An Interview with Baron Teras Furinax
 
First posted in the "Council Weapon Almanac", in Spring 1449 Ev. Reprinted by written permission of the publisher, Vance & Sons Publishing Co. All rights reserved.
 
Transcribed herein is an interview between Baron Teras Furinax, the famous Council weapon master and current head of the Furinax family clan, and Miss Aerwyn Coningwald, writer for the Council Weapon Almanac. The scribe, one Humbert Niels, gentleman, does hereby solemnly swear as to the faithful and true replication of the transcribed interview. Signed, in the year 1453 of the Everett calender,
 
Humbert Niels
 
 
Witnesses:
Mr. Charles Robinson, attorney
Mr. Gorlois Fullworth, coppersmith
Miss Varda Templeton, seamstress
 
 
 
Coningwald: Thank you for consenting to grant Council Weapon Almanac an interview, Lord Furinax.
 
Furinax: A pleasure, Miss Coningwald. I've always been an avid reader of your almanac.
 
Coningwald: Really now! When did you begin reading the Almanac?
 
Furinax: When I was ... eleven, or twelve, maybe. Before that, the words used to be too difficult, so instead I would ask my father to interpret while staring covetously at the beautiful illustrations. (laughs) Then, when I grew older, I thought I knew everything about swordsmanship and weapons, so I started to despise the almanac. Life had to kick me around a bit before I opened my eyes to the wisdom in it.
 
Coningwald: That's very flattering, Lord Furinax. I'm sure our editors will be pleased to hear that.
 
Furinax: Hit me with your best shot, ma'am.
 
Coningwald: (laughs) I'm sure you receive a lot of mail from fans around the world. What kind of letters do you take? Have you written back?
 
Furinax: Of course. There's that saying, you know, of the quill being greater than the sword? I keep in touch with many of my students, from Ilyn Forest to Sapphiras Vale. I probably write anywhere from twenty to thirty letters a day ... of course, I receive many more than that. I guess, I rather regret not being able to reply more. But being the head of the clan, well, your time doesn't really belong to you. Does that make sense?
 
Coningwald: It does to me. Any outstanding letters?
 
Furinax: (pauses) A few. Some marriage proposals when I was younger. There was also a very long-winded and strident rant on how the swordmasters from Ashton's Arborage, and I quote, "are infinitely superior to your pretentious and stupid sword waving", his argument being that the Arborage swords could somehow magically cleave through anything. I still have that letter. (laughs)
 
Coningwald: Did you respond to it?
 
Furinax: Yes, I wrote back to him explaining my respect for the Arborage swordmasters and their way of combat. They're very admirable in their philosophy; to the Arborage swordmaster, a fighting style is as much spiritual as it is physical, and they embrace it as a way of life. I think we could learn more from them. Of course, none of that pacified my poor correspondent. (chuckles) If the next dozen letters gave any indication, it only drove him to new heights of fury.
 
Coningwald: Well, sword enthusiasts were always an opinionated crowd. Just read the Almanac! (laughs)
 
Furinax: That's true, but much of their opinion isn't founded on fact. I know I may sound like a curmudgeon of a bitter old man decrying a new generation that has left me behind, but people these days are on the whole much less informed about weapons and war than their parents. In several ways, that's a good thing; the times are more peaceful, and peace is always more preferable than war. But in another way, that isn't good; education is always more preferable than ignorance. The Undead hordes won't stay behind the Sunbirth mountains forever. If another crusade is called, we might well be the worse for neglecting our military education. If you haven't guessed, I am fervently opposed to the recent Nationalist act which abolished universal conscription.
 
Coningwald: If you could teach the new generation anything, what would it be?
 
Furinax: To never be satisfied with your accomplishments. Always strive for more. Satisfaction leads to discipline being relaxed, which leads to stagnation, which leads to being left behind, which leads ... which often leads to death. I don't really have all that many students anymore, but I always try to find something for them to improve. I'm a hard teacher, but no teacher can be harsher than the battlefield.
 
Coningwald: Really? Some of your students, like Dame (Charity) Cormack, claim that you raised and educated an entire Falaricae generation on war.
 
Furinax: That ... is hard to judge. I don't think I've ever turned many students away, the doors of our school have always been open. Maybe it has something to do with me. I'm a teacher, that's who I am. I teach like drunkards drink, like artists paint, like birds sing - it's something I'm compelled to do. Jonathan Furinax thought that the skills should remain exclusively in the clan, but I think that's a horrible idea. The more people who possess these skills, the stronger everyone becomes. Isn't that a greater good?
 
Coningwald: Speaking of Jonathan Furinax, let's talk about your ancestors. In his biography on the Furinax clan, Lothar Hall claims that you are one of the Seven Furies -
 
Furinax: (laughs) If I knew how much that book would kiss up to me I would never have agreed to answer his questions, ma'am.
 
Coningwald: (laughs) But, you disagree with him?
 
Furinax: No, not at all - it's a remarkably well-researched piece of scholarship, and it shows that Mr. Hall himself understands a great many of the subtleties of weapon masters. I don't think I qualify as one of the Seven most Furious Furinaxes, though. If we're going to reserve that title for the greatest and most distinguished of my line, as he does, then I believe our criterion has to be broadened somewhat from pure skill and innovation. It's not just enough to say that so-and-so was the best fighter of his time.
 
Coningwald: Do any examples come to mind, lord baron?
 
Furinax: Let's begin with the first Fury, Serin Furinax. Serin was appointed by Ar'rashir (editor's note: archaic title for an Edunian Emperor) Implacus to be the head of the royal bodyguard. Serin was the finest swordsman of his time, with amazing skills which impressed even Implacus. He trained the very few fighting elite of the Edunian Royal Guard, but you have to keep in mind what kind of man he was. Even for those terrible times, he was an extraordinarily cold-hearted warrior - killed his own wife to win the Emperor's trust.
 
Coningwald: But, he established the Furinax bloodline which -
 
Furinax: No, he didn't. Ar'rashir Implacus did, giving one of his own daughters to Serin to wed, so that he could raise a clan of swordsmen with pristine skills who would be loyal to the crown alone. Serin did, and that was how the tradition started. Honestly, I don't hold with those who hero-worship him. He might have been the best swordsman of his generation, but he's hardly a proper role model for students.
 
Coningwald: In your opinion, who would be better, lord baron?
 
Furinax: If I had to choose, I'd pick LeCroia, Mr. Hall's third Fury.
 
Coningwald: LeCroia Furinax? Why?
 
Furinax: You have to remember that LeCroia was born right after the Horn of Zeanir sounded, in ... 5 Ev., I think. Caer Huin was already under siege then by the undead, and the women of the Furinax line were traditionally left untrained in the weapons. But, her father and her uncle, they needed every last person, so many Furinaxes had died after the Horn sounded, and LeCroia lost her mother when she was four. When the Furinax clan abandoned Caer Huin, she was one of the few survivors who crossed the Sunbirth Mountains into Ilyn Forest. There she began her formal training, rather later than most Furinax children, and it was often interrupted by the wars that raged in the fall of the Edunian Empire.
 
More than that, LeCroia was an extremely gifted and innately precocious girl, but she also worked very hard. The undead wars left an impression on her that would last for the rest of her life, and she trained intensely to defeat them. So monumental was her skill that, a mere three days after she picked up her first longbow, she could shoot a willow leaf off a tree from a hundred paces away. It's no mistake that the Royalist and Moon Elf armies would only fight as one when she commanded that army, at the age of twenty-five for the battle of Tilfore Hills. No mistake at all.
 
Coningwald: And the others?
 
Furinax: Well, Orson Furinax, the second Fury, was a great general in addition to being a fine swordsman, and Ar'rashir Intolerus had him assassinated out of jealousy. But again, perspective has been distorted with time. I hear people talk all the time about how these Furinax warriors were living legends, unbeatable ... that may have been true in their time, but the times have changed. The overall skill, knowledge, and professionalism of knights everywhere has risen tremendously, our weapons are vastly superior, our armor too, our knowledge of technique - the metagame, if you will - has advanced so far. It's not a question of whether or not we would be a match for the old legends today - it's a question of whether or not they would be a match for us!
 
Coningwald: Wow! It's that kind of outspokenness which makes you such a quotable man. (laughs) That being so, what is your view on the tradition of the Furinax clan?
 
Furinax: Tradition? Which one?
 
Coningwald: The family cemetery in Sapphiras Vale.
 
Furinax: Oh. Blindside me with the hard questions, why don't you? I think they're necessary, ghastly as they might be. A bit of history is in order, though. During the Royalist civil war, Cecil Furinax spirited Princess Holly Sandiltha away from Morning Fortress and broke ties with the crown. The Furinax clan was one of the original families that settled down in Sapphiras Vale, but ... within a single generation, lacking enemies and skilled competition, their skills had come dangerously close to dying out. So, the patriarch at that time established the crypts.
 
Coningwald: Who was he?
 
Furinax: Ashwin Furinax. Ashwin saw that his children and the new youth of the clan were growing up without the same intense training of his time. You see, Ashwin had his own fiercely competitive personality to drive him, not to mention his younger brother and greatest rival, Tancred Furinax. So they built the crypts, and Ashwin became the first master of the Furinax family to willingly pass into undeath.
 
Coningwald: He must have been very brave to accept that fate.
 
Furinax: And not a little wise. But that is our tradition; every young warrior of the Furinax clan, boy or girl, fights his undead ancestor in the crypts when he is considered ready for that trial. It's a carefully controlled fight, and several swordmasters are always present at all times. Even then, the unprepared are often injured, crippled ... some even killed. That is the price we pay for our skills - we always live on the delicate edge of life or death.
 
Coningwald: When your time comes, lord baron, will you also be put into the family crypts?
 
Furinax: Yes. Yes, I will, ma'am.
 
Coningwald: How do you feel about that? Aren't you afraid you might kill one of ...?
 
Furinax: I'm a teacher. My lessons will just become harsher after death. I have faith in my students, all of them.
 
Coningwald: And who will lead the Furinax clan then?
 
Furinax: Probably my granddaughter, Catherine. She's a feisty toddler of three years old right now.
 
Coningwald: Changing topics for now, to one which is closer to the focus of the almanac ...
 
Furinax: Weapons?
 
Coningwald: Exactly, lord baron. The Furinax line is rather famous for being home to a variety of weapon styles. Do you have any favorites?
 
Furinax: I would have to say quarterstaves. Amazingly versatile weapons, and fairly easy to learn as well. Another very underrated weapon, I would say, is probably the one-handed axe. You won't find many users aside from Dwarves, but in the right hands it's much more dangerous than a sword against a heavily armored opponent.
 
Coningwald: What about rapiers? Rapiers are very popular as dueling weapons right now ...
 
Furinax: Rightfully so - as dueling weapons. But in actual war, the rapier is a highly specialized weapon and simply too niche to be as useful as a general, all-purpose weapon such as a sword or a spear. Proponents of the rapier argue that the point is more effective than the edge for disabling an opponent. Many practitioners, in fact, consider the superiority of the point over the edge to be axiomatic, but if we examine their arguments more closely, they don't quite hold.
 
Coningwald: Would you explain that in more depth? I'm certain that our more sophisticated readers could understand.
 
Furinax: It's quite simple, even for beginners. Rapiers were originally heavy and cumbersome weapons, usable only for attacking while defense was relegated to a shortblade or a buckler. The earliest rapiers were also made for cutting and slashing attacks, not the piercing weapon of today. But even as early as then, the great theoretician Arthur Furinax predicted many of the characteristics of rapier swordplay: how it would evolve into a slender, fast weapon suitable for both attack and defense, how techniques would come to emphasize advantages in momentum and initiative instead of position, and how the cut would be all but abandoned.
 
So, the advantages of the thrust against the cut, and thus the point against the edge, are usually represented as fourfold:
 
- First, a displaced point can be adjusted more quickly than a displaced edge, minimizing loss of momentum.
 
- Raising the sword for a cut exposes the body for a counterthrust.
 
- An attack delivered by the point requires less time than a cut, as the former is linear and the latter requires an arc.
 
- The thrust inflicts greater damage than the cut.
 
Now, let me address these points in order. The first is true, but only for the modern saber or rapier, not for the common longsword. The second is rendered implausible by a secondary weapon. The third is also specious, as cuts and thrusts are rarely delivered from the same distance. Lastly, the thrust and the cut deliver different kinds of damage. Although the thrust is much more capable of evading defenses, and inflicts a piercing wound, it lacks any significant stopping power. A slashing blow, on the other hand, delivers a strong shock in accordance with the strength of the blow.
 
The difference, I think, lies in the fact that thrusts and cuts are delivered from different ranges. The point can attack from outside of the edge's effective reach with a longer sword, which is exactly the development we see in history. Not surprisingly, rapiers developed greater reach than a longsword or a katana, and in fact forced a highly dangerous advance against the wielder of the rapier. This makes the opponent vulnerable to a very predictable timed attack, especially as cuts had to be made from a significantly shorter measure.
 
Modern almanac readers who advocate the superiority of the rapier would therefore be well-advised to keep in mind the great rivalry between Sonja Furinax and Marigold Hamm. Once you shorten the rapier's length to be consistent with a longsword, the supposed superiority of the piercing weapon is suddenly in doubt.
 
Coningwald: Speaking of the more traditional weapons, what are your thoughts about the common longsword and the katana?
 
Furinax: The first swords were glorified daggers. (laughs) They were developed for stabs and thrusts, and were quite short, used only in tight quarters and melees. Infantry of that time often used spears as their primary weapons, if they were armed at all. As metallurgy improved, the next development came in the form of broadswords which were suited for wide, slashing attacks. They were strong enough to break bronze the short swords common to the soldiers of that day. But the longsword, which combined the best characteristics of both, was not a reliable weapon until Edunian and Dwarven blacksmiths mastered the art of forging and smithing iron and steel. Bronze and mythril are too soft to withstand the stress of longsword combat.
 
Katanas are an interesting study of how material availability affects the evolution of warfare, I think. Arborage tribes were often at war, but they lacked the high quality iron ores available to the Edunians. But they knew that iron with a small quantity of carbon - steel - made the best and most reliable sword. So they developed a process of carefully purifying the iron with mythril, ingraining the metal with carbon while still soft, and then carefully folding the metal in order to make it uniform throughout the length of the blade.
 
You'll also notice that the katana tends to be more slender than the longsword and less capable of withstanding shock, as well as having only a single edge, often reinforced by a backbone of heavy adamantine or steel. This is because iron was plentiful throughout the Edunian empire and knights often wore heavy plate, which no edged weapon can reliably pierce, and so longswords had to be able to deliver bludgeoning damage as well. In contrast, Arborage armor was never so effective, and the lacquered wood armor of an Arborage swordsman could be penetrated by a properly delivered cut. Not surprisingly, whereas the use of a shield with the longsword became standard amongst the knights, the Arborage swordsman often had to rely on his sword for both attack and defense. The back of the katana was vitally important for parries and deflections.
 
I've heard plenty of arguments over why one weapon is superior to the other. Hopefully, I want to shed as much light and as little heat as I can on this fascinating subject.
 
Coningwald: What about armors? Anything of particular interest that you would like to share about armor and shields, lord baron?
 
Furinax: As weapons have improved, so has armor. Edunian pikemen often wore virtually no armor except for padded wool clothing, which were not effective against the spears of that age, but the fault lies more with their overlords who plainly valued their lives not a whit. The nobility, however, did often wear tunics of scales which could turn arrows, and later chainmail. With the advent of the longsword and the saddle with stirrups, a shield became necessary to withstand charging cavalry and combat on foot. From there, it was just a short step to full plate, which could turn almost any weapon except specialized armorbreakers such as heavy hammers. Of course, I'm making this sound much easier than it really is.
 
Dwarven armor, for example, tends to dispense with chainmail hauberks in favor of pure plate, as the underground is practical only for melee; arrows are not a concern. In contrast, the elves of Ilyn Forest usually forgo any armor heavier than leather or light chain. Cavalry are all but useless in the forest, and if the Second Crusade taught us anything, it was that a column of armored knights are only at their best in a full charge. That being said, those same knights in such a charge are completely devastating, capable of scattering a force twenty or thirty times their size.
 
As the use of magic became commonplace and not merely a tool of the elite, so too knights began to augment their armor with orichalcum and mythril, both of which are known to be highly proof against magic when properly tempered, but unable to withstand the shock of iron for long. Although mythril ores, such as ferric mythril, are able to resist deformation much more successfully, the marriage with iron also degrades their ethereal properties.
 
Coningwald: We're about out of time now, lord baron, but I just wanted to ask you a final question. What would you like to tell the readers of our almanac?
 
Furinax: Train hard and never be satisfied with what you've accomplished. A weapon is only a tool, it's how you use it that reveals your heart, so use your skills to protect the weak. And remember, the doors of the Furinax schools are always open!
 
Coningwald: It's been a pleasure, Baron Teras Furinax.
 
Furinax: The pleasure is all mine, ma'am.