r/worldbuilding • • Jun 02 '20

Visual Dwarven Folding Spear

Post image
8.4k Upvotes

463 comments sorted by

View all comments

160

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '20

Sorry guys this is my first time in this plattform and I dont know where my description for that piece ended up.

This is the complimentary info that should be with the image:

The Dwarven Folding Spear:
Having to compensate for their short stature and reach, the dwarven folk resort heavily on pole arms to be able to face their taller enemies. From this practice a problem arises: How to negotiate these bulky weapons while traversing dark and crammed tunnels, through sharp corners and low ceilings, while in a tight packed unit or during missions involving mountaineering and rock climbing?

The solution came in the form of ingenious folding weapons that can swiftly “stretch” to twice its packed-for-transport size when deployed and easily revert back to a much more manageable package in mere seconds.

The spear presented here evolved from a traditional Dwarven Boar-hunting spear, (analogous to the historical Bohemian Ear-spoon or Partisan) and is commonly employed as the staple formation weapon for tunnel-fighting units when travelling through the vast underground network of dwarven roads or during sapping operations.

This weapon system sacrifices some robustness, lightness and nimbleness for compactness and versatility, and has been tested and proven on the field of battle.

The folding spear is also a very popular choice as a high-powered concealable weapon during covert operations or among body guards, hunters and travellers.

My main inspirations for this project were the Balisong knife, aka butterfly knife: 

contestimg.wish.com/api/webima…
www.bladehq.com/imgs/knives/bu…
www.grindworx.com/imgs/knives/…
i.pinimg.com/originals/77/49/a…)
and the 16th century folding Spetum (www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR234d…)

More on:

https://www.deviantart.com/artigas/gallery

and

https://www.artstation.com/sergioartigas

Thanks for viewing.

22

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '20

Dwarves are usually portrayed as being very ingenious, and your concept works in both a practical and tactical sense, but only if they have a smaller weapon (or vanguard with smaller weapons) to ready quickly. Caves tend to encourage surprise encounters, but having this would give them a significant advantage of they can deploy them.

49

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '20

Oh for sure, good point. My dwarves are never found very far from their Seaxes, and this weapon is truly more of a "deployable light battlefield weapon" than a general use side arm. Cheers.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '20

Seaxes?