User blog:Breywood/Diablo II Armor and Weapons with Historical Counterparts. Part 2: Normal Weapons

Several weapons and armor in Diablo II have actual historical counterparts. While it is a fantasy setting and especially the elite tier items are mostly fanciful names with impressive numbers, the developers did borrow a number of names of arms and armor that did exist in ancient and medieval times. While these aren’t seen to be fit as part of the trivia section, I think it is interesting to look at what place these things had in history, and I plan to try to detail most of these in a multi-part blog post. Most of these have articles in wikipedia, and while I'd be loathe to recommend these articles in and of themselves, many of them do provide concise information for history buffs.

Axes
Hand Axe: This is a tabletop term used to differentiate a one-handed axe from a two-handed one. The item picture is a rustic hatchet, which while more effective than a club, is still ill suited as a weapon as the properties for cutting a tree are different from cutting flesh.

Axe: The item picture lends itself to a one-handed axe suited for battle. It also has a spike on the back to lend some utility against hard surfaces like steel plates.

Double Axe:  This is a fantasy trope. Double-bitted axes have a spot as a tool in those instances where damage to a blade would mean you could continue without having to stop to sharpen out the damage, as a martial weapon, its quite impractical. Especially late on in the Middle Ages, soldiers employing an axe would prefer to have another trauma type to use against foes who were well protected from slashing trauma.

Military Pick:  While one-handed picks were not uncommon, the item picture certainly isn't a common type. Most times, they would resemble warhammers, but with the pick end significantly elongated to provide maximum piercing capability against steel plates. There should be a similar amount of metal on the back side to provide another trauma type against heavily armored foes. As well, to help keep it balanced a bit better

War Axe:  Definitely a Scandanavian-inspired design of the bearded axe. The blade design is trying to maximize cutting potential while minimizing weight. Additionally, the long extension on the blade could also provide some utility for hooking a shield or limb.

Large Axe: What looks like a decorated axe for felling trees. Certainly better than bare hands, but the extra weight and likely the thick cross section of the blade would make this an unattractive choice for a battlefield weapon.

Broad Axe: Take the large axe and make it suitable for a battlefield. Typically, military axe blades are much thinner than their utility counterparts. And while it is desirable to have a few pounds on the end of a big stick to aid momentum in your impact, the common felling axe will impact the time it takes to recover the weapon after a swing. Especially if one should miss.

Battle Axe: Again, while double-bitted battle axes would have existed, they were a very uncommon sight for the same reason listed with the broad axe. The extra weight from a second blade would likely have speed impacts when trying to recover it after a swing.

Great Axe:  That's a real fantasy axe right there. While this would be a totally impractical weapon other than an intimidating wall hanger, this is a fantasy game, so it just needs to be here. I'm happy to concede the point.

Giant Axe:  See above. It's a little less impractical as a wielder can get his arm up underneath the mounting point with no restriction, it looks like it weighs about 15 pounds.

Bows
Short Bow: Simple and straightforward. Unstrung, it would be about 3-4 feet long, sacrificing some range and power for the sake of portability

Hunter's Bow:  Fantasy game, fantasy bow. I am unable to determine how a bow like this was ever made

Long Bow: Stretch the short bow and you'll have the long bow.

Composite Bow: It is definitely proved to have used multiple materials to make a bow. They tend to look a lot more like the battle bows than what is pictured here.

Short Battle Bow: This is a made-up category, but I concede it's just a game so I won't whine about historicity here.

Long Battle Bow: Take the short version and make it bigger to provide more impact

Short War Bow:  The term War Bow most often applied to English bows with more than a 100 pound draw weight. I'll reiterate the same thing here as with many of the other bows:  Fantasy game, fantasy name. I won't complain and just move on.

Long War Bow: See above, but make it bigger.

Crossbows
Light Crossbow:  As its name implies, is a crossbow that is made to be easily reloaded, but give up the range and power of its contemporaries.

Crossbow:  Since there's more heft, they added a stirrup so the operator can reload it easier.

Heavy Crossbow: Crossbows evolved to have metal limbs so they could reach some impressive draw weights. What's thankfully overlooked is how it get reloaded, either with a cocking lever or a windlass in the cases of draw weights greater than 400 pounds.

Repeating Crossbow:  While the draw weights were low compared to its contemporaries, which meant limited range and power, its rate of fire certainly made up for this.

Daggers
Dagger:  The weapon pictured is what many picture as a Medieval European dagger. Historically,  its predecessors were geared much more for offense, had much less hand protection. This represented a shift in its purpose as it would become more of a defensive item, much like th evolution of swords in Europe.

Dirk: A long bladed thrusting dagger often associated with Scotland or Japan.

Kris: Although it has many forms, the Kris is normally associated with Javanese culture, who commonly made the dagger in an asymmetrical wavy-bladed form.

Blade: While the term isn't generally a type of dagger, the item picture is highly reminiscent of a bollock-style dagger.

Javelins
Javelin: The javelin is a group of short spears designed to be thrown. Such weapons have existed since prehistory.

Pilum:  A term associated with a type of throwing spear specific to the Roman Legionnaires. Its design was typically made to pierce shields. Even if it did not strike the body of its target, its design would often make it difficult to remove, sometimes forcing the victim to discard the shield as opposed to taking the time to remove it.

Short Spear: Another term for javelin. The item picture is made with a barbed tip, it is designed to be problematic to be removed.

Glaive:  Interestingly, this isn't really a throwing weapon. It is a short polearm made to inflict piercing or slashing trauma.

Throwing Spear:  The developers must have decided that one more class of javelin was needed.

Clubs
Club: One of if not the first melee weapon. Whether a tree branch or even a leg bone, it is more effective than using one's fists.

Spiked Club: One of the first augmentations to the most basic melee weapon. While having too many spikes and having them too long can make them less durable and less effective, there certainly is a significant intimidation factor.

Mace: As armor progressed in Europe in the Middle Ages, swords became less and less effective as primary weapons to the point where blunt trauma was the most effective way to deal damage to such a foe. The mace, often regarded as a weapon of fantasy priests and criminals, was actually a  weapon used by knights as edge alignment isn't really a consideration when trying to deal trauma with maces.

Morning Star:  As armor continued to improve, weapons would be encouraged to glance upon striking, hence the common decorations of sharp edges and spikes to gain more traction and ensure proper impact. It is unlikely that even spikes of the length pictured were capable of piercing hardened steel and the thick arming coat underneath to do damage on their own.

Flail: While not a common weapon due to the amount of training needed to prevent the user from hurting themselves, it was certainly possible to inflict lethal damage with such a weapon.

Warhammer: Wow. What you see in the item picture is exactly what mounted knights used on the Late Medieval battlefield. As mentioned before, full plate mail made it quite difficult to incapacitate a knight or heavily protected man-at-arms outside of blunt trauma or a well placed piercing strike. The hammer side was typically used to inflict damage to stun an opponent while the spike would be used to pierce a helmet. To add some extra utility, a top spike was also added.

Maul: The use of a two-handed hammer in combat certainly isn't unknown. In many cases, however, they were wooden mallets whose head was covered in either lead or iron.

Great Maul: I'm not sure how effective such a massive wooden hammer would be in combat. Definitely a fantasy trope.

Polearms
Bardiche: While quite hefty, it certainly did persist for some time as a battlefield weapon. While intended as a cleaver, it was also was designed so the tip could thrust effectively. It is most often designed to have room for the user to place their hand up underneath the mounting socket to make it easier to wield.

Voulge: Attach a meat cleaver to a long pole and you get the voulge. Often, the top was sharpened or to a fairly long point or a spike was added to increase its utility.

Scythe: The Grim Reaper uses it, it must be effective somehow, right? While someone could possibly use it as a weapon, this agricultural implement wouldn't be terribly effective.

Poleaxe: If you could effectively use a meat cleaver on a long pole, then you should be able to use an axe head. While this is true, the poleaxe is typically a stout 5-7 foot implement with an axe head on one side, a hammer on the back and a 6-12" spike on the top.  Originally used to fell cattle, it was effectively adapted with a few modifications to become a weapon that makes all types of trauma available to its wielder.

Halberd: A prominent weapon on the European battlefield for over three hundred years, it was similar in purpose to the voulge, but with an axe head. As well, the top spike would give it thrusting utility, but the back spike would find used for grappling mounted combatants, often capable of dismounting cavalry if they would get too close to a large number of halberdiers in formation.

War Scythe:  Drop off to the local blacksmith and ask him to change the mounting socket of your hay cutter to run in line with the shaft. This modification (along with a few others) make it an effective battlefield weapon.

Spears
Spear: While it is a polearm, the developers have it as a separate classification. The item picture has a couple of lugs or nails to prevent the tip from becoming too deeply embedded. As well, the bottom of the shaft also appears to be shod.

Trident: The popularity of the trident as a weapon stems from both its use in ancient Roman gladatorial combat as well as its symbolism for Poseidon. It is effective as a fishing implement, however and certainly not the worst of choices as an improvised weapon.

Brandistock: The brandistock is a bit of a complex weapon. There is a mechanism of some sort to open and close the side tines of the spear head to add some defensive capability.

Spetum: While wings/lugs were popular attachments to prevent a spear from embedding itself too deeply into a foe, the spetum's lugs were quite large and often sharpened for cutting, although it could also serve to catch the opponent's weapon as well.

Pike:  The pike is simply a very long, stout spear. Anywhere from 8-25 feet, made popular by the fact it was inexensive to manufacture and while slow and unwieldy, when dozens of soldiers would pack themselves in formation and present a formidable barrier to both cavalry and infantry.

More soon