Small, sharp knives that can so easily pierce the skin and cause instantaneous death in the right places are called daggers and they show up quite a bit in the genre. Fantasy daggers have carved out their own niche in the genre, becoming the weapon of choice for any would-be assassin or ninja. They look cool and their popularity can be seen in player builds for games like Skyrim where their characters specialize in stealth and daggers excel in eliminating targets from afar.
Many popular characters in fantasy use daggers, either up close and personal in one-on-one fights or from afar where they can silence their opponents without being noticed. Not many weapons can be used in fights in close proximity or from a distance, which is why daggers are one of the most versatile weapons in the genre. The fact that they’re small and easily concealed makes them even more dangerous for an hapless person might suddenly find himself the victim of a dagger attack from anyone he might pass on the street and he wouldn’t know who it was.
This is the sixth in a series of articles covering weapons in fantasy. If you’re interested, please check out our other articles on our blog.
While there’s different types, as always, we begin with the basic one.
Consisting of a shaft and a blade, daggers are lightweight and easy to carry. Fantasy daggers are ideal for stealth missions where the target needs to be incapacitated without anyone being the wiser. This makes them ideal for assassins and professional hitmen who can easily pin the murder on someone else and he takes the fall while the true killer slips out undetected.
The pros conceal them on their bodies to avoid scrutiny. The smartest of them usually tucks them in their sleeves just above their hands so they can use them at a moment’s notice. If they wind up in an unexpected fight, they can take their opponent by surprise and use the ones hidden in their sleeves to end the fight quickly. They can stab their foe or fling the knives at him, whichever they prefer. Upon the fight’s end, they can pull them back up and move on, leaving nothing but a dead body in his wake.
Since they’re metal, iron is the top metal used to manufacture them, with steel a close second. They can be bought in many armor shops since the basic ones don’t cost too much though many pros opt to either make them themselves or steal from other people to make it more difficult to find them.
While fantasy daggers are perfect for assassins and hitmen, they’re also great for soldiers on the battlefield. The chaos of the battlefield enables troops who excel in long-distance fighting like archers or spearmen to deploy them against their foes. Their major drawback is that they’re ineffective against armored opponents. However, the armor doesn’t protect every body part; smart soldiers exploit this vulnerability by throwing daggers towards the parts not covered in armor.
Knives, while still small in size, that are larger and longer than regular daggers are called long daggers. There’s many names across all the worlds in fantasy that describe them but they’re describing the same weapon, albeit with many variations in shape and curve. Due to their larger size, they’re more difficult to conceal. Indeed many characters who use them simply have them hanging on their belt, cloaked in a protective sheath.
Long fantasy daggers are used to attack from afar or up close and personal. In many cases, since they have more attack power than the basic ones, they tend to be used more in fights in close quarters. This enables their user to have more control over how they fight their opponent since it’s easier to evade a bigger knife than a smaller one.
Thieves, ninjas, and assassins primarily use them to eliminate the target without causing too much of a ruckus or to weaken them so someone else can move in for the fatal blow. These daggers can be bought at armor shops though many who use them prefer to craft their own and before long, they form an attachment to them, coming to consider them among their most cherished possessions.
One significant advantage fantasy daggers have over many other weapons is how easily they poison their targets. They can be dipped in liquids that leech the life out of people which becomes coated on the blades. After being thrown, when they pierce the skin, the poison quickly infiltrates the body and begins to kill the target.
Indeed, the ability to poison their prey from afar is the reason why many assassins, ninjas, and hitmen prefer poison daggers. As they die from the toxins, the killer can quietly slip out unnoticed.
They’re also great on the battlefield. A lot of soldiers who are skilled in daggers like to use ones laced with poison to help take down tough enemies in battle, who otherwise might take longer to defeat.
Armor shops don’t carry poison daggers which means they have to be made. Many assassins and ninjas know how to concoct their own poisons and they buy whatever materials they need to brew them and then dip their daggers in the concoction.
The last group of fantasy daggers are those that have magic. Just like with any other weapon, magic gives them powers they otherwise don’t have, which makes them far more powerful with the potential to dramatically change the battlefield.
While any kind of magic can be used on daggers, ice and fire are the two most popular applied to them. Since ice hurts when it’s sharp — think how an icicle can hurt you if it fell from above you — it complements daggers perfectly by freezing the area of the skin that the dagger smashed into, causing the target great pain. As for fire, it can leave open a great burn that chars the skin.
Magic daggers are very rare, which means the vast majority of people have no idea they exist. Only magic users and sorcerers are aware of their existence; after all they alone have the capacity to create magic daggers. These knives are hidden far away from the beaten path, found only in places most people dare not tread.
Daggers are flying instruments of death favored by people like ninjas and assassins. However, they fit right in fantasy, appearing in pretty much everything in the genre.
To bring them into your world, first think about how they look and design them. Also think about who’ll be using them. Their personality reflects the hand of those wielding them.
They have their own story to tell and it’s up to you, the creator, to craft a memorable story, one people will talk about for years.
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Sunfire
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