Weekly Roundup 9/21
Added 2025-09-21 17:56:22 +0000 UTCMorrowind was one of my favorite games growing up, and to this day, it has my favorite worldbuilding. However, it also has an absolutely baffling error: the weapons are absurdly heavy. In it, a steel short sword weighs 8 pounds, and a Daedric battleaxe, 90. As a kid, I wondered how anyone dealt with weapons that heavy. Turns out? They didn't. So, some more facts from con panels:
- Every weapon is light. Usually 2-4 pounds. Because you have to swing this thing around a lot. A really heavy weapon like a poleaxe might be as heavy as 6 pounds.
- Most classification systems of medieval weapons we have are retroactive. Swords tended to be made for each individual person, so they would vary in length and design. No one was thinking about the poor historians who would have to categorize things hundreds of years later.
- Every time a fantasy protagonist holds up a sword and marvels at how the balance makes it feel lighter? 100% true. A well-made sword really does make a difference.
- A panel at dragoncon had HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) folks using foam weapons to show how fights would go, and when you have late medieval heavy plate armor, pretty much every duel between two knights ends up with them right up on each other with rondel daggers trying to stab each other in the armor gaps.
Again, won't be relevant to Mirian. Ibrahim probably has strong opinions about this topic, though!
Here's the chapters that got released this week:
Extra-Advanced Tier
Chapter 248
Chapter 249
Advanced Tier
Chapter 238
Chapter 239
Comments
In the interest of quibbling, are we sure those are the right units in Morrowind? Looks like the carrying capacity at level one ranges from 150-300. A level one female Khajiit thief can wear a full set of iron plate armor with a warhammer of the same material. That seems high if we're going with pounds.
Ben
2025-09-23 15:21:57 +0000 UTCIf I were a prophet wizard I would study magic to go back in time and stop Todd Howard from watching the Lord of the Rings movies
antpocas
2025-09-21 23:44:40 +0000 UTC1) I haven't planned to make a community chat/discord because I dislike moderating those sorts of things and wouldn't want it to take time and energy away from writing. 2) Yes, MoL was certainly an inspiration for this story. As I was reading it, I got a ton of ideas for different directions the story could have taken. I combined those ideas with several other story ideas that have been floating around in my head for a long time, and TYOA is the result.
UraniumPhoenix
2025-09-21 21:08:41 +0000 UTCHi, I wanted to ask whether you plan or have a community discord/patrron chat. I also absolutely adore your work, did you ever read Mother of Learning? I feel like your story took a inspiration from it
Arcanised
2025-09-21 19:24:20 +0000 UTC
