# Weapon for the Protagonist.



## King_Cagn (Mar 13, 2014)

So I've been thinking, most of our protagonists have weapons they use, but really how unique are they in the sense of the entire world, does your protagonist carry a slingshot and fight dragons, or a simple branch that can pierce through armour?, what weapons do your protagonists use in story...
For me, one uses a simple dagger made of rock and bone and another, just a machete.


----------



## Noma Galway (Mar 13, 2014)

Daggers, crossbows, I have one who uses a longbow. Poison, hand-to-hand, an axe (okay, that one wasn't actually wielded by the protagonist...she ordered a death). Mind control, the elements, spirit powers. I can't think of any others.


----------



## Chilari (Mar 13, 2014)

I don't think I ever give my protagonist a weapon. She certainly hasn't used on so far and won't use one in the first half of the book. The second half is a bit more hazy - I'm going for a more pantzing approach for this one so the second half of the novel hasn't been planned in detail. If she gets a weapon in the second half, it'll either be a spear or a musket, or else a fence post or farming tool, depending on what resources she can get hold of. It won't be something she has for a long period of time, though. My WIP is not, generally, a violent story and on the brief occasions when there is violence weaponry isn't something my protagonist and her allies can easily get hold of.


----------



## Ireth (Mar 13, 2014)

The MC of Winter's Queen uses anything she can get her hands on, from a cast-iron frying pan to a table knife to a hairpin. Her dad and uncle mainly use cast-iron frying pans too, and knives on occasion.


----------



## Jabrosky (Mar 13, 2014)

The weaponry my characters use varies with their racial or cultural background. European characters have straight-bladed swords or battle-axes like those used by the Norse. On the other hand my African characters tend to use spears, throwing knives, Nubian bows, or Egyptian _khopesh _blades. The few Middle Eastern characters I have favor curved scimitars.

But that's just my personal writer's convention. In real life you can find a diverse range of weapons in all these and other continents. Spears for instance were widespread across world armies even if we see them as the quintessential African weapon.


----------



## Grandeur (Mar 13, 2014)

In my story, one character uses dual sabers/daggers while his counterpart wields a very hilt-heavy longsword, but then again, their real strength lies in their ability to hale the Ley (that is, use my world's magic, which involves the control of actual, scientifically-identified energy). However, there is one idea I had for a weapon which currently has no user (the story w/ said character was scrapped), but it involved a wide, symmetrical blade on a spring-loaded cable attached atop a gauntlet (imagine Link's Hookshot plus Scorpion's corded kunai from Mortal Kombat, all on an armlet). The character would fire/launch the blade with the cable trailing the flight path, once it reached the end of its slack, the blade would split down the middle and become two separate blades (on two separate cables) like twin chain-sickles that the character could weave and whirl around. Granted, this character also had the ability to bend kinetic energy, making the weapon much more practical to wield.


----------



## Gryphos (Mar 13, 2014)

My character is part of a world with an 18th century/early 19th century steampunk/gaslight aesthetic. With people being less exposed and open to everyday fitting and violence, carrying a dangerous weapon around openly would draw attention to himself, so he just carries an extendable baton with him, named 'Zebedy'. Though, he does own a rapier that he's proficient in, as well as a gun, both of which he rarely ends up having to use.


----------



## WeilderOfTheMonkeyBlade (Mar 13, 2014)

My Mc dosent have a "weapon"....... *Weilder chuckles* ohhhh nooo.  

He has _weapons_ and lots of them. He is, first and foremost, an archer, carrying a nice, reasonably big recurved bow. then he has a cavalry sabre, very much like Sharpe does, a model 1897 heavy cavalry sabre. Then theres the two long daggers on his back, knife up his sleeve, heavy slashing knife on his thigh, a half dozen throwing knifes (mainly for the look; he admits that they're useless ish) and a couple of malazan type explosives and smoke bombs. 

and he's a mage........


----------



## Guy (Mar 13, 2014)

My two characters... one favors longsword and axe. She has an enchanted version of each, but the gods designed her to be a warrior, so she's dangerous as hell with her bare hands. The other is a sorceress, so magic is her first choice, but she also has a longsword an bow.


----------



## KingoftheAndals (Mar 13, 2014)

My MC's are assassins who work in a four man squad each one has a different specialty, one carries small concealable blades, another one uses small explosives and poisons , their is a mage who uses a "puppet" bodies as hosts, and the last one is an exiled knight who uses a greatsword that has been magically enhanced.


----------



## Asura Levi (Mar 14, 2014)

Humm, I came up with many weapons for different MC so far, I even have a collection of weapons styled after the months birthstones.

That is also one mace whose power is related to what it hits. It will be impossible strong against a dragon but not that much when used in a wooden door.

A cursed sword that 'absorb' the soul of those killed by it to strengthen itself.

But my favorite is the silver axe modeled after a lizard/dragon (inspired on this image), it is made of a silverly material, never lost its edge and the wound made by it never heal.
The MC who has it is a sorcerer who almost cut his hand of with it by accident and had to use equally deadly and unproven methods to partially heal.


----------



## Bruce McKnight (Mar 16, 2014)

I'm a traditional guy, so it's usually a sword. Supporting characters might have a mace or a club and an occasional bow, but I have a pretty low-magic world so the weapons are pretty standard.

A while back, in a different world, I once had an archer character that had a magical sword that flew around and struck opponents. That was kind of fun to write about.


----------



## TWErvin2 (Mar 16, 2014)

In my fantasy series, the main character favors a boar spear. He's competent with a broad-bladed short sword and a dirk, and a good shot with a crossbow, but his spear is his favored/primary weapon.


----------



## wordwalker (Mar 17, 2014)

Mine doesn't have a sword in his belt. Just the belt, and its magic that starts with flying and goes on to various fun things to do with gravity. Pick up and throw immense objects? check. Hide its power by letting him "just run a little faster"? check. Burn out his mind if he uses it too long? you _better_ check that.


----------



## Ophiucha (Mar 18, 2014)

My main characters don't tend to have weapons. One of them used a kitchen knife to stab a pursuer once, but she just carries that around because she's a chef. A supporting protagonist from the same story uses a musket. And my current project has almost no armed characters at all, except one woman who hunts with a sling.


----------



## James Chandler (Mar 18, 2014)

Chilari said:


> I don't think I ever give my protagonist a weapon. She certainly hasn't used on so far and won't use one in the first half of the book. The second half is a bit more hazy - I'm going for a more pantzing approach for this one so the second half of the novel hasn't been planned in detail...



Umm, I had this vision that she didn't have a weapon because you pantsed her...


----------



## A. E. Lowan (Mar 18, 2014)

In our WIP _Faerie Rising_ one of the protagonists, Etienne, is a half-human half-sidhe knight with a named weapon called Agmundr.  Unlike the other named weapons in our world which are all "traditional" types (swords, axes, etc.), Agmundr is a .45 revolver.  Etienne traded many years of service to the dwarves in exchange for the revolver, 12 matching bullets, and an enchanted gun rig that grants him the same speed and strength as a full-blooded sidhe.  Agmundr has one purpose - delivering mortal wounds to sidhe, who are known for picking up their own heads and carrying them off the battlefield when the wrong type of weapons are used on them.  Etienne wanted insurance that his weapon was the right type.

In contrast we have the named weapon used by one of the antagonists, an ancient weapon, which gets described here - 



> His eye was drawn to one weapon in particular, one even he had heard of, holding court in isolated splendor against the glittering black surface of the fireplace mantle.  It was a war axe, a lethal work of exquisite art etched into silvery gold sidhe steel.  At a full four feet in length, each graceful, curved blade was capable of cutting a man in half.  A weeping sidhe maiden was engraved on each blade face, four different depictions of despair, and their tears trailed down the long handle to form the wickedly pointed teardrop shaped hilt.  It had slain thousands.
> 
> It was Grief.


----------



## Feo Takahari (Mar 18, 2014)

In general, I give swords or projectile weapons to characters who have experience fighting to the death, and staves or martial arts to characters who fight in some manner of sport. The advancement level of the projectiles depends on the time period, but martial arts are pretty constant.

My one character who fights and has no combat training at all uses the Culverin Armaments Wireless Electric Stun Gun, which fires an aerosol spray and then electrocutes it. (I based it on the plasma taser, but it's slightly less useless--which means it's still dubiously reliable at times.) She also has a Dazzler as a backup (though it's a small, relatively short-range one, not the huge thing in the linked article.)


----------



## King_Cagn (Mar 18, 2014)

The Protagonists of my comic books don't use a set weapon either, I based them off Todd McFarlane's Spawn, he uses claws and dark magic, an often times some high tech weaponry he 'liberated'.


----------



## Pythagoras (Mar 18, 2014)

The hero of my story was given a sword named Saulgut by a band of explorers who rescued him from the wilderness, which he used to gain proficiency with the weapon. However, it was shattered in a duel, along with his spirit, and for years he did not touch another sword. Later on, he was exiled to Giantland, and he forged a new sword out of necessity, named Lynus. By this point, he had become fairly well-versed in the ways of magic, and he infused Lynus with it. 
I also plan on giving a wizard character known as 'the Illusionist' a trench knife. A little anachronistic, maybe, but what close-range weapon is so terrible? The Illusionist is not constrained by the normal conventions of time, anyway.


----------



## Michael J. Tobias (Mar 18, 2014)

The hero of my WIP is proficient with a staff, but uses her mind as her primary weapon...and I don't mean magic


----------



## Wanara009 (Mar 19, 2014)

The 3 main protagonists of my main project are sisters. The eldest wield a trident, the middle sister (the narrator narrator) wield a sabre, while the last wield a broadsword. The male protagonist wield an heirloom weapon. Its a blunt bident he used as a walking staff which can generate blade that can phase through anything but flesh and bone though he prefers to lay the beat down with his bare hand.

I also have two side projects set in the same universe. The protagonists of those are a vigilante-disguised-as-a-beggar and an sellsword that fight with bare-hand and length of chains respectively.


----------



## psychotick (Mar 21, 2014)

Hi,

My latest is a paladin, Yorik. His primary weapon is a greatsword, magically smithed for hardness and edge, which he enhances with his divine magic. He also uses two double strand crossbows which again he can enhance with his magic. But in addition to the enhancements he places on his weapons he can magically enhance himself as well, making himself faster and stronger touse them more effectively.

Cheers, Greg.


----------



## ChasingSuns (Feb 20, 2015)

There are several school of swordsmanship in my current story, so a few of my characters use various swords (since they trained at such schools). One character however, is a wizard. The wizards in my story use an object to channel their magic. This can be anything from a stone to an axe to a tree branch, but most of them use a weapon. So the wizard who helps the MC uses a spear. When he fights, he basically uses a form of martial art while channeling spells with the spear. for example, take Prince Oberon's fighting style from Game of Thrones and mix it with firebending... that should give you some kind of idea as to how this fighting style works.


----------



## Lunaairis (Feb 20, 2015)

Since my current story is for a video game the main character's weapons are game mechanic oriented. They should all play pretty differently from each other.

* Erin Quinn* is a veteran of the Great War and so she was trained in swordsmanship as well as fire arms.  Since she was a veteran she is one of the two thousand survivors who were Knighted and gifted with an enchanted glove. She has the right glove and with the right glove she has power over Fire, Water, Stone and Air.  Kind of like a full metal alchemist thing, snapping her fingers produces fire, wither its a bolt or a smear she has no control over as magic in this world is a little chaotic when you don't bind it and properly summon it.  So she's kind of like a mage in this world.

*Saif Azul* (erin's detective partner) Is a swords man. He has a simple police issued long sword.  He is your basic warrior class.

*Sayana Plata* (another detective) Has an Ancestral gun- Its metal was tempered with the sea water around lae lumas which is said to house the souls of the world. If a person dies while using something metal that has been tempered with this sea water, it is said their soul inhabits the object. Her gun is currently possessed by her fathers soul (her father died in the War.) The gun may have some magical properties. She is supposed to play more like a rogue.

*Ajara Naiumber* (Blessings and magics expert for the station) is also a veteran of the Great War and also received a glove for his time there. He tends to use a sword more often but he does have a glove. He has the left glove though. The left glove has been enchanted with blood(steal life force from something), life(heal something), void(gravity trapping and paralysis) and energy (electric shielding.)  He is kind of like the paladin of the group.


----------



## acapes (Feb 21, 2015)

A bone mask


----------

