Glossary

Since I'm writing this for both old hands and people who have no idea what I'm actually going on about, I suppose I should give a little glossary. If I'm wrong, someone's going to correct me.

HEMA- Historical European Martial Arts
HES- Historical European Swordsmanship
Historical Fencing... Self explanatory.

These are, more or less the same thing. If you want to do something cool with swords, try putting these into Google.

Weapons:

Broadsword- a cut and thrust weapon with an enclosed hilt- you can't lose your fingers, so the style is more upfront. Weighs between one and one and a half bags of sugar.

Rapier- Mostly a stabby weapon with limited cutting ability and hand protection. Weighs around one bag of sugar.

Longsword- Your traditional two handed 'knightly' sword- fingers are vulnerable and the styles reflect this. Weighs between one and one and a half bags of sugar.

Sabre- has two flavours, one is sport sabre and the other is martial. The sport one is considerably lighter. Not too sure about the real sword.

Epeé and Foil- Sport fencing swords. Have no real idea about the weights, but they are stupidly light.

Grosse Messer- It's a big knife (literally, Grosse- big, Messer- knife ah those crazy germans) Think lovechild of a machete and a knightly sword.

Main Gauche- Left handed dagger, usually paired with a rapier. Used for parrying and stabbing if your opponent gets too close.

Buckler- Small shield held in the fist.

People:

Silver- wrote in 1599, rampant xenophobe, tells some good stories. Remembered that his fighting manual didn't have much in the way of instruction and started writing something else. This got lost before publishing and rediscovered later. Mainly concerns himself with
broadswords.

Vincentio- Does rapier. Silver hates him, has a manual somewhere.

Cappo Ferro- I think IronHead sounds much better, but that's far too manly for a rennaissence italian obsessed with rapiers. Had cameo in The Princess Bride.

Lichtenheur- Medieval German. Does lots of stuff on blade awareness and feeling the movement. Mostly Longsword, but has a comprehensive system.

Fiore- Medieval Italian. Inspired by animals. Strength of the bear, Speed of the puma, Eyes of the hawk, Ears of the wolf.. kind of thing. Mostly Longsword, but has a comprehensive system.