history lesson, part deux
Yeah, I wasn't exclusively including Persian weapons, just because I figured you might want more variety.
"Shamshir" is the Persian word for sword, as well as being a specific type. They also used the straight Akinakes, the Greek-derived Xyphos, and the Kopis (with a blade rather similar to a Nepali kukri), but many Persian soldiers just carried large daggers.
They do seem to have used axes often. The Persian light battle axe is known as a Sagaris and it was used by calvalry-infact it was a Sagaris that almost killed Alexander the Great during the battle of Granicus.
Persians also used short thrusting spears (about 7 feet long) and the Palta, which was a javelin often used by calvalry. Just for the sake of completeness, Persian armies/footsoldiers also commonly used 10' long pikes, slings, and recurved bows.
An interesting fact about those short spears is, they often had counter-weights made from bronze or silver (gold for officers), and it was these counterweights that caused Persian troops to be known as "apple-bearers". Just thought it might help a bit when you're doing graphics for officers on foot.
Fighting from a bull, and going along with the whole bull-headed theme, maybe a bull-headed mace or axe? Using the horns to form blades or spikes on an ornate weapon might be decent. You could even possibly have a weapon similar to the one used by the warlord badguy at the end of Beastmaster, that can function as both a mace/axe type weapon and a flail.
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