Getting to the point

[Ashfalcon]

Illanova Restrov followed her friend Safaire reluctantly into the Warder Yards. Like most of the other drin -- and some Soldiers, she saw -- she'd come unarmed. This was the introductory class; those who held their own weapons and had experience with them would be training elsewhere. One of the Trainers, a mountain of a man with wide shoulders and a barrel chest, was waiting for them. Unsurprisingly, the sword across his back was a massive greatsword, longer than Illa was tall.

Safaire took a place in the rows of trainees, and swallowed. Illa stepped up beside her, and did her best to discreetly look around at her fellow students. Several looked confident; one or two looked frankly scared.

When they were all arranged, the trainer nodded. "Well done," he acknowledged. "I am Kolvir Anderiam. I will be your trainer for your first introduction to the sword. How many of you expect to use a sword as your primary weapon?"

Roughly one third the class lifted their arms. One of the Soldiers hesitated, then asked: "Trainer? If I intend to use it as a fallback for Saidin...?"

"Excellent question," Trainer Kolvir acknowledged. "If it will be your primary melee weapon, then go ahead and raise your hand."

Two more hands went up, bringing the total to roughly half the class.

"Very good," he continued, and nodded for them to lower their hands. "Now, how many of you expect to use a sword as a secondary or fallback weapon?"

Illa and Safaire both raised their hands, along with the other half of the class.

"Good," the Trainer acknowledged. "To begin with, I need you to understand that neither one is a bad answer. There is no right and wrong in this, only what is needed. Swords make an excellent sidearm, long enough to offer some reach but short enough to be used indoors; and while we here in the Westlands favor certain designs, they come in a variety of configurations oriented to a variety of purposes. For now, we will be working with a variety of blades, and emphasizing the commonalities among them." He gestured. "On the racks over there, we have wooden training weapons, designed as best we can manage to mimic the size, weight, and balance of actual blades. You will note that there are several trainers waiting there; if you have questions about a blade, or about what might best suit you, ask them."

OOC: If anybody wants to begin training in Sword, feel free to hop in. I'm mainly doing this to bring Illa up to speed as a drin but I certainly don't mind company.

[Ashfalcon]

Illanova had never pictured herself as a swordswoman, though she'd enjoyed the tales of swashbuckling adventure that her brother had bought and read aloud in the good times when the family could afford them. Those tales had carried them through the bad years, and partly inspired her tendency to sign her work as a thief back in Tear. When she'd first arrived at the Grey Tower with her friend Birno, she'd made jokes about fighting their way free with only her sword to protect them, but those had been jokes. She had the dagger, and she'd known that if she had to go into open battle she wanted to kill her enemies at a distance -- which meant archery, one way or another. She'd chosen the bow over the crossbow, but no dagger -- not even hers -- was a fallback weapon if the enemy got into fighting range. Not by itself, at least.

So she needed a sword, and one she could use together with the dagger if she had to discard her bow. Which meant something sized for a single hand, and... "What would an archer normally choose?" she asked, approaching one of the trainers. "My friend and I both intend to be archers foremost, but we'll still need to know the blade."

The trainer was a woman in a shaped leather vest and bracers. She laughed. "Women after my own heart! Well then, you're looking for something one-handed, long enough to be used in battle but not so heavy as to weigh you down while you're shooting arrows or moving into combat. The classic archer's shortsword is here." She led them over to the racks, and showed them a one-handed sword with a coin-shaped pommel, a wide base to the extended triangle of the blade, which narrowed to a vicious point.

Illa exchanged a glance with Safaire, then nodded and looked back at the wooden practice blade. "I'll take it," she said. It wasn't as long as some swords, but it wouldn't get in the way when she wasn't using it and it had enough reach to cover her.

"Good choice," said the trainer, then cocked her head as Safaire shook her head.

"My people fight on decks," she said. "Slippery, tight with ropes. The blades I know are mostly single-edged, and better protect the fingers."

"Oh!" said the Trainer. "All right, come and look over here. She led Safaire over to a section of single-edged blades, and watched as she pulled a blade from the rack.

"This one," Safaire said reverently. It was relatively short, though not much different from Illa's in reach, with a single edge curving back to a serviceable point, and a guard for the hand.

"A cutlass," the Trainer said quietly. "Also a good choice."

They thanked her and went back to join the class.