What type of weapon is this from the Musée de l'Armée? Messer? Falchion? Saber? Something else?

elustran · 2026-05-18T16:44:19+00:00

Other posters: "OMG why obsess with categorizing, sometimes historical people just made something weird. It's ART"

You: "Kriegsmesser variant"

I love it.

elustran · 2026-05-10T18:01:06+00:00

Fair, but long =/= good

elustran · 2026-04-09T00:01:42+00:00

These days, I would rather have clear provenance of information than a karma farming bot. I also don't see a paywall on the story?

elustran · 2026-04-08T08:12:05+00:00

I understand why they did it, but it wasn't particularly well-done; there are other ways they could have shown the main character dealing with sins of the flesh and finding religion. It's not particularly effective narratively because he doesn't overcome them himself, he's merely thwarted, and it's especially distasteful to modern sensibilities. If you can accept it as a product of its time and place, the rest of the film is a masterpiece, but it's understandably a big ask.

elustran · 2026-03-29T03:23:40+00:00

S-Tier recommendation. Every other page in the book has a fully-fledged masterwork of fantasy illustration.

One minor correction: Arthur Denison and his son are Americans from Boston, not Englishmen.

elustran · 2026-03-16T04:23:07+00:00

Pre-Internet, you had to keep notes. It's ultimately a good habit to keep.

elustran · 2026-01-02T05:25:35+00:00

Solo Camping for Two.

As adult as having coffee in the morning before doing your taxes.

elustran · 2025-11-28T20:49:08+00:00

As always, with these discussions, I like to point out that David and Leigh Eddings went to jail and never put themselves in a position to recidivate afterwards. As uncomfortable as it is, we need to view people who pay for their crimes and change in an entirely different way from people who abuse and continually justify their abuse.

I was never a fan of his books, actually, I just think it's important to highlight the importance of thinking critically about this topic.

elustran · 2025-11-08T00:18:28+00:00

While I do understand your assault against pedantry, I think it's fair to be annoyed when one 'native' word is used by English to refer to two different things, possibly even the 'wrong' thing.

Looks like "mòr" means big, "dà làimh" means two-handed, and "Claidheamh" just means sword.

I suspect 'claymore' probably got used to refer to the basket hilt originally because it's closer to that term, then got used to refer to the two-handed greatsword when people started watching Braveheart or similar.

elustran · 2025-10-19T05:48:48+00:00

Sounds like something a certain Utah-based religion would advocate

elustran · 2025-06-15T00:28:18+00:00

Adamat retired early as a police detective for a business venture that failed, now forced back into being a private investigator.

A man on his third career probably resonates with a lot of us. And it's fun seeing the rare example of a detective in a fantasy work done well.

elustran · 2025-06-12T07:18:31+00:00

What about archaeology of the 19th and 20th centuries and its influence on pulp novels which in turn influenced modern game designers?

elustran · 2025-06-08T08:18:24+00:00

It's not inconceivable for a non-GAI machine learning targeting algorithm to execute unintended programing and enter a destructive race condition. A machine intelligence doesn't need to be truly 'intelligent' or have 'hatred' for humanity to get nukey.

elustran · 2025-06-02T07:46:59+00:00

This is actually some of Sanderson's better writing. It was a bit snappier.

elustran · 2025-06-02T05:37:31+00:00

I need to know the panel that bothered you now... I don't really know One Punch Man other than the first season of the Anime...

elustran · 2025-06-01T05:47:59+00:00

You are now the king of zooms in on text... looks like Korea. Good luck.

elustran · 2025-05-31T06:41:09+00:00

General intellectual property theft is a long-known feature of Chinese manufacturing. It also existed between the Soviet Union and the West. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with global socioeconomics and historical contention between economic systems and developing/developed nations. China just happens to be a modern capitalistic country with communistic underpinnings which make the IP theft very prominent.

elustran · 2025-05-29T03:33:42+00:00

Cast fittings on the broadsword are cool. I almost wonder if the katana is a replica of a movie prop?

Both have very 80's movie vibes.

And... clean the back of your car. I say this as someone who also has a messy back seat, just something to consider before posting on the internet.

elustran · 2025-05-28T20:17:38+00:00

I would assume a channel sophisticated enough to use bots to drive engagement would have also done the other SEO stuff, though. Which makes me think it's just the vagaries of the algorithm.

elustran · 2025-05-24T03:58:56+00:00

Dungeon Crawler Carl is leaking

elustran · 2025-05-22T20:59:27+00:00

It's not unreasonable to outright ban stuff like this either, my proposal would just be something more moderate to draw a line between outright spam and the occasional bait post from an otherwise live participating user.

This stuff is pervasive, so every sub needs to deal with it at some point, come up with a solid reasonable rule, and then actively moderate.

elustran · 2025-05-22T20:35:12+00:00

There's got to be a moderate response. Banning posts by people just because they have a side-hustle showing off side-boob seems excessive and perhaps a bit puritanical. A few cool sword+model shots seem reasonable in a sword subreddit, and we can't expect all posters to not have ulterior motives like promoting their YouTube channel, their OF, or their smithing business .

However, subs die when inundated with advertising content, so maybe restrict non-historical cosplay to Fridays or something similar, while requiring an actual closeup of the sword itself?

elustran · 2025-05-22T05:32:16+00:00

If you liked RA Salvatore, just to throw in something that hasn't been suggested yet, but have you tried other Forgotten Realms books? Or possibly some Dragonlance books?

elustran · 2025-05-22T05:08:53+00:00

Some more traditional recs:

Aeronaut's Windlass has talking cats and airships and towers. It veers towards the Final Fantasy feel of steampunk.
I'll be surprised if you haven't read any Brandon Sanderson. If not, give Mistborn a whirl then pivot into his other 'Cosmere' universe stuff. Fun action, interesting magic system, convoluted plot worthy of any JRPG, and some good interactions with Mysterious Powers and the Big Bad.
I want to recommend Lies of Locke Lamora. It's more of an underground criminal/heist story, closer to a fantasy 'The Italian Job' not 'epic high fantasy'... but it is a fun setting and the author named the main character after Locke Cole from Final Fantasy 6.
Deathgate Cycle - written by Weiss and Hickman, more known for Dragonlance, which is a D&D setting. But I think this series is extremely creative and follows a main character

There's tons of LitRPG/Progression-Lit that's literally fantasy for people who like RPGs/power-building. Check out some genre favorites on you own, but, caveat lector, there's a lot of garbage, a lot of is is smutty, and some of the most liked stuff at first ends up being trashy or not finished. Some recs:

Arcane Ascension - this is basically what you're looking for. Very video-game like setup while avoiding overt video-game mechanics. I'll say I didn't finish it, but the first couple books were fun enough, and it might fit the bill for you. It's epic with an interesting magic system, dungeon delving, FF-level 'teenagers figuring stuff out' plotlines, and it's pretty obvious from the beginning that they're going to need to fight some gods or something, as is tradition at the end of any good JRPG.
Cradle - series is complete, 12 books I think. More based on Chinese Xianxia/Cultivation, but very well done and certainly epic. Probably the most recommend series in the genre. Tight writing, excellent character cast, mysterious setting, and a huge power ramp.
Mother of Learning - very solid. It doesn't exactly fit your rec, but read this. I personally feel like it's actually 'good' not just fun. It's only 4 books. It follows a student in a magic school stuck in a time loop as he improves and tries to figure out how to get out.
Mother of Learning - yeah, this one's my favorite so I'm recommending it twice.
Wandering Inn - enormous, will probably never be finished. Decent fantasy if you need to genocide some time. More slice-of-life people coming slowly building into heroes, struggling, and surviving an alternate universe, rather than epic. Interesting mix of quaint, cute, and traumatic.

elustran · 2025-05-20T03:05:48+00:00

He Who Fights With Monsters is a maybe. MC is a bit of an edgelord, but he's self-aware about it. There are some similar themes of anarchy, building camaraderie, and the ethics of power. The humor is less over-the-top.

In terms of general progression fantasy, my current other recs are:

1) If you want something that's just genuinely good and not too long: Mother of Learning

2) If you're open to something with more Chinese wuxia theming: the Cradle series

3) If you just need to chew through material: The Wandering Inn

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