I'm still collecting information to answer one question, and I'm waiting on a book from the library that has me excited...I can't settle on one thing to write about.
In the meantime, I've come across a line in Weapon that has me looking for patterns:
Early medieval swords were heavy cutting weapons that were used to hack their way through mail. The development of high-quality plate armor encouraged the introduction of sharply pointed thrusting swords, whose blades became progressively longer.
I believe the history of weapons can be summed up by:
Gwark hits Grog on the head with a rock. Grog found a bigger rock and invented the helmet. This continued until we found ourselves with the nitrogen bomb.
If you are creating a new world, and you are adding weapons to it, you have to remember that for every newer, better way to do damage to someone, there came a newer, better way to protect yourself. There are undoubtedly gaps in discovery and creation, but it's constantly happening.
The current "to read" pile from the library includes:
- Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, by Jack Kelly
- The Cambridge History of Warfare, edited by Geoffrey Parker
- A History of Warfare, by John Keegan
- The Complete Encylopedia of Arms & Weapons, edited by Leonid Tarassuk & Claude Blair
- Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World: 3000 BC ~ AD 500: Equipment, Combat Skills, and Tactics, by Simon Anglim, Phyllis G. Jestice, Rob S. Rice, Scott M. Rusch, & John Serrati
- Warfare: The Middle Ages 768 - 1487, by Nicholas Hooper & Matthew Bennett
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