by Siegfried. Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:57 am
There's a technical reason for that. Swords are easily carried, socially acceptable (that is, you didn't look like a loon for taking one everywhere) and beyond versatile. A sword is a weapon that doesn't necessarily have a lot of strengths, but it also has very few weaknesses.
The trinity of "masterful" close combat weapons is comprised of staves, swords and daggers. These weapons, or weapons based on them, have the highest skill ceiling of all close combat weapons. Someone who is genuinely an exceptional fighter will usually be better off with these simple-shaped weapons because simple shapes can be adapted to a wide variety of applications.
In particular, the late medieval longsword has the perfect traits and dimensions for a series of powerful techniques that concurrently combine attacking and defending, so you can parry an attack while leaving the end of your sword's length free to strike. Other weapons can do this, too, given the requisite length, but none are so admirable at it as the longsword.
