While playing through Demon’s Souls (sadly the PS3 version and not the remake), I came to the realization that there was such a diverse pool of weapons available for the player to choose from. One thing that I appreciated about this game was that a lot of the “normal” weapons were usable throughout the entire game. To celebrate these weapons, I will detail the closest real world counterparts to some of the common daggers and swords found in Demon’s Souls as well as giving them an approximate date on when they were used in our history.
Daggers
Dagger: this weapon bears a similarity to “Knightly” daggers, also known as quillon / cross hilted daggers. Used throughout the 12 century.
Parrying Dagger: considered to be an evolution to the quillon types of daggers. This weapon was used in the early and mid 16th century.
Secret Dagger: bears similarity to the Scramasax, a Saxon weapon. This weapon dates around the early 10th Century.
Straight Swords
Short Sword: very similar to knightly arming swords. It was used in the 14th-15th Century.
Broad Sword: similar to a viking sword with a lobed pommel. Used in the 11th Century.
Long Sword: very similar to common longswords found in Europe, albeit downscaled significantly compared to real world counterparts. It was used between the 11th-15th Century.
Knight Sword: very similar to knightly arming swords, specifically having a Scottish inspired cross guard. It would have been used in the 14th-15th Century.
Large Swords / Great Swords
Bastard Sword: very similar to common longswords found in Europe. It was used between the 11th-15th Century.
Flamberge: on a technical note, this is an improper name for this type of weapon as it historically was meant for wavy bladed rapiers, not two handed swords. Regardless, this weapon is very similar to the subclass of German Zweihänder called Flammenschwert. Used in the 16th Century.
Claymore: very similar to the Scottish Highlander version of this weapon. It was used in the 14th-17th Century.
Great Sword: this very large sword (also known as ultra great swords in the Souls universe) was most similar to the Portuguese /Spanish montante. It would have been used in the 15th through 16th century.
Curved Swords
Uchigatana: similar to the real world counterparts from Japan. It was used in the 16th Century.
Falchion: specifically, this type of sword would have been classified as a “cusped” falchion, even more specifically, the English Thorpe Falchion. Used in the 13th century.
Scimitar: reminds me both of the Persian Shamshir and the Polish Szabla. The former was used in the 16th Century and the later in the 17th Century.
Kilij: remarkably inspired by the Ottoman empire’s rendition of the weapon. It was used in the 19th century.
Shotel: very similar to the Ethiopian equivalent of this weapon. It would have been used in the early 14th century.
Thrusting Swords
Mail Breaker: very similar to Italian stilettos. It was used in the late 15th Century.
Rapier: very similar to the Italian variations of this weapon, though considerably smaller than their real world counterparts. Used in the 16th-17th Century.
Estoc: very similar to the French version of this weapon. It would have been used in the 14th-17th Century.
If you want to learn more about the weapons and martial arts found in the video games, check out my Youtube channel The Knight of Green.