beast if you try to handle it like a 'normal' sword. It's - so the documentation - to decapitate an ox with one strike.

I was surprised by how many good things you had to say about the night elf glaive. As a kid I thought they were super badass, but over the years just kind of discounted it as wildly impractical and ineffective.

Your content has been consistently good for a while, thanks for all the entertainment

The Runescape Haladie is actually an artifact that those practicing the Archeology skill can dig up and restore, and then give to a Collector - it has no combat applications for the character.

Don't you think the hand shredder handle could have been originally covered in an organic wrap of some sort letting only tiny metal petrusions through to give more grip while not shredding hands ?

The chinese broze sword you mentioned is a type of swords always be found in south west China, especially in Yunnan province "云南省"，shortend as dian "滇". So we always call this type of swords as "dian- type mountain-shaped guard sword,滇式山字格剑" or "south west tribe mountain-shaped sword,西南夷山字格剑" because the shape of guard is like chinese character "山，mountain".The time periord of this type is from Warrior States to west Han dynasty, some were made from entire bronze but most commonly are bronze hilt with iron/steel blade.

Alcoholic soldier: I want a very lethal, tactical corkscrew as a weapon! Haladie: Allow me to introduce myself

The "dark elf" is actually a demon hunter class, who can be either a blood elf or a night elf. They were trained to combat giant demons, so a little bit more of a range with the weapon wouldn't change much I think. By the way they dual wield those glaives - this is how you call their weapons.

The Ram Dao is what the “server” sword from dark souls is based off of

Who needs to create their own fantasy designs when you can just look back at history and find this ?

You nearly nailed the pronounciation of yatağan hell yeah **Happy Turk noises**

That's awesome! I was just reading Berserk and a demon guy was using that exact same Ram Dao.

The best fantasy games base their fictional world off history. Game designers take note.

The prestige of Ferdinands swords was him all like : hey brother can I has some of that red sea stone your conquistadors are bringing from America?

The argument about if a sword will work is ended when it hits someone. Sharp, hard, and heavy gets the job done.

The reason for Yatagan bayonnets is simple: loading a muzzleloader with fixed bayonnet with ramrod is dangerous for your hand, so the tip is more offline.

The Chinese bronze sword looks like a torture weapon where they give it to prisoners and make them fight each other. The ultimate sadist weapon.

4:43 this version of the Kora actually reminds me of a key blade of sorts. I know that’s basically talking about a fantasy blade in comparison to a real life blade but if you take the real world blade into account it shows a little more why I keep like would be an effective weapon.

Will their be a firearm version of this series? Can you imagine a blunderbuss with red coral inlay?😍

I wonder if Skall has ever tested the practically of different types of bayonets in hand to hand combat.

Finally some content about Yatağan and a good pronounciation of it. Much appreciated!

Y'all calling red coral swords nonfunctional untill you're fighting a fire elemental and don't have one at hand for that water element damage.

Another quality skall video! I remember discovering your channel years ago, and this really scratched my arms & armor itch like old times

Great video Skall. I think this is where you shine best. I could listen to you wax sword design and sword theory all day

I love this kinds of videos, pretty interesting and well explained

Keep this series coming. I love these videos

Those coral handled swords are the most real fantasy-like swords I've seen. if you described them to me without a picture, I wouldn't have imagined them the way they truly are.

Haladie/Madhu is a parrying weapon and a shield for off hand weapon use. The horns are large enough to cover 1/3 of the body connecting with a buckler for hand protection. Ramdao also comes in lighter version where the curve is much pronounced like a moon. Hence it's called "chandrahaas" meaning "moon blade" which is the war version of ramdao.

Never knew until now that berserk dakas were wielding haladies up till now.. Amazing and enlightening info as always skallagrim! :D

Please do more of these, they’re cool. I really like them for some reason

Love the video, even go back a few years to see the early stuff. Fun to watch.

Gotta love these vids, so much insight!

Awesome work Skall! Love these types of videos. The Haladie reminds me of the Yautja Maul and Glaive. The way you described the fighting style of the dark elf Glaive is similar to how Predators use their smart disc in melee. Anyway very informative thank you very much.

6:38 Plot twist: Ferdinand II was an alien that actually could grip that sword

Nice to see more videos like this!

BRILLIANT VIDEO!!!!!! ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️ Skall , can you do some historical yet bonkers polearms????

Really love this "series." Hope to see more of it if you can find more to show!

Great video, best one this year👍

This is amazing. Very interesting!

Coral hilted sword, welp, theres some good dnd sword Inspiration right there

At 7:18 Those fking legends 😂😂😂😂

that coral inlaid pistol looks like something straight out of a D&D game

Thanks for making this it was very interesting.

Again, RU-vid didn't notified me. Great work with the video

I never knew any of that about red coral. Great work!

"the longer it is, the more it gets in the way" Skal, 2021.

I love to watch stuff like this to get ideas for fictional blades with some realism. All cool, but the coral hilts are extremely cool!

your channel is one of the things I enjoy most in life

From what I understand, the shotel's more of a stabbing weapon than a cutting one. The curve enables you to reach around the shield and stab your opponent in the kidneys!

Great! Love this vids. I'm writing something and you literally do research I wouldn't even know where to start doing

Hello there I really enjoy your Videos been watching for years keep up the good work have a great day.

This is you best vid Skal.

10:40 that thing reminds me of the Zulu shields with the extending sticks on the top and bottom for added parrying capabilities. Also I wish there was a channel for specifically weapons forgotten by time yet still deserve to be remembered. Matt Easton does it somewhat but not exclusively and not all the time.

I saw a Red Coral handled sword at the Habsburg Splendor exhibit in Atlanta Georgia a few years ago. Stunning in person, but clearly fragile. I think it was the first one you showed. The armor in that exhibit was stunning as well.

I really enjoy these videos. I do not think I used a haladie when I played Runescape but that was a long time ago.

I enjoyed your comparison of yataghan to Greek kopis. I would never think about connection between them.

Oh my God! Every single RU-vidr is now obsessed with these video-time-marker-divider-things! And in most cases it is extra and unneccessary.

Khopesh is my favourite. I haven't used it or anything but it just have a special place in my heart.

I love the yatağan shape, at least the ones you can still thrust with. The re-curve shape is brilliant for allowing for a curved cutting edge while still having the point on line for effective thrusts, a great alternative to the straight blade for a compromise cut-and-thrust sword, and my preference for single-edged swords.

Skall! Since you talked about warcraft, I want to mention a bit of a difference in what you were talking about with the dark/night elves. There's actually two styles of the glaive/fist weapons they use, the ones you were showing were the Demon hunter class blades, which are built entirely around superhuman speed and slash movements, like you were saying. There's also the really wild 3-bladed glaves that the night elf city guards use. If you searched "Darnassus night elf guard" you'd see the weapon, and it appears that it also could function like a buckler as well as a stabbing/slashing weapon.

Don't know if people posted this before, but it seems quite obvious now that the Ram Dao is what themed DS1's "Server", looking at the more sickle bladed version looks incredibly similar to the Server, and it's description claiming it was used in ancient rites, ancient occult rites- well, seeing how the Ram Dao is a sacrifical blade, and how the Server gives you health with each successful blow, it's safe to conclude that the Manus and the Abyss is watching over that blood sacrifice, hail to the Abyss Edit: Yep, someone mentioned it and likely more people too- well i'm happy i'm not the only one who noticed!

Yoooooooo the yatagan looks awesome!

6:35 Lol! Good vid. It was really interesting.👍

Honestly come to realize: some factual weapons are stranger than fictional ones at times. This is your fault skall, not that its a bad thing, glad fact is stranger than fiction sometimes, helps sell the fake stuff :D

6:10 Maybe there was some cord or leather wrap that goes in between those spikes (they seems to go in spiral), to fill in the gaps? But those swords looks wicked!!!! Thanks for the video!

Really cool!

Nice, dude!

One of the other swords that the Habsburgs had was also a really interesting one, like the coral sword - the so-called Ainkhüm Schwert (literally "Unicorn sword"): its hilt and sheaths were made from a whole narwhal's "horn", and the hand guard was made of gold or gilded, I don't remember. It looks really fantasy-like, like it was really made from a unicorn's horn. I think they're actually displayed in the same room of the Treasury Museum in Vienna.

I don’t know why but this guys vids make me feel cosy 😂

I can think of one situation that the large halade at the end would be good in. One defender against many attackers. Ram into the group and start flailing. The initial charge would cut multiple opponents and cause even more to get tangled up with each other. After that every movement of the blade would cut multiple opponents. Lots of armor would be important, so the built in hand guard would be a must have. Of course going around looking for battles like this is crazy. And even worse when your weapon puts you at a disadvantage in any other combat situation you might find yourself in.

Zodd using a sacrificial sword (ram dao) against a sacrifice branded black swordsman is such good story telling now that I watched this video

Spiked bronze sword looks like something that will drain your hp for extra stats

I strongly agree that "hand destroyer" was heavily wrapped in something judging by the pommel and was spiked as an attempt for the handle to grip the marital making the handle such leather much harder.

The sword at 5:27 definitely seems ceremonial. Unless the wielder was suppose to wear thick gloves the handle is obviously designed to cause pain to the person using it. It’s also very nicely decorated so I would assume it’s for a leader to remember that to war against an enemy will hurt your own people as well.

In the Haladie the one with bead-like metal rod shown at 10.32 to 10.45 is called a Bhidchir. Used by Marathas. Often used as a parrying weapon and also as a crowd control weapon by guards of important leaders.

The technique with the warglaives is very much a twisting motion where the power comes more from the hips rather than the arms, and most of the reach from the hips, you also need to duel wield the blades, which is there the buckler section in the middle comes in handy, but most designs have spikes in the front useful for catching some weapons, I like them, although yes very much for up close and personal duels, but the class that wields that version of warglaives is mostly an assassin class

Serge, the main character in Chrono Cross, the Chrono Trigger sequel, also uses a double-bladed weapon they call "Swallow", very similar to that Blood Elf one.

Any chance of redesigning another fantasy weapon to see how it works? I always wondered how a redesign of the ogre kingdoms bull hand weapons would function. It's essentially a cross between a punch dagger and a haladie with a full gauntlet as the weapon grip. Always seemed like a great brawling/grappling weapon.

Hey man this is totally unrelated to this video, although I loved it! But I'd love to learn more about this particular subject: POISONS! I am a DM in DnD and one of my players is a Rogue. He, like me, LOVED playing Rogues in MMORPG's like WoW. Which involved applying many different kinds of poisons to your weapons. And I'm currently working on ways to add new poisons in my game for him. But aside from fantasy, I am fascinated by historical poisons. I would LOVE to hear your take on how Poisons were applied to historical melee weapons? How often did it really happen? What different kinds of poisons were there? Was it outlawed? I searched on youtube for melee/Medieval weapons and poison application but I found basically zero videos about it. I think that would be an awesome topic to do a deep dive into. Anywho, thanks for the awesome and informative content as usual!

Would you please do a review of the Naginata? I love the idea of an almost large tanto on the end of a staff. In fact, if it had a spike on the end like a lance it would even better IMO

Can't see if anyone mentioned it yet but coral hilt, if constructed to be functional, would be roughly equivalent in properties to a bone hilt. They're both primarily calcified organic fibers, and we do have examples of bone grips or bone scale grips, so if you had a piece of coral that was the right shape and size to be used as functional grip material, it could be done quite effectively.

So just like how Tira's ring Blade's essentially a giant chakram, Grøh's double bladed sword's essentially a giant haladie, and there's apparently a possible historical inspiration for Soul Edge having an eye in its blade; interesting. Apparently there may be more truth the the whole "welcome to the stage of history" thing the Soul franchise touts than I thought, even if it's still mostly just fantasy anime craziness and the resulting anachronisms. And Skall, for the third video in this series, I've got three suggestions for you; Suggestion 1: The double-headed Tabarzin; most people believe double-headed battle-axes to be purely a fantasy thing (even I used to years ago), but at least in Persia (NKA Iran), the usually single-headed backspike/backhammer bearing Tabarzin was on rare occasion made double-headed; the Persian one is also unique in that it has an all metal haft that's much thinner than a wood haft could be and stay durable. Suggestion 2: the Masakari: While single-edged curved swords, knives, and clubs are all known Japanese weapons thanks to pop culture, that same pop culture's perpetuated a myth that battle-axes were unknown there; the truth however, is that not only was the Masakari a known weapon, it's arguably the second most significant weapon type in Japanese culture, being the Japanese Champion's (mightiest warrior's) weapon due to its association with Kintarō, a folk hero who's essentially the Japanese Hercules, and is also credited with inventing Sumo wrestling, and is often depicted with a Masakari. Suggestion 3: the Tsurugi: The same pop culture that's perpetuated the myth of battle-axes being unknown in Japan has also perpetuated the myth that double-edged straight swords were also unknown there; but once again, not only is the Tsurugi proof that that's not the case, it's also one of the oldest sword types in Japan, dating at least all the way to the Kofūn period in the 5th century, but it's also the most significant type of weapon in Japanese culture, as evidenced by the fact that a Tsurugi named Kusanagi-No-Tsurugi is one of Japan's three Imperial Regalia, the artifacts that, according to Japanese mythology, were first given to the queen of the Japanese gods, Amaterasu, who then gave them to the very first emperor of Japan to prove his descendance from her, and his consequential divine right to rule; the other two regalia are the gemstone Yasakani-No-Magatama, and the mirror Yata-No-Kagami. It'd be great if this, the true most culturally significant sword in Japanese culture finally got the recognition it deserves here in the west, rather than have the poser that is the Katana continue to push much more interesting weapons out of the way so it can stay in the spotlight.

The spike handle is likely for hide attachment or use with leather glove, it also looks like a Kan which is diamond cross section bar design to maim first as that pretty much get you win in duels.

The shotel is neat. I like the idea of a double edged curved sword.

I like the appreciation for the Haladie, I know what I'm doing with a standard knife or dagger but I'd love to learn how to use one if those ☺ The 1st time I saw one was in the 2nd Prince of Persia game, he used it as an offhand parry dagger as you said. I wonder why if we had these designs why renaissance sword and dagger techniques don't include them? Maybe because we hadn't got close with India yet for them to catch on? Also I'm glad you'd pointed out that the short handled grip on the double ended sword is too dangerous to the wielder. I had this conversation recently with a friend of mine who's into the Star Wars lightsabres, I told him that the double ended ones would be perfectly plausable if the handles were a lot longer and the blades/beams were shorter like a double ended polearm Nice to see fanctasy inspired by proper functional designs though ☺

6:15 -- That handle: I'd wager it was to give some sort of organic wrap (leather, textile, whatever) something to get purchase on.