What weapons, if any, do your main characters use? In The Masked Bird, a serial story I'm doing on my blog, my main character becomes proficient in double sword, and can do archery to some extent.

I love archery! So the bow is what most of my charaters use. Some of them also use the sword and knives.

My main charries use swords mostly.
Arionwyn is not very good, but she's learning. She carries a light weapon, slightly ornate and easy to use.
Aaron is quite a bit farther along than she is, (being an elf) and he uses a larger sword (somewhat like that one), but simpler. He's fast and agile, has some skill with the bow but mainly uses his sword and some small throwing knives, a trademark weapon of the elves.
Earis, (another elf) uses three primary weapons, being a bow, a sword and she can also fall back on a knife if she needs to. (they're not quite as ornate as Legolas' knives, but still just as functional.)
Iri (one of the villains, an elf too) is really good with a sword, but he also has a pair of gauntlets with blades on the knuckles as part of his armor. Aaron actually gets them across the face at one point . . . ouch.

My characters use little known weapons that I discover on History Channel specials.

It's so much fun to make your readers look up the weapons and learn a little themselves! Plus I usually describe it. My favorite are throwing stars and maces.

Wait, maces are little known?! I hadn't noticed. Most of the people I know just don't understand maces as well as they could.

That's an interesting weapon combination. Do your warriors generally wear armor?

LOL! Maces might not be little known, but it seems that very few people know much about them.

And, no, my warriors usually have very little armor. Leather jerkins maybe, but not much else. In fact, most of my warriors paint their bodies blue and go into battle with leather pants and nothing else...

This is going to sound really boring after Mindy's, but my characters use mostly swords. I haven't decided yet, but I think that some of the bad guys might use maces.

Almost all of my main characters had to be taught how to use a sword, except for Luke, who was apprenticed to a sword maker. Before leaving for Arenia, he had been planning on becoming a soldier, so he knows how to use a sword.
Alyse, Aaron, Ana, and Emma all had to be taught to fight.
A few characters can also shoot the bow.

In another story I'm writing, the characters use mostly bows and knives.

In one of my brothers stories, an evil villain actually uses a chain tied to the end of a long pole as a weapon...effectively.

Mindy: The reason I ask is that, according to my understanding anyway, the general purpose of the mace was as a high-impact weapon to be used when fighting someone heavily armored, in order to dent their armor. (Dented armor is very painful and potentially deadly, if the dent is in the right spot.)

Most of my characters use swords, but I plan on incorporating more martial arts with the sword than most stories. (Think Star Wars. Lots of kicking, tossing, etc.)

@ Neil:

Yes. The people that these tribesmen are fighting are heavily armoured. My heros just aren't.

Ugh. I had a nice reply all written out, and then I accidentally deleted it. Oops. Anyway, here are the descriptions of the weapons of some of my characters:

Aláthea carries a medium-sized recurve bow and two samurai-type swords of different length. She is an amazing archer and fights best with her bow, but she can also fight quite well with her two knives. She battles alongside her unicorn, who uses his horn, teeth and hooves to fight. Alaethea is gentle by nature and dislikes any type of killing, so she fights with a sort of reluctance (but she's not weak).

Jayan carries a long-sword and staff. His sword is a light-weight hand-and-a-half sword, simple but skillfully designed and sparsely decorated. It is made of flexible and strong steel and the hilt is wrapped with bronze-gold leather. He fights swiftly and skillfully, preferring to use agility and strategy over brute strength.

His staff is made of dark brown wood polished to a bronze shine and capped with a copper-bronze feather (works like a spearhead). There is a section at Jayan's shoulder level wrapped with black and brown leather. The foot of the staff is sharpened to a point and plated with a bronze and copper point. Jayan uses this staff mostly for traveling purposes but also uses it during skirmishes. He fights alongside his griffin, who fights with its beak, talons and claws, and the two often fly together while they fight.

Cirwyn fights with a long-sword and sometimes a shield. Her sword is more ornate than Jayan's but just as well made. The hilt is wrapped with dark green, almost black, cloth and decorated with etchings of flames. She is a ruthless, brave fighter and she fights alongside her dragon, who fights with fire, talon, tail and teeth. They often fly together during battle.

Well, those are all the characters and weapons I have at the moment. I am working on developing one more male character who will probably fight with a mace, crossbow or scimitar (or all of them). He is going to have some kind of sea-lizard.

Note: Cirwyn is pronounced "keer-win". And I have not yet decided the genders of the griffin or dragon.

Wow, Elsa. You seem to have developed your fighting styles and weapons very well. I can't say the same for me ...
Jayan sounds a lot like Aaron, as far as the agility, sword style, etc. goes.

You are one of the cruelest writers I know (excluding myself). I feel very sorry for your heroes.

Well, I'm afraid I'm not terribly creative with most of my characters (although I'm in the middle of a re-write, so some things may change [sorry, Mindy ]). The three elvish characters on the original quest have their weapons made specially by a skilled elvish metal smith/woodcarver (it helps to have friends).

The Three Original Elves

Forest has a sword made in the Old Elvish style (it's shaped differently from human swords, and is made from a special elvish steel) and a matching dagger (maybe two).
Ayanna has a decorative bow (not long or crossbow, although crossbows show up later in the hands of villains) and a dagger.
Farryl has a sword and dagger set like Forest's.

The Three Humans

Autumn ends up with a dagger that is a gift from an elf (not one of the aforementioned).
Edan has a rapier (because he's cool) and a dagger. Although, I might give him a couple small throwing knives in his boots.
Aretha has a knife with a five-inch blade, and a four-inch handle (made out of a Troll's horn).

Orn (another elf) is given an old sword by another elf (although he can use a bow, too).
Era (who is neither elf nor human, I'll explain her later) has my favorite weapon (because I designed it, of course). It is shaped like a battle axe, except, instead of an axe head, it has two double-edged, razor-sharp blades set about an inch-and-a-half apart, plus a pointed spike at the top and bottom of the handle. She also carries a six-foot spear.

Those are my weapons, for now.

Thanks.

Actually, I pretty much took the opportunity after seeing this post to make up a bunch of stuff about my characters. At the time, I was learning about Japan in world history and I liked the samurai swords so I "borrowed" the idea. I try to match the character's personality with the weapon. For instance, I wouldn't have Aláthea using a mace because it is a very un-agile weapon (as far as I know). And I just can't see her using a mace; she's too innocent.

My main character, Berond, uses a saber and a recurve bow. His fighting style depends on the terrain that he's in, in a forest he tends to use the trees as cover and picks off the enemies. (Think gunfight with bows). When engaged in close combat, he uses his sword as both an offensive and defensive tool.

Iloi, a snobbish elf, uses a one handed sword in a very orthodox method.

Erawon, Berond's goofy cousin, uses a claymore and a small buckler.

I haven't settled on weapons for any of my characters yet besides my MC who will use a sword, shield and armor because it (the armor and sword) is a plot element, hence Armorbearer. I plan on having a wide variety of weapons in my supporting cast including but not limited to: maces, bows, flails/morning-stars, axes, knives, staffs, swords of all sizes, and the possibility of a pole-arm or two. I like medieval weapons, a lot.

My MC uses a sword...haven't really detailed this that much. My secondary MC, on the other hand, uses a recurve bow. She has been practicing and feels a need to be good at archery to make people like her so she's really good. But yeah, once I finish my MC's fractalling I'll probably have his attacks more developed. He's heavily armored but my secondary MC is just lightly armored.

eruheran

I have multiple cultures that use a variety of weapons. Since I write a blend of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, I also mix the weapons. Sometimes the forces use swords, etc., and other times they use higher tech weapons.

My MC, Richard, is armed with a high powered blaster, a long knife, and a type of sword called a Cryston. Basically, think a claymore with a force-field basket-hilt and a powersource that heats the blade to extremely high temperatures. They come in different colors. The combat style is rapier--with all of the kicking, punching, etc. He also gets trained in how to manipulate the electro-magnetic force: this power allows him to do things that you could do with the Force from Star Wars and more.

Another culture, called the Harón, introduce collapsable spears into the story (great for compactness and easy travel!) These use: spears, swords, shields, and have some pretty advanced blaster technology.

From a Galaxy called Jarvos are my Jarvons... these are in a way my elves. Very keen eyesight, good hearing (except toward their rear. That is their weakness), fantastic motor skills. They use a weapon called the Krathis: a description of the Krathis blade is included in the Prologue chapter for the book The Dead Civilization that I posted on HW for review. The combat style for the Krathis is very fast. You use the handle and the short blade for parrying, and the winner of a duel with that weapon is usually the character who has the faster reflexes. It is very up close and personal fighting. The Jarvons are incredibly advanced in their technology, and (being enamored with the stars and the natural world) have the best observatories in the Galaxy of Arcleiada (Ar-clee-AY-duh). The Jarvons use the bow as well; they make their bows and arrows of a material called Lucinor, which reacts to the adrenaline of its handler by taking on a flaming appearance. More about that metal on my blog (link is in my signature).

I have several other cultures in the making--they're not quite ready for the curtain to be lifted just yet.

Here are my characters weapons:
Svensteel: He wields his father's double rapiers.
Namor: A longsword and the bracelet of Orgno.
Kalem: A longdagger and his wits, so far. later I think he will have better ones. I'm not sure yet.
Alsond: He doesn't have a weapon yet *snicker snicker.*

When choosing weapons I always look at 1) the character's personality, 2) what culture background they come from, 3) what is traditional for their race or county, and 4) how rich they are (like if you're arming a petty warlord you'd want to arm your thugs with random weapons that aren't very good, like spears, flales or falchins)
Also, it is good to research each weapon so you know it intimately.

My MC Terra is very skilled in archery and using her two Vasai-made daggers. Eli used to be very good with a sword, but is now content with being pretty good at archery too.

Hm... let me see if I have anything interesting.

Lightning Ranger is an outlaw and for a while a paid assasin. He favors a long knife, kind of like a short sword or dagger of some kind. But he's also been trained to duel with a sword as well, and can use a bow and arrow with some skill. His greatest weapon is his ingenuity and daring.

Janin carries Tell's sword, the sword forged by the last of the Elloi for the first King of Yen. Few kings since then have been considered worthy enough to carry it. It's design is simple, but effective. It cannot be destroyed.

Almost everybody fights with swords, and none of the others are all that interesting. That seems to be a recurring theme in fantasy, doesn't it?

It's true, I read somewhere because of their personality. I just wish I remember where. My main characters in my adventure/thriller/conspiracy series fight Nazis and assasins with a rapier.

Here are my characters and their weapons:

Griffin: He can use practically any weapon, but carries around a sword about 3 1/2 ft. long that was forged by members of his race, the Kundinoua, in the War of Division for one of the three kings. It is called Reandil and has a blade that appears golden, although it is made of a metal harder than steel (which I haven't thought of a name for yet). He also carries around a javelin (which for my world is a long, straight stick sharpened at both ends).

Phillip: He is a Melcorat, so doesn't carry around any weapons. I can't post everything about Melcorats here, so if you want everything on them, you'll have to go digging through old 'Magic' threads.

Matt: Prefers much not to fight, but carries two long knives, of about 2 ft. each.

Tesra: She is Aerwythe, an archer race, so she carries two different bows, a long bow and a recurve bow. She also carries a dagger.

Ravork: Ravork always has a 5 ft., two-handed sword on his back. He also carries a 4 1/2 ft. long battle axe that is 3 ft. across into battle.

Timuth: He is also a Melcorat, but he also carries an assasin knife and some early forms of a grenade.

If you want a clearer explanation of any of the weapons, I am working on a topic in Technology, called Anrican Technology, that has more detailed descriptions of the weapons. It should be up within a week.

Hmmmm... well the only MC's I've introduced so far in my story who are armed would be Drogan, a soldier who carries a broadsword, and Jarren, who carries a longbow, broadsword, and a knife.

Well, my MC man carries a sword, and my MC girl knows how to use, but does not carry, a spear. And that's all, so far.

I mostly use the traditional weapons. Hmm, maybe I should get more creative.

Hehe...that's a complex question for my MCs.

Well, originally they all know how to wield a sword, swing a punch, shoot an arrow, and throw daggers, but...yah...most fantasy characters can do that. As for the main weapons they use; Gavin opts for the sword, Brian is best with hand-to-hand, and Emuna finds the bow and arrow to be her forte.

That would be their normal weapons...they also use the cobha of my world (save Gavin) for fighting. Though, that is still being developed...

Bethany Faith